Music Notes for the Second Sunday of Advent — December 8, 2024

Missa brevis no. 8 – Eleanor Daley (b. 1955)

Click to watch the video on Youtube: Kyrie

Click to watch the video on Youtube: Agnus Dei

Born in Parry Sound, Ontario, Eleanor Daley is a Canadian composer of choral and church music, a church choir director, choral clinician and accompanist. She lives and works in Toronto. Among her best-known works are “The Rose Trilogy” and “Requiem”. She earned a bachelor’s degree in organ performance from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and attained diplomas in piano and organ, having studied in both Canada and England.

As a composer, Daley has been commissioned by choral groups and arts organizations throughout North America and Europe. Commissions from Europe include festivals in Norway and Germany, and England’s Oxford University Press. Daley’s music has been published by Canadian, US, and UK-based printing houses. Daley’s a cappella work “I Sing a Maiden” was performed in New York in 2014 by a 400-voice choir as part of an International Women’s Day celebration. Her Missa Brevis No. 8, our setting of the Mass Ordinary in church this Sunday, is a practical and compelling setting, employing parallel harmonic motion and dramatic rhythms in a straightforward form.

Gerald Harder

Kyrie

Agnus Dei