Frank La Rocca extends the genre of the festal Missa solemnis in his Mass of the Americas, a sublime setting of the Traditional Latin Mass for choir and orchestra. La Rocca weaves a rich tapestry with serene Gregorian chants, folk melodies from 18th-century regions of México, and florid praises in Nahuatl, the language spoken by Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego in 1531. Cultures past and present are joined musically as a witness to faith, hope, and reconciliation in this masterpiece of liturgical art.

Tracks:

1 El Cantico del Alba
2 Kyrie
3 Gloria
4 Offertory
5 Sanctus
6 Agnus Dei
7 Ave Verum Corpus
8 Ave Maria
9 Salve Regina
10 Alma Redemptoris Mater
11 Ave Regina Cælorum
12 Regina Cæli

About the Composer

Frank La Rocca's career has traced a path from the severity of an academic modernist style, through a period of sunny minimalist concert works to finding his voice in sacred choral works and music for the Roman Catholic Mass. Of La Rocca's O Sacrum Convivium, composer and organist Richard Clark wrote, "…anchored in tradition, it speaks with the authority of the ages yet with the innovation of modernity. Imbued with the Spirit, it is timeless."

"La Rocca is a composer you simply MUST get to know … the very finest contemporary sacred choral music" (American Record Guide).