Dance Missa Brevis

On the work

On my composition wish list for some time has been a Missa Brevis, a work that can be used within a church service or used as an opening item in a choral concert. Since 2018 and my appointment as musical director of The Marlowe Singers my desire to write an original work for upper voice choir and piano has been foremost in my mind. I started writing my Missa Brevis with the idea that it would be a straight forward classical setting but my sketches soon indicated that this was going to be a more popular style of work. Having enjoyed recently returning to performing light hearted music, it was the right time to combine my writing of choral music with the many years’ experience I had of playing jazz. The result is my "Dance Missa Brevis", each movement is influenced by a dance rhythm and uses basic jazz chords. This work is dedicated to The Marlowe Singers, who I enjoy working with and I look forward to many years of making music with them.

Performance Notes

While I would encourage performances with jazz bass and drums, both of these parts are optional. I would not want to restrict the work for use within a church service that did not have these instruments available or where the clergy would object to this style of music. While the drum part is fully notated these rhythm patterns are just a suggestion and the drummer is free to explore their own dance rhythms as long as they fit the style for that movement. (Adrian Connell)