November 21, 2021

The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, Milwaukee, WI

This piece, composed by the Diné-American composer Raven Chacon, was commissioned by the WI Conference of the United Church of Christ, Plymouth Church UCC, and Present Music. The Pulitzer Prize-winning piece was performed at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Milwaukee, commissioned for the Nichols & Simpson organ there. Although this is where the piece was performed, according to Raven Chacon in his entry Pulitzer Prize entry questionnaire, it can be played at any place of worship with a pipe organ and high ceiling. The piece was performed on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, a controversial holiday especially in light of the history of Indigenous peoples and colonization in the United States. In lacking parts for the human voice was meant to “give voice to the voiceless." Although the first premiere took place during the COVID-19 pandemic as a completely digital service, the in-person premiere of the piece took place on November 21, 2021.

In an interview with PBS, when Chacon was asked whether he saw himself as an Indigenous composer, he responded by saying that he does not “know what an indigenous composer is'' as there are not “many of us out there." Chacon responded this way because Native Americans are often not represented enough in modern society. Also, this was the first time that Chacon was commissioned to write a piece for organ. 

To prevent the mass from sounding "virtuosic" like a Bach fugue, as Chacon said in an interview with The Wire (UK), he wanted to include his mixers and other equipment in his setup. When he had the electronics along with the instrumental music, he was able “to compose drones that drift in their timbre." These long drones in sound are definitely features that make his composition stand out from other church pieces that would be played around Thanksgiving. 

The mass first begins with one single, high-pitch strike from the crotales, and is then followed with at least 20 seconds of silence. The silence is broken when the bass clarinet slowly enters at roughly 0:25 in the referenced recording above. Ten seconds after this moment, the timpani enters along with several other instruments. The entrances of the instruments are staggered with everyone playing the lowest note possible on their instruments. Once everyone is playing, a dissonant chord is produced (1:45). At around 2:20, the timpani re-enters with a slow roll that is then followed by an eerie pitch produced by a spinning crotale. The violas and violins enhance the sound produced by the spinning crotale (3:00). The dissonant motive first introduced at the beginning of the mass then returns and lasts until the chords transition into a minor key (5:35). This minor key transition is temporary as the crotales return (6:11), bringing back the dissonant chords. The chord progressions then continue until the high tessitura instruments bring out independent moving lines (9:30). These independent lines are very soloistic and exposed. In other words, every single player is heard. Dissonant chords once again resume with some solos leading to the end of the mass. The mass is concluded with a single bass drum hit that is followed by silence. 

Overall, the mass is very slow paced and dissonant. At the very beginning, with the long period of silence, the audience is left sitting at the edge of their seats waiting for the next thing to happen. This eagerness is then relieved once the bass clarinet enters, starting the long sequence of dissonant chords. The musical details discussed above could be interpreted as a way of mourning the Indigenous people who lost their lives and culture due to the colonization of North America. To convey this emotion, he uses long dissonant chord progressions to give the audience a feeling of uneasiness. Chacon enhances this feeling with the use of crotales and other percussion instruments.  

After 16.5 minutes of dissonant chords and textures, silence returns. The silence is then broken by one bass drum hit ending the piece, as mentioned above. Using this single bass drum hit to conclude the mass suggests it was a long prayer for the Indigenous people who passed due to European colonization. If Chacon was not intending the mass to be in honor of the Indigenous people who lost their way of life due to colonization, perhaps he would have ended the piece with some sort of triumphant cadence or drum roll.

Questions for Classroom Discussion

1. Do you think modern Native American music, such as this mass, could be seen as its own genre of music? 

2. Why do you think Chacon made the mass with a series of dissonant chords instead of a definitive melody line? 

3. What factors in this piece make it a Pulitzer Prize-winning work? You can answer this using details from the music or generic information of the premiere itself. 

4. If you were Raven Chacon wanting this piece to be performed 20 years from now, would you make any changes to the music? If so, what changes, and why?

Bibliography/Further Reading

Primary sources

Benivolski, Xenia. "The Voiceless Mass and the Silent Choir: An Interview With Raven Chacon." The Wire UK (June 2022). 

Brown, Jeffery. "First Native American Composer to Win Pulitzer Prize on His Experimental Process." Interview. PBS (Jan 12, 2023). 

Chacon, Raven. Pulitzer winner description. Pulitzer. https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/raven-chacon.

Higgins, Jim. "Guest Composer Creates 'Voiceless Mass' for Present Music's Thanksgiving Concert." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Nov 18, 2021). 

"Voiceless Mass." Video upload of premiere. https://vimeo.com/652626593.

Secondary Sources

"Here and There." American Record Guide 85, no. 4 (July/August 2022).

Huizenga, Tom. "Meet Raven Chacon, the first Native American to win the Pulitzer Prize for music." Blog post on Deceptive Cadence. NPR. May 10, 2022.

"Pipings." The American Organist 56, no. 9 (September 2022).