Missa solemnis (Beethoven)

Composition history

The Missa Solemnis is Beethoven's third choral composition on a sacred subject, after the oratorio Christus am Ölberge (1802), and his earlier mass setting, the Mass in C major (1807). The new composition was written to celebrate the investiture of Rudolph of Habsburg-Lorraine as Archbishop of Olmütz, which took place on 9 March 1820.

Performance history

The first performance did not take place in a sacred setting, but at the Philharmonic Society in Saint Petersburg on the initiative of the Russian nobleman and patron Nikolai Golitsyn on 7 April 1824 (March 26 Old Style). The premiere, originally planned for Christmas 1823, was delayed by rehearsing the demanding choral parts, which proved to be more time-consuming than planned, and by incorrectly copied parts. Who conducted the premiere on 7 April 1824 is unknown.

Parts of the mass (Kyrie, Credo, Agnus Dei) were performed on 7 May 1824, under the direction of Kapellmeister Michael Umlauf at the Kärntnertor Theater in Vienna, together with the overture The Consecration of the House and the premiere of Symphony No. 9. The three movements of the mass performed were designated “hymns” because the Viennese censorship authorities objected to the performance of mass settings in a secular venue.

Another performance of the entire mass took place in a liturgical setting in 1830 in the Church of St. Peter and Paul in the Bohemian town of Varnsdorf.

The mass is scored for a quartet of vocal soloists, a substantial chorus, and the full orchestra. Each at times is used in virtuosic, textural, and melodic capacities. The full roster consists of 2 flutes; 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (in A, C, and B♭); 2 bassoons; contrabassoon; 4 horns (in D, E♭, B♭ basso, E, and G); 2 trumpets (D, B♭, and C); alto, tenor, and bass trombone; timpani; organ continuo; strings (violins I and II, violas, cellos, and basses); soprano, alto, tenor, and bass soloists; and mixed choir.

The Missa solemnis consists of five movements, corresponding to the first five sections of the Ordinary.

Note: Under "Scoring", the performers are indicated with the following abbreviations: "S" vocal soloists, "C" chorus, "O" orchestra. Additionally, "T" stands for the tenor soloist in 'Et homo factus est', and "V" the violinist in the Benedictus. Under "Note", the remarks in italics were written into the score by the composer.

№	Movement	Bars	Incipit	Bars	Tempo	Scoring	Key	Meter	Note
1	Kyrie	224	Kyrie eleison	86	Assai sostenuto	SCO	D major		"Mit Andacht"
			Christe eleison	42	Andante assai ben marcato		B minor	3 2
			Kyrie eleison	96	Tempo I		D major
2	Gloria	569	Gloria in excelsis Deo	130	Allegro vivace	CO	D major	3 4	Gloria theme
			Gratias agimus tibi	43	Meno Allegro	SCO	B♭ major
			Domine Deus	56	Tempo I		B♭ major, F major		Gloria theme
			Qui tollis peccata mundi	80	Larghetto		D minor, D major, B♭ major, D major	2 4
			Quoniam tu solus Sanctus	50	Allegro maestoso	CO	D major	3 4
			In gloria Dei Patris. Amen	99	Allegro, ma non troppo e ben marcato	SCO			Fugue
				66	Poco piu Allegro
				45	Presto	CO		3 4	Reprise of 'Gloria in excelsis Deo'
3	Credo	473	Credo in unum Deum	124	Allegro ma non troppo	CO	B♭ major		Credo theme
			Et incarnatus est	20	Adagio	SCO	D Dorian
			Et homo factus est	12	Andante	TCO	D major	3 4	Tenor solo
			Crucifixus etiam pro nobis	32	Adagio espressivo	SCO	D minor
			Et resurrexit tertia die	6	Allegro	C	G Mixolydian		A cappella chorus
			Et ascendit in coelum	70	Allegro molto	CO	F major
			Credo in Spiritum Sanctum	42	Allegro ma non troppo				Credo theme
			Et vitam venturi... Amen	67	Allegretto ma non troppo		B♭ major	3 2	Double fugue
				60	Allegro con moto
				40	Grave	SCO
4	Sanctus	235	Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus	33	Adagio	SO	D major	2 4	"Mit Andacht"
			Pleni sunt coeli	19	Allegro pesante				Fugue
			Osanna in excelsis	27	Presto			3 4
			-	32	Sostenuto ma non troppo	O	G major		"Praeludium"
			Benedictus qui venit	124	Andante molto cantabile e non troppo mosso	SCVO	G major, C major, G major	12 8	Violin solo
5	Agnus Dei	434	Agnus Dei	95	Adagio	SCO	B minor
			Dona nobis pacem	68	Allegretto vivace		D major	6 8	"Bitte um innern und äussern Frieden"
				26	Allegro assai		B♭ major		Martial episode 1
				76	Tempo I		F major, D major	6 8	Handel's Messiah citation: "And he shall reign"
				88	Presto		D major, B♭ major		Martial episode 2
				81	Tempo I		B♭ major, D major	6 8

Duration: A performance of the complete work runs from 70 to 90 minutes.

The writing displays Beethoven's characteristic disregard for the performer, and is in several places both technically and physically exacting, with many sudden changes of dynamic, metre and tempo. This is consistent throughout, starting with the opening Kyrie where the syllables Ky-ri are delivered either forte or with sforzando, but the final e is piano. As noted below, the reprise of the Et vitam venturi fugue is particularly taxing, being both subtly different from the previous statements of the theme and counter-theme, and delivered at around twice the speed. The orchestral parts also include many demanding sections, including the violin solo in the Sanctus and some of the most demanding work in the repertoire for bassoon and contrabassoon. The difficulty of the piece combined with the requirements for a full orchestra, large chorus, and highly trained soloists, both vocal and instrumental, mean that it is not often performed by amateur or semi-professional ensembles.

Kyrie

Perhaps the most traditional movement, the Kyrie is in a traditional ABA′ structure. The grand opening 3 D major chords motif, contrasts sharply with the 4th pianissimo response: (GOD/man) followed by humble stately choral writing in the first section and more contrapuntal vocal textures in the Christe section. The four (SATB) vocal soloists and chorus share the thematic material throughout, the former particularly in the Christe Eleison section.

Gloria

Quickly shifting textures and themes highlight each portion of the Gloria text, in a beginning to the movement that is almost encyclopedic in its exploration of ³
₄ time. The movement ends with the first of the work's two fugues, on the text "In gloria Dei patris. Amen", leading into a recapitulation of the initial Gloria text and music.

Credo

The form of the Credo may be divided into four parts:

1. 'Credo in unum Deum' through 'descendit de coelis' in B♭
2. 'Et incarnatus est' through 'Resurrexit' in D
3. 'Et ascendit' through the Credo recapitulation in F
4. Fugue and coda 'Et vitam venturi saeculi. Amen' in B♭.

The movement opens with a chord sequence that will be used again in the movement to effect modulations. The word "Credo" is repeatedly sung in a two-note motif, and the work thus joins the tradition of so-called "Credo Masses", including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Missa brevis in F major, K. 192 and Mass in C major, K. 257 "Credo".^[5] The Credo, like the Gloria, is an often disorienting, mad rush through the text. The poignant modal harmonies for the "Et incarnatus" yield to ever more expressive heights through the Crucifixus, and into a remarkable, a cappella setting of the "Et resurrexit" that is over almost before it has begun. Most notable about the movement, though, is the closing fugue on "Et vitam venturi saeculi" that includes one of the most difficult passages in the choral repertoire, when the subject returns at doubled tempo for a thrilling conclusion.

Sanctus

Up until the Benedictus of the Sanctus, the Missa solemnis is of fairly normal classical proportions. But then, after an orchestral preludio, a solo violin enters in its highest range—representing the Holy Spirit descending to earth in a remarkably long extension of the text.

Agnus Dei

A setting of the plea "miserere nobis" (have mercy on us) that begins with the men's voices alone in B minor yields, eventually, to a bright D major prayer "dona nobis pacem" ("grant us peace") in a pastoral mode. After some fugal development, it is suddenly and dramatically interrupted by martial sounds (a convention in the 18th century, as in Haydn's Missa in tempore belli), but after repeated pleas of "miserere", eventually recovers and brings itself to a close.

Some critics have been troubled that, as Theodor W. Adorno put it, "there is something peculiar about the Missa solemnis."^[6] In many ways, it is an atypical work, and lacks the sustained thematic development that is one of Beethoven's hallmarks. The fugues at the end of the Gloria and Credo align it with the work of his late period—but his simultaneous interest in the theme and variations form is absent. Instead, the Missa presents a continuous musical narrative, almost without repetition, particularly in the Gloria and Credo, the two longest movements. The style, Adorno has noted, is close to treatment of themes in imitation that one finds in the Flemish masters such as Josquin des Prez and Johannes Ockeghem, but it is unclear whether Beethoven was consciously imitating their techniques to meet the demands of the Mass text. Donald Tovey has connected Beethoven to the earlier tradition in a different way:

Not even Bach or Handel can show a greater sense of space and of sonority. There is no earlier choral writing that comes so near to recovering some of the lost secrets of the style of Palestrina. There is no choral and no orchestral writing, earlier or later, that shows a more thrilling sense of the individual colour of every chord, every position, and every doubled third or discord.^[7]

Michael Spitzer presents an alternative view of the historical context of Beethoven's mass composition:

Gregorian melodies, of course, continued to be used in the Mass throughout the eighteenth century; but by Beethoven's time they were relatively rare, especially in orchestral Masses. The one composer who still used them extensively is Michael Haydn, in his a cappella Masses for Advent and Lent. It is significant that in some of these he limits the borrowed melody to the Incarnatus and expressly labels it "Corale." In the Missa dolorum B. M. V. (1762) it is set in the style of a harmonized chorale, in the Missa tempore Qudragesima of 1794 note against note, with the Gregorian melody (Credo IV of the Liber Usualis) appearing in the soprano. I have little doubt that Beethoven knew such works of Michael Haydn, at that time the most popular composer of sacred music in Austria.^[8]

Audio

Video

• Lester, Joel (Autumn 1970). "Revisions in the Autograph of the Missa Solemnis Kyrie". Journal of the American Musicological Society. 23 (3): 420–438. doi:10.2307/830614. JSTOR 830614.

• Media related to Missa solemnis (Beethoven) at Wikimedia Commons
• Missa solemnis, Op. 123: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• Kristin Diana Trayer: Ludwig van Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, Mass in D, Op.123 fulminiesaette.it
• Jan Swafford: Missa Solemnis, a Divine Bit of Beethoven, NPR