ABSTRACT
Following the 1903 motu proprio, the mass had two distinct masters: the Church, with its tight restrictions, and the Western art music tradition, which had few or no restrictions. While liturgical masses continued to be composed, non-conforming masses also continued despite composers knowing they could only be performed in a concert hall. From 1903 to 1963, concert masses by seventy-eight significant composers arose from a range of motivations, including secularism, self-promotion, protest, worship, nationalism, and religious inclusion, with Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass epitomising the former, and Grechaninov’s Missa Oecumenica the latter.
