The Politicized Concert Mass (1967-2007)

Stephanie Rocke is a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne with an ongoing interest in religious and cultural diversity as it is manifested in musical forms and musical activities across time. Recent publications reflect an expansion into the fields of music and emotion, the history of emotion, Australian music and creativity for wellbeing. The Origins and Ascendancy of the Concert Mass was published by Routledge in 2020.

Introduction

The concert mass

Concert mass background

Conceptual framework and theoretical approaches

Secularization

Issues of transcendence

Religious universalism and pluralism

Relativism

Cosmopolitan pluralists

Book structure and chapter outlines

Part I: Challenging boundaries in the long 1960s

Introduction

Civil protest

Roman Catholic Activism

Part I Case Studies – Introducing the masses of Axelrod, Davies and Bernstein

Chapter 1: David Axelrod and the Electric Prunes’ psychedelic Mass in F Minor (1967)

Cultural context – the popular music industry

Mass in F Minor (1967) – The Electric Prunes & David Axelrod (1931–2017)

David Axelrod – a creative autodidact

Placing Mass in F Minor within the continuum of other masses

An absence of religion (secularization)

Psychedelic Elements of Mass in F Minor

Text

Reception

Psychedelia and the counter culture

Commodification – Mass in F minor as a product

Mass in F minor legacy

Chapter 2: Challenging Christianity: Provocative models in Peter Maxwell Davies’s and Leonard Bernstein’s theatrical concert masses Missa super l’homme armé (1971) and Mass (1971)

Cultural context – a thirst for change

Secularization in different spheres

Missa super l’homme armé (1969 rev. 1971) – Peter Maxwell Davies

Absurdity

Sacrifice, betrayal and Christianity

Mass (1971) – Leonard Bernstein

Faith

Social consciousness

Detractors

Part II: Expanding the concert mass into new territories

Introduction

Subversive protests

Part II case studies – Chihara and Fanshawe: similarities and differences

Chapter 3: Christianity as everyday practice: Paul Chihara’s Missa Carminum: Folk Song Mass (1975)

Background and genesis

Missa Carminum: Folk Song Mass (1975)

Text juxtapositions

Melodic juxtapositions

Gloria

Eros in the music of Missa Carminum

Chapter 4: David Fanshawe’s African Sanctus: A Mass for Love and Peace (1973)

Cultural and religious merging

Neo-colonial cosmopolitan patriot

Cultural and religious hybridity

Christian and Muslim perspectives

Transcultural flows

Conclusion to Part II

Part III: God meets Gaia: Concert masses for the environment

Introduction

Environmental Movement

New Spiritual Pathways

Christianity and Environmentalism

Lindisfarne Association

Part III case studies – towards natural religion: environmental concert masses of Winter, Patterson, Lentz and Larsen

Chapter 5: Paul Winter’s Missa Gaia / Earth Mass (1981) and Paul Patterson’s Mass of the Sea (1983)

Introduction

Paul Winter’s Missa Gaia / Earth Mass (1981)

"Earth Fair"

A concert mass

Gaia & God?

Paul Patterson’s Mass of the Sea

Chapter 6: David Lentz and Jessica Karraker’s wolfMASS (1987) and Libby Larsen’s Missa Gaia: Mass for the Earth (1992)

Introduction

wolfMASS (1987) – Daniel Lentz and Jessica Karraker

Music

Libretto

Missa Gaia: Mass for the Earth (1992) – Libby Larsen

Music for mother Earth

Libretto – replacement texts and musical choices

Credo: Speak to the Earth and It Shall Teach Thee

God?

Conclusion to Part III – Christianity as religious symbol

Part IV: Reflecting Religious Diversity

Introduction

Historical antecedents

Concert Masses

Religious plurality

Theoretical concepts

Tolerance

Moral education

David Fanshawe – African Sanctus: A Mass For Love And Peace (1973) (Reprise)

Exclusivism, inclusivism

Relativism

Concert Mass responses to plurality – universalism and pluralism

Chapter 7: Universalistic approaches: Roger Davidson’s Missa Universalis I, II and III (1987–1992) and Luis Bacalov’s Misa Tango (1997)

Introduction

Universalism

Roger Davidson: Missa Universalis I, II and III (1987–1992)

Nuancing Universalism

Luis Bacalov’s Misa Tango (1997)

Tango and Religion

Lamb of God

Chapter 8: Towards Pluralism: Carman Moore’s Mass for the 21st Century (1994–1995)

Introduction

Abandoning universalism

Inclusive pluralism

Carman Moore’s Mass for the 21st Century (1994–1995)

Universalism and pluralism

Chapter 9: Pluralism in two twenty-first-century concert masses: Karl Jenkins’s The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace (2000) and And on Earth Peace: A Chanticleer Mass (2007)

Introduction

The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace (2000)

Moving emotions through music

Choral and commercial success

Pluralistic aspects

And on Earth, Peace: A Chanticleer Mass (2007)

Pluralism and universlism

Spirituality

Conclusion to Part IV

Conclusion: From secularism to pluralism in forty years of politicized concert masses

Index

Concert Mass Index