"The choral music known as the Catholic mass is still alive and well today," Tom Huizenga writes on All Songs Considered. "People have been writing and singing masses for some 1300 years. The young composer Sarah Kirkland Snider's new album, Mass for the Endangered, puts a 21st century spin on that old blueprint. Unlike the traditional mass, a liturgical ceremony for the soul of mankind, Snider's music is a prayer for the wildlife on our planet, with new words interleaved with the old Latin text. The finely tailored performance is by the British choir Gallicantus, with a chamber orchestra conducted by Gabriel Crouch."