Missa brevis

According to the catalogue entry, the work is entitled Mass in C major for Organ and Voice and survives in a manuscript of only three pages. Although the circumstances of its composition are unknown, the designation Missa brevis would undoubtedly be more appropriate, given the fragmentary setting of the Mass text, the omission of the Benedictus, and the work’s unconventional tonal design. It is also possible that the composer himself regarded the piece not as a finished composition but rather as a sketch.

All movements are written in a four-part organ texture, with the upper voice corresponding almost entirely to the vocal line, which presents the abbreviated (brevis) version of the Mass text.