Alsop describes the Celebrant's crisis as "one of the greatest mad scenes in all of music. Lenny was the most wonderful storyteller, and Mass is a terrific story about self-discovery," she says. "The Celebrant talks about good deeds, but there comes a moment when there has to be sacrifice."
May this sacrifice, which has made our peace with you, advance the peace ... of all the world.
- from Eucharistic Prayer III, Roman Catholic Mass
It's hard not see Bernstein himself as the Celebrant. The composer often addressed questions of faith in his works, notably the 1963 Kaddish Symphony. He may never have fully resolved his own issues, but he could not leave the pivotal figure of his Mass devoid of hope and direction.
The liturgy provided the composer with an ideal solution, the part in the Mass when the priest encourages the congregation to exchange a "sign of peace."
In Mass, after the Celebrant's breakdown, a solo flute is heard, not so distantly related to the one that provides a transition from conflict to the "Resurrection Ode" at the end of Mahler's Symphony No. 2.
Here, it leads to the pure sound of a boy soprano, whose haunting melody, resonant of the Celebrant's simple song, is gradually picked up by the full complement of singers.
During this Pax: Communion, which includes some of the most radiant and affecting music Bernstein ever wrote, those onstage exchange signs of peace and pass them along to the audience.
"I think that's the part Lenny liked the best," Alsop says. "He wanted people to give each other a kiss of peace all over the theater. He loved to kiss everyone."
The Celebrant shares in this return to community and hope, this union of innocence and maturity. Faith is now possible again, and so, Bernstein seems to say, is peace, if only the desire is strong enough.
Jamie Bernstein, the composer's daughter, tracks the origins of her father's own personal crisis of faith to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Mass, she says, was her father's way of responding to lingering aftereffects of that death, as well as the Vietnam War and the 1968 election of "the very antithesis of John F. Kennedy," Richard Nixon.
Not surprisingly, Nixon did not attend the premiere of Mass. Its loaded political implications ("We wait in silent treason until reason is restored. ... Give us peace that we don't keep on breaking.") would hardly have gone over well.
