Dear Annie,

I can’t live one day without hearing music, playing it, studying it, or thinking about it; and all that is quite apart from my professional role as a musician. I’m a fan, a member of the musical public.

Composing Mass was my father’s way, I think, of recapturing something real within himself. Yet for that reason, it was particularly painful to him when Mass received an ambivalent critical reaction. ...And yet, live audiences tended to be tremendously moved by Mass. Maybe Mass is one of those things where “you have to be there.” ...Mass has the power to make a person shout with excitement, weep uncontrollably, or feel deeply uncomfortable. But Mass will never leave a person indifferent — and that may put it in the category of a masterpiece. Well, see how you feel when you go this weekend. You are going, aren’t you?!