Renowned sacred music scholar William Peter “Bill” Mahrt, professor emeritus in musicology at Stanford University, died at age 85 on Jan. 1, 2025, on the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Fittingly, although quite unusually, his last days — from Stanford Hospital’s ICU to his wake, funeral and reception afterward — were accompanied by the singing of the Church’s traditional music, which he championed. 

The singers who kept professor Mahrt company during his last days included many current and former members of the St. Ann Choir of Palo Alto, which Mahrt joined in 1963 when it was just starting. He served as the choir’s director for most years since then, starting in 1964. Also present were the Stanford University Early Music Singers, a group Mahrt founded 52 years ago and directed until his retirement at the end of the previous academic year. 

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone was among the hundreds who were praying for him in his final hours. After Mahrt’s death, the archbishop said, “I, and so many others, have lost a dear friend. We have lost a giant of a man, a legend as a scholar of music, a true gentleman and one of the finest and most faithful Catholics I’ve ever known. The successful revival of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony in this country owes much to the gifts, the generosity and the persistence of this great human being.”

Mahrt was also the President of the Church Music Association of America (CMAA) and publisher of the Sacred Music journal and the New Liturgical Movement. He was known internationally as a scholar and teacher who dedicated his life to the preservation of the Church’s traditional sacred music in the Mass and the Divine Office.

Many prominent figures, including French philosopher and literary critic René Girard and jazz expert and social critic Ted Gioia, praised Mahrt’s work, emphasizing its transcendence and profound impact on sacred music.

Mahrt worked to combat a widespread misunderstanding that the Second Vatican Council had outlawed the Church’s traditional music. As he frequently emphasized, Vatican II never intended for the rich treasury of Gregorian chant and polyphonic hymns in Latin to be abandoned. On the contrary, they were meant to continue as music intrinsic to the Mass and most suited to Catholic worship.

Even during the decades following the Council, when traditional Church music was rarely heard, his St. Ann Choir continued singing Gregorian chant and Renaissance polyphonic music during Mass in churches throughout the diocese. These were not traditional Latin Masses but Masses according to the contemporary Roman Missal, celebrated in Latin in accordance with the principles in Sacrosanctum Concilium, Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.

Kerry McCarthy, a scholar, singer and biographer of English Renaissance composers William Byrd and Thomas Tallis, studied under professor Mahrt. In the Acknowledgments of her book, Liturgy and Contemplation in Byrd’s Gradualia, she thanked Mahrt for teaching her “to think with the liturgy.”

For many years, McCarthy joined several choir members and friends on Sundays to sing the liturgical hours of Lauds (until recent years), Vespers and Compline under Mahrt’s direction.

In November 2023, the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music held a conference titled, “The Musical Shape of the Liturgy: Celebrating the Life and Work of William P. Mahrt” to honor his scholarly achievements. The event also celebrated the 150th volume of Sacred Music, the 60th anniversary of the St. Ann Choir, and the establishment of the “William P. Mahrt Chair in Sacred Music” at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park.

On Dec. 29, Mahrt collapsed outside his Stanford condominium on his way to lead the St. Ann Choir’s pre-Mass rehearsal. Neighbors called an ambulance, and he was taken to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with kidney failure caused by cancer that had spread after two decades of living with prostate cancer.

After news spread that Mahrt had been admitted to Stanford Hospital that Sunday, a steady stream of friends and admirers, including singers from the St. Ann Choir and the Early Music Singers, kept vigil at his bedside. Retired diocesan priest Father William Morgan, who often celebrated Masses at which the choir sang, was also present. Though Mahrt was a lifelong bachelor, he was never alone in his final hours. As his sister Susan Perkins-Smith later remarked, the St. Ann Choir and others inspired by him had become his family, and they gathered as a loving family to help their brother in his final hours.

It would be hard to imagine anyone who was more accompanied spiritually — and most appropriately, he was also accompanied by the Church’s music which he loved. 

Father Morgan led prayers at Mahrt’s bedside, giving him the Anointing of the Sick and Holy Communion while he was still conscious. Later that night, Mahrt suffered a massive stroke and lost consciousness. On the evening of Dec. 30, Dominican Father Pawel Zybura from St. Raymond’s Parish in Menlo Park arrived to offer another anointing and the Apostolic Pardon.

Although doctors predicted early on Dec. 31 that Mahrt had only a few hours to live, he defied those expectations, surviving through New Year’s Eve and into the next night. That morning, a few choir members joined Father Morgan to sing the office of Prime at his bedside. Later that day, Father Morgan once again led the prayers of the Apostolic Blessing, while those present sang three of the choir’s favorite polyphonic motets.

It had been a custom for more than 20 years for Mahrt’s choir to chant the first Vespers of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, in a public service at the St. Ann Chapel on New Year’s Eve. This year, the public Vespers were canceled. Instead, Vespers was sung at his bedside, with 12 people present in the room and another 12 joining virtually via Zoom. 

After Mahrt died on New Year’s Day. Father Morgan prayed the traditional prayers said immediately after a person’s passing. Those present sang the Nunc Dimittis, the Canticle of Simeon, which begins, “Now thou lettest your servant depart in peace,” followed by chants from the Requiem Mass. 

The wake was held at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Palo Alto, where the choir sings. While his body was present, no eulogies were delivered, but Vespers and Compline were sung and a Rosary was said.

His funeral took place at San Francisco’s Mission Dolores Basilica. The Solemn High Requiem Mass, with Father Morgan as the principal celebrant, was accompanied by Gregorian chants and polyphonic hymns sung by 70 singers who came from around the country. Many of the singers had taught, studied or sung under Mahrt’s direction at events sponsored by the Church Music Association of America. The singers were directed by three of Mahrt’s colleagues from the CMAA: Horst Buchholz, Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka and David Hughes.

The music didn’t end with the funeral. At the reception following the Requiem, there was a motet singalong. Alternating with personal remembrances, the choir sang some of its favorite motets, including Sicut Cervus, O Magnum Mysterium, O Salutaris Hostia and Caeleste Beneficium. 

Caeleste Beneficium, a motet about St. Ann, held special significance for the St. Ann Choir as its unofficial anthem. Mahrt often said that the choir managed to survive for 60 years only by St. Ann’s intercession. 

Kevin Rossiter, a former choir member, said that once when Mahrt was on a visit to the British Library, he had hand-copied the motet from The Royal Choirbook, which was created for King Henry VIII. At the reception, everyone sang from photocopies of Mahrt’s hand-copied score. 

If there were flights of angels singing William Mahrt to his rest, they were joined by a choir of living choristers here on earth.

On Sunday, from 4-6 p.m., the Benedict XVI Institute, founded by Archbishop Cordileone, will host an event in San Francisco, “In Memory of Bill Mahrt: An Evening for Artists and Art Lovers.” See this link for details and to register.