A Mass for Modern Man

This week on Going Beyond Words and ACDA Radio Stan Schmidt; Your sound attention to a program called A Mass for Modern Man by Norwegian composer Ståle Kleiberg released in 2017.  To offer a musical frosting you will enjoy the Cambridge Singers from their CD Lighten Our Darkness and two selections with the voice of Baritone Scott LaGraff from a new disc that brings back some classic sacred works that vocalists were performing in the 1940’s and 50’s.  ……….Composer Kleiberg received a large scale commission for a concert mass scored for two soloists, choir and orchestra from the Munich Cathedral.  As he pondered what to write, he indicated it would have to be about our modern condition and the title fell quickly into place…Mass for Modern Man.  He also felt that the mass must be rooted in the long and rich tradition of the genre.  In other words, his Mass for Modern Man should deal with a contemporary perspective as well as with the perspective of eternity.  The Mass for modern Man is about the lost of the real meaning of life and an antithesis to faith and belief.  The work commutes between these two extremes and raises the following underlying question:  Is belief possible for modern man?  The composer says quote “to me the answer is yes, not a resounding yes, but a yes in spite of all!”  Join me to see how the composer works out this problem.

For a look at the CD’s used and a complete list of the music heard go to the blog of WWW.GOINGBEYONDWORDS.COM website and click on show 2339