Missa ad honorem Sancti Francisci for SATB choir, soloists and woodwind quintet is in the five standard movements of the Catholic Mass: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei. The composition honors St. Francis of Assisi and uses pitch material derived from the Introit of his feast day. The work is approximately 20 minutes in length.
The motives in the Kyrie are simple and become more complicated by the end of the movement. The Introit of the feast serves as the cantus firmus and is initially presented in the bassoon. The Gloria moves away from the open tonalities and chant-like style of the Kyrie into more polyphonic and harmonically complex sections. Both the Gloria and the Sanctus feature vocal soloists, who simultaneously sing fragments from the English texts of The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi and the Canticle of the Sun over the Latin texts of the Mass. The Credo is a microcosm of the entire piece, with a simple beginning and ending and a complex middle section. It uses sotto voce and spoken word as text painting effects. The Sanctus breaks from a somber opening into a joyous, boisterous statement at the “Hosanna.” The Agnus Dei is a mirror image of the Kyrie. It opens with polyphony of line and color, and slowly thins into a monophonic, chant-like texture.
The Mass draws on many influences, both contemporary and medieval. It is a fusion of old and new, a voice that draws on both the past and the present while looking to the future. My goal is twofold: to glorify a higher power through honoring St. Francis and his ideals of love and peace, and to serve these ancient texts that have provided prayer and song to many others.