Drumbeats and Heartbeats

The featured work in Drumbeats and Heartbeats is Franz Josef Haydn’s masterpiece “Mass in Time of War,” written in 1795 as the Napoleonic wars threatened Europe and is as pertinent to our times as it was when Haydn wrote it. This dramatic major work has special meaning for Viva. Phil Velarde, the son of one of Viva’s own members, Pat Velarde, has recently returned safely to his family in San Mateo after a tour of duty in Iraq. The choir celebrates his return and especially remembers all soldiers from the mid-Peninsula area now serving in Iraq.