The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass

Music by Carol Barnett. Text by Marisha Chamberlain. 2007.

Available from VocalEssence
Also available from Amazon.com

In collaboration with composer Carol Barnett, a work which combines classical choral music and the Bluegrass idiom in a new rendition of the Catholic Mass. Chamberlain’s text embodies the notion that Jesus Christ, much as a traditional Zen bodhisattva, out of compassion, gave up any distance from human suffering.

“…Much of the credit for the success of the piece has to go to librettist Marisha Chamberlain who took the Catholic liturgy and transformed it …  Chamberlain replaced the notion of original sin with that of original blessing and created a work of life-affirming celebration.”  The Minneapolis Star Tribune

Recording available from VocalEssence, Monroe Crossing.

Sheet music published by Boosey & Hawkes, available from Hal Leonard.