Are Spirituals Spiritual?

The celebration of the Mass, derived from the words of Christ at the Last Supper and given its present strict form in the 7th Century, has inspired some of the world's finest music. But many of the greatest musical Masses, for one reason or another, have been deemed by the Church unfit for liturgical use. The unapproved list includes Bach's famous B Minor Mass, the Missa Solemnis of Beethoven, Masses by Haydn, Mozart and many other great composers.

In the current issue of the Jesuit magazine The Queen's Work, Father Daniel Lord, noted Catholic editor, calls his readers' attention to a new Mass composed by a young nun of San Antonio. Despite the fact that it is based on the folk tunes of the American Negro, Father Lord thinks that it should satisfy the high standards of canonical law as well as musical criticism. Its themes are expertly treated.

Sister Mary Elaine, its composer, is no musical amateur. A member of the music staff at the College of Our Lady of the Lake, she has a master's degree in composition from Chicago's American Conservatory, and has written more than 500 pieces, including fugues, passacaglias, a concerto, four other masses. Born some 30 years ago in Fredericksburg, Tex., home town of Admiral Chester Nimitz, she is an accomplished pianist and has a lightning musical memory that enables her to write down or play a complicated piece a week after hearing it. She has long been interested in the indigenous music of the Southwest, and many of her works have themes of Amerindian or Mexican origin. An Oklahoma oilman suggested the idea for her new Mass, which she has been working on since last Christmas.

In rigid observance of canon law, Sister Mary has skillfully built her composition into a musical unit which employs at each stage a predominant theme from a well-known spiritual. At the Kyrie, the theme of Nobody Knows de Trouble I've Seen invokes the mercy of the Lord, and at the Gloria, Go Down, Moses proclaims His glory. For the profession of faith at the Credo there is the theme of Blow Your Trumpet, Gabriel. At the Sanctus and Benedictus ("Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord") are the melo dies of Goin' Home and Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, and at the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) the devout and placid music of Deep River.

Whether or not Sister Mary Elaine's mass eventually receives official approval for liturgical use, it is Father Lord's "hunch that Pope Piux X [whose Motu Proprio on Sacred Music is the definitive authority] would have approved most enthusiastically of this transference of a great series of musical themes to the greatest of musical purposes."

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