Richard Vella    composer

The traditional Christian liturgy merges together pagan sacrificial rites, Judaic rituals with Christian beliefs.  Within the liturgical mass, bread and wine are subliminally transferred to become symbolic representations of the body and blood of Christ: the sacrificial victim who dies in order to cleanse the congregation of their sins. Using the liturgical form, the Mass for Lost Souls shifts the focus from the sacrificial victim to the congregation’s journey as they prepare for the communal sacrifice of the banquet.

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In the traditional liturgical form, the sacrificial victim (scapegoat) is deified in order to atone for the congregation’s sins. In Mass for Lost Souls, with an oblique allusion to the chorus in ancient Greek dramas, the congregation assembles because they are in conflict (crisis) and need a scapegoat to avoid facing that conflict. The scapegoat enables the congregation to transfer their anxieties, thereby avoiding the reasons for their crisis. This often can be a repeated process thereby creating an endless cycle of anxiety, blame (transference) and momentary catharsis (resolution). The Mass for Lost Souls represents one instance of this cycle in which the congregation assembles, ritually separates themselves from their everyday world, acknowledges that they are in crisis, and are cleansed with the belief that their actions are justified and sanctioned. All this is considered necessary in preparation for the climax of sacrificing the chosen victims. As with the Order of the Mass found in the traditional liturgical form, this climax produces a catharsis enabling the congregation to return to their everyday world. In both the traditional Catholic liturgy and Mass for Lost Souls, the sections underpinning the Order of the Mass conform with deeply embedded rites of transgression found in many cultures involving rites of separation, rites of inversion, and rites of reintegration. ​

The Latin texts from the psalms and liturgy have undergone significant transformations and editing. The English texts are not from the liturgy but allude to various sub-themes found in the liturgy: crisis, desire, alienation, and surrender. Their inclusion helps drive forward the dramatic narrative of the Mass for Lost Souls.