Missa Luba

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Missa Luba is a setting of the

Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite Mass, the Zaire Use
.

Background

Father Guido Haazen O.F.M. (

Vienna Boys Choir). The celebrated recording of the Missa Luba by the Troubadours and soloist Joachim Ngoi, a teacher at Kamina Central School, was made at this time.[4]

Elements

Music

The music for the Mass was not written down. Father Haazen responded to demand from choirs wanting to perform the piece by publishing a transcription of the recorded version in 1964, with a new edition in 1969.[5]

The

Hosannah is a rhythmic dance of Kasai, and the Agnus Dei is a typical Bena Luluwa song, such as might be heard around Kananga.[6]

Dance

The choreography for the Mass was done by Eleo Pomare.

In popular culture

The Gloria featured in

telemovie Deadly Voyage (1996), in which it accompanied the closing credits; in Lost and Delirious (2001); and in Never Let Me Go
(2010).

The Kyrie received regular play at The Loft, an influential underground dance party founded in New York City in 1969. The Loft's host David Mancuso selected music that was soulful, rhythmic, and imparted words of hope, redemption, and pride.[7] Missa Luba in particular appealed to Mancuso's, "affection both for music with an explicit spiritual message and for African percussion."[8]

The Clash refer to the recording in the lyrics of "Car Jamming" on their 1982 album Combat Rock. The cover of the Troubadours' album appears briefly in the Stanley Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange (1971) as Malcolm McDowell's character, Alex, strolls through a record shop.

The Missa Luba was the most successful of many

Misa Criolla (1964) arranged by Ariel Ramírez and the Misa Flamenca (1966) arranged by Ricardo Fernández de Latorre and José Torregrosa.[9]

In the authoritative music magazine Mojo, the Belgian-Congolese record Missa Luba of Les Troubadours du Roi Baudouin is mentioned as one of the ten albums that 'made' the sound of Led Zeppelin.[citation needed]

Original recording

Philips Records released a ten-inch LP of the Missa Luba by Les Troubadours du Roi Baudouin in the Netherlands and other European markets in 1958.[10] The track list was:

Side A: Congolese songs

  1. Dibwe Diambula Kabanda (Marriage Song) – 3:02
  2. Lutuku & A Bene Kanyoka (Emergence from Grief) – 2:48
  3. Ebu Ewale Kemai (Marriage Ballad) – 2:22
  4. Katunbo (Dance) – 1:42
  5. Seya Wa Mama Ndalamba (Marital Celebration) – 2:21
  6. Banaha (Soldiers' Song) – 2:01
  7. Twai Tshinaminai (Work Song) – 1:01

Side B: Missa Luba

  1. Kyrie – 2:03
  2. Gloria – 2:39
  3. Credo – 4:06
  4. Sanctus – 1:36
  5. Benedictus – 0:52
  6. Agnus Dei – 1:52

This program was retained for reissues throughout the early 1960s, including the first U.K. release (1964) and the first U.S. release (1965), and has also been carried over into the digital reissues of more recent times (CD and download) – except that the Missa Luba now sometimes precedes the songs.

Philips capitalised on the exposure the music received in if.... by releasing the Sanctus and Benedictus as a single, which spent eleven weeks in the British charts, peaking at No. 28 in March 1969.[11]

Some twelve-inch LP versions of the album issued later in the 1960s contained additional material from the 1958 sessions, including:

Sacred music

Children's songs from the Baluba

  • Kamiole – 1:10
  • Katende – 1:04
  • Kilio
  • Kamuyambi – 1:22
  • Daina – 1:08

More Congolese songs

  • Kamimbi (Kiluba) – 1:42
  • Maningi Daba (Kiswahili) – 1:75
  • Mikomba (Tshiluba) – 2:02
  • Salibona (Kiswahili) – 2:42
  • Kansembe (Kiluba)
  • Tambwe Dishinda (Tshiluba) – 1:32

No single issue has brought all of this material together. The most complete version is The Original Missa Luba and Songs from the Congo released by Universal in 1999, which contains an expanded program of twenty-two Congolese songs and the Missa Luba, but omits several of the previously released songs and the other three sacred pieces.[12]

The Troubadours' recording of the Missa Luba has also been reissued in various couplings with the

Misa Criolla
, Misa Flamenca, and Messe des Savanes performed by other artists.

There are later recordings of the Mass by the Muungano National Choir of Nairobi (Philips, 1990) and the Choral Arts Society of Washington (Naxos, 2006).

References

  1. ^ Marc Ashley Foster, "Guido Haazen Passes Away", Choralnet, 23 August 2004. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
  2. ^ Doris Anna McDaniel, "An Analysis of the Missa Luba", M.A. Thesis, University of Rochester, 8 January 1973. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
  3. ^ Marc Ashley Foster, "Missa Luba: A New Edition and Conductor’s Analysis", Doctor of Music Arts Thesis, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2005, pp. 1 and 11. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
  4. ^ Ray van Steen. The recording was played on numerous radio stations in the Philadelphia and NYC area in 1958. Presumably one of these stations has a master vinyl copy of the recording in their archives. "The Missa Luba", sleeve notes to the 1963 reissue (Philips, PCC-206). Retrieved 28 March 2013.
  5. ^ Guido Haazen, arranger, Missa Luba: As Recorded on Philips Records PCC-206/PCC-606 (Brussels: MRC Music, 1964). Guido Haazen, arranger, Missa Luba (New York: Lawson-Gould Music Publishers, 1969).
  6. ^ Marc Ashley Foster, "Missa Luba: A New Edition and Conductor’s Analysis", Doctor of Music Arts Thesis, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2005, ch. 3. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
  7. ^ Brewster, Bill; Broughton, Frank (1999). Last Night a DJ Saved My Life. London: Headline Publishing Group. p. 123.
  8. ^ Gonsher, Aaron (February 13, 2020). "Love Saves the Day Turns 50: Hear 12 of the Loft's Essential Songs". The New York Times. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
  9. ^ The Fernández de Latorre-Torregrosa Misa Flamenca is not to be confused with the two later works of the same name by Paco Peña (1991) and Curro and Carlos Piñana (2006).
  10. ^ Les Troubadours Du Roi Baudouin: Missa Luba, Discogs. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
  11. ^ Official Charts Company Archive. Archived 2013-05-11 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 28 March 2013.
  12. ^ Troubadors of King Baudouin / Troubadours du Roi Baudouin: The Original Missa Luba and Songs from the Congo, All Music. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Missa_Luba&oldid=1191923983"