"Mass: Kyrie (2000)" genre: Choral
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	Kyrie, first movement of "Mass for the Holy Year 2000." Commissioned by Boston College for the University Chorale of Boston College.
	CD: Music by Thomas Oboe Lee   Label: DFM Credits: University Chorale of Boston College. John Finney, music director.
	Story Behind the Song Three years ago, I approached T. Frank Kennedy, S.J., Chair of the Music Department at Boston College, inquiring whether Boston College would be interested in commissioning a Mass to help celebrate the new Millennium. Frank was thrilled with the idea. With his help, funding for the commission was made possible from four sources: the Charles W. Englehard Foundation, the Jesuit Community of Boston College, the Jesuit Institute of Boston College and a Research Incentive Grant from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Boston College. Mass for the Holy Year 2000 is in nine movements and scored for SATB chorus, chamber orchestra and organ. I set the entire Latin text from the Ordinary of the Mass: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei. In between these sections, I added four settings of contemporary poems written in English. Initially, I wanted to use poems that would bring to the listener's attention the serious humanitarian issues we face every day on earth as we enter a new millennium: religious and ethnic wars, poverty, genocide, AIDS, intolerance, social inequality and racial injustice. But as I began to slowly understand the text of the Mass, I decided that the contemporary poems I would use should reflect and amplify what is already in the Latin text. It is all about faith and redemption. Elizabeth Kirschner (b. 1955) is a poet who lives in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Her poem is about the search for God. Claude McKay (1890-1948), a member of the Harlem Renaissance Poets, was originally from Jamaica. His poem asks for God's presence. Edith Stein (1891-1942) was a Carmelite nun who was killed by the Nazis during World War II because she was a Jew. Her poem celebrates God's presence. The final poem is by the Trappist monk, Thomas Merton (1915-1968). His poem, which was published posthumously, is about the assassination of the civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King. I wish to thank the following people without whom the Mass could not have been realized: Kristin Beckwith, T. Frank Kennedy, S.J., J. Robert Barth, S.J., John Finney and the Boston College University Chorale, Elizabeth Kirschner, Michael A. Smyer, William Maxwell, Frank Donovan, Lester Little and the American Academy in Rome. Lyrics Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison.

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