Richard Vella    composer

The Mass for Lost Souls consists of various compositions written between 1978 and 2025. The text is based on prayers from the Roman catholic liturgy, psalms, biblical proverbs and secular poems. The secular texts refer to:  i) a poem by the Spanish poet Juan Ramone Jimenez; ii) a paraphrase and adaptation of texts by Hildegard of Bingen, and iii) texts by the composer.

The 20 movements of the mass fall into the following sections from the Order of the Mass form:

 Assembling and Preparation:  In nomine

Prayerful Worship: Pure resonance; Most beautiful one; Credo; Collect

Sacrificial Preparation: Sublime resonance; Caellum resonat; How immense and ragged; Lava me; Meditation No 1; Secreta

Sacrificial Action: Transubstantiation; Oratio, Meditatio No 2

Sacrificial Banquet: Agnus Dei; Meditatio No 3; Communal antiphon; Deus, Libera me; Communion

Dismissal: Ita missa est

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 died 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 their transgression in the communal sacrifice of the banquet.

In the traditional liturgical form, the sacrificial victim (scapegoat) is deified in order to atone the congregation’s sins. In Mass for Lost Souls, the congregation assembles because they are in conflict (in crisis) and need a scapegoat to avoid facing that conflict. The scapegoat enables the congregation (crowd) to transfer their anxieties, thereby avoiding the reasons for their crisis. This is repeated over and over thereby creating an endless cycle of anxiety, blame (transference) and catharsis (momentary resolution).  The Mass for Lost Souls represents one instance of this cycle in which the congregation assembles, ritually separate themselves from their everyday world, acknowledge 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 traditional liturgical form, this produces a catharsis enabling the congregation to return to their everyday world, only to start the process again.