Johann Sebastian Bach

Bach's Missa of 1733

Bach's of 1733, BWV 232 I (early version), is a Kyrie–Gloria Mass in B minor, composed in 1733 by Johann Sebastian Bach. It is an extended missa brevis (, ) consisting of a Kyrie in three movements

History#

Bach was a Lutheran church musician, devoted to the composition of sacred music in German. He wrote more than 200 cantatas for the liturgy, most of them in Leipzig from 1723 to 1726 at the beginning of his tenure as Thomaskantor, responsible for the music at the major churches. In Leipzig, a university city where Latin was understood, musical settings of the traditional Latin texts were performed on festive holidays. Bach composed works on Latin texts, for example a Magnificat in 1723, performed both on the Marian feast Visitation and Christmas that year, and in 1724 a Sanctus for Christmas, which he later integrated into his Mass in B minor. Both works were exceptional settings: the Magnificat extended to five vocal parts and the Sanctus to six voices, when four-part singing was common in Leipzig.

Bach’s intentions with the composition#

Augustus the Strong, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, died on 1 February 1733. He had converted to the Catholic Church in order to ascend to the throne of Poland in 1697. During a period of mourning, no cantata performances were permitted in Leipzig, interrupting Bach’s normal work of a weekly cantata performance. Bach was free to compose a Kyrie–Gloria Mass for the court of Dresden, Petitions to the new ruler after the death of the previous one, as the one sent by Bach, were not exceptional in nature: similar petitions by musicians to August III included those of Jan Dismas Zelenka (unsuccessfully competing with Johann Adolph Hasse for the post of Kapellmeister), Johann Joachim Quantz and Pantaleon Hebenstreit (a Lutheran court church director). What was exceptional was that Bach accompanied his petition with a composition of considerable dimensions — a liturgical composition, no less — which was surprising in that Bach was then employed as a Lutheran church composer, and indeed was identified as a devout Lutheran, but was here presenting a work for the Catholic liturgy. At the time, Germany lived under the cuius regio, eius religio principle (inhabitants of a region must follow the religion of their ruler), which led to a somewhat bifurcated situation in Dresden under August the Strong, who was officially Catholic in Poland, but was only privately Catholic in Dresden — no Catholicism was imposed on Lutheran Saxony; only the court at Dresden was Catholic. Lutherans, including the Electress Christiane Eberhardine, who steadfastly refused to convert to Catholicism (and for whom Bach had composed his Trauerode when she died in 1727), Performance material for the choir was not included, nor was the basso continuo part very elaborated. All these parts appear to have been copied directly from the full score, which Bach kept in Leipzig. Bach supplied the parts for single performers with many details that are not in the score he kept. Although some commentators suggest other liturgical and worldly venues where Bach may have anticipated a performance of the , there seems little doubt that Bach intended to tailor the piece so that it could be performed at the Dresden Hofkirche.

Reception at the Dresden court#

When the composition arrived in Dresden its format wasn’t very unusual compared to other works performed at the time at the Hofkirche. The repertoire performed there included over thirty masses consisting of only a Kyrie and Gloria. Many of these were composed or acquired by the court composer at the time Jan Dismas Zelenka; and in most cases, as also happened with Bach’s , these were later expanded into a complete mass (missa tota), or at least a Mass with all the usual Mass sections except the Credo (missa senza credo). Nor the fact that Bach’s was composed for virtuoso performers, nor that it was a composition requiring a SSATB choir could be considered exceptional at the time and place. The key signature of the mass was somewhat exceptional: the Hofkirche 1765 catalogue contains only one Mass in B minor, by Antonio Caldara. D major, the relative major key of B minor (i.e. with the same accidentals), was the most usual key for festive music including trumpets, because of the Saxon natural trumpet: all of Zelenka’s solemn masses were in that key, but also 6 of the 12 movements of Bach’s (including the Christe eleison and the opening and closing movements of the Gloria) have that same key signature. The most exceptional feature of Bach’s mass appears to have been its duration, which largely exceeded what was usual compared to similar compositions at the time in Dresden. This seems the most likely reason why the composition was filed in the Royal Library upon arrival in Dresden, instead of being added to the repertoire of the Hofkirche. As for the result of his petition to the new ruler in Dresden: some three years after his request Bach received the title of Royal Court Composer. In the intermediate period the Elector had other business to attend to: the War of the Polish Succession.

Performance history before being integrated in the Mass in B minor, BWV 232#

It is debated if the was performed at the time. Around 1745 Bach used three movements of the Gloria of the of 1733 for his cantata Gloria in excelsis Deo, BWV 191.

Scoring and structure — incorporation in the Mass in B minor, BWV 232#

In the last years of his life, presumably around 1748–1749, Bach integrated the complete of 1733 unchanged in his Mass in B minor, his only missa tota. Scoring and structure are identical with the later work, but markings differ because the parts contain more details than the 1733 score which he kept. Bach made changes to that score when he completed the mass. The work is scored for five vocal parts, two sopranos, alto, tenor and bass, and an orchestra of three trumpets, timpani, corno da caccia, two flauti traversi, two oboes, two oboes d’amore, two bassoons, two violins, viola, and basso continuo. The Kyrie is structured in three movements. Two different choral movements frame a duet for two sopranos. The Gloria is structured in nine movements in a symmetric arrangement around a duet of soprano and tenor. The of 1733 forms a considerable part of the Mass in B minor which publisher Hans Georg Nägeli described in 1818 as “the greatest musical art work of all times and nations” when he tried a first publication.

Publication#

In 2005, Bärenreiter published the work, titled “Missa, BWV 232 I, Fassung von 1733”, as part of the Neue Bach Ausgabe. The editor of three Early Versions of the Mass BWV 232, the others being “Credo in unum Deum, BWV 232 II, Frühfassung in G” and “Sanctus, BWV 232 III, Fassung von 1724” was Uwe Wolf.

Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach