Missa Gaia/Earth Mass | ||||
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Studio album by Paul Winter | ||||
Released | 1982 | |||
Genre | New Age, Jazz, Liturgical | |||
Length | 63:58 | |||
Label | Living Music | |||
Producer | Paul Winter, Oscar Castro-Neves | |||
Paul Winter chronology | ||||
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Missa Gaia/Earth Mass is an album released by Paul Winter in 1982 for Living Music. The title stems from two languages, Latin (missa = mass) and Greek (gaia = mother nature). The Earth Mass was one of the first contributions made by Paul Winter when he and his Paul Winter Consort became the artists in residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. The mass includes the usual text, such as the Kyrie and the Agnus Dei, and also other text, hymns, and instrumental pieces. The mass is an environmental liturgy of contemporary music. It features the instrumentation of the Paul Winter Consort along with a choir, vocal soloists, and the calls of wolves, whales, and many other animals that are woven into the pieces, sometimes used as the melody.
Since it was first written, the mass is performed annually at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine at The Feast of St. Francis which is the blessing of the animals.