Missa Brevis (Britten)

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Published on January 24, 2022 7:20:05 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLAMNJJvFVc

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Missa Brevis (Britten), by Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10064933 / CC BY SA 3.0

#Compositions_by_Benjamin_Britten
#Masses_(music)
#1959_compositions
The Missa brevis in D, Op.
63, is a setting of the Mass completed by Benjamin Britten on Trinity Sunday, 1959.
Set for three-part treble choir and organ, it was first performed at London's Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral on 22 July of the same year.
Britten composed the Mass for George Malcolm's retirement as organist and choirmaster at Westminster: the printed dedication reads "For George Malcolm and the boys of Westminster Cathedral Choir".
It was Britten's first and only setting of the Mass.
Malcolm's live recording, from a service at the cathedral, lasts ten minutes.
Britten's Missa brevis contains only four movements, omitting the Credo, hence the name brevis, short.
The omission is notable because Mass at Westminster Cathedral would have included this movement.
The piece rather seems predisposed towards the liturgy of the Church of England or the Protestant Episcopal Church of America, which often omit the sung Credo.
In the Sanctus, Britten writes an optional transition between the first Hosanna and the Benedictus.
This serves two functions: 1） it allows the sections to be elided seamlessly if the work is performed non-liturgically, and 2） it allows the section to be easily cut altogether for certain liturgical purposes, e.
g.
in the United States, the Benedictus was not officially approved by canon law and many Episcopal churches omitted it.
The Kyrie immediately presents the D major / F-sharp major relationship that is a unifying element of the work, occurring also in the Gloria and the Sanctus.
F-sharp is the key center despite the key signature.
The movement is in ternary form, with the central "Christe" inverting the melody of the Kyrie.
The Gloria is based on a 7/8 ostinato derived from the incipit Gloria XV that would be intoned by the celebrant in some liturgical settings.
The addit...