[Home]   [God's Blog]   [Discussion]   [God's Name]   [Contact]   [Support]

High Mass

The Opus IX Project

© 1998 Ahyh Enterprises, Inc.   All Rights Reserved

Text (notes are below)

Notes

This is a Sacred work.

When most people hear the term "High Mass" they think "funeral service."  Not true.  That would be a "Requiem Mass."  The High Mass is a church service.

In ours, all of creation participates.

The form of the Mass has a long history, which you can certainly research for yourself.  Through the centuries many composers have set the High Mass to music, most notably J. S. Bach's "B Minor Mass," and Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis." 

We do not pretend to be composers worthy of such company.  But we wanted to do our best to take the ancient form of the Mass and breathe new life into it, making it ours.  For good or ill, the results are here for you.

We present the Mass almost entirely in Latin, as has been the tradition for centuries.  This was our most direct way of tying the old to the new.

In the following I present what each section meant to us, and a little bit of the "behind the scenes" stuff.

1. Kyrie eleison - The Supplicant cries out, both middle fingers raised on otherwise clenched fists, demanding of the Heavens, "Hey, God, give us a f!@#$%^ break down here!!"

This is the only "live" recording on the CD, with no overdubs of any kind.  The music is angry, full of many cluster chords & dissonances.  The Supplicant not so much sings as screams his anger & frustration to heaven.

2. Christie eleison - The Voice responds from heaven, "Christ will have mercy."

The 3-fold appearance of the melody is an obvious Trinitarian reference.  The flowing melody of the "Christie" is a direct contrast to the "noise" of the opening Kyrie.  Lush bells & strings add a Heavenly feeling.

3. Kyrie eleison - The Supplicant responds with faith, peacefully acknowledging God's mercy, and awaiting His grace.  A resignation to the present trials, with a mind to gifted transformation & renewal.

The music is a tribute to Philip Glass and the modern minimalist composers.  It is strongly based on Glass' "Metamorphosis One."  Simple chords, flowing cycles, ever the same and ever changing.  If you listen carefully you will hear the accompaniment change from a 3-note to a 2-note feeling.  The ascending melody is the unadorned Phrygian mode, starting on the 2nd degree, from F to E on the piano (white notes only.)  

4. Gloria - All the earth proclaims God's glory.

Most of the Masters use the Gloria to "fire with all cylinders."  Beethoven's especially seems to exceed the very bounds of sound itself.  We wanted to try a different approach, simpler, with an eye toward nature.  We hear the rain & birds & insects...The Supplicant joins in this choir of earth, singing without real melody or structure.  What if the birds could sing words, in this case the ancient Gloria?  That's the idea here.

Bob did the vocals first, without any accompaniment at all.  Then the piano was added, playing not so much with the singer as around him.

The singing of "Qui tollis peccata mundi" foreshadows how it appears in the Agnus Dei (11).

5. Credo - The history of creeds is long, dark and ugly.  Here we depict the ages of man, beat into submission to parrot words they neither believe nor understand, under the threat of death.  When belief becomes the basis of life then it turns into faith, which can indeed save.  But externalized doctrinal statements only serve to divide, not unite.

The music is actually J. S. Bach's "Crucifixion" from the Credo section of his great B Minor Mass.  For, indeed, our insistence on creeds above & beyond love for people is another way we crucify Christ yet again.

The clock is out of balance (that's why the tick-tock is weird) and it chimes 6. 

The counting and drums were added to give the whole thing a "going through the motions" and oppressive slave ship feeling.

The wind quartet plays the actual choir parts from Bach's score.

I guess we're not really into doctrine as a basis for fellowship.

6. Sanctus - While the human race pitifully carries on its wars in the name of doctrinal purity, the Real Truth of the universe flows all around us.  The statistics of the speed of light and the time/distances involved in this narration are scientifically accurate.  The God of the Universe, who swirls galaxies in his hand like cream in coffee, invites us to a sanctified life of genuine holiness.

This movement took the longest to record, by far.  Each sound was carefully assembled & placed in the stereo field.  We tried to convey the feeling of vast space, yet not in a cold way, but with awe and reverence.  The music for the choir's "Sanctus" is “Miniature 35” by Flor Peters, all sung by Bob in harmony with himself.

7. Hosanna - Back to earth.  Our destiny may be the stars, if we can overcome our pettiness, but the earth is our here-and-now.  The Hosanna is presented from a natural, pre-industrialized perspective.  The drums are meant to be tribal, without reference to any specific continent.  And if some of the "Hos-anna" proclamations seem a bit guttural, even sexual, that is intentional.  This tries to convey the simple exuberance of Life lived just for Living.

One drummer, recording on top of himself 4 times.

8. Announcement - We (the musicians) are constantly told we are too pompous and take ourselves too seriously.  Here we try to lighten the mood a bit, take a break from the rather serious Mass, and poke a bit of fun at ourselves.  Imagine the primal energy of the Hosanna being presented in a modern, all-too-white, European concert hall.  That's the idea here.  The audience doesn't even know what to think, thus their stilted applause.  And we always had problems with people not being able to understand our name, "The Opus IX Project."  That's the little jab we take with the announcer's confusion.

9. Benedictus qui venit - North & south, east & west, all join in The Mass.  So, contrasting the indigenous tribes in the previous movement, we present here a chamber orchestra, ala Mozart, as the Supplicant presents a classical Aria.

We took a lot of time with this, especially with the mix.  We did the best we could to make the artificial synthesizers sound like authentic acoustic instruments, even to the point of delaying the cellos ever-so-slightly.

In Nomine Domini - "Domini" is Latin for the Hebrew "Adonai," which we translate "Lord."  Nearly all the English Bibles printed are, in fact, a blasphemy, in that they violate the 3rd Commandment, because they do not even print God's Holy Name, Yhwh.  "In the name of the Lord" is NOT what the Holy Text says.....It is "In the name of Yhwh."  "Ani Yod Heh Vav Heh" is a sacred phrase that appears over 100 times in the Hebrew Bible, literally meaning "I Am Yhwh."  During the harpsichord cadenza ("solo") you can hear "Ani Yod Heh Vav Heh" chanted quietly in the background.

Why do the drums reappear at the end of the Benedictus?  Well, that's just the way it is.  In every High Mass ever produced, even modern versions sung in English Protestant churches (did you know, for example, that the Lutheran Hymnal's Communion is line-for-line the Catholic Mass, only in English?  Yup) the Hosanna reprises right after the Benedictus.  The juxtaposition of east on top of west, north on top of south, is a simply marvelous moment, pointing to the totality of humanity in praise to The One.

10.  Agnus Dei - A dry, almost rusty violin gives a feeling of endless desert.  The squeaky first theme is like a horse wandering though this vast wasteland.  For, indeed, life is still hard, and man is constantly at war with himself and nature.  The Supplicant reaches out, in a prayer for all sin to be removed.

Each of the 3 phrases ("Agnus dei," "qui tollis peccata mundi" and "Miserere nobis") are treated separately, then combine at the end in a glorious anthem.   Lamb, sins and mercy, the 3 are One.

11.  Dona Nobis Pacem - The entire human race is represented here.  At first they all sing their own prayer for peace; it is discordant and horrible.  Eventually they hear the Chord that is universally present, and attune themselves to it.  Only in doing this do they find true peace.

The music is just one chord.  (e-a-b-d-f#, which is an "e sus 7, #9" for those of you keeping score at home.)  It represents God.  Different frequencies fade in & out, but the Chord is the same yesterday, today & forever.  Initially the Supplicants do not pay any attention to the Chord.  Over the course of the 1st half of the song, though, they start to sing more & more "in tune" with that chord.  In the 2nd half, after they have all found the "Heart" of the Chord (tonic) they are able to chant in unison "Give Us Peace," and find that they already have it.

12. Word in Stone - The little coda is a simple reminder of what the whole Mass is about.  That ancient forms, cast in stone, are meant to become reanimated by us, and breathe.  So too with Scripture, prayer, and the whole of recorded human devotion.  Only though this resurrection process can we remain alive.

And, that's it.  A lovely little thing, I hope you will agree.

Thank you for reading this, thank you for listening, and thank you for being a part (however "virtually" that may be) of my life.

Love & Peace, Ahyh

Written and arranged by The Opus IX Project. 

Additionally including:

    “Metamorphosis One” by Philip Glass in #3.

    The recordings “Solitudes, Volume 6” by Dan Gibson (CDG 006) and

    “Gentle Persuasion, Peaceful Ocean Surf” by Bugs Bower (SCD4533) in #4.

    “Crucifixus” from The B Minor Mass by J. S. Bach in #5.

    “Miniature 35” by Flor Peters in #6.  

Recorded and produced by Ahyh 

The Opus IX Project is:

    Ahyh - Keyboards & narration

    Bob Cooper - Vocals

    Bob Huppert - MIDI Guitar

    Rob Murray - Percussion  

You can contact us at (615) 773-6084 or www.Yhwh.com

        "The Word of God is etched in stone, where it waits for us to know, that the stone is meant to breathe."

[Home] [Colorful Introduction]  [God's Name] [The Revealing Science of God] [Jesus Died for You] [Contact] [Support] 

 (c) 1996-2011 The Church of Yahweh. All rights reserved. May be freely distributed, but never sold. 
If you are going to use this material in your web page or ministry, wonderful. But please have the honor to attribute where you got it from. Thank you.