In Concert

What: Missa Brevis pro Serveto, by Tobin Stokes

When: Sunday, May 23, 1 p.m.

Where: Farquhar Auditorium (University Centre, University of Victoria).

Tickets: Free admission

- - -

A newly written Latin text set to newly written choral music for use in a church service -- it's been quite a few centuries since many pieces of music could be described like that. But such is Missa Brevis pro Serveto, the latest work by the Victoria-based composer Tobin Stokes.

The mass will have its première during a service tomorrow afternoon as part of the Canadian Unitarian Council's annual gathering of Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists, which this year is being held until Monday at the University of Victoria. The work will be sung by a massed choir drawn from congregations from Victoria, Vancouver and across Canada.

The Latin mass is not a Unitarian tradition, needless to say, but choral-music aficionados of all faiths are familiar with it. In 2008, a Unitarian chorister came up with the idea of creating a new mass with the traditional words replaced by a new Latin text focused on Unitarian Universalist beliefs. That text, Missa Brevis pro Serveto, was created by Fran Dearman, a classics scholar who was raised in Victoria and is interim minister at the Unitarian Church of Calgary.

(Since the 15th century, "missa brevis" has denoted a mass of modest proportions, either complete or abbreviated; "pro Serveto" is Dearman's nod to Michael Servetus, a 16th-century physician and theologian whose writings in Latin, she says, "carried the arguments for a unitarian theology through many lands.")

Of the seven parts of Dearman's mass text, five bear traditional titles (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus); the two others are Kerygma (Proclamation) and Sermo (Sermon).

The principal theme of the text is a question central to many religious and philosophical systems: How shall we live? That question -- Quomodo vivamus? -- is the opening line of Dearman's Sermo, and in addressing it, her text reflects the wide range of beliefs within the spectrum of Unitarian Universalism, a non-creedal tradition that stresses the individual experience of faith.

Seeking "strong concrete imagery" for her text, Dearman found inspiration in many sources: religion (the Bible, Buddhism, Transcendentalism, process theology), classical literature (Lucretius, Cicero, Catullus), science (Newton, Darwin), even popular culture (the song What a Wonderful World, the movie The Lion in Winter).

Last year, she used her new text during a service at the First Unitarian Church of Victoria, and it proved so effective that local Unitarians subsequently commissioned Stokes to set it to music, through grants from Unitarian organizations and individual benefactors.

In Stokes's setting, which runs about 25 minutes, the choir is accompanied by a small instrumental ensemble; in tomorrow's performance, the seven movements will be interspersed throughout the service, and two of them will be performed alongside choreographed dancing. Stokes, a former percussionist, believes that his "love of rhythms" partly motivated the commission: "They were looking for a piece with energy and rhythmical drive," he says.

Stokes was impressed by Dearman's work -- "The text is so beautiful and alive that there was no lack of ideas or inspiration" -- and was intrigued by the challenge of writing music for church use that would be challenging and interesting but still accessible, both technically and idiomatically, to amateur choirs, and flexible enough to accommodate many Unitarian congregations.

Sunday's performance is open to the public and is free, though a collection will be taken during the service on behalf of several charities.

Stokes, incidentally, has lately been busy with much else besides the new mass.

In December, his Symphony No. 2 was performed by the Victoria Symphony and he was subsequently occupied, as composer, arranger and performer, with a variety of musical events related to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

In early July, two more of Stokes's works for choirs -- a "Bollywood-style piece" for children and a "gospel piece" for adults -- will have their premières at the XIV International Choral Kathaumixw festival in Powell River, where Stokes grew up.