The ''Misa Sine Nomine'' (''Mass Without Name'') is a 1977 musical work for narrator, mixed choirs with up to 36 voices, organ, and percussion by

Leon Schidlowsky Jorge León Schidlowsky Gaete (; 21 July 1931 – 10 October 2022) was a Chilean and Israeli composer and painter. He wrote music for orchestra, chamber ensemble, choir, and instruments including the piano, violin, cello, flute, mandolin, guitar ...

. It was composed in memory of Chilean folk singer and human rights activist

Víctor Jara Víctor Lidio Jara Martínez (; 28 September 1932 – 16 September 1973) was a Chilean teacher, theatre director, theater director, poet, singer-songwriter and PCCh, Communist political activist. He developed Chilean theater by directing a bro ...

. The work is a setting of parts of the

mass ordinary The ordinary, in Catholic liturgies, refers to the part of the Mass or of the canonical hours that is reasonably constant without regard to the date on which the service is performed. It is contrasted with the '' proper'', which is that part of ...

juxtaposed with Biblical passages in Hebrew, and texts in other languages by various contemporary authors, including by the composer himself. The composition is in eleven

movements Movement may refer to: Generic uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Movement (sign language), a hand movement when signing * Motion, commonly referred to as movement * Movement (music), a division of a larger c ...

and utilizes different groupings of performers in each. The score uses graphic notation. The movements, which can be performed separately, are meant to be accompanied by visual projections. It was first performed in Hamburg in 1980.

History

Leon Schidlowsky composed ''Misa Sine Nomine'' in 1977 in memory of

. Jara was a Chilean folk singer who was one of the leaders of the "

Nueva canción chilena Nueva is the Spanish feminine form of the word for "new" and may refer to: * Isla Nueva, an uninhabited island in Chile * The Nueva School, a school in Hillsborough, California, USA * Nueva (Llanes), a parish in Llanes, Asturias, Spain * Nueva, a ...

" movement, as well as a poet, and human rights activist; he was arrested on 12 September 1973, the day after the

coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...

against

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 1970 until Death of Salvador Allende, his death in 1973 Chilean coup d'état, 1973. As a ...

. He was held at the

Estadio Chile es:Estadio is the spanish language word for Stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered s ...

, where he was tortured and murdered by the

Chilean military The Chilean Armed Forces () is the unified military organization comprising the Chilean Army, Air Force, and Navy. The President of Chile is the commander-in-chief of the military, and formulates policy through the Minister of Defence. In recent ...

. For texts, Schidlowsky juxtaposed parts of the

(Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Benedictus and Dona nobis pacem) with texts by

George Grosz George Grosz (; ; born Georg Ehrenfried Groß; July 26, 1893 – July 6, 1959) was a German artist known especially for his caricatural drawings and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Obj ...

, himself, and

Vladimir Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky ( – 14 April 1930) was a Russian poet, playwright, artist, and actor. During his early, Russian Revolution, pre-Revolution period leading into 1917, Mayakovsky became renowned as a prominent figure of the Ru ...

, beginning and ending with texts from the Bible in Hebrew. The score uses graphic notation. The

can be performed separately, and are meant to be accompanied by visual projections. The first performance was given in 1980 while the composer spent a sabbatical year in Hamburg, played at the

Musikhochschule Hamburg A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger in ...

by the Bramfelder Kantorei conducted by Klaus Vetter. The work was published by the Israel Music Institute.

Structure

''Misa Sine Nomine'' is in eleven movements for different scoring: a speaker, mixed choirs with up to 36 voices, organ and percussion, including gongs and suspended cymbals: # ''Bereschít bará elohím et haschamáim weét haáretz'', text from the Bible, for two mixed choruses and percussion # Kyrie, for large mixed chorus # ''Lied'', text by George Grosz, for speaker and organ # Gloria, for large mixed chorus and four gongs (1 player) # ''Chile'', text by the composer, for 20 mixed voices # Credo, for speaker, large mixed chorus, organ and four bass drums (1 player) # Benedictus, for 36 mixed voices and four suspended cymbals (1 player) # ''Ich komme'', text by Vladimir Mayakovsky, for 36 mixed voices # Dona nobis pacem, for large mixed chorus # ''Babel'', text from the Bible, for 6 sopranos, 6 altos, 4 tenors, 4 basses # ''Epilog'', text from the Bible, for speaker, small mixed chorus, large mixed chorus, organ, 4 percussion The duration is given as 45 minutes. The first movement is a setting of the beginning of the Hebrew Bible.

Recording

The mass was recorded in 1998 by forces from the in Berlin: the extended Ölberg-Chor, speaker Karl-Heinz Barthelmeus, organist Reinhard Hoffmann, and percussionists Nicole Hartig, Sebastian Trimolt, Thomas Rönnefarth and Jan Seeliger, conducted by . It was released in 2002. For a focus on the juxtaposition of mass liturgy and other texts, several tracks combine two movements.

Notes

References

External links