OPERA SEARCH
Missa super l'homme armé
(1968,rev.1971)St Luke, chapter 22 (Vulgate) (L)
fl(=picc).cl-perc(1):2timp/SD/susp.cym/h.bells/2tab/2tin cans/BD &
foot cym/tpl.bl/slide whistle/3gongs/nightingale/tam-t/cowbells/TD/
wdbl-keyboards(1 or 2 players):harmonium(=hpd,cel,out-of-tune pft,
ant.cyms)-vln.vlc (cl,vln,vlc=jingles)
Abbreviations (PDF)
Boosey & Hawkes
Conway Hall, London
Mary Thomas, mezzo-soprano
Conductor: Peter Maxwell Davies
Company: Pierrot Players
Sagra Musicale Umbra, Perugia
Murray Melvin, director
Conductor: Peter Maxwell Davies
Company: Mary Thomas, mezzo-soprano / Fires of London
| VOICE | Male or Female singer |
by Paul Griffiths
This is one of Davies's most far-reaching extrapolations from music of the past. After a jolting call to attention it begins as an arrangement of an anonymous fifteenth-century mass, but this soon starts to break down. The expressive gestures become absurdly exaggerated and the music eventually deteriorates to the level of a foxtrot. In the Latin of St. Luke, the vocalist reminds us of the betrayls of Judas and of the apostle Peter - betrayals which are mirrored in the musical 'splintering' of the original mass.
Poetic