Program note
MISSA BREVISSIMA was commissioned by Radio France for Anne Montaron's program Alla Breve. I chose to write for the choir because I had quite a few friends in the choir, from my days as a singer and as an assistant conductor. All five movements of the traditional mass are set, trying to keep each of them as short as possible to fit the program's format (five episodes of 2mn each). As a result, the text of the CREDO is amputated.
The KYRIE is conceived as a litany in an extremely wary, exhausted atmosphere. The melody is treated almost exclusively as an inverted canon (with liberties) in the female voices.
The GLORIA is an elated celebration, filled with canons and imitations.
The CREDO is a meditation about the nature of our reality as humans and almost questions the existence of the universe. This is expressed in the treatment of the text, which is distributed (even within words) between voices. The harmonies are meant to be literaly 'out of this world'.
The SANCTUS, a bell-like celebration of the immensity, is quite static, again filled with canons and imitations in contrary motion. The text Pleni sunt caeli and terra switches to an harmoniy filled with 5ths, again treated in contrary motion. The movement concludes with a tribal Hosanna.
The concluding AGNUS DEI is an intimate prayer filled with (mostly) calm and poignant harmonies.
RADIO FRANCE PODCAST
Details
Instrumentation
SSAATTBB choir
Duration
18'
Date
2014. Rev. 2025
Commissioned by
Radio France for Alla Breve
Sheet music
Available upon request
First performance
Recorded April 2014, Chœur de Radio France
Premiered by
ESOTERICS CHOIR, Seattle, December 2025