[1] Pepping composed no more church music until 1948, when he wrote the Missa Dona nobis pacem, possibly as a "personal plea".
[2] The mass is structured in five sections of different allocations of the soprano, alto, tenor and bass voices (SATB):[3] In the following table of the movements, the markings and time signatures are taken from the score.
[4] Pepping uses polyphony and a modal tonality to achieve a characteristic colourful sound ("charakteristische Farbigkeit des Klanges").
The mass shows brittle, jagged sections ("spröde, zerklüftete Abschnitte") in complex formality and composition technique, especially in the fugues.
The editor Richard Baum wrote on 18 September 1948: "Wir sind glücklich, dieses außerordentliche Werk verlegen zu dürfen.