[1] He imagined a mass for orchestra, but Charles-Marie Widor, his teacher and organist at Saint-Sulpice in Paris advised him to employ organs, for practical reasons.

[3] The church has a great organ (grand orgue) in its back built by François-Henri Clicquot which Aristide Cavaillé-Coll had reconstructed and improved in 1862.

In the following table of the movements, the markings, keys and signatures are taken from the choral score, using the symbols for common time (4/4) and alla breve.

[8][6] Vierne builds on models by his teacher Widor and of César Franck, but adds more development of themes and "imaginative expression".

The Kyrie opens with "awesome solemnity", while the "mysterious antiphonal harmonies of the Benedictus" were new sounds in French church music, and the Agnus Dei ends, after antiphonal exchange between choir and great organ,[7] serenely in C-sharp major when praying "dona nobis pacem" (Grant us peace).