[UPDATE]: A new Mass -- and an amazing story

Rorate disclaimer: as it has happened in such occasions in the past, our readers know that we post information we consider useful even if we deeply disagree, in fundamental and non-negotiable principles, with their authors. That is the case, for instance, when we post encouraging news from the Eastern Orthodox. Or Sedevacantists.

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By Rev. Anthony Cekada

In an August 31, 2017 article on Rorate, I told the rather amazing story of how at age 15 our young organist, Andrew Richesson, had composed an impressive and stirring musical setting of the Ordinary of Mass.

At the time the article appeared, only two sections of the Mass, the Kyrie and the Sanctus, had been recorded by a choir. For the rest of the work, Rorate readers were provided with a computer-generated audio of the score on Andrew’s YouTube channel.

I am happy to report that our choir at St. Gertrude the Great Church in West Chester, Ohio, has now recorded the entire work. We premiered it at Midnight Mass on Christmas 2017, and sang it again the following Sunday, December 31. 

A new Mass -- and an amazing story

Rorate note: For those of you who know of Fr. Cekada, he is a prolific writer -- even though we disagree fundamentally with him in the very important matter of the Papacy. Thus this is is not a short post, and it contains many links to this brilliant young man's beautiful music. If you cannot read -- or watch -- all of this, we implore you to go towards the bottom and listen to the complete version of the Mass in a computer-generated digital sound format. It's incredibly moving. And anyone can download the full score for free. May God bless this great musician, and may God bless us with more of his music, for years to come: 

By Rev. Anthony Cekada

Andrew Richesson with Fr. Cekada

How a Young Organist Composed a Magnificent Mass

MOST OF Rorate’s faithful followers, whatever their opinion on a whole array of other disputed issues, would no doubt agree that the Church’s great patrimony of sacred music deserves to be preserved, augmented and handed down to succeeding generations.

It was with this in mind that I decided to offer Rorate readers an account of how this process of handing down the musical treasures of the past unfolded in one case in my own experience. It is a story that all those who love good liturgical music will find most encouraging.