Music for All Saints’ Sunday

In November of 1888, Stanford wrote to his publisher in London to propose the idea of setting introits form the Catholic missal; psalm paraphrases one might seldom hear outside of the proper chant’s appointed day in the liturgical year. He found them to be “admirably suitable and always lyrical (not didactic) in character,” foreshadowing his expressive setting of three selected texts, one of which we sing as the communion motet today.

Often heard on the Feast Days of Saints, the text Stanford set is actually a paraphrase of the appointed psalm: “Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord.” As we celebrate All Saints and remember all the individuals celebrated and remembered in our tradition for their faith and acts of service, Beati quorum via provides a sentimental reflection of the ways in which the saints have followed along the pathways of earthly existence – rather than placing them above blame or lawfulness, this musical setting maintains a very human emotion, ending in a peaceful yet inevitable cadence on the text “lege Domini.”

Today’s Missa Brevis accounts for one of very few sacred works written by Lennox Berkeley, a British composer who spent most of his urban career writing chamber music and songs. In his early life, he had the good fortune to present his work to Maurice Ravel, who immediately recommended that he study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, a prestigious and exacting professor whose private studio in her own home produced three generations of Europe’s greatest composers. The mass setting heard today dates from 1960 (late in Berkeley’s life) and exhibits his skill for musical clarity and concision; four beautiful movements that bear their own individual characters while also referencing one another in motivic and formal structure.

Abraham Ross

Music for Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost

The large-scale masses of Josef Rheinberger have enjoyed an enviable prominence in both the church and the concert hall since their setting. Most of them date from the composer’s time as Hoffkapellmeister for the court of Ludwig II of Bavaria, a prominent role where he scored new Catholic Church music for large orchestra and vocal ensembles. Such is not the scope of today’s mass setting in A major, which to the contrary is a rather modest setting for a 3-part chorus of upper voices most commonly heard in its organ-accompanied version.

Recent research documents that even this music for high voices (the Marienische Hymnen op. 171 included) were intended for and performed by the Vokalkapelle in court, where Rheinberger’s romantic style contrasted the Cecilian reforms to Catholic music practiced in other parts of Bavaria.

Rheinberger received an honorary doctorate and professorship from the university in Munich, where he taught composition and counterpoint to an esteemed base of students. In 1882, the young American organist Horatio Parker arrived in Munich to study with Rheinberger, completing two years of study before returning to the U.S. to enjoy a parallel career trajectory, teaching harmony and counterpoint at Yale University. Today’s postlude concludes my favourite (and the longest) of his organ works, the Organ Sonata op. 61. I learned the piece for a series of recitals in the summer of 2016 while playing at a festival in Blue Hill, Maine. Little did I know that Parker’s granddaughter and remaining family still summered just down the road from the church where I was practicing, and when they caught wind that I was playing his music, we arranged a private performance followed by a snack in the living room where he likely composed the sonata on summer holiday. As one might imagine, my experience with this music is now inextricably tied to this serendipitous occurrence in my home area.

– Abraham Ross

Solemn Mass takes place at St. James’ Anglican Church, Vancouver at 10:30 am every Sunday.

Music Notes for November 1, 2026

Music for All Saints’ Sunday

Music Notes for October 25, 2026

Music for Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost

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