In 1973, the Yale Symphony Orchestra, under the leadership of Maestro John Mauceri, traveled to Vienna, Austria, to perform the European premiere of Leonard Bernstein's MASS, originally commissioned to open the Kennedy Center in 1971.
Originally, Bernstein had intended to compose a traditional Mass, but instead decided on a more "innovative" form. The work is based on the Tridentine Mass of the Roman Catholic Church. Although the liturgical passages are sung in Latin, Mass also includes additional texts in English written by Bernstein, Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz, and Paul Simon (who wrote the first quatrain of the trope "Half of the People").
