01/03/2025
Dr. William Mahrt was truly a giant of the sacred music world. As a scholar and musician, he leaves a legacy of decades of work, as a musicologist and teacher, especially through the Church Music Association of America. We share our prayers for the repose of his soul and the comfort of those close to him.
In paradisum deducant angeli:
in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres,
et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem.
Chorus angelorum te suscipiat,
et cm Lazaro quondam paupere,
aeternam habeas requiem.
William Peter Mahrt (March 9, 1939–January 1, 2025)
With great sorrow, but with hope in the resurrection and confidence in God’s providence and mercy, we announce the passing of Dr. William P. Mahrt on January 1, 2025, the Octave Day of Christmas and Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Dr. Mahrt died peacefully, having received the sacraments of the Church and the apostolic pardon, and surrounded by faithful friends and students who sang and prayed the liturgical offices in which he had so many times directed them.
Born in 1939, Dr. Mahrt dedicated his life to the study and performance of the Catholic Church’s sacred music, leaving an indelible mark on the field of musicology, as well as on the hearts and souls of those who knew him. His insights into the characteristics of the various forms of Gregorian chant elucidated the nature of the chant as integral to the sacred liturgy, even explicating the nature of the sacred liturgy itself. His exposition of the nature of beauty and its embodiment in Catholic sacred music, liturgical gestures and symbols, and architecture has served as an important guide in the Church’s understanding of the purpose of artistic beauty in divine worship. His work with medieval and Renaissance polyphonic masters illuminated the performances and scholarship of many choirs and students.
Dr. Mahrt’s academic journey began at Gonzaga University, near his family’s wheat farm in rural eastern Washington (near Reardan), where he earned his B.A. in 1960. He went on to receive an M.A. from the University of Washington in 1963 with a thesis on the keyboard fugues of Schumann. Driven by an insatiable curiosity and a deep love for music, he continued his studies at Stanford University, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1969 with a dissertation entitled “The Missæ ad organum of Heinrich Isaac.” Throughout his illustrious career, Dr. Mahrt held prestigious teaching positions at Case Western Reserve University, the Eastman School of Music, and Stanford University, where he inspired countless students as an Associate Professor, teaching courses on medieval notation, the modes, medieval and Renaissance repertoire and analysis, and the music of Johannes Brahms.
William Mahrt served as the President of the Church Music Association of America starting in 2005 after first joining the board in 1977. Under his editorship of the CMAA’s journal (2006–present) Sacred Music, the oldest continuously-published music journal in the United States, the publication expanded in length and breadth to serve as an important locus for the study and praxis of the Church’s music. The editorials he wrote for the journal evince a profound understanding of both the sacred liturgy and its music and were remarkable both for their integration of scholarship and Catholic theology, as well as for the wide range of topics covered. As president of the CMAA, Dr. Mahrt played an important role in the discussions of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops which led up to the 2007 publication of guidelines on music in the liturgy, Sing to the Lord. At the initiative of his friend and the CMAA’s then-director of publications, Jeffrey Tucker, a collection of his essays, The Musical Shape of the Liturgy, was published in 2012.
Known for his expertise in Gregorian chant, medieval performance, and the works of composers such as Machaut, Dufay, Isaac, and Lassus, Dr. Mahrt’s scholarly contributions earned him numerous accolades, including the NEH’s Newberry Library Fellowship in 1976, the Albert Schweitzer Medal in 1991, and the Thomas Binkley Award in 2010. He served as President of the Northern California Chapter of the American Musicological and Chairman of the Bay Area chapter of the Latin Liturgy Association. He was a frequent presenter and attendee at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, the International Fota Conference, as well as the conferences of the Society for Catholic Liturgy, International Musicological Society (IMS), and the IMS’s study group Cantus Planus. In demand as a teacher, Dr. Mahrt was a regular faculty member and plenary speaker at the CMAA’s annual Sacred Music Colloquium, Cantores in Ecclesia’s annual Byrd Festival in Portland, Oregon, the Lumen Christi Institute of the University of Chicago, the Singers’ Retreat in San Anselmo, California, the Renaissance Polyphony Weekend in Dallas, Texas, the Sacred Music Institute of America, and the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park.
In addition to his scholarly achievements, Dr. Mahrt was a founding member of the St. Ann Choir in 1963 and served as its director for most years since 1964. Under his leadership, the ensemble developed an extensive repertory of medieval and Renaissance motets and masses, singing each Sunday and principal feast day a Missa cantata in Latin, with Gregorian propers, two motets, and a mixture of Gregorian and Renaissance ordinaries at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Palo Alto, California. Dr. Mahrt played an organ prelude and postlude for every Mass in which the organ was permitted. The choir, in response to an initiative by Dr. Mahrt several decades ago, also sings Sunday vespers and compline, with vespers usually at the St. Ann Chapel, the choir’s original home in Palo Alto. The ensemble is one of the few in the world which has a continuous tradition of singing the Church’s treasury of sacred music, all the while implementing the reforms to the sacred liturgy called for by the Second Vatican Council’s Sacrosanctum concilium and the 1967 Instruction Musicam Sacram. Dr. Mahrt was a graceful and compelling proponent for the place of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony as the central music of the Roman rite, especially in the celebration of the modern Roman missal. He carefully collected and produced editions of important and interesting polyphonic works, teaching them to his choir with love and enthusiasm for the music in all its aspects. The choir continues singing from these editions, as well as the large choirbook-style score of the Gregorian chants from Annie Bank Editions, even inspiring the production by longtime choir member Susan Altstatt of beautiful illuminations of the choir’s patronal feast’s propers. The extensive library of the St. Ann Choir, complete with its elegantly accurate translations of many motet texts, was a core part of the early formation of the Choral Public Domain Library by one of Dr. Mahrt’s students at Stanford, Rafael Ornes. Many of Dr. Mahrt’s students from Stanford joined his ensemble to augment their experience of the music, in its proper liturgical context, about which they were writing dissertations and theses. Singers flocked from all backgrounds to sing with him in this unique ensemble, and they are the core of those who attended Dr. Mahrt’s bedside until his hour of death. The friendships formed in the choir by Dr. Mahrt served as an anchor in his life and the lives of so many others. His leadership of the St. Ann Choir and the Stanford Early Music Singers was a testament to his unwavering commitment to sacred music, the true and deep bond between the highest levels of scholarship and praxis, and a fervent love for his Catholic faith.
To celebrate his life and legacy, a conference entitled “The Musical Shape of the Liturgy: Celebrating the Life and Work of William P. Mahrt” was held in November of 2023, marking the 150th volume of Sacred Music and honoring the establishment of a new chair in sacred music at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park under the leadership of Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka. Scholars, musicians, and friends from around the country gathered to fête Dr. Mahrt’s remarkable accomplishments and work.
Dr. William Mahrt’s contributions to the field of musicology and his passionate dedication to sacred music will be remembered and cherished by his family, friends, students, colleagues, and the countless lives he touched through his work. His legacy will continue to inspire and guide future generations in the pursuit of beauty and excellence in sacred music.
More than just a scholar and a musician, Bill—as he liked to be called—was a gentleman, a colleague, and a dear friend. Highly respected by his students, singers, and all who knew him, he was a very modest man and always remained a humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord. After a year of several health problems, Bill suffered a stroke while in the hospital receiving care for other matters. He was preceded in death by his mother, Evelyn, his father, Peter, and his sister Kathryn. He is survived by his sister Susan Perkins, brothers-in-law Tom Brannon and Norman Smith, nieces and nephews, and their children and grandchildren.
Bill, you have been a shining light for so many of us, and you shall never be forgotten. Requiescas in pace!
NON NOBIS DOMINE SED NOMINI TVO DA GLORIAM
Funeral arrangements are being handled by Duggan’s Funeral Service. Those wishing to send flowers should contact Duggan’s (https://www.duggansfuneralservice.com/). The wake will take place at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Palo Alto, California (751 Waverley St.) from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday, January 9, 2025. All are invited to come at any time during the wake. Vespers will be sung at 6 p.m., a rosary will be prayed at 7 p.m., and compline will be sung at 8 p.m. The funeral is at noon on Friday, January 10, 2025 at Mission Dolores in San Francisco, California (3321 16th St.). Parking is available in the school lot, with an entrance on Church St. A reception will follow the funeral. Burial arrangements are TBA.
Anyone who would like to sing for the funeral is invited to do so. Required sign-up is available here: https://forms.gle/R68wXzBQ3P9ux9Xa8. A required rehearsal will be 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. in the basilica church at Mission Dolores.
Priests who would like to assist at the Mass in coro must bring a cassock + surplice, with biretta if they have one. If they wish to receive communion, they must also bring a black stole. Those assisting in coro need to be at Mission Dolores and ready (vested)rat 11:40 a.m. on Friday, January 10th, 2025. Any priest or deacon in a liturgical role (in coro or at the altar) must send a letter of good standing to the chancery of the Archdiocese of San Francisco: [email protected]. More information is available here: https://sfarchdiocese.org/visiting-clergy/.
