September 28, 2014 - Proper 21

Missa Festiva - Flor Peeters

Dear Lord and Father - C.H.H. Parry

Hymns: #523 Abbot's Leigh, #686 Nettleton, 

              #477 Engelberg

Flor Peeters (1903-1986) was a significant figure in church music in the 20^th century. His compositional oeuvre was not limited to liturgical compositions but it was through the music of the church and for his own instrument, the organ, that he made his most important contributions. Peeters was educated at the Lemmens institute in Belgium and at the age of 20 became the youngest student to receive the Prix Lemmens-Tinel, the school’s highest honor. In 1923 he was appointed assistant organist and second organ teacher. Upon the death of Oscar Depuydt in 1925 Peeters took over for his former teacher as head teacher and first organist. Peeters taught at several prominent conservatories and institutes throughout Belgium as well as in Holland, something that became not only complicated but illegal during World War II. Peeters would use a false passport and trade his Belgian bicycle for a Dutch made model at the border so that he could continue teaching and act as a messenger between his Cardinal and the Dutch Bishop.  Peeters also offered late night organ recitals to Jews and other people of the resistance.

Seeing the drastic effects of the war, it is no wonder that this Missa Festiva is as haunting and at times as dark as it is. Written in 1947 this was a piece that fits perfectly within the confines set out by Pope Pius X in his letter on liturgical music from 1903. This piece is centered around Gregorian chant and utilizes the same musical material throughout making not a collection of standalone pieces but a through composed work based on the principles of classical tradition with the harmonic language of the time. The haunting opening theme of the Kyrie is very similar to the twisting line that the altos introduce in the Agnus Dei. The Gloria and Benedictus both open with ascending fifths and while the character of the two movements is quite disparate, the line of the latter feels almost familiar. It’s these harmonic and melodic similarities throughout the piece that tie this piece so tightly together.

Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848-1918)is one of England’s foremost composers of the late 19^th/early 20^th century.  He is perhaps best known for his setting of the William Blake poem, Jerusalem, and his anthem I Was Glad. Parry’s tune, Repton was originally 'Long since in Egypt's plenteous land'  an aria for contralto from the oratorio Judith. The text is taken from John Greenleaf Whittier’s (1807-1892) poem the Brewing of Soma. This hymn-anthem setting arranged by H.A. Chambers opens and closes with the full choir but it is in the internal verses that the real creativity of the anthem occurs. The men sing the second verse in a strong unison until the tenors soar upward on the line “rise up.” The soprano’s verse leads us away from the key without making us actually leave it before returning to a half cadence that leads us back to the key we are already in! The piece ends as quietly as it began with the organ fading to the same chords that open the piece.