Missa Pro Pace by Wojciech Kilar, composed in 2000 on the centenary of the National Philharmonic, is soaked with the spirit of the medieval church music – the prevailing moods are meditation, contemplation and prayer concentration. At the forefront there is singing and liturgical text, completed with a modest set of simple means of the compositional technique, which is used in order to obtain conscious archaization. The mass was built in the traditional manner, it includes five parts: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei, preceded with the organ Introitus, while the climax of the musical course of the work falls on the final fragment of the last link – Dona nobis pacem. In Kilar’s composition, Credo and Sanctus, which usually dominate the whole cycle, are moments of silence and pensiveness.
