The Mass

Mass ordinary  (Mass ordinarium)

     The mass ordinary is the mass that is performed every day of the year in the Catholic religion.  
     In the musical mass, five (sometimes six) of the prayers are set to music.  The daily mass 
     contains other parts, such as the homily (sermon) and communion, that are not set to music.

     The ordinary is contrasted to the proper, which is that part of these liturgies that varies according 

     to the date, either representing an observance within the liturgical year, or of a particular saint or 
     significant event, or to the common which contains those parts that are common to an entire 
     category of saints such as apostles or martyrs.
 
     The ordinary of both the Eucharist and the canonical hours does, however, admit minor variations 
     following the seasons (such as the omission of "Alleluia" in Lent and its addition in Eastertide).  
     These two are the only liturgical celebrations in which a distinction is made between an ordinary 
     and other parts.  It is not made in the liturgy of the other sacraments or of blessings and other rites.


1.  Kyrie           -  Kyrie eleison (Lord, have mercy)  (in Greek, the rest are in Latin)

2.  Gloria          -  Gloria in excelsis Deo (Glory to God in the highest)

3.  Credo           - Nicene Creed  -  (I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and  
                             earth, of all things visible and invisible, And in one Lord, Jesus Christ....)

4.  Sanctus  -  

     Holy, holy, holy, lorde God of hostes.
     heaven and earth are full of thy glory
     Osanna in the highest.
     Blessed is he that commeth in the name of the lorde:
     Glory to the, o lorde in the highest

     (optionally, the Benedictus can be added: "Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord")

5.   Agnus Dei  -  "Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us
                              (grant us peace)"


   (Seldom in a musical mass:)

6.  Ite, missa est  - Ite, missa est  ("Go, it is the dismissal") 

        Seldom in musical masses because it is too short to set to music.

Some famous masses:

Guillaume de Machaut  - Messe de Nostre Dame   1200s  -  first mass attributed to a specific composer

Johannes Ockeghem -  Missa prolationum

Giovanni Palestrina  -  Missa Papae Marcelli


A few of the variations on the Mass Ordinary:

Missa brevis  (literally: short mass) 

     A the setting of a subset of the five ordinary mass parts (e.g. masses containing only a setting of 

     the Kyrie and the Gloria), or a mass containing all these parts, but relatively short in duration.

Renaissance:

Orlande de Lassus  -  Missa venatorum (Hunters' Mass)

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina  -  Missa Brevis

Baroque:

Carl Heinrich Biber  -  Missa brevis sanctorum septem dolorum B.V.M.  (1731)

Classical:

Joseph Haydn  -  Missa brevis in F  (1749) and Missa brevis Sancti 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:  Brevis: K. 49, K. 65, K. 140, K. 192, K. 194, K. 275;
                                                Brevis et solemnis: K. 220, K. 257, K. 258, K. 259; 


Missa solemnis  (literally: a solemn mass) 

     Usually for special festive occasions and with an extended vocal and orchestral setting.  In  

     that sense Missa brevis is sometimes used to indicate the counterpart of a Missa solemnis.


Bach:        Mass in B minor  (1733/1749)

Mozart:     Mass in C minor, K. 139 "Waisenhaus"  (1768),  Mass in C major, K. 337 "Solemnis"  (1780), Great Mass in C minor, K. 427  (1782/1783)

Haydn:      Missa in tempore belli (Mass in the Time of War) in C major  (1796)

Hummel:    Missa solemnis in C major  (1806)

Cherubini:  Messa solenne "Per il Principe Esterházy"  (1811)

Weber:        Missa solemnis No. 2  (1818–1819)  "Messe du Freischütz"

Beethoven:  Missa solemnis in D major  (1823) 

Schubert:     Mass No. 1, Mass No. 4, Mass No. 5, Mass No. 6

Berlioz:        Messe solennelle  (1824)

Bruckner:     Missa solemnis in B flat minor  (1854)

Liszt:            Missa solennis zur Einweihung der Basilika in Gran (Gran Mass) (1st 1855,  2nd version 1857–58)

Rossini:  Petite messe solennelle  (1863)


Requiem Mass  -  "Mass for the Dead"  (music for a requiem mass)

     Requiems have different movements than the movements of the ordinary mass.


Ockeghem:    Requiem, the earliest to survive, written sometime in the mid-to-late 15th century

Victoria:        Requiem of 1603, (part of a longer Office for the Dead)

Jan Zelenka:  Requiem in D Minor ZWV 48 After Augustus the Strong  (C. 1730)

Mozart:         Requiem, K. 626  (1791: Mozart died before its completion; Franz Xaver Süssmayr's completion is often used)

Antonio Salieri:   Requiem  (1804) (played at his funeral on May 7, 1825)

Cherubini:    Requiem in C minor  (1815)

Berlioz:        Grande Messe des morts  (1837)

Verdi:           Messa da Requiem  (1874)

Saint-Saëns:  Messe de Requiem  (1878)

Dvořák:        Requiem, Op. 89  (1890)

Fauré:           Requiem, Op. 48  (1890)

Duruflé:        Requiem, Op. 9, based almost exclusively on the chants from the Graduale Romanum  (1947)

Britten:         War Requiem, Op. 66, which incorporated poems by Wilfred Owen  (1962)

Stravinsky:   Requiem Canticles  (1966)

Penderecki:   Polish Requiem  (1984, rev, 1993 & 2005)

Rutter:           Requiem, includes Psalm 130, Psalm 23 and words from the Book of Common Prayer  (1985)