St. Bart's Summer Festival of Sacred Music: A Service to Honor African and American Heritage

The 22nd annual Summer Festival continues on Sunday, August 28, at11 am with a service to honor our African and American musical heritage. St. Bartholomew's Choir and percussionists Chris Nappi and Sam Lazzara will be conducted by William K. Trafka.

The service will include Missa Luba, a version of the Mass for choir and percussion based on traditional Congolese songs. The work was arranged by Father Guido Haazen, a Franciscan Friar from Belgium who founded "Les Troubadours du Roi Baudouin," a choir of boys and teachers from Central School in Kamina. Amazingly, the work was originally performed without a written text. All of the movements were improvised adaptations of the Greek and Latin Mass texts to traditional Congolese songs and the composition was the result of generAl Cooperation and of spontaneous inspiration. The piece is named for the Luba, one of the Bantu peoples of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The service will also include Arnold Sevier's arrangement of Thomas Dorsey's gospel hymn Precious Lord and Moses Hogan's arrangement of Abide with me for unaccompanied choir.

The Summer Festival of Sacred Music takes place each Sunday morning at 11 am at St. Bartholomew's Church during the summer months. At a time when most churches reduce their musical offerings, St. Bartholomew's Church provides outstanding sacred music sung by St. Bartholomew's Choir and Boy and Girl Choristers, two of New York City's most renowned choirs. Works include an array of mass settings from the 15th century to the present embracing a diversity of cultures from around the world. The music is sung as part of the Eucharist or Mass, the liturgical context for which it was composed. All Summer Festival events are free and open to the public.