Mass for Double Choir

Eucharist, or the sacrament of Mass, mattered to Frank Martin. The Swiss composer understood that the ritual re-enactment of the Last Supper brought Christian believers into a profoundly personal union with the Holy Spirit. Martin began work on his Mass for Double Choir in 1922 following the birth of his first child, not in response to a commission or with a performance in mind; rather, its creation was, as he later recalled, “a matter between God and myself”. Having finished five movements, he set the score aside and only returned to it four years later to add the final Agnus Dei. The work was placed in a drawer and remained there until 1962 when Martin received a request from a conductor who had seen a reference to the Mass and wanted to see whether it would suit his choir. They gave its premiere in Hamburg the following year. There is a striking purity about Martin’s Mass, which grows naturally from the fluid, chant-like quality of its melodic writing and subtle blend of ancient and modern harmonies. The work’s intimate style stems from the undulating first phrase of the Kyrie, shared between the altos of two four-part mixed choirs and taken up in turn by the sopranos of both groups. Martin throughout recalls the imitative counterpoint and textual clarity perfected by such 16th-century composers as Palestrina and Victoria, and also echoes ideas drawn from his close study of J.S. Bach’s sacred music.