| Missa Princeps Pacis | |
|---|---|
| Mass by William Lloyd Webber | |
| Text | Mass Ordinary |
| Language | Latin |
| Composed | 1962 |
| Dedication | Wilfred Purney |
| Published | 1962: London |
| Vocal | SATB choir |
| Instrumental | Organ |
The Missa Princeps Pacis (Mass Prince of Peace) is a mass composed by William Lloyd Webber in 1962 for a four-part choir and organ. [1]
The mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the invariable portions of the Eucharistic liturgy to music. Most masses are settings of the liturgy in Latin, the liturgical sacred language of the Catholic Church's Roman liturgy, but there are a significant number written in the languages of non-Catholic countries where vernacular worship has long been the norm. For example, there are many masses written in English for the Church of England. Musical masses take their name from the Catholic liturgy called "the mass" as well.
William Southcombe Lloyd Webber was an English organist and composer, achieving some fame as a part of the modern classical music movement yet commercially facing mixed opportunities. Besides his long and prestigious career, composing works ranging from choral pieces to instrumental items and more, he is known for being the father of both fellow composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and virtuoso cellist Julian Lloyd Webber. He also notably served as a teacher, instructing pupils on music theory at the Royal College of Music for a time.
In music, SATB is an initialism for soprano, alto, tenor and bass, defining the voice types required by a chorus or choir to perform a particular musical work. Pieces written for SATB can be sung by choruses of mixed genders, by choirs of men and boys, or by four soloists.
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Lloyd Webber, who was the father of the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, [2] was the organist and choirmaster of All Saints, Margaret Street, London between 1939 and 1948. From 1958 he served as director of music at the Methodist Central Hall, Westminster. During this time, he composed two Latin masses, Princeps Pacis in 1962 and Missa Sanctae Mariae Magdalenae in 1979. [3]
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass. Several of his songs have been widely recorded and were hits outside of their parent musicals, notably "The Music of the Night" and "All I Ask of You" from The Phantom of the Opera, "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar, "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" from Evita, "Any Dream Will Do" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and "Memory" from Cats. In 2001 The New York Times referred to him as "the most commercially successful composer in history". Ranked the "fifth most powerful person in British culture" by The Daily Telegraph in 2008, the lyricist Don Black stated "Andrew more or less single-handedly reinvented the musical."
Julian Lloyd Webber is a British solo cellist, the principal of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the founder of the In Harmony programme.
All Saints, Margaret Street, is a Grade I listed Anglican church in London. The church was designed by the architect William Butterfield and built between 1850 and 1859. It has been hailed as Butterfield's masterpiece and a pioneering building of the High Victorian Gothic style that would characterize British architecture from around 1850 to 1870.
The title "Prince of Peace" was part of a prophecy by Isaiah (Isaiah9:6), which Handel had used in the chorus For unto us a child is born in part I of his Messiah. The mass sets all part of the Mass Ordinary except the Credo, and is thus a missa brevis.
Missa brevis is Latin for "short Mass". The term usually refers to a mass composition that is short because part of the text of the Mass ordinary that is usually set to music in a full mass is left out, or because its execution time is relatively short.
The mass was published in 1962 under the English title Mass "The Prince of Peace", with the dedication "to my friend Father Wilfred Purney with affection". [4] It was recorded by Chandos in 1997, styled "Mass: 'Princeps Pacis'", as part of the album Invocation, a collection of works by William Lloyd Webber, with the Westminster Singers and organist Ian Watson and conducted by Richard Hickox. [5]
Chandos Records is a British independent classical music recording company based in Colchester. It was founded in 1979 by Brian Couzens.
Richard Sidney Hickox was an English conductor of choral, orchestral and operatic music.
It was published under its Latin title in the William Lloyd Webber Centenary Collection by Kevin Mayhew. [6] It was included in a celebration of Lloyd Webber's sacred music at St Martin-in-the-Fields on 11 March 2014, marking his 100th anniversary. [2] [7] [8] The St Martin-in-the-Fields event included St Martin's Voices and organist Andrew Earis. [8] A reviewer noted: "The first half ended with possibly the finest of the chosen works, the choral Missa Princeps Pacis, a beautifully crafted and proportioned composition with echoes of Fauré, performed here with delicacy." [7]
St Martin-in-the-Fields is an English Anglican church at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, London. It is dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours. There has been a church on the site since the medieval period. The present building was constructed in a Neoclassical design by James Gibbs in 1722–1726.
Gabriel Urbain Fauré was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. Among his best-known works are his Pavane, Requiem, Sicilienne, nocturnes for piano and the songs "Après un rêve" and "Clair de lune". Although his best-known and most accessible compositions are generally his earlier ones, Fauré composed many of his most highly regarded works in his later years, in a more harmonically and melodically complex style.
