Deutsche Messe

In 2010, Norbert Lammert offered me his new translation of the fundamental prayers of the Mass for a musical setting. The commission was issued by the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in 2012 within the context of the commemorative year of Luther in 2017 as a sign of ecumenism. The work is conceived as a large-scale mass with its roots in the Tradition of the masses composed by Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Bruckner, but is naturally composed in my personal contemporary tonal language as appropriate to the modern style of the text. In correspondence with the ecumenical concept, both Gregorian hymns and the best-known Lutheran chorales of the five fundamental prayers are integral elements of the composition. Stefan Heucke