Missa Solemnis

In this famous portrait of Beethoven by Joseph Karl Stieler, Beethoven can be seen working on the Missa Solemnis in D Major.

The Missa solemnis in D Major, Op. 123 was composed by Ludwig van Beethoven from 1819-1823. It was first performed on April 7, 1824 in St. Petersburg, under the auspices of Beethoven's patron Prince Nikolai Galitzin; an incomplete performance was given in Vienna on 7 May 1824, when the Kyrie, Credo, and Agnus Dei were conducted by the composer.^[1] It is generally considered to be one of the composer's supreme achievements. Together with Bach's Mass in B Minor, it is the most significant mass setting of the common practice period.

Despite critical recognition as one of Beethoven's great works from the height of his composing career, Missa solemnis has not achieved the same level of popular attention that many of his symphonies and sonatas have enjoyed.^{[citation needed]} Written around the same time as his ninth symphony, it is Beethoven's second setting of the mass, after his Mass in C, Op. 86.

The mass is scored for 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.

Structure

Like most masses, Beethoven's Missa solemnis is in five movements:

• Kyrie: Perhaps the most traditional of the mass movements, the Kyrie is in a traditional ABA' structure, with stately choral writing in the first movement section and more contrapuntal voice leading in the Christe, which also introduces the four vocal soloists.
• 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 massive fugues, on the text "In gloria Dei patris. Amen", leading into a recapitulation of the initial Gloria text and music.
• Credo: One of the most remarkable movements to come from Beethoven's pen opens with a chord sequence that will be used again in the movement to effect modulations. 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" that includes one of the most difficult passages in the choral repertoire, when the subject returns at doubled tempo for a thrilling conclusion.
  The form of the Credo is divided into four parts: (I) allegro ma non troppo through "descendit de coelis" in B-flat; (II) "Incarnatus est" through "Resurrexit" in D; (III) "Et ascendit" through the Credo recapitulation in F; (IV) Fugue and Coda "et vitam venturi saeculi, amen" in B-flat.
• 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 — and begins the Missa's most transcendently beautiful music, 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 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 stately conclusion.

Performance

The orchestration of the piece features a quartet of vocal soloists, a substantial chorus, and the full orchestra, and each at times is used in virtuosic, textural, and melodic capacities. 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 above, 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.^{[citation needed]}

A typical performance of the complete work runs 80 to 85 minutes. 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.

Dedication

The work was dedicated to Archduke Rudolf of Austria, archbishop of Olomouc, Beethoven's foremost patron as well as pupil and friend. The copy presented to Rudolf was inscribed "From the heart – may it return to the heart!" ^[2]

Critical response

Some critics have been troubled by the problem that, as Theodor Adorno put it, "there is something peculiar about the Missa solemnis." In many ways, it is an atypical work, even for Beethoven. Missing is the sustained exploration of themes through development that is one of Beethoven's hallmarks. The massive 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 movements which last longer than any of the others. 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 or whether this is simply a case of "convergent evolution" to meet the peculiar demands of the mass text. Donald Francis Tovey has connected Beethoven to the earlier tradition in a different way:

Toscanini Performances

Arturo Toscanini's biographer Harvey Sachs notes multiple performances of Beethoven's work by the Maestro. The only commercial recording approved by Toscanini was taken mostly from a 1953 concert with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall. Portions of the live performance were replaced with recordings from the rehearsals before Toscanini allowed RCA Victor to release it in a two-disc LP album. It was later digitally remastered and reissued on CD by RCA. However, Sachs said the 1940 concert performance with the NBC Symphony, also in Carnegie Hall, may be better in overall interpretation. Toscanini's used the Robert Shaw Chorale in the 1953 concert and the Westminster Choir in the 1940 concert. The 1940 performance and other performances of the music conducted by Toscanini have been issued on CD.

See also

• Solemn Mass

References

1. ^ Elliot Forbes (ed.), Thayer's Life of Beethoven, Princeton, 1970, vol. II, p. 908, p. 925
2. ^ Gutmann, Peter. "Ludwig van Beethoven: Missa Solemnis". Classical Notes. http://www.classicalnotes.net/classics3/missa.html. Retrieved 8 September 2011. 

External links

• Performance of Agnus Dei movement (starting with Dona Nobis Pacem)
• Missa Solemnis: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project.
• 'Credo Movement,'- Commentary by Kristin Diana Trayer
• "'Missa Solemnis', a Divine Bit of Beethoven"- NPR commentary by Jan Swafford