The Orienting Sounds of Worship

The Missa Wellensis by John Tavener truly feels like you are entering into a new time and space as you listen. You can lose your sense of time when listening to each of these quite long pieces. There is repetition but also still uncertainty to the shifts of what is coming next. Listening to these outside the mass was actually a very disorienting experience, I felt that the listener really needed the mass to focus on while listening. The sensation of the voices seeming louder and softer, larger and smaller, higher and lower, it felt similar to watching something zoom in and out of focus. Somewhat like the discussion of screens and its effect on what we are able to see. This also had a sense of veiling, seeking to fully comprehend but it only getting short glimpses. This is very prevalent in the “Kyrie” which is the most haunting of the parts, with the intense fluctuating of in and out, near and far. The “Gloria” transitions to be even more intense and grand. It feels to be the peak of the mass.

Then the “Sanctus Benedictus” becomes more lively and joyful, feeling like a growth from the “Kyrie.” The “Agnus Dei” is a gentle return, it utilizes less voices and feels like it is nearing a conclusion. This brings back the haunting tone of “Kyrie.” While the whole piece feels like it is a conclusion, the end seems overly simple and quick. The conclusion leaves you feeling a lack, like it should continue on. This points to the part of the Mass and that it is accompanying something else, the music is not just existing for itself. It prepares us to then receive, we are not completely lost in the auditory experience.

I also looked at the Eva Ave Mass by the Dominican Liturgical Center. This was a drastic change from the Tavener Mass. The simplicity of these chants do give the sense of sanctifying time, especially these moments of the mass. This period of time is distinctly marked, but it does not feel like the time is marked by the music’s presence. The music is a recognition of the moment of the mass that is occurring.

In “Lord Have Mercy” the sound of the multitude of voices in union along with the repetition gives a communal sense of worship. It does not feel so far off, that the participant in the pew could not feel joined in with the community of voices. This also feels fitting as the community together is humbly repenting here. “Holy, Holy” grows into a moment of worship and praise. “Lamb of God” has a somewhat similar feel to the Tavener one in which there is a great use of repetition, but once again does not have much of a conclusion. As if the music is not indicating the end of a moment but handing back our attention for what is next to come.

Both of these masses, mark time uniquely. They are a different ways of interacting with music than we are accustomed to. We can listen and notice that these orient us to something other than the sounds itself. When each piece ends we feel we must snap back into our surroundings, and our normal sense of temporality.