Easter Sunday Solemn High Mass – St. Mary’s Norwalk

“Vidi Aquam…”

The schola of St. Mary’s performing plainchant (above) and polyphony (below). This Holy Week exhibited the extraordinary depth and variety of the music program of St. Mary’s – all under the direction of Mr. David Hughes. In addition to the professional schola (the St Cecilia Society),  the parish adult choir,  the children’s schola, the clergy, other ministers and congregation  also participated. The music included chant, polyphony (here, on Easter Sunday, the Missa Pascale of La Rue), early baroque, later works by Vierne and Durufle as well as original compositions by Mr. Hughes. I perhaps do not need to mention in regard to this parish that all ceremonies were liturgically complete and correct. It is an amazing accomplishment for a diocesan parish church without a significant musical endowment and, for that matter, one that vastly exceeds the musical level prevailing at most Catholic churches in the now faintly remembered “pre-conciliar” age.