Names of Masses?

[Spirithound]

Hi y’all,
On another thread, I found some terms which seemed to refer to Masses: Mass of the Angels, Mass of Creation, and (from another source) Mass of the Resurrection. I’ve never heard these before, can someone enlighten me? Thanks!!

 

[LilyM]

Mass of the Angels (Missa de Angelis) and Mass of Creation are the names of two particular musical settings for the parts of the Mass (ie tunes to which to sing the ‘Gloria’, the ‘Holy Holy Holy’ or what have you)

Mass of the Resurrection, I’d imagine, is another one.

 

[baltobetsy]

Yes, Lily, that’s right. When a composer writes a musical Mass setting, he usually gives it a title. Sometimes it’s just to reflect his own idea of what the music is intended to mean, like many contemporary Masses (Creation, etc).

Other times, the setting is based on a fragment of a melody from one of the Gregorian chants and will most probably be named for it.

The great classical composers named their Masses in lots of different ways - by what key it’s written in (as Schubert’s Mass in G), the occasion for which it is written (Haydn’s Mass in Time of War), etc.

Betsy