Missa Brevis

Limon Dance Company performing Jose Limon's "Missa Brevis", San Diego 1998.
Zoltán Kodály, the Hungarian composer, wrote "Missa Brevis in Tempore Belli" at the end of World War II. It was completed under great hardship during the siege of Budapest. It is a Mass in time of war. Though Kodály's home was devastated, his manuscripts were later recovered intact and the music's first performance was given in the cellar of a bombed-out church in Budapest.
José Limón's stirring choreography depicts an indomitable humanity rising up after near-destruction. It is a memento to cities destroyed during World War II and to those unconquerable qualities in human beings that compel the spirit to rise in hope and to survive.