The Glagolitic Mass (Czech: Glagolská mše, Church Slavonic: Mša glagolskaja; also called Missa Glagolitica or Slavonic Mass) is a composition for soloists (soprano, contralto, tenor, bass), double chorus, organ and orchestra by Leoš Janáček. Janáček completed the work in 1926. It received its premiere by the Brno Arts Society, conducted by Jaroslav Kvapil, in Brno on 5 December 1927. Janáček revised the mass the next year. The first UK performance was given at the Norwich Festival on 23 October 1930, conducted by Henry Wood. The Glagolitic alphabet was an early Slavic alphabet, the predecessor of the modern Cyrillic alphabet. In Croatia, the Catholic Church gave permission for the Roman Rite liturgical Mass to be celebrated in Old Church Slavonic at a time when such liturgies were typically only permitted to be in Latin, resulting in the Glagolitic Use Mass.
