N UNASSUMING, HUMBLE, spirited individual with a deep-interior life and musical genius to boot. That is how I see Mr. Bill Fritz. Although I live in Singapore, where weekly I direct a choir of about 40 singers at our Catholic Church, I like to keep apprised of what goes on in the United States—and I could not have been happier to see an entire article at the NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER dedicated to our colleague here at Corpus Christi Watershed:
Bill’s Peaceful Disposition • During the course of the two music symposia I’ve attended—the Sacred Music Symposium of 2022 and that of 2023, both of which were held at Saint John the Baptist Church in Costa Mesa, California (where Bill serves as music director)—I was most taken by Bill’s calm, peaceful disposition. Despite there being a whole throng of people descending upon his church premises to attend the weeklong Sacred Music Symposium, and having to trouble-shoot the various technical snafus (sound system decided to crash at the last-minute, no problem), (need to get some food for the participants, no issue), Bill impressed me with his ability to multi-task, take care of the church logistics, teach music to the participants, play the organ for rehearsals, and have his compositions sung by the attendees.
Our Eucharistic Lord • Over the course of the week, I had the chance (over lunch) to hear his story; about how he spent nine years in the seminary with the Norbertines. How beautiful to know that Bill’s deep interior life was formed in his time with the Norbertines. This calm interior peace and deep love for Our Lord comes through in his composition ‘Oculi Omnium’, a setting of the Gradual of the Mass from the Feast of Corpus Christi. His composition was featured recently at The Composition Institute with Sir James MacMillan. In that article from the NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER (see above) Bill Fritz speaks about this composition, saying:
“I wanted to highlight the intense, inner spiritual longing for our Eucharistic Lord. I cast the music in a slower, more contemplative feel: sometimes with musical lines that move around each other, but mostly with broad, lush harmonies that (hopefully!) melt into one another. I really felt inspired by both forms of the Mass: the Novus Ordo and the Traditional Latin Mass; and I composed trying to capture the continuity of the different forms.”
I listened to his composition in awe. You can hear it at this link:
Here’s the direct URL link.
Pure Bliss • As the melodic lines intertwine and breathe and open up at the lines ‘Aperis tu manum tuam’, (‘Openest dost Thou the hand of Thee’) one feels the heavens and earth open and meet. Pure bliss.
Photograph • The NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER included this photograph, which shows Bill Fritz with Sir James MacMillan, whom some consider our generation’s most famous Catholic composer:
