Date of Award
8-2000
Degree Name
Master of Music
Department
Music
First Advisor
C. Curtis-Smith
Second Advisor
Dr. Richard Adams
Third Advisor
Dr. David Sheldon
Access Setting
Masters Thesis-Open Access
Abstract
MASS is a musical setting of the ordinary parts of the mass: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. These five texts constitute the bulk of Christian liturgy for well over the past millennia. MASS is scored for SATB chorus and small chamber orchestra.
The primary concept from which the movements derive their harmonic material is "chiasmus." A chiasmus is an inverted relationship between the syntactic elements of parallel phrases, as in the phrase "to stop too fearful, and too faint to go." It is a rhetorical device that is the basis of much Hebrew thought and permeates the Scriptures. MASS is an effort, in part, to translate the idea of chiasmus into musical terms.
Recommended Citation
Miller, Michael J., "MASS" (2000). Masters Theses. 5263.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/5263