Abstract
Missa della Grande Transizione is a twenty-two minute electro-acoustic nuptial Mass for live processed voice, and stereographic video—using red-blue 3D glasses. The stereographic video backdrop was constructed with stereograms taken at a 1955 wedding in Marianao, Cuba. Missa focuses on the human aspect of the wedding-Mass ritual—praising God and one’s beloved for giving one love, pleading for God’s mercy and help in the face of uncertainty, and resigning oneself to have faith in love. In order to accomplish this goal, the text of the Mass Ordinary was supplemented with excerpts from Francesco Petrarca’s Canzoniere—a highly spiritual yet humanist masterwork of the middle ages composed of 366 poems (mostly about love, politics and fame) in archaic Italian. The vocalist, which is the only sound source in Missa, is sampled and processed in real-time by Max/MSP applications designed to turn one voice into a diverse assemblage of sonorities.