The Climate Mass is for Mezzo-Soprano, Tenor, and Baritone Soloists; SSATB Choir; and Chamber Orchestra or Piano
Duration ca. 25″
Music by Loretta K. Notareschi
Words from the Ordo Missae (Latin Mass) and by Alyse Knorr
Piano-Vocal Score available from Subito Music.
Full Chamber Orchestra-Vocal Score and Parts coming soon from Subito Music.
The world premiere of the chamber orchestra version will take place under the direction of Raul Dominguez in New York City at Carnegie Hall with the New England Symphonic Ensemble on April 6, 2025; residency dates are April 3-7.
Choirs and individual choir members are invited to participate. See the links below for more information.
Full Residency: https://shorturl.at/cdorH
Concert Only: https://shorturl.at/giIW5
About the Music
The Climate Mass, a missa brevis commissioned by the Regis University Office of Mission for the Regis University Singers, contains music by Loretta K. Notareschi and text from the traditional Latin mass combined with new poetry by Alyse Knorr. This new text is inspired by Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si’. The piece is in the tradition of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, Paul Winter et al.’s Missa Gaia, and other works that combine religious/liturgical text with additional language that reflects on the meaning of the liturgical words.
In Laudato Si’ , Pope Francis implores all people of the world to respond to both the “cry of the Earth” and the “cry of the poor” by implementing policies of environmental and social justice. In the encyclical, Pope Francis analyzes how the degradation of the Earth harms the world’s most marginalized peoples. At the same time, he inspires us to work for a better future, when “care for the vulnerable” and care for the Earth are made possible by an “integral ecology” and a mindset of responsible stewardship.
The marking at the beginning of the Kyrie is “Full of foreboding.” The music, instigated in the chamber orchestra version by a scrape on the cymbal, proceeds with a sense of the dread we all feel in the face of the climate crisis. In this movement, we witness the suffering not only of the Earth and its animals, but also that of the humans most affected by climate change. The Gloria, in contrast, shows awe at God’s creation, and sends praises to the heavens for the beauty and wonder of the world. In the Sanctus, the singers express the holiness of nature in a passage marked “Tenderly.” The soloists in this movement invoke their descendants, hoping to bequeath to them “the gift of the world as it was offered to us” by God and their ancestors. In the Agnus Dei, the mood has changed to “Yearning,” expressing humanity’s hope for a better future. In this movement, the singers beg God to “let us begin again” and to see that–invoking God’s own words in Genesis after each act of creation–“we can still be good.” After the final “Amen,” a scrape on the cymbal (in the chamber orchestra version) and a tritone in the treble register calls to mind the opening of the piece, since it is necessary to remember our “foreboding” if we are to go forth and try to be “good.”
With the words and music of the Climate Mass, Notareschi and Knorr hope to join the Laudato Si’ movement in stirring audiences to action for both people and the Earth.
LKN and AK
July 2024