The core pitch material for Ralf Yusuf Gawlick's Mass is derived from the letters of his wife's name, Basia, translated into musical pitches.
Performer Biography
Julian Wachner, the conductor of this recording, is a GRAMMY-nominated musician sought after as a conductor, composer, and keyboard artist.
Compositional Technique
The work uses a dramatic fusion of different languages, ideas, and beliefs within the Mass Ordinary, creating a profound dialogue with doctrine.
Compositional Technique
The Missa gentis humanæ musically depicts language as 'made flesh' by presenting all stages of emergent human verbal expression, from humming to syllables and words.
Compositional Technique
The Mass incorporates literary reflections on love by authors like Borges, Virgil, Brecht, Dostoevsky, and Walter Scott, drawn from various Indo-European language families.
Compositional Technique
The Mass encapsulates a wide range of Western musical history, from plainchant and Medieval polyphony to Renaissance counterpoint and homophonic vocal music.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Ralf Yusuf Gawlick's Missa gentis humanæ (Mass for the Human Race) includes Christ's call to Love from the Gospel According to St. John into the traditional Mass texts.
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