| The Tridentine Mass for SATB chorus was composed early in 2000,
and its text is the traditional Latin mass that the composer memorized phonetically as an
altar boy and then learned to parse during four years of Latin study at a Jesuit high
school. The adjective in the title refers to the Council of Trent, which
solidified
this text during its 1545-1563 tenure; that the word also suggests a three-pronged spear
is a serendipitous coincidence, for each of the five movements -- and indeed, the work as
a whole -- is in tripartite form. Designed for a choir blessed with a resonant
performance venue, the Tridentine Mass emphasizes the poetry of the text.
Although not without repetition of key phrases, the treatment is largely syllabic; the
Phrygian mode dominates, but the musical language -- like that of Wierzbicki's earlier
choral works -- is better described as a polymodal.
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