*To what extent are you looking for ‘solemnity’ rather than ‘tradition’?
Tradition is really the point here, now that I think about it. The bind I’m in is that while I can write string quartets, symphonies, or operas with impunity, it would feel somewhat hypocritical of me to write a Mass—even though in the context of history that’s just one more musical genre like the others I mentioned, with its own conventions that make it suitable for particular types of compositional expression.
I should probably just either get over my fear of hypocrisy in this context, or else give up on the direct traditional link and use a text of my own choice, making for a different kind of work, hopefully satisfactory in its own way, that could be perceived as (musically) “related” to the sacred genres of the past.
Write a Black Mass. Lots of attendees aren’t huge believers already, and they are in sore need of some decent ceremonial music. Plus you won’t feel intimidated by having to compare yourself to the great masters.
Have you looked into video game religious music for inspiration? The Hymn of the Fayth was profoundly moving to me, but that might be because Final Fantasy X was such a big part of my youth. It ain’t a mass, but it has a certain solemnity and implied tradition that moves me.
For me it was just the piece itself, and the way they changed the flavour of it for the different temples and whatnot. Basically I think that personally I could get away with ‘music composed in the style of religious choral pieces’ .
Just remembering it makes me wish I could track down a longer/more complete version of it. I would totally listen to a canon or whatever of it.
Seconded. The more obscure Ar Tonelico was also good at this (the game’s magic system involved singing complicated choiral pieces that were both hymns of praise to, and deliberate invocations of program code on, the world-computer that basically was the setting. Some of the characters had been doing this for a very long time.)
I’ll second the recommendation: some of the music from the Ar Tonelico series is remarkably good stuff, and I listen to it regularly. Most of it could be used as sacred music, easily.
The one problem with the Ar Tonelico music is that it’s hard to get a large group of people to sing it, because the harmony is too tricky for untrained singers. My favorite sacred music is the hardcore religious Christmas carols, when sung in a simple form by a group of ordinary people. It’s a hell of a lot more fun than any professional rendition of those songs, with the exception of Sufjan Stevens, who really gets it.
Tradition is really the point here, now that I think about it. The bind I’m in is that while I can write string quartets, symphonies, or operas with impunity, it would feel somewhat hypocritical of me to write a Mass—even though in the context of history that’s just one more musical genre like the others I mentioned, with its own conventions that make it suitable for particular types of compositional expression.
I should probably just either get over my fear of hypocrisy in this context, or else give up on the direct traditional link and use a text of my own choice, making for a different kind of work, hopefully satisfactory in its own way, that could be perceived as (musically) “related” to the sacred genres of the past.
Write a Black Mass. Lots of attendees aren’t huge believers already, and they are in sore need of some decent ceremonial music. Plus you won’t feel intimidated by having to compare yourself to the great masters.
Have you looked into video game religious music for inspiration? The Hymn of the Fayth was profoundly moving to me, but that might be because Final Fantasy X was such a big part of my youth. It ain’t a mass, but it has a certain solemnity and implied tradition that moves me.
For me it was just the piece itself, and the way they changed the flavour of it for the different temples and whatnot. Basically I think that personally I could get away with ‘music composed in the style of religious choral pieces’ .
Just remembering it makes me wish I could track down a longer/more complete version of it. I would totally listen to a canon or whatever of it.
Seconded. The more obscure Ar Tonelico was also good at this (the game’s magic system involved singing complicated choiral pieces that were both hymns of praise to, and deliberate invocations of program code on, the world-computer that basically was the setting. Some of the characters had been doing this for a very long time.)
I’ll second the recommendation: some of the music from the Ar Tonelico series is remarkably good stuff, and I listen to it regularly. Most of it could be used as sacred music, easily.
The one problem with the Ar Tonelico music is that it’s hard to get a large group of people to sing it, because the harmony is too tricky for untrained singers. My favorite sacred music is the hardcore religious Christmas carols, when sung in a simple form by a group of ordinary people. It’s a hell of a lot more fun than any professional rendition of those songs, with the exception of Sufjan Stevens, who really gets it.
Fictional religious texts were going to be my answer to Mass Driver’s question about the next best thing, but I decided that didn’t really count.