Mass, BWV 232 I.
The Missa in B Minor composed by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1733 as a musical setting of parts of the Kyrie and Gloria of the Latin Mass text . He dedicated it to Elector Friedrich August II, who as King of Poland August III. was called, and sent him the performance parts. Towards the end of his life, Bach expanded the Missa into the complete mass known as the B minor mass .
The Missa did not have its own number in the Bach Works Directory . Bärenreiter published the work in 2005 under the title Missa, BWV 232 I , version from 1733 as part of the New Bach Edition . It is also referred to as Missa 1733 for short .
history
Bach worked in Leipzig as a Lutheran Thomaskantor from 1723 , responsible for music at the city's main churches. Between 1723 and 1726 he wrote many cantatas for the Sundays and public holidays of the church year, for soloists and four-part choir and orchestra. In Leipzig, liturgical music with Latin texts was performed on major holidays. At the beginning of his tenure, Bach set the Magnificat to music in an unusual five-part work in twelve movements, which was performed both on the feast of the Visitation of the Virgin on July 2, 1723 and on Christmas that year. In 1724 he composed a Sanctus for Christmas in a six-part movement, which he later also included in the B minor Mass.
After the death of Elector Friedrich August I of Saxony (August the Strong) on February 1, 1733, no music was allowed to be performed during the national mourning from February 15 to July 2, 1733. Bach had time for the unusually extensive composition with which he worked with August III. applied for the title of Compositeur at Hof Capelle . The Saxon court had been Catholic since August's father converted to Catholicism. Bach wrote a work that could be performed in both Lutheran and Catholic services. He took into account the taste of the Dresden audience in terms of cast and style and showed not only his versatility, but also that he was familiar with the opera and church music of Dresden. Bach wrote on the front page:
“Against Sr. Königl. The Highness and Electoral Highness of Saxony showed his most submissive devotion with the enclosed Missa, the author J. S. Bach "
In an accompanying letter, Bach let it be known that he was not satisfied with his position as a church musician in Leipzig and that he could perhaps imagine a job at the Dresden court:
"For a few years, and until then, I had the directorate of music in both of the main churches in Leipzig, but through no fault of my own, I had to feel a reduction in the accidents associated with this function, which however would like to remain entirely, far away Ew. Your Royal Highness would show me your mercy and confer a Praedicat from Dero Hoff-Capelle, and therefore would give Orth's high order to issue a decree; Such gracious granting of my humble pleading will bind me to infinite admiration, and I offer myself precisely in the most guilty obedience, each time for Ew. Your royal highness gracious desire to show my tireless diligence in composing the Kirchen Musique as well as for the orchestra, and to dedicate all my energies to Dero ... "
The collection of individual parts that Bach sent contained parts for soprano I, soprano II, alto , tenor , bass , trumpet I, trumpet II, trumpet III, timpani , corno da caccia , flauto traverso I, flauto traverso II, oboe ( d 'amore ) I, oboe (d'amore) II, oboe (d'amore) III, violin I (2 copies), violin II, viola , cello , bassoon and basso continuo . Bach had made most of these copies himself, but his wife, sons, and an unknown copyist helped with the final sentences of both Kyrie and Gloria. Anna Magdalena wrote the cello parts, Carl Philipp Emanuel the soprano parts , Wilhelm Friedemann the parts of the first violin, the unknown copyist the oboes and continuo. The parts were likely copied directly from the score that Bach kept. Bach noted numerous details in the parts that are not included in the score and therefore did not go into the B minor Mass. He not only added performance titles, but also changed the melody lines without noting this in the score. The comparison of the individual parts with the score, which was changed both by Bach and, especially after his death, by his son Carl Philipp Emanuel, provides an insight into the composer's workshop, but makes a single valid version impossible.
Although many considerations were made about ecclesiastical or other locations for a possible performance of the Missa, it seems likely that Bach was aiming for a performance in what was then the Dresden court church, which had resulted from a renovation of the opera on Taschenberg . There is no evidence that the Missa was performed during Bach's lifetime. It was not until 1736, three years after Bach's request, that he was awarded the desired title of composer at Hof Capelle .
Structure and music
Main articles: Mass in B minor, Missa, and overview
As usual, Bach structured the Kyrie in three sentences, corresponding to the three requests for mercy. He designed the Gloria in nine movements in a symmetrical arrangement around a central duet. This structure went unchanged into his B minor Mass , which only differs in individual parts. Bach took into account the tastes of the Dresden audience, the skills of the players in the court orchestra and the singers in the court opera . He adopted characteristic features from masses in Dresden, such as multi-movement works analogous to the number opera, a slow introduction for the first Kyrie, a duet for Christe eleison, and weighty choral movements, while recitatives and arias are relatively more represented in his church music works for Leipzig . Further elements that Bach adapted to the Dresden taste were the five-part vowel movement, which was the exception in Leipzig but was common in Dresden, and the incorporation of movements in the stile antico , a reference to the polyphony of the 16th century, which in Dresden trade fairs was popular.
Bach added a slow introduction to an extended fugue on Kyrie eleison , entitled Adagio , and designed the duet Christe like a love duet in a contemporary Neapolitan opera. The virtuoso aria Laudamus te (We praise you) could have been intended for the soprano Faustina Bordoni , a prima donna of the court opera, whose abilities Johann Joachim Quantz described.
Bach used earlier works in the composition. The parody ratio is certain for some movements , for example for Gratias agimus tibi , which he derived from the first choral movement of the cantata We thank you, God, we thank you (BWV 29). In the case of many other movements, the manuscript shows that it is more of a copy than a new composition, even if the original is not known.
publication
The autograph of the individual parts of the Missa is kept in the Saxon State Library - Dresden State and University Library. While the first edition of Bach's complete works by the Bach Society only treated the Missa as part of the B minor Mass, Bärenreiter published the work under the title Missa, BWV 232 I, version of 1733 , as part of the New Bach Edition . The editor of three early versions (also: Credo in unum Deum, BWV 232 II, early version in G , and Sanctus, BWV 232 III, version from 1724 ) was Uwe Wolf . The Missa was edited critically for the first time in this edition.
In 2014, Carus-Verlag published a hybrid version of the Mass in B minor as part of the Stuttgart Bach Editions - Urtext , which were created in collaboration with the Leipzig Bach Archive , which contains and comments on both the score and the individual Dresden parts in facsimile . In the foreword to the study score, Ulrich Leisinger emphasizes : "The complicated history of the origins and transmission of the B minor Mass means that it is impossible to speak of a binding work form."
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Bach, Johann Sebastian / early versions of the Mass in B minor BWV 232 . 2005. Retrieved November 3, 2014.
- ↑ Jochen Grob: Missa 1733 . s-line.de. Archived from the original on August 19, 2014. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 28, 2014.
- ↑ a b c Markus Rathey: Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B Minor: The Greatest Artwork of All Times and All People ( en , PDF) bach.nau.edu. 2003. Archived from the original on October 5, 2013. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 17, 2013.
- ↑ a b John Butt: Bach: Mass in B Minor ( en ). Cambridge University Press, 1991, ISBN 0-521-38716-7 , pp. 8-12.
- ↑ Margaret Steinitz: Bach's Latin Church Music ( en ) London Bach Society. Archived from the original on July 15, 2011. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 16, 2010.
- ↑ Thomas Seedorf: Introduction to BWV 232 - B Minor Mass - by JS Bach (1675–1750) / Johann Sebastian Bach's "Great Catholic Mass" (PDF) meinhardo.files.wordpress.com. P. 1. Accessed December 4, 2014.
- ↑ Missa in B minor (Kyrie and Gloria of the B minor Mass) BWV 232 (early version); BC E 2 / Messe / Messsatz / Magnificat . University of Leipzig . Retrieved October 28, 2014.
- ↑ D-Dl Mus.2405-D-21 . Saxon State Library - State and University Library. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
- ↑ a b Ulrich Leisinger: »Diligence is the highest editor's duty« . Carus-Verlag, 2014. Archived from the original on October 29, 2014 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Accessed December 4, 2014).
- ↑ Stockigt 2013, p. 41
- ↑ Yo Tomita, Robin A. Leaver, Jan Smaczny (Eds.): Exploring Bach's B-minor Mass ( en ). Cambridge University Press, 2013, ISBN 9781107007901 .
- ↑ Christoph Wolff : The stile antico in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Studies of Bach's late work in 1968 . Steiner Verlag, Erlangen-Nürnberg, p. 34.
- ↑ a b c d Ulrich Leisinger: Foreword . Carus publishing house . 2014. Archived from the original on December 8, 2014. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
- ↑ a b c Arthur Wenk: JS Bach and the Mystery of the B Minor Mass ( en , PDF) arthurwenk.ca. 2011. Archived from the original on December 9, 2014. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 6, 2013.
