07 July 2019 - Sung Eucharist

This was the last Sung Eucharist of the Easter term, and included 20th Century French composer Francis Poulenc’s Messe en sol majeur. 

Following the death of a close friend in 1936, Poulenc (1899-1963) rediscovered Roman Catholicism and began to compose with an unbridled spiritual intensity. The juxtaposition in this unaccompanied mass of blazing fortissimos and haunting, beautifully tender passages describes a new-found faith of remarkable fervour.

The mass was finished in August 1937 and was dedicated to the memory of Poulenc’s father, twenty years after his death.