Latin Midnight Mass: 11:30 p.m., December 24.

German Mass: 9:00 a.m., December 25.

English Mass: 10:30 a.m., December 25

Historic St. Joseph Church will celebrate the parish’s 151st Christmas at Midnight Mass this year. As always, the St. Joseph Academy of Music will provide extraordinary music with orchestral accompaniment for the Latin Mass.

The midnight Mass will feature the first American performance of the Missa Pastoralis in B-Flat by Czech composer Jakub Jan Ryba (1765-1815). The Mass represents two great traditions: that of the Bohemian/Czech schoolmaster musican, and that of the Pastoral Mass, which was widespread in the territories of the Austrian empire and Bavaria. Schoolmasters like Jakub Jan Ryba were expected to be musically educated and to write music for the local churches. Ryba was among the most talented of these.

A Pastoral Mass is a Mass "of the shepherds," more specifically the shepherds to whom the birth of Christ was first announced. Always intended for the Christmas season, such Masses often include a number of musical characteristics which are intended to reflect the piping of shepherds in the fields, rustic dances, and life in the countryside.

Ryba's Missa Pastoralis in B-Flat was headed by the composer "Missa in Domenica infra Octavam Nativitatis Domini." Thus, it was originally intended for the Sunday between Christmas and New Year's Day.

A solo clarinet sounds shepherd's piping throughout the Mass, while a trumpet calls to hunters in the field. The use of triple meter in some movements provides a rocking-the-cradle rhythm, while the exuberant opening of the Gloria likely is intended to suggest the shepherds of Bethlehem dancing for joy.

All in all, the work is one of enormous charm, full of the Christmas spirit.

St. Joseph’s is fortunate in having a rich legacy of music set by its late Director of Music, Thomas M. Kuras. Among the most popular features of Christmas at St. Joseph’s are the wonderful carol settings by Kuras for choir, orchestra, organ and congregation. In addition to the congregational settings, Kuras works being sung this year include a setting for soprano, choir, orchestra and organ of “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” to a tune popular in Britain but unfamiliar to Americans.

On Christmas morning, St. Joseph’s will offer Mass in German at 9:00 a.m. In the tradition of many decades, music will be provided by one of Detroit’s historic German singing societies, the Carpathia Chor. At 10:30 a.m., the church choir will sing for an English language Mass.

St. Joseph’s magnificent Gothic Revival interior will be ablaze with red poinsettias and pervaded by the holiday scent of real greens. There can be no better way to greet the Nativity than Mass at St. Joseph’s.