Missa Unitatis [double-choir edition 2016]

The first new mass setting to have been commissioned by the Illustre Lieve Vrouwe Broederschap (founded in 's-Hertogenbosch in 1318) in almost 500 years. Inspired by the Confraternity's uniquely balanced membership - precisely as many Protestants as Roman Catholics (thus acknowledging the Church's need for unity while simultaneously exposing the present lack of it) - this 'Mass of Unity' is designed to be performed by two choirs separately and/or together. In the tradition of Ockeghem's Missa Prolationum and Missa Cuiusvis toni, the conceit is that there exists an invisible source - an original score - of which the two versions are radically different editions, thus playing with the tension between intention and interpretation, original and modern notation. The musical magic is that these two versions can also be sung together - as in this new double-choir edition. The difficulty level varies between movements from moderate to virtuosic.