Cornell Chorus and Glee Club Major Works Concert

Join the Chorus and Glee Club for Joseph Haydn's bombastic Missa in tempore belli, or Mass in Time of War. Written during the war that engulfed Europe after the French Revolution, this setting of the Latin Mass Ordinary is often called the "Paukenmesse" or timpani mass for its signature timpani rolls in the final movement suggesting battle drums. With sudden dynamic shifts and harmonic color changes, much of the piece depicts a world amid uncertainty and conflict. Yet other movements are at once invigorating, even festive, with hopeful energy boiling over in the choir's final chants of dona nobis pacem, "grant us peace."