- that's all for today. be sure to follow "sports stars of tomorrow" on social media for bonus content and updates about the show. for our entire team, i'm charles davis. we'll see you next time. - time to cook, brother. time to cook, brother. heads up. jeez, man. hey, put that boy on the skates. hit him with the, ugh. get out. ball's on the what? the 18? - 15. - oh, that hit. oh, okay. okay. cheating. cheating. all right. let's do this thing. (whistle blowing) - go, go, go, go. - go. get in there. yeah! (whistle blowing) (exciting music)

good morning, and on behalf of the archdiocese of san francisco, welcome to mosaic. the topic is music, sound, ordered regressions of sound from a single voice up to a complex orchestra with tones, harmonies, vibrations and rhythms that pull you in, fill you up or take you places that suggest wonders. is there more powerful or captivating art and music? we will talk about sacred music in the catholic tradition. we are not talking about the history or music of the past. our guest today is a much honored composer who is raiding a brand-new mass for the archdiocese of san francisco that will premiere here in san francisco. after this brief break, join us and

we will talk to frank about the path to music as a path to god.

welcome to mosaic. my guest today is frank la rocca. thank you for joining us. brief bio, i know you are from new jersey and you have been here for 30 or 40 years.

>> moved here in 1974 when i came to do my graduate work area >> he went to yell and got in undergraduate in music and composition studies at berkeley. you work a teacher of music theory and composition at cal state east bay. >> i started there in 1981 and hung up my cleats in 2014. >> you are a well-known composer, much awarded. what we want to get to is the work you are doing for the archdiocese of san francisco. my understanding is you are setting a mass and you also write sacred music. why the interest in sacred music? >> the interest in sacred music came to me relatively late in the total span of my career as a composer. i've been writing music broadly understood as in

a classical style since 1971. but until a significant moment in my life in the late '90s, you can call it a kind of religious conversion experience, i had no interest at all in sacred music. but i became convinced that in order to live a life that was well ordered, where what i did for work and what i believed in terms of religious commitments, needed to not be in conflict with one another. or occupy worlds that were too far apart.

the other thing is, while i was raised catholic as a boy, i drifted away for quite a number of years. when i had this kind of conversion experience in the mid-'90s it was a powerful disruption to my entire worldview. as it began to be reconstituted through learning what christianity was, with the mind of the adult and not a child, i began to realize that this needs to be at the center of my life's work. it is what i spend most of my time doing. i was enormously grateful, even though it was painful and disruptive. i was enormously grateful for this experience that i had. at the same time i

was given a kind of understanding, i guess you would say, that i had to do penance for the sin that i had indulged in all those years that i was away from any kind of religious practice. there is of course a great tradition in the psalms and another sacred text in psalm 51. create in me a clean heart, o god, and renew a right spirit deep within me. when i read words like that while studying scripture or otherwise engaged in religious reading, i would just be stirred to my very core. and

if, what an artist, certainly in my case, what an artist feeds off of his inspiration, that's where i was finding it. >> and you mentioned penance, that is an interesting concept. in your penance seems to be self-imposed or called into vocation by god, to write music. >> i don't consider the writing of the music to be penance but i consider my offering to god in the music that i write, it has to include a penitential component. penance not just in a punitive sense but in the sense that making sure that i never forget where i used to be and where i am now and the fact that god brought me here. and as it says in the psalm, my sins are before my time, i know they are forgiven but i want to keep

them in front of me. i want to keep them right there. not in any morbid or self-destructive way but just as a way turning neither to the right or to the left. and to give thanks to god for having rescued me out of the pit of muck and mire. >> your music now, sacred music you have been writing 10 years or so. and it has a goal of reaching god and/or honoring god. >> giving glory to god. staying in communion with god. also, particularly in music that is going to be heard in liturgical settings, to serve as a portal of grace for people at mass. the technical term is sacramental. it is not a

sacrament but the candles, the vestments, everything of beauty in the mass is a sacramental, it is a portal through which god offers us grace if only we will cooperate with it. and that is what music should serve as in a liturgical setting. one of those portals of grace. >> that sounds good. we will keep that in mind. we will be back and talk further and listen to some of your music. we will be back with more frank la rocca and listen to some of his music .

welcome back. it is so enjoyable to talk about music.

it is a basic human creation that goes from the deepest most elemental parts of our being to the most intricate and complex mathematical . we will bring up, we have to disappoint you, each of these pieces are 5 to 7 minutes long. we will listen to a brief excerpt of each. and we will ask you what is happening. so clip one from frank la rocca. >> ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

>> diffusa esst gratia, a piece of a psalm, grace is poured out . what is going on with this piece of music? >> this is the communion proper for the feast of the blessed mother mary's queen ship of the world and was commissioned by me from the diocese of oakland for the 50th anniversary of the diocese celebratory mass that took place august 22nd, queen ship of mary. the text itself is rich with images of royalty as you would expect for the queen ship of mary. there are images of rich robes, fragrant garments, houses of ivory. and so the approach i took in

reading this was to make it sound sumptuous. to give it an air of gravity but also an error of light. >> as an opening of a portal to god, i'm sorry we couldn't finish that, i wanted to see where it went up. but you can watch the rest of the clip on youtube. and frank la rocca's website as youtube links. let's look at the second clip. >> ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

>> wow. again, we have to interrupt. about a minute and have to talk about the meaning, what's going on? >> this is a christmas text, so with all those images you can tell it is a text having to do with the nativity. but more than just the nativity, the richer theology of the incarnation. in the book

revelation it talks about the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. those images at the beginning, and i'm the one who made the little video accompaniment, look at the universe information. right? and then christ comes to earth and you see the image of earth and right as the musical phase -- phrase swells, you see jesus in the manger. what i'm trying to convey is a kind of contradiction, because the word being sung is large and yet all the images are of this tiny baby. >> the great mystery is the tiny child. let's leave it there for this moment, we will take a brief break and be back with you very shortly to finish up talking with frank la rocca.

welcome back to mosaic. i'd like to call for our slide for this last segment so we can see that. just some basic information. this is frank la rocca and you can see his website. go to it and listen to the music, learn about the man,

very interesting. in the other logo is the benedick 16 institute, and initiative the -- of the archdiocese to bring beauty and splendor back to liturgical music. and it is of this group that frank is the composer and resident and has been commissioned to write the mass. so tell us about the mass of the americas that will preemie here at the cathedral on december 8th. >> this is an interesting project that takes me into new territory as a composer. the inspiration is the feast day of our lady of guadalupe and the annual celebration of that. this year it coincides with the immaculate conception so we will have both happening at the same time at the december 8th mass. what is interesting about it is that the arch bishop's vision, and i've known him for

a number of years and he has often talked about this, of using music as a cultural bridge. so that is what he asked me to try to do with this mass. trying to find a way to weave into the fabric of the music, certain very popular devotional tunes associated with mexican catholic culture. when we talked about a model for this, he and i were both familiar with colonial days where the friars would use the popular songs of the day as a way to draw people to the church. musicians would stand outside and play popular music, everybody would gather. then they would try to see if they can get them to come into the

church and attend mass as part of the evangelization process. something similar happened with the music of the california missions. once they were inside the church it was primarily the music of the spanish baroque, whether they were from spain or spaniard composers that moved to the new world. the archbishop's vision takes it one step further. he wants to get the popular music across the threshold and actually into the church. as a result we have a mass that hopefully will reveal the unity of the immaculate conception, patroness of america, our lady of guadalupe, the patroness of the wider american continent. having high church music, as i typically write, but woven out

of pieces of these popular tunes. >> i'm coming to this thing. it's going to be good. >> it will be interesting. the instrumentation to a certain extent supports that. we've got a choir, string guitar and in one particular song, we have in the mass texts, spanish, english, latin and we have the aztec language. i propose this to the archbishop because i knew that was the language that our lady of guadalupe addressed juan diego during her operations in 1521-31, somewhere around there. but recently it occurred to me that another thing it accomplishes, it is a bit of a strong image but i think it is important, the aztec priests who performed

human sacrifice on those stone altars also spoke this language. to bring this language into the sacrifice of the mass, the true victim, jesus christ, who died for our sins and who can remit them on our behalf, to me this is an absolutely beautiful image to essentially redeem this false understanding of the meaning of sacrifice with the true understanding of the meaning of sacrifice. >> that sounds daring and good. >> i have the setting of the direct meditation with a soprano violin and that is where it appears because it is a native south central american instrument. >> the mass world premiere will be in the cathedral on december

8th and it will be done down in texas next year? >> i'm given to understand that this past weekend the archbishop was visiting in dallas, was a guest homilist at the dallas cathedral and propose to their bishop that this mass of the americas be sung there next year for their feast of the lady of guadalupe and there cathedral is the cathedral of our lady of guadalupe. to make that is wonderful. we have to close up. i want to say thank you so much for being with us and for viewers to come to mass on december 8th. it will also be live streamed from the cathedral and broadcast. thank you for being with us and thank you for your work in music. thank you for being with us on mosaic. >> thank you.

blocked from watching the big match? [referee whistle] save the day by using the bank of america customized cash rewards card and choose to earn 3% cash back on online purchases.

like live streaming. why choose a mobile network built and choose to earn 3% cash back on online purchases. for places you'll probably never be... ...instead of for where you are most of the time? xfinity mobile was designed for where you need it most. now xfinity internet customers can buy one line of unlimited and get one free for a year. >