Saturday, August 13, 2005

Accurate Listing of Funeral Music

In comments to an earlier post, the question came up of what President Kennedy's funeral mass was like. I have not found a video, but did find this listing of the music, by Irving Lowens, the paper's music critic, in the Washington Star of December 1, 1963.
12:13 p.m.: The bronze doors of the cathedral close and the requiem mass commences. The choral music during the mass was sung by the St. Matthew's Choir, Eugene Stewart, organist and choirmaster; the tenor soloist was Luigi Vena. The Program was as follows: "Subvenite" (choir); "Pie Jesu," Leybach (tenor solo); "Ave Maria," Shubert (tenor solo); "In Manus Tuus," Novello (tenor solo); "Sanctus and Benedictus," Perosi (choir); "Agnus Dei," Bizet (tenor solo); "In Paradisum" (choir). Mr. Stewart conducted the Perosi "Sanctus and Benedictus," the Gregorian "Subvenite" and the "In Paradisum" were led by James Walsh.

In a comment, Dad29 recalls Mozart's Requiem at the funeral. What he's probably remembering is
... the recording of Mozart's Requiem Mass as performed by the Boston Symphony and the Chorus Pro Musica with the Harvard and Radcliffe Glee Clubs and the Seminarians of St. John's. This was recorded at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston on January 19, 1964.


The full Requiem Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Cushing, with Mozart's music performed in context.

1 comment:

  1. AHA!!

    The Boston event was then some sort of commemoration, not the funeral itself...

    Interesting that the "Subvenite" was listed but not the other Propers of the Mass for the Dead.

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