Amy Beach completed her large-scale Grand Mass in 1890, when she was 22, and it was hugely successful when the Handel and Haydn Society premiered it in Boston in 1892. It's little known and rarely performed today, though. One reason may have to do with the size of the performing forces required; it's scored for an unusually large orchestra. Another factor may be the current trends in musical taste -- the late-Romantic choral idiom that Beach used in the piece is not especially in favor at the moment, and to a large extent, ...
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Amy Beach completed her large-scale Grand Mass in 1890, when she was 22, and it was hugely successful when the Handel and Haydn Society premiered it in Boston in 1892. It's little known and rarely performed today, though. One reason may have to do with the size of the performing forces required; it's scored for an unusually large orchestra. Another factor may be the current trends in musical taste -- the late-Romantic choral idiom that Beach used in the piece is not especially in favor at the moment, and to a large extent, the big sacred works from that era that get performed tend to be the established classics, like the Brahms and Verdi Requiems, both of which Beach's Mass resembles to some extent. It's more closely related to the Brahms, especially in it harmonic language. It isn't particularly forward-looking, though, and is as much indebted to Mendelssohn as it is to Brahms. It's an inventive, earnest, and energetic piece that easily remains one of the most viable American compositions from its...
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