The Missa Luba is a Latin Mass sung in Congolese by a choir of Congolese children and recorded by Phillips in 1958.
The ‘Sanctus’ from the Missa Luba will be recognisable to some as the music played in the black and white café scene in Lyndsay Anderson’s surreal 1960s film ‘If’ but for me it envokes further memories of time spent at Sheriff Hutton Park in Yorkshire.
Whilst at East 15 drama school in 1990 and 1991 we lived in a Jacobean Mansion in a village called Sheriff Hutton and as the place was off the beaten track we had to make our own entertainment in the evenings - a number of which were spent in the kitchen of the great house, drinking wine, having heated discussions and playing card games. Wilf Walker who was our tutor and director had a old record player and a copy of the ‘Missa Luba’, which we pretty much played every night! Sometimes, we would put it on over and over again and as soon as it was finished we put it back on. Listening to it always reminds me of sitting in the kitchen (which was always warm) on those dark winter nights having a genuinely interesting and wonderful time and sometimes we listen to the whole recording in our own kitchen at home in Essex.
A more recent version of the ‘Missa Luba’ has recently been recorded but for me the original (which you can now finally get on itunes) is the definitive.
Now listen to the song….
The café scene from ‘If….’ for those that are interested…
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