THE NEW YORKER: Sarah Kirkland Snider: “Mass for the Endangered”
THE NEW YORKER: Sarah Kirkland Snider: “Mass for the Endangered”
BY STEVE SMITH
“The composer Sarah Kirkland Snider, in ‘Mass for the Endangered,’ fuses Latin liturgy with original text by her longtime collaborator, the poet and illustrator Nathaniel Bellows, transforming a genre associated with supplication and praise into a passionate paean to nature. Commissioned by Trinity Church Wall Street to create a new work for chorus and orchestra that would embrace and adapt the traditional Mass format, Snider tapped into her extensive experience performing canonical sacred music during her youth in Princeton, New Jersey. Expressively interpreted by Gallicantus, an English choral ensemble, and captured beautifully in a recording jointly released by New Amsterdam and Nonesuch, the work proclaims Snider’s technical command and unerring knack for breathtaking beauty.”