< World Premiere >

PAUL HINDEMITH : Messe

(for unaccompanied SATB div. choir)

Tuesday 12 November, 1963

Church of Maria Treu, Vienna, Austria

Wiener Kammerchor, cond. Paul Hindemith

Schott Music GmbH & Co., 1963 (ED 5410)

“It is obvious that this Mass is not Gebrauchsmusik as favored by Hindemith in earlier years. It is indeed the most difficult choral work he produced, and the most intense. Hindemith's contrapuntal idol was probably J. S. Bach, and this becomes apparent in the Mass with its intricate imitative patterns. But the total concept goes farther back than the Baroque to the Renaissance ideal of the individual line, and there are even outlines of plainchant incorporated in the texture. Further asymmetric elements include rhythmical permutations within the bar line and shifts of meter within a movement which serve to heighten the natural unmetered prosody of the text.”

— Lewis Whikehart