Nancy Telfer's Missa Brevis for 3-Part Female Voices. 'Although I was actuallly supposed to be working on a commissoned work at the time I felt such a strong urge to compose the Missa Brevis that I set the other music aside and quickly wrote the Missa Brevis. I could hear the colours and musical details vividly right from the first moment. There has been some beautiful music written to this text over the centuries but I could hear much more than beauty in the ageless text. This is apparent in the urgency of the opening sections of the Kyrie the close matching of various emotions and words as theydance their way through the Gloria (yes I have a background in dance) the feeling of boundless space in the Sanctus (certainly affected by twentieth century exploration of space) and the illuminating 'halo effect' in the Agnus Dei.' - Nancy Telfer
