I put together this program with the idea of juxtaposing a-cappella settings of the familiar mass texts to portray the journey of the art of composing from the Renaissance up to the very present. (The ink is barely dry on one of our pieces tonight.) Mass settings are so plentiful throughout music history that we could easily have sampled the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods, but highlighting a single Renaissance master seems a wonderful way to contrast with and reflect upon the music being written today.

William Byrd (1543–1623), the preeminent composer of the English Renaissance, was a musical prodigy. He took a job at the cathedral in his native Lincoln as organist and choirmaster when just a youth and not long after became a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in the court of Elizabeth I, singing in the choir and sharing organist duties with Thomas Tallis, with whom he studied composition.

After years of religious turmoil, England had become staunchly Protestant with Elizabeth’s ascension to the throne. Byrd, however, remained a devout Catholic, writing music for the Catholic liturgy throughout his life, music that would not have been allowed in the Church of England’s services. Despite his maintaining a discreet connection to the underground Catholic community, his loyalty to the crown was never in doubt. He was active at court and was even awarded a monopoly on publishing music in England.

As the years went by, his involvement in the Catholic cause only increased, and this may be why he withdrew from London life in 1593. He moved his family to an estate in Essex, where an old friend and patron presided over a reasonably secure Roman Catholic community, for whom Byrd composed his three settings of the mass.

There is a directness of expression in the Mass for Four Voices that I find quite appealing. Byrd exploits the accents of words to lively rhythmic effect and tellingly highlights particular words and phrases. To further explore his compositional style—and also give our ears a break from the single key-center that runs throughout the mass—I have interpolated two of his communion motets, Ego sum panis vivus (I am the living bread) and Surge, illuminare (Arise, shine). Listen here as well for text painting and the use of word stresses.

A Missa Eclectica is a compilation of mass movements from different composers. In creating a survey of composers, most of them living, to represent a variety of styles and nationalities, I especially enjoyed how their ideas for setting the mass texts compare and contrast with Byrd’s approach. One significant difference is that the harmonies emerge in Byrd’s imitative counterpoint from the independent motion of each part, but such polyphony is no longer the norm. The modern works on our program do sometimes employ fugues and other polyphonic techniques, but they are predominantly homophonic with all voices moving together in block chords or with one part singing a melody to the chordal accompaniment of the rest of the chorus.

Seven selections cannot possibly cover every strain of today’s musical idioms, but I particularly wanted to include pieces from the Bay Area and from the Baltic region, one of the current hot spots for choral composition. So the Gloria and Benedictus of the Missa Eclectica are by local composers, and the Kyrie comes from Lithuania, the Credo from Finland, and a closing benediction from Estonia. The Agnus Dei is also from an exotic European locale but at the opposite end of the continent, the Basque region of Spain. And the Sanctus is from the French-speaking minority in Switzerland in the very center of Europe.

While Cantabile Chorale has presented music by most of the composers before, Lithuanian composer Kristina Vasiliauskaite (b. 1956) is one of two new discoveries we are delighted to share with you. As it is no longer remarkable that a classical composer should be a woman, she is actually rather typical of modern composers, coming from a family of musicians and teaching at a music school in her nation’s capital, Vilnius. Her Kyrie is simply beautiful.

The Gloria you hear tonight is by me, Sanford Dole (b. 1955), and I am thrilled to present this composition, which I completed just ten weeks ago. When I was assembling the program, I could not find a Gloria that worked well and finally decided to write one myself. Since I created it specifically to fit into this Missa Eclectica, I was certainly influenced by the other movements. A goal I set myself, which proved to be surprisingly difficult, was to compose a work more readily accessible to the audience—and to the singers—than many of my other pieces have been. I hope I have succeeded in coming up with music that is fun to perform and a joy to listen to. I look forward to hearing your reactions.

I fell in love with the lush harmonies of the All-Night Vigil in Memory of St. John the Baptist by Finland’s Einojuhani Rautavaara (b. 1938) that we presented last March. If you did to, you must be looking forward to hearing his Credo. It is a set of three variations on a single motif that the composer admits is “quite a challenge in terms of both pitch and rhythm.”

We excerpt the Sanctus from the Mass for Double Chorus of Swiss composer Frank Martin (1890–1974). As those who heard us perform the complete work in November can attest, his mass is a monument of 20th-century choral composition, and the choristers will tell you it is a delight to sing with its two choirs calling back and forth to each other.

San Francisco’s Kirke Mechem (b. 1925), long a favorite of choirs around the country and the world, has provided the Benedictus. His title Hosanna/Benedictus reflects the way he allows the texts to overlap. Our most recent offering of his music was the song cycle Winging Wildly in June 2003, which we subsequently took on tour in Italy.

Some of you who have been coming to our concerts since the late ’90s might recall an Ave Maria and an Ave maris stella by the self-taught Basque composer Javier Busto (b. 1949). His Agnus Dei likewise conveys emotional depth through very simple means.

Our other new find, the Estonian composer Urmas Sisask (b. 1960), is certainly not typical. His studio is a planetarium in the tower of an old castle in a small village where he pursues theories of astronomically governed sounds. Although the benediction said at the end of a mass is not normally part of a musical mass setting, I chose to include Sisask’s Benedictio because it is such a fun, rhythmically propelling piece, and I think you will agree it makes a great program closer.

I hope you enjoy tonight’s program. If you do and have come on Friday or Saturday, please tell your friends so they can attend one of the remaining concerts. Word of mouth is the most gratifying way to attract a larger audience. And be sure to set aside Saturday, June 10, or Sunday, June 11, when in collaboration with the Mission Chamber Orchestra, we will present the haunting Te Deum of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt and celebrate Mozart’s 250th birthday with his sublime Mass in C minor.

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