Volume 31 Issue 2 - November & December 2025

IN WITH THE NEWA MASS

IN WITH THE NEWA MASS FOR THE ENDANGEREDLEADS THE WAYWENDALYN BARTLEYANJA SCHUTZSarah Kirkland-SniderAs the concert season shifts toward winter, Toronto’snew music scene is gathering momentum with arich constellation of performances from four of thecity’s core presenters. Among the many offerings, onework stands out for the way it merges spiritual form withecological urgency: Mass for the Endangered by composerSarah Kirkland Snider. The piece will be performed onNovember 22 in a Soundstreams concert that also featuresworks by Andrew Balfour, R. Murray Schafer, OlivierMessiaen, Arvo Pärt, and Chris Hutchings. I recentlyspoke with Snider by phone about the piece and hercurrent projects.Mass for the Endangeredbegan when Snider was invitedby Trinity Church Wall Street inlower Manhattan to contribute anew work to their Mass commissioningseries. The church asked fivecomposers to reinterpret the Massin any way they wished, with justone requirement: use the traditionalLatin for two movements, the Gloriaand the Sanctus Benedictus.“They said we could write on anytopic or use any other texts,” Sniderrecalls. “So I turned to my longtimecollaborator, writer NathanielBellows, and asked him what hewanted to write about. I believe aNathaniel Bellows writer does their best work whenthey’re deeply engaged with the subject matter. He immediately said, ‘theenvironment and endangered species.’ That’s exactly what I’d hoped for.”Snider and Bellows were determined to preserve the meaningbehind the traditional Latin text, using it as a point of creative departure.“Take the Gloria,” she says. “Traditionally, it celebrates the gloryof Jesus and God. As I worked with the Latin, I thought of endangeredspecies: the red fox, the panda, the Bengal tiger. When the text repeats,‘You alone are the Holy One, You alone are the Lord,’ I imaginedthe singularity and preciousness of each life form. That became thejumping-off point.”The result was Mass for the Endangered, a contemporary choralwork that reimagines the structure of the Mass as a prayer to thenatural world rather than to a deity. “We wanted this Mass to be aplea for mercy and intervention, not to Jesus or God, but to MotherNature,” she explained.Wonderful overwhelm: For Snider, nature is more than a subject.It’s a spiritual foundation. “Nature and music are my two sources ofdivinity,” she says. “I’m not a traditionally religious person, but I findthe sense of divinity when I’m in nature.” She is a passionate environmentalist,and her deep connection to the natural world made theMass commission feel like an ideal match. “I got to bring my twonotions of divinity, music and nature, and shape them into somethingthat felt like my form of theology.”Snider’s relationship to the voice also runs deep. “Growing up, I did aton of choral singing,” she remembers. “Those are some of my favouritememories. I spent summers at the American Boychoir School’s co-edprogram, singing under amazing conductors from around the world.”She describes the sense of “wonderful overwhelm” she felt as a youngsinger: the sound, the togetherness, the magic of voices blending.“Even though I didn’t have a traditional religious upbringing, mostof the music we sang, whether it was sacred or secular, always feltsacred to me. It felt larger than life and magical.” Writing Mass for theEndangered became a wonderful way to return to that feeling.Her compositional process for vocal works often begins with text. “Ithink about the emotions it stirs, take long walks, and sing ideas intomy phone. Working with text gives me the shape of the musical line,”she says. “With instrumental music, it’s more abstract. With text, it’sdirect. It’s about capturing a precise emotion.”Mystery of ClockNov. 9th, 2025 | The Fleck at Harbourfront Centre TheatreDoors: 7:00PM | Starting at 10 | November & December 2025 thewholenote.com

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