Liturgical Composition

After about a year of developing my skills as a composer of sacred music, I desired to write an original Mass setting. I had grown up with Mass of Creation and Mass of Renewal, and in Miami I fell in love with Misa del Pueblo Inmigrante and Misa Melódica. I was very familiar with the parts of the Mass and the historic texts, so I thought, “Why not?” I asked my Vocation Director and Bishop for permission to create an independent study in Liturgical Composition with the seminary choir director. They granted my request and made the arrangements. In the Spring semester of my Sophomore year, I began to compose.

Nothing quite so upbeat as the Mass settings I previously mentioned flowed forth from my pen. No, I took one look at the text of the Sanctus and essentially wrote a dirge in a minor key. Thinking I had subverted expectations and written something profound, I proudly played the opening bars for my mentor. She stopped me before the Benedictus and asked, “Who died?” Okay, so I wasn’t off to a great start… especially because I hadn’t planned on writing a requiem. This was a new challenge for me as a composer: understanding the intention of the text. If the congregation is singing, “Holy, Holy, Holy,” then the music should reflect the most joyous occasion of the Eucharistic feast. Coming at the text with this new outlook, I was able to conjure up certain joys to write an appropriate setting.

The scope of the independent study included the Kyrie, Gospel Acclamation, Sanctus, Memorial Acclamation, Great Amen, and Agnus Dei. We stopped short of the Gloria due to the sheer length of the text. So over the summer I took it upon myself to write a Gloria using themes from the other parts of the Mass. When I finished, I sent it to the choir director for her assessment. Much to my dismay, her reply came rather late. However, it contained a peculiar surprise. The choir director sent my Gloria to her friend, Fr. Michael Joncas, who wrote a multiple-page critique of my work.

What’s that? You don’t recognize the name of Fr. Michael Joncas? Oh, that’s okay, he’s only the guy who wrote “On Eagle’s Wings,” “Take and Eat,” Sing Praise and Thanksgiving, etc. No big deal. Anyways, I took his critique as a masterclass in liturgical composition. He was very direct in affirming the good and identifying specific areas that could use improvement. I suppose it was rather naive of me to think I was ready to tackle a full Mass setting with my level of inexperience. But if you know you can do something, it’s probably not worth doing. The greatest projects we work on are those for which we question our abilities. That is the only way we can grow to overcome such challenges.