Music for Easter Sunday

For Easter Sunday, we welcome several guest instrumentalists—including string trio, trumpet, and timpani—to aid in our celebration. The prelude features selections from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Church Sonatas, written for liturgical use in Salzburg Cathedral. The Mass setting is Franz Joseph Haydn’s Missa brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo (“Little Organ Mass”), first performed in 1775 in Eisenstadt with the composer at the organ. The choir’s anthem, “Easter Light” by Cecilia McDowall, was commissioned in 2016 by Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg, with a text by Virginia poet Angier Brock. An expressive organ solo evokes the Eastern meadowlark, reflecting the text’s imagery: “In Easter light, the risen Christ is moving among us. How brightly the meadowlark sings its song of the season. Alleluia. How gently the Easter light lifts the face of the lily. Christ is risen.”