MISSA OMNIUM SANCTORUM FULHAMENSIS

In my setting of the ordinary of the mass (which I’ve portentously designed Missa Omnium Sanctorum Fulhamensis (The Mass of All Saints, Fulham)), each section is based on a musical cypher (sometimes called cryptogram). Cyphers are musical ‘codes’ and have a long history in church music going at least as far back as Josquin des Prez in the 15th century. The most famous is probably the B-A-C-H motif, which J S Bach used to spell his own name on the stave by using the notes B-flat, A, C, and the German name for B-natural, H Shostakovich did something similar with his D-S-C-H motif by punning on the German name for E-flat ‘Es’.

I did something similar while devising my cyphers, starting with (of course) A-S-F (A, Eflat, F) This wasn’t especially inspiring as a melodic idea, so instead I built it into a series of major chords: A major, E-flat major, F major If you play these at the piano you’ll find they sound quite dramatic! So these became the basis for the Kyrie and Agnus Dei, the most emotionally and spiritually intense texts of the mass

Feeling on a roll, I decided to see what other cyphers I could make. By borrowing some of the French names for the notes, I could spell F-Ut-La-H-A-Mi (F-C-A-B-A-E) This was the opposite of the A-S-F cypher in that when put into chords it sounded quite plain, but when played as a melody in canon (layered over itself) it had a rather mystical quality. With this in mind, I decided to use it as the basis for the Sanctus-Benedictus, where we hear the seraphim calling to one and other described in Isaiah; the two sides of the choir sing ‘Sanctus’ and ‘Hosanna’ to one and other in increasingly elaborate ways

Finally, I had to write the Gloria. This is a notoriously difficult text to set well, not least because it covers a lot of complex moods