Mass (music)

The mass (Latin: missa, Italian: messa, French: messe, German: Messe) is a form of musical composition that sets the texts of the western Christian Eucharistic liturgy (principally that of the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion and Lutheranism) known as the Mass. Typically these are the five movements of the Ordinary of the Mass (Kyrie, Gloria in excelsis, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei) but the cycle may be abbreviated (missa brevis) or expanded to include some or all of the Proper of the Mass (plenary mass or ). A special case of the later is the Requiem, so called from the opening word of its Introit.

Until the Second Vatican Council Catholic masses set the liturgy in Latin, the sacred language of the Roman Rite, but there are a significant number written in vernacular languages of non-Catholic countries, beginning with Luther's Deutsche Messe (1526) and the Communion Service of Cramer's Book of Common Prayer (1549). Since 1970 a number of Catholic masses have been written in the approved translations of their various countries, alongside new Latin settings. An older tradition of vernacular singing took place at Low Masses, at which hymns were sung instead of the liturgical texts; Schubert's Deutsche Messe is the most famous example.

Masses can be a cappella, that is, for choir without an independent accompaniment, or they can be accompanied by obbligato instruments up to and including a full orchestra, and are frequently performed in a concert hall.