Mass music is generally the most widely known form of church worship music and is recognized as the core of church music. Mass music gradually settled at the beginning of worship in early Christian history. Masses can be divided into proper mass and syntactic mass, and syntactic mass is mainly performed except for special seasons such as Christmas and Easter.
Usually, the mass is accompanied by the mass composed in the ordinary of the Mass. In other words, the church's form of worship proceeds with music. These forms include Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Mass, Lord's Prayer, Agnus Dei Spiritual Part, and Post-Spiritual Reception. These hymns based on the ordinary of the Mass are called Kyriale.
Mass music has been composed in various forms from the Middle Ages to the modern era. But, modern mass music is not limited to the traditional forms of the previous era, is composed in a relatively free form according to the composer's personal tendencies and the needs of the times. Bob Chilcot (born 1955), for example, used jazz melodies and rhythms in his work "Little Jazz Missa". However, the lyrics did not use the full text of the ordinary of the Mass text, but only part of it was cited.
In addition, various composers, including John Leavit's "Festival Mass," Park Ji-hoon's "Firefly Mass," and Lee Gun-yong's "Alam Mass," are composing their works with new methods and ideas. In particular, through the COVID-19 pandemic, composers such as Eric Whitacre will present choir music using virtual spaces such as Metaverse and create a more diverse and innovative style of modern choir in the future.
Problems raised at the 216th regular concert of the Daegu City Choir in 2014 showed that religious bias existed in the regular concert of the city choir. These problems are related to the historical background in which missionaries started education and medical services when Protestantism spread in Korea. The establishment of schools such as Ewha School, the establishment of hospitals and churches, and hymns for worship purposes gradually clarified the understanding and purpose of Western music. In this process, many Korean musicians were Christians who embraced Christianity, and Western music they experienced became Korea's representative music style. In this regard, it is necessary to look at the following five aspects.
First, it examines the changes in mass music and its style according to the trend of the times in Western music history from the Middle Ages to modern times by examining proper and syntactic mass.
Second, in Korea, choir music was introduced by Christian missionary activities, but it was used for various purposes such as education, politics, and society beyond religious purposes. Since then, the scale and level have gradually improved due to music education in professional schools. Starting with private choirs, national, municipal, and public choirs were founded by social and political needs, and their members consisted of professional musicians.
Third, it is a survey of the repertoire of the Daegu City Choir from 1994 to 2023. The total number of choruses played during this period was 2,489, with 1,818 foreign choruses and 671 Korean choruses.The distribution was 73.0% and 27.6%, respectively. The proportion of church music among the religious music of all chorus songs is 1,244, which is 50.0%. Among them, Mass is classified into 342 songs (13.0%). Since its foundation in 1981, the Daegu City Choir has held 159 regular concerts, including various types of performances, and has produced 10 standing conductors.
Fourth, the issue of religious bias, which began in the Daegu City Choir's regular concert program in 2014, is currently emerging as a social issue not only in the music industry but also in the religious and cultural circles. In particular, there is a sharp confrontation between the Buddhist and music circles, raising mutual problems. According to Korea's education policy, the history of Western music cannot be ignored. Most people who have learned the music of popular composers as part of the musical style, not as religious music, are confused by the current issue of religious bias.
Through this paper, I hope that research on music and religious music for worship will be more active in the future. In addition, it is necessary to introduce Western music, to study the religious tendencies and forms of Korean choir music experts, and to study religious music as a work separate from religion. In addition, research on the religious bias of municipal and national choirs should be conducted in more depth in terms of Western music history. To this end, I hope to establish an organization or committee consisting of music experts and cultural experts that do not include religious people, such as the Religious Harmony Advisory Committee. In addition, a sense of religious balance should be administratively required when hiring standing conductors of all municipal, national, and public choirs, and as a result, music that cites other religious events and forms should not be limited to music related to worship.