I attended mass Friday at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Berkeley. The mass for All Saints' Day (presented about a week early) was sung by the California Bach Society, led by Warren Stewart. Music was provided by the Elizabethan William Byrd: his Mass for Four Voices for the Ordinary and music specific to All Saints' Day from his Gradualia.

Choruses often sing the Ordinary of the mass in concert, in various settings by composers from medieval times to the present. It is unusual to hear the whole mass, that is, the five sung elements proper to the specific day of the church year in addition to the five ordinary, or basic, movements, set magnificently by one composer. It's also a nice touch to hear this one in an Episcopal church. William Byrd was a Roman Catholic in Anglican England, and the esteem in which he was held — even his survival — was a tribute to his extraordinary musical gifts.

Warren Stewart and the California Bach Society did well by Byrd. Their tuning and ensemble are impeccable, as is their use of phrasing and dynamics to bring out textual and musical details. The opening Introit was appropriately bright and rejoicing. The Offertory, a beautiful, reassuring piece, drew an especially lovely sound from the chorus. In the Credo, "Et resurrexit" burst out gloriously. Each line of the Sanctus has a fresh beginning, well defined by the individual chorus sections. The same could be said for the beautifully constructed Agnus Dei, which starts with the women and adds voices for each line. The choral sound was beautiful and varied.

My only complaint was with the soprano section, where crescendi sometimes brought on a pressed, edgy sound. The other sections managed to sing loud without getting strident.

Interweaving the five-part Gradual with the four-part mass Ordinary results in an appealing variety of textures, further enhanced by the use of a single cantor in several sections. Bass Hugh Davies ably assumed the priestly role, chanting the prayers and beatitudes with rich sound and expressive pacing. Tenor Mark Adams had the thankless task of chanting the Epistle from Revelation, with its monotonous listing of the twelve tribes of Israel. He was compensated by having the last word, giving expressive voice to the closing "Ite missa est."

The hour-long mass was sung straight through, with no intermission or breaks for applause, preserving the sense of a service. For those unfamiliar with the mass, it was printed in both the sung Latin and the English translation. Purists might object to the use of Italian rather than Elizabethan Latin, but there is precedent for it in the United States (weakened by the Roman Catholic church's abandonment of Latin).

(Anna Carol Dudley is a singer, teacher, member of the faculties of the University of California, Berkeley, and San Francisco State University [lecturer emerita] and director of the San Francisco Early Music Society's Baroque Music Workshop.)

©2000 Anna Carol Dudley, all rights reserved