Mass No. 2 (Schubert)

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The Mass No. 2 in G major D 167 is a setting for the Mass for solos, choir and orchestra by Franz Schubert from 1815.

Origin and history

According to the entry in the score - autograph , the 18-year-old Schubert composed the mass in less than a week, from March 2nd to 7th, 1815. Since he interrupted work on his 2nd symphony for this purpose , it can be assumed that Schubert would do the Messe received a composition commission. In the first version, only a small line-up based on the Viennese church trio (2 violins and basso continuo , here expanded to include the viola ) was planned for the orchestra . The work was probably first performed in this form in 1815 under Schubert's own direction in the Lichtental parish church .

At a later date that was not precisely determined, Schubert added trumpets and timpani to the work . Since Eusebius Mandyczewski , the editor of the work in the context of the old Schubert Complete Edition (1887), considered these extensions to be spurious, he only included the first version in the edition, which remained decisive for the reception of the mass for the coming decades. It was not until the 1980s that the original set of parts by Franz Schubert was found again with the instrumental extensions in Klosterneuburg , where the first verifiable performance of this version took place on July 11, 1841.

The first printing of the mass took place in 1846, but incorrectly under the name of the former Prague cathedral music director Robert Führer , who had recently lost his job for fraud and later ended up in prison for various offenses. Schubert's brother Ferdinand thereupon demanded a correction in a newspaper article in 1847, which would take place with the next edition of the print.

Ferdinand Schubert, for his part, added oboes (or clarinets ) and bassoons to the composition of the mass in 1847 .

construction

  • Kyrie (soprano solo, choir - G major)
  • Gloria (soprano and bass solo, choir - D major)
  • Credo (Choir - G major)
  • Sanctus (Choir - D major)
  • Benedictus (soprano, tenor and bass solo, choir - G major modulated to D major)
  • Agnus Dei (soprano and bass solo, choir - E minor modulated to G major)

The performance lasts approx. 25 minutes

occupation

Work description

The mass is predominantly set in a homophonic and song-like manner and is therefore geared towards the possibilities of a smaller church community. Only the Benedictus is laid out as a three-part canon , and the Osanna sections of Sanctus and Benedictus are composed as fugati .

As in all of his Latin mass settings, Schubert leaves out the sentence “ Et unam sanctam catholicam et apostolicam ecclesiam ” (German: “[I believe in] the one holy Catholic and apostolic church”) in the Credo , as well as - along with almost all of his other lat Mesen (with the exception of his first in F major) - also the sentence “ Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum ” (German: “I expect the resurrection from the dead”), and thus expresses his very personal reservations about certain central Christian beliefs .

The G major mass is one of the most frequently performed church music works by Franz Schubert today.

Audio samples

Recordings by the MIT Concert Choir, conducted by William Cutter (2000)

Kyrie
Gloria
Creed
Sanctus
Benedictus
Agnus Dei

literature

Sheet music editions

  • Franz Beyer (Ed.): Franz Schubert. Mass in G major for solos, choir, orchestra and organ D 167. Piano reduction. Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden 1995, Breitkopf Edition 8611.
  • Bernhard Paul, Willi Schulze (ed.): Franz Schubert. Fair in G. Carus, Stuttgart 1995, ISMN M-007-07519-4.

Secondary literature

  • Hans Jaskulsky: The Latin masses of Franz Schubert . Schott, Mainz 1986, ISBN 3-7957-1784-1 .
  • Michael Kube: Mass No. 2 in G major, D 167 . In: Hans Gebhard (Ed.): Harenberg Chormusikführer. Harenberg, Dortmund 1999, p. 781, ISBN 3-611-00817-6 .

Web links

Commons : Mass No. 2 in G major (Schubert)  - collection of images, videos and audio files