The Gun Mass - Jamie Powe (The Arcadian Singers)

The Gun Mass is a collaboration between our Musical Director, Jamie Powe, and American poet Haley Hodges to lament the victims of gun violence.

Composer and Conductor - Jamie Powe
Words - Haley Hodges
Soloists - Daisy Hibberd, Alexander Hume, Stephanie Garrett

Recorded in Somerville College Chapel, Oxford in March 2023

Producer - Jacob Ewens
Sound Engineer - David Jones
Director of Photography - Ben Tomlin
Camera Operators - Ben Tomlin and Brian Johnston

Movements
0:00 Kyrie
5:03 Gloria
7:26 Credo
10:22 Sanctus
14:23 Agnus Dei

Text:

Kyrie

Rotten fruit, rotten root. Hands up
Don’t shoot. Kyrie eleison.
By the waters of Columbine, of
Blacksburg, of Newtown, by the
Waters of Parkland and Uvalde,
There I sat down beneath my desk
(Don’t shoot) to weep.
Christe eleison. My soul to take.
Kyrie eleison. My soul to keep.

Gloria

There is no
No utterable Gloria
In excelsis Deo—there is
Only the unutterable.
There is He, qui tollis
Peccata mundi, but also
He that brings them, and
Brings them so
Unutterably.

Credo

“Of all things visible and invisible
The rifle is king. I believe
In one gun, in One Gun Almighty.
How fast can you run?” Thus
Spake Death, and these, even
These are the conditions in which
Expecto resurrectionem mortuorum.

Sanctus

Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus
Dominus Deus Sabaoth!
And precious in His sight the
Little children He bid come.
Stop up the mouths of your
War machines this hour—
Strike them dumb. Let
Heaven and earth be full
Of their silence, lest every
Hosanna perish in violence.

Agnus Dei

Agnus Dei, who takes away
The sin of the world, what
Can it profit the Most High
If you take our sin but leave us
To die? Miserere nobis. Lord
Of the cellar, Lord
Of the attic, let it be mercy
Falling semi-automatic.

Dona nobis pacem.
Lead us beside quiet
Waters, no more to bury
Our sons and our daughters.
Peace. Grant us ceasefire.
Grant us peace.