Stephen E. Bacher ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>Steve Schwartz <[log in to unmask]> wrote about Bernard Stevens'
>Mass for Double Choir:
>
>>This masterpiece can stand beside the monuments of Vaughan Williams,
>>Holst, Britten, Elgar, and Walton without becoming dwarfed or washed
>>out.  It's also a bit of an anomaly in Stevens's output.  As far as
>>I know, Stevens was an atheist, or at least an agnostic.
>
>So, Vaughan Williams was too, wasn't he?

He was indeed. It has always struck me as singular that some of the
most mystical of all 20th century music - and a deal of *that* with a
religious theme - was written by RVW.

>>The work answers the question of whether a non-believer can write a
>>successful sacred work resoundingly in the affirmative.
>
>Hasn't that been already answered by RVW's work?

You took the words from my keyboard.

deryk barker
([log in to unmask], http://www.camosun.bc.ca/~dbarker)