Schola Cantorum of St. Mary’s Norwalk to Release CD in April

The St. Cecilia Society of St. Mary’s, Norwalk
is proud to announce the professional recording debut of our own Schola Cantorum!
Lux Fulgebit, featuring the world premiere recording of William Rasar’s Mass Christe Jesu, will be available for purchase beginning on Low Sunday.

CD Release Party: Sunday, April 23, 2017, 4:00-5:30 p.m., St. Mary Parish Hall, Norwalk, CT
Hosted by David Hughes, Director of Music, and featuring a performance by the Schola Cantorum of excerpts from the CD.

What music is included on the CD?
The CD is the “soundtrack” of a sung Mass as it is done at St. Mary’s, Norwalk on Sundays and feast days. Everything musical that takes place in the Mass is included, from the bells to the organ, the chant, and the choral polyphony. The readings and chants all come from the Mass at Dawn of Christmas Day, and the polyphony featured is the Mass Christe Jesu by William Rasar, with motets by William Byrd, Alfonso Ferrabosco, and Walter Lambe.

What is the Mass Christe Jesu?
The Mass Christe Jesu is a sixteenth-century English setting of the Mass Ordinary for five voices, which is found complete in the Forrest-Heyther partbooks (Bodleian Library) and incomplete in the Peterhouse partbooks (Cambridge University Library). It is the only extant composition of William Rasar, and is of very high musical quality. The model of the Mass is unknown or lost, and there are a couple of other features of the Mass that are unusual for the period: the entire text of the Gloria and Credo are set, and the Mass is entirely in duple meter.