for Six Singers, SATB Chorus, and 12 Instruments
여섯명의 솔로이스트, 콰이어, 열 두 악기를 위한, “찬미받으소서 미사"
”Sister [Mother Earth] now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will.
The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life.” Pope Francis, Laudato si’
Image: Br. Erspamer, OBE. Used with permission.
Premiere of the first movement, Kyrie Eleision:
The EcoVoice Project, Ignatian Voices, University Singers, and University Chorale
Kirsten Hedegaard, conductor
Apr 21 2024, Madonna della Strada Chapel, Chicago
World premiere of the whole cycle:
The EcoVoice Project, New Earth Ensemble, Ignatian Voices, and University Chorale
Kirsten Hedegaard, conductor
March 2025, Madonna della Strada Chapel, Chicago
Program notes–Missa Laudato Si’ (ver. Dec 30 2024)
Missa Laudato Si’ is a new mass written in the spirit of Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si’, where he deplored: “For human beings to degrade the integrity of the earth by causing changes in its climate, […] for human beings to contaminate the earth’s waters, its land, its air, and its life – these are sins.” In the form of a Mass, it contemplates climate change and caring for the earth by intertwining the Latin Mass text with prayers, poems, and texts about contaminated soil and water, and all the threatened creatures living under the climate and plastic crises, including “the tragic effects of environmental degradation on the lives of the world’s poorest.”
When Kirsten approached me in the summer of 2023 with her vision of creating a new ecological mass setting, I saw significant possibilities. I view this opportunity to create a mass, one of the oldest musical art forms, as a vehicle to convey forward-looking perspectives and propose an emotional and spiritual solution to one of humanity’s most urgent and critical issues, focusing on the voices of the earth and the marginalized.
The mass encompasses a full spectrum of human expression, including forgiveness, anger, lament, celebration, despair, joy, faith, awe, and mercy. It infuses the traditional Missa Solemnis text without the Credo and Sanctus section, while including an additional Ite, Missa est section—with additional texts from Canticle of the Creatures by Saint Francis of Assisi, the poem Refugeeby Syrian refugee poet Abdullah Kasem Al Yatim (used with permission) with my own contribution, names and other data of critically endangered species from the IUCN RedList (The International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species— www.iucnredlist.org, used with permission), the poem One Person’s Truth by the Korean zen-poet Shiva Ryu, and prayers from Pope Francis’ Missa Laudato Si.’ In Agnus Dei, Al Yatim’s poem is paired with an AI-generated translation of Agnus Dei into ancient Syriac/Aramaic—a language closely related to what Jesus and his apostles would have spoken. This pairing emerged as I reflected on the poem and the Mass text, searching for the deeper reason these two intersected in my mind. Additional sound sources and compositional materials include my research on the Schumann resonance of the Earth—an electromagnetic low-frequency “breath” of the planet—and my own adaptation of the Arabic Maqam scale in the third movement.
Pragmatically, Missa Laudato Si’ is designed to be performed by university-level choir singers. The performance difficulty is meticulously calibrated so that student singers can actively participate, supported by graduate-level/professional performers who handle the more virtuosic material. I aim for this opportunity to be a transformative experience for students, deepening their understanding of the interconnectedness of our planet and cultivating awareness of our spiritual connection to the rest of creation. By participating in the performance of the mass, students will have an immersive opportunity to actively engage in climate activism through the arts.
The first movement, Kyrie eleison, was performed in April 2024 by Loyola’s Ignatian Voices (Kirsten Hedegaard, instructor), University Chorale (Kirsten Hedegaard, instructor), University Singers (Jennifer Budziak, instructor), along with the New Earth Ensemble from The EcoVoice Project (The EcoVP) in Madonna della Strada Chapel in Chicago. The entire mass cycle will be world-premiered in March 2025 with the same performance forces. Missa Laudato Si’ is commissioned by and dedicated with deep admiration to Kirsten Hedegaard.
