High Mass Times

When I was last in Vienna on a weekend, there were handbills posted in numerous places with the musical offerings for that Sunday's masses. I think you can just wait til you're there to choose. Definitely more composers than Haydn and Mozart. I remember choosing from among about five. Went to a Schubert, and a Bruckner was the runner-up. Heavenly choices!

The concept of "high mass" vanished with the reforms of Vatican II. Some liturgies are far more elaborate than others, but I would be really surprised if you found any liturgical schedule that identified a "high mass." Some schedules will for example identify a sung liturgy, or Gregorian liturgy, etc.

In Mass schedules Germans use the term "Hochamt" (High mass) to identify a solemn service, usually with music.

I remember the Dom and Augustinerkirche as the churches where music in services is more developed. I was once friend with the Kapellmeister at Minoritenkirche, that is the church of the Italian community and whose Kapellmeister once was good old Salieri. I understand that music coverage there is not as extensive as the two other churches but maybe you can check.

You can use Google Translate to get a rough translation of a website. It's supposed to detect the language automatically, but I find it works better if I select the languages (in this case, German to English). Note that the translations it gives are quite rough, but are usually intelligible for purposes like yours.

If you use the Chrome browser, it's built in. If not, go to this page: https://translate.google.com/

My husband and I attended the regular Sunday catholic mass at the local Parish Church in Paris, Germany and at the Cathedral in Salzburg. The music was magnificent. The churches in Europe have giant pipe organs and organists that are in a grand league their own. Magnificent music before, during and after the mass. In Salzburg there was a children's choir!!

Church music at Salzburg Cathedral is probably at the top. Actually they do not have only a giant pipe organ, they have a giant one, four medium-sized and a small portable one! They also have a resident choir and mid-size symphony orchestra, and host a lot of choirs from all places of the world when the resident choir is away. Their choices are sometimes unusual (I remember hearing a Jehan Alain music setting of the Mass that would empty most churches in the world). And just two minutes walking from the Cathedral there is the Franziskanerkirche with two organs, resident choir and orchestra, and a better acoustics than the Cathedral.

As for Paris, major city churches are usually home to the best organ players of the world. Most major French composers of 19th and early 20th centuries were church organists as well and the tradition has been preserved. French organists are incredibly learned in the art of improvising on the spot.

Thanks, Ruth. That information is very helpful! I look forward to celebrating mass in Vienna.