User:Elder Oakenheart/sandbox

Telescoped text, or telescopic text, is the term used by choral conductors and other music scholars to describe a specific compositional technique used by composers to musically set the text of the mass ordinary. The technique, most often found in the Gloria and Credo, involves each voice part articulating a different portion or stanza of the complete text simultaneously. Utilizing this technique allows it's performance time to be shortened, due to the longer texts being superimposed upon itself like that of a closed telescope. The texture contrasts against the homophonic style in which all voices sing the same line of text using the same or similar rhythms, as was the preference of the Council of Trent for the sake of text clarity. The technique is most often seen within the category of mass known as missa brevis (short mass).