Grace Williams: Missa Cambrensis

Description

Inscribed to the memory of Grace Williams's friend Nancy Elizabeth Jenkins, who died of cancer shortly before the work was completed, Grace Williams's Missa Cambrensis is a full-scale setting of the Mass in Latin and Welsh, scored for soprano, alto, tenor and bass soloists, mixed chorus, boys' choir, orchestra and speaker. The orchestral forces required consist of two flutes (second doubling piccolo), two oboes, (second doubling cor anglais), two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, two tenor trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, percussion (two players: cymbals, glockenspiel, tubular bells, tamtam), piano and strings. Missa Cambrensis is Grace Williams's magnum opus, the last major musical statement by a composer of rare integrity. It dominates all her other concert works, investing the score with a commanding, almost legendary status. A. F. Leighton Thomas once commented on 'the essentially human quality of her music' and this directly communicative aspect of her writing shines through the score. Her honesty and sincerity inform her individual treatment of the Latin text and the Welsh additions to the material are a natural corollary of the pride she took in her nationality. As Malcolm Boyd concluded, the Missa Cambrensis is 'a work of great power, rich in incident, generous in feeling, and exemplary in craftsmanship'. - Paul Conway, 2024