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8 New Mass Setting

Roxanna Panufik's Douai Missa Brevis

by John Rowntree Director of the Douai Abbey Singers

AS THE Millennium approached it seemed to me important that in the year 2000 we should mark this significant symbolic date with music of our own time. I first approached Merion Wynn Jones, who had accompanied the choir on a number of occasions. He wrote a very short, but highly effective Missa Ferialis in Latin, which arrived on my fax machine in January 2000! It has become a firm part of the liturgical repertoire. I also asked an ex-colleague of mine if he would write a short mass in English. After much throught he declined, commenting that the present English text was totally devoid of beauty and utterly un-inspiring. I also began to consider a slightly larger scale mass, but still of liturgical proportion. I had listened to the mass written by Roxanna Panufnik for the Westminster Cathedral Choir to celebrate the 75th birthday of the late Cardinal Basil Hume OSB. Her approach to chordal spacing coupled with a sense of linear progression, struck me as a most suitable style for the spacious accoustic of the Abbey Church.

After chatting to members of the choir about the idea and having had a positive response I discussed a possible Missa Brevis with Roxanna whom I had met at a conference in Oxford in 1999. Her response to the brief was positive, and with the generous financial support of members of the choir and Southern Arts, the project took off. The result was an unaccompanied Latin mass of suitable length for liturgical use for a four-part choir with soprano and baritone soloists. The mass arrived in the autumn of 2001 and was first sung on the First Sunday of Advent without the Gloria and was sung again with the Gloria on the feast of the Epiphany 2002.

It is a challenging work but most apt for the liturgy and acoustic of the Abbey Church. Much as I personally, and other members of the choir, love the work of earlier periods, be it the chant, Byrd, Victoria, Mozart, Bruckner and so many others, it seems to me vital that we in our day contribute to the music of the liturgy. We have our roots, of which we can be proud, but we should not evade the responsibility to create new works for the liturgy of our time. ‡

The Douai Abbey Singers with their director, Dr John Rowntree at the organ, at the recent ordination of Fr Benjamin Standish OSB. The Douai Abbey Singers sing at Mass once a month and at all major liturgical celebrations in the Abbey Church

Index

Editorial

Douai Society Dinner, May 18 2001 Extracts from a speech by Abbot Geoffrey Scott OSB

Fr Adrian Hastings 1929 - 2001

Pre-Vatican II Catholic: The Case of Oliver Welch by Adrian Hastings

Indian Interfaith Encounters by Fr Peter Bowe OSB

Impressions of El Salvador January 2002 by Fr Alexandere Austin OSB

Music at Douai March 2001 - February 2002 by Fr Oliver Holt OSB

St Mary's Parish Studley by Fr Paul Gunter OSB

Community Notes

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The Douai Magazine is published at Douai Abbey, Upper Woolhampton, Reading, Berks, RG7 5TQ. Phone: 0118 971 5300 Fax: 0118 971 5303 E-mail editor@douaiabbey.org,uk Web site: http://www.douaiabbey.org.uk 27.02.02. Registered charity no 236962

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