Missa brevis in D Major

My “Mass in shorts”, Benjamin Britten nicknamed his Missa Brevis, punning both on its compact length and unusual scoring: three-part trebles and organ. Composed in 1959 for the boy trebles of Westminster Cathedral, with their fresh, natural tone, it’s a work that shares as much with the fairy music from A Midsummer Night’s Dream as it does with A Ceremony of Carols—a celebration of innocence on the brink of experience, of mischief and darkness as well as purity. Rhythms dart and quiver through a work composed with young singers in mind. The opening “Kyrie” is less a supplication than an arresting demand, punched out with unexpected accents and syncopated urgency. Its ritual formality is abandoned in the “Gloria”, which launches into a joyful 7/8 dance whose off-kilter rhythms refuse to allow either the voices or listeners to settle. Bells ring out in sumptuous echoing peals through the “Sanctus”, full-choir resonance fading into the distance, transformed into the twinkling solo peals of the “Benedictus”—a duet for two trebles. The closing “Agnus Dei” takes us into a darker world. Insistent dissonances in the organ cast doubts on the choir’s halting, angular pleas for peace. What begins as a wail in the voices is soon reduced to a single note in each part repeated until it fades to nothing. Are these pleas answered? Britten’s Mass leaves us unsure.