Song of praise for the solemn St. John's Lodge

The hymn of praise to the solemn St. John's Lodge (text incipit : O holy band ) KV 148 (KV ⁶ 125 ^h ) is a song for tenor , one-part male choir and piano by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart .

Origin and use of the song

Mozart composed it in Salzburg around 1772 . The text of the song comes from the pen of Ludwig Friedrich Lenz (1717–1780) and includes numerous stanzas. The first stanza reads:

O holy bond of friendship between loyal brothers,
equal to the highest happiness and Eden's bliss,
but never repugnant to friendship , known to
the world and yet full of mysteries.

The hymn of praise for the solemn St. John's Lodge is the oldest surviving Masonic song and is still sung today on ceremonial occasions in the Masonic boxes . The three-quarter time , like the repetition of the last verse by a unanimous choir, refers to the traditions of the Freemasons.

Mozart wrote the song at a time when he was not yet a Freemason; the exact circumstances in which the song was written are not known. According to Harald Strebel, it may have been an order from the Munich Freemasons' Lodge Zur Cautiousness .

Sound recordings

The song was recorded in 1969 by tenor Werner Krenn for the DECCA label . A compilation of Mozart's entire Masonic music, which also contains this song, was released on CD by DECCA in 1990 under the title Masonic Music . The compilation contains, among other works by Mozart, the cantata fragment Dir, Seele des Weltalls KV 429, as well as his Maurerische Funeral Music KV 477. The conductor of the recordings was István Kertész .

literature

Ernst August Ballin: The poet of Mozart's Freemason song "O Holy Band" and the first surviving German Freemason song book. Schneider, Tutzing 1960.
Paul Nettl: Music and Freemasonry. Mozart and the Royal Art. Bechtle, Esslingen 1956.
Heinz Schuler: Music and Freemasonry: Studies, Facts, Biographies. Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven 2000, ISBN 3-7959-0788-8 .

Web links

Song of praise for the solemn St. John's Lodge : score and critical report in the New Mozart Edition
Song of praise for the solemn St. John's Lodge, K.148 / 125h : sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
Mozart's Masonic Music and its Texts
Harald Strebel: La musique maçonnique dans la vie de la loge
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: O holy band, Auf die Johannisloge, KV 148, 125h (song) on YouTube

Remarks

^ It was not until 1784 that Mozart was accepted as an apprentice in the Viennese Masonic lodge Zur Charity ; In the Lodge for True Unity he is a “visiting brother”. In 1785 he became a journeyman, shortly afterwards a master. After the lodge was dissolved at the end of 1785, Mozart belonged to the lodge Zur neuekrönten Hoffnung (later Crowned Hope ). Later Freemason compositions by Mozart such as Maurerfreude KV 471, Journeyman 's Journey KV 468 or Maurerische Funeral Music KV 477 were created as contributions to certain celebrations in his boxes.

[1] It was not until 1784 that Mozart was accepted as an apprentice in the Viennese Masonic lodge Zur Charity ; In the Lodge for True Unity he is a “visiting brother”. In 1785 he became a journeyman, shortly afterwards a master. After the lodge was dissolved at the end of 1785, Mozart belonged to the lodge Zur neuekrönten Hoffnung (later Crowned Hope ). Later Freemason compositions by Mozart such as Maurerfreude KV 471, Journeyman 's Journey KV 468 or Maurerische Funeral Music KV 477 were created as contributions to certain celebrations in his boxes.