NEWSPAPER reports about "a revolutionary jazz Mass" due to be 'performed" at the Church of St. Anselm and St. Cecilia, Kingsway, London, are gross exaggerations.
Fr. Joseph Scholles. parish priest of SS. Anselm's and Cecilia's, told the CATHOLIC HERALD: There is no jazz Mass, and I most strongly deprecate the use of the word jazz in this coanection.
"The Mass that is to he sung here on the feast of Christ the King is a serious work of art, with considerable technical intricacies. especially for the organ. It is a folk Mass, melodic and rhythmic, in the modern idiom,
" I have heard it and liked it. finding it tuneful and very much alive:
Newspapers who haven't heard it have blindly carried reports likening it in style to "American stage musicals" with references to an alleged " pop and beat idiom ".
The composer of this much maligned work is an Australian convert, Malcolm Williamson, whose organ concerto was heard in London at this year's promenade concerts.