| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 音樂學系在職進修碩士班 === 102 === Nancy Telfer (b. 1950- ) is a famous Canadian composer and choral conductor. She realized herself interested in music when she was young, she began piano at age 6, played the french horn at age 14 and joined her first choir when she was 19. Telfer fell in love with choral music after 2 years of choral experience, and decided to let such love of choral music continue in her life. Her first work has composed at age 27, after that, she realized that she should become a composer. Thus, she has become a full-time and productive composer since she was 29. Till now, Telfer has written more than 300 works and these pieces are performed around the world by many different choirs.
Missa Brevis (Female, a cappella, SSA) was composed in 1983. Many choirs performed this work after it was published by Lenel Music Publishing in 1985. There are four movements in this work: Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. In Kyrie, the tone clusters in moving tempo create a great deal of tension because the notes are so close together and the rhythms brought lots of energy. This tension expresses the urgent desire for mercy. In Gloria, it expresses the fervent praise and supplication to God in a clear structure. In Sanctus, using Trinity throughout the entire whole work, triads in root position create a spiritual sound and opens us up to all spiritual possibilities. In Agnus Dei, the clusters are very relaxed because of the slower moving of sound and even rhythms. Because the pitches are so close together, a halo of sound is created by each cluster giving a spiritual ambience.
This thesis consists of five chapters: The first chapter is the introduction. Chapter two reviews the research background. There are two sections, the first section is the development of Mass, next section introduces the background of Telfer life and works; Chapter three analyzes the compositional techniques Telfer used in Missa Brevis, and turns into four parts in discussion specifically. Likewise, Chapter four also includes four sections that discuss the choral rehearsal and interpretation of the piece. Finaly, the conclusions is drawn in chapter five. In addition, five appendixes are attached to this thesis: appendix one is a table of pronunciations for Latin; appendix two is the Chinese translation of Missa Brevis; appendix three is a list of Telfer’s current published chorus works; appendix four is a list of Telfer’s other current published works; lastly, appendix five is the complete Email correspondence between the author and the composer for this research study.
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