Missa Brevis Sancti Andreae

SATB & organ
16′

1. Kyrie
2. Gloria
3. Sanctus and Benedictus
4. Agnus Dei

The Missa Brevis is my most fully realised composition to date. It can be performed liturgically or in concert.

The work is bookended by solemn and plaintive outer movements, offering prayers of supplication in Koine Greek and Latin. The Sanctus begins reverently and shimmeringly, before changing gear through an exuberant crescendo to a climactic Hosanna in excelsis. The subtle, finely wrought harmonic language of these movements, which takes inspiration from various settings by Howells, Duruflé and Kodály, is sharply contrasted by an unabashedly unsubtle, jubilant Gloria. Heavily influenced by the vocal sound of the Italian Baroque, this movement is occasionally interrupted by grand, sweeping gestures à la Carmina Burana.

The Agnus Dei concludes with huge, static, and harmonically ambiguous organ chords in a section marked Lento rubato, conveying a sense of profound calm and awe at a peace (pacem) which ‘passeth all understanding’.

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