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Programme Note

There are canons – imitative repetitions – in almost every bar of the Mass. In the Kyrie and Gloria, canons reference the imitative writing of early English composers Byrd and Weelkes, whereas the canonic writing in the Sanctus and the Agnus Dei is more abstract and spatial. The most intense use comes towards the beginning the Sanctus, in which each singer repeats a given figure in his own time, creating a flurry of sound to fill the space in St. Thomas’s sanctuary.