Missa Profana Croatica for Mezzosoprano and Baritone solo, Mixed Chorus and Orchestra

Brkanović, Ivan (1906 – 1987) most significant Croatian composer of the 20th Century and one of the most prominent representatives of the so-called national style in Croatian music. He studied at the Zagreb Academy with Fran Lhotka and Blagoje Bersa (composition), graduating in 1935, and then at the Schola Cantorum in Paris with J. Léfebre. His musical style is characterized by innovative formal and harmonic procedures, and dense polyphonic textures. “I felt the need to complete the last important project of my father Ivan Brkanović. In front of me were the partial score of an extensive oratorio, Missa Profana Croatica (1986; completed 1994) for mezzo-soprano and baritone solo and mixed voice choir and symphony orchestra together with the incompletely pencil-written piano sketch for the whole work, and on a separate sheet, hand written additional notes. The instrumentation for the movements Kyrie, Gloria, Credo and Sanctus was on the whole written, and no corrections or additions related to the notation were required. However, the last movements, Benedictus and in particular Agnus Dei were written only as solo parts with an additional part for choir and the wording written out. The indications of the orchestration were only sketched out, partial and very meagre, and contained almost no instrumentation.(…) The relinquishment of the classical conception of the movements, for here it is impossible to speak of a liturgical conception except in the terminology, is visible at first glance in the Agnus Dei, subtitled Lullaby, which led me to devote additional attention to the text. I realized that the outstanding writing of Dunja Robić had been the prime mover of the way the music unfolded. Thus, as in the psalms, a kind of symbiosis of words and music incessantly goes on around the basic thought and musical idea.” (Željko Brkanović)