Mass in B minor

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Precisely what Bach had in mind while composing the B Minor Mass remains one of the intriguing mysteries of music. Bach, born into a Lutheran family, remained a Lutheran throughout his life 1, could not have written a mass meant for the Catholic Church alone. Yet he wrote a Mass Ordinary in Latin, complete with all its sections, which is unique to the Roman Catholic Churches during Bach¡¦s time as the Latin Ordinary had long since been replaced by German equivalents in most other Lutheran congregations.

Instead of performing the entire Catholic mass, the Missa, which contained only the Kyrie and Gloria, were often used in Protestant churches. However, Luther had retained not only the Kyrie and Gloria in excelsis, but also the Credo, and Sanctus movements of the Catholic Ordinarium Missae for use in Protestant churches. Thus, in Leipzig, performances of the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, and Sanctus were not uncommon during Bachs lifetime , which may explain why Bach¡¦s Mass contained these 4 sections instead of just the Kyrie and Gloria. Bach could have stopped there but he went on to include the Osanna, Benedictus, Agnus Dei and Dona Nobis Pacem, which was highly unusual for a Lutheran Mass.

Bach scholar Christoph Wolff explains that the Mass could not be performed in a Protestant church, since Luther had banned the sections of the ritual relating to the sacrifice. Furthermore, the proportions of the work, in no less than twenty-four movements, would have ruled it out. On the other hand, the Mass was also unusable on the Catholic side, because of textual and formal differences. 4.

The composition of the Mass was stretched over a very long period of time, with the Kyrie and Gloria completed in 17, and the Credo in 1747.5 The Mass was completed only towards the end of Bach¡¦s life. With this timeline, we could tell that Bach was in no hurry to neither complete the Mass nor intend it for performance on any special occasions. Thus as Christoph Wolff has mentioned, it might have been Bach completing the Mass for the sake of completing it, to make it a full Mass Ordinary and for no ¡§discernible practical purpose¡¨.

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Bach was the unhappy music director of Collegium Musicum at the point of time when the Missa (the Kyrie and Gloria) was completed. He had had many disputes with the rector of the school, Johann August Ernesti, since 170, whose ambitious nature often challenged Bach¡¦s authority.6 It was noted that Bach wrote a request humbly applying for the position of court composer when he presented the Missa to the new Elector of Saxony Frederick Augustus II (king Augustus III of Poland) in 17. Thus it was very possible that Bach wrote the Missa more for the sake of his career than for his church.

During the time of composition of the Missa, Bach was busy with his duties in the Collegium Musicum as well as St Thomas School. The Missa had two ¡§borrowed¡¨ movements; the Gratias adapted from the opening chorus of Cantata No , Wir danken dir, Gott, while the Qui tollis is a development of the first movement of No 46, Schauet doch und sheet. This could be evidence that Bach was in a hurry to complete the Missa in time for the coronation of the new King of Poland. Given his heavy duties plus his emotional distress during that period, he might not have the time or energy to write a completely new Missa for Augustus II. Thus he borrowed. This again supports the argument that the main purpose of the Missa was a career move.

Frederick Augustus II had notoriously renounced his Lutherian faith for Roman Catholism in order to get crowned.7 Since the Missa could be used for both the Lutheran and Catholic churches, Bach was clever enough to stop just there for the time being. If he wrote a complete mass for the Catholic Church, it might have created unhappiness among the Lutheran community especially since Bach¡¦s ancestors had been famous for their services to the Lutheran church. 8 It might also have been unacceptable for the Catholics to have a Lutheran write their mass.

Bach was finally awarded the title of Court Composer in 176 after many contributions such as the writing of flattering congratulatory cantatas for members of the royal family. The title provided the old composer with comfort at that time, since it has elevated his status which eventually resolved his authority conflict with Ernesti.

After Bach had assumed the title, he resigned from the position of director of Collegium Musicum in 17. He mostly supplied cantatas to the church and with the protection of the Dresden court, he concentrated more on his private compositions. During this time, Bach also studied Latin polyphonic liturgical compositions, especially the stile antico tradition of strict counterpoint.10

It could have been Bach fretting over how to carry on with the Missa. On one hand, he was obliged to write a Catholic Mass since he was under the Dresden court. On the other, Bach could be battling his strong Lutheran faith to write a Catholic mass, which probably explained why the completion of the Mass dragged on for so long. It was unlike Bach to take such a long time to produce a piece of work. Despite the incomplete mass, Bach went on to write numerous other compositions for the keyboard and organ.

In May 1747, Bach went to Berlin with his son, Wilhelm Friedemann to visit his daughter-in-law (wife of Bach¡¦s other son Carl Philipp Emanuel who happened to be court musician there) who was expecting their second child. During his visit, he was warmly received by Frederick II (King Frederick the Great of Prussia), who was an enthusiastic musical amateur and player of the flute.11 It would have seemed common for any renowned composers to be received by royalty. However, Prussia was at war with Austria at that time and Saxony, being an ally of Austria was considered to be an enemy of Prussia too. Incidentally, Saxony was defeated, which made Bach¡¦s trip to Berlin seem like a planned move for his career.

In between all these, Bach probably attempted to continue composing the Credo from the Missa, or trying to complete his half completed Credo. With his newfound status with the King of Prussia, Bach might have felt less compelled to finish up the mass. Thus he went on to write music dedicated to Frederick II instead. After completing ¡¥A Musical Offering¡¦ for Frederick II, which would nonetheless please the king immensely, Bach was likely to be satisfied with where he stood in terms of fame and recognition. This was probably the time where he became more dedicated in completing his unfinished business such as the Mass and The Art of Fugue.

Bach also became more daring and imaginative in his approach when completing the rest of the controversial Mass which was intended for an orchestra so large that it was unheard of for a church service during his lifetime. The vocal parts are equally matched by the instrumental forces. Thus he probably did not intend for the Mass to be performed as a whole. He might have tried fusing both Lutheran and Catholic masses into one for purely experimental purposes.

As mentioned earlier, Bach had been studying the stile antico and applying it in many of his later compositions.1 It could have been him practicing the use of ¡§stile antico¡¨ before actually embarking on writing a Catholic mass, a field which was new to him. He could be trying his hand at writing a Catholic mass while placing his Lutheran ideals into them at the same time. Bach even wrote the Mass in the Italian opera tradition, with numbered movements. He had never stopped borrowing from his previous works, mainly cantatas. He fully exploited the popularity of the parody technique among the Baroque composers throughout the composition, thus showing his interest at experimenting with the composition rather than creating a new one.

Bach never heard the Mass performed as a whole in his lifetime. In fact he might not have even intended or expected it to be performed at all given the conservative society he was in. As scholars have pointed out, Bach¡¦s autograph score of the complete Mass had four title pages ¡V for the Missa, the Credo, the Sanctus and the Osanna, Benedictus, Agnus Dei and Dona nobis pacem.1 He probably did not even think of his work as a whole and had intended them for different churches. Since he completed everything before his death, he could have requested for a full performance if he had wanted. Yet he did not.

Considering these points, it is also not wrong to say that Bach did not compose the Mass in B Minor. In fact, if one examines the score, the work only started off in B minor. The main key was in fact D major. Bach had written the Mass in 7 keys, namely G minor (tragic consummation), F# minor (transcendent suffering), A major (joy and grace), B minor (human pain), D major (worldly power and glory), E minor (crucifixion) and G major (blessedness). 14

The Mass was probably compiled after his death by researchers. The smooth transition and fluidity between the links of all the pieces probably lead researchers to think that they belonged together. However, one can never be sure too sure regarding any conclusion since Bach did complete the pieces around the same time and there haven¡¦t been evidence that Bach had been writing other incomplete Masses during that time, which might have been the different continuations for these pieces.

In addition to that, since Bach¡¦s death, the attempts to perform his Mass as a whole had been successful so far and well-received. In fact by listening to the whole performance at one go, we can experience the mystery of the vastness of the Mass and the grandeur of its conception. Perhaps Bach did imagine for the Mass to be performed as a whole and hope that it would be in the future and not during his lifetime.

References

1. http//www.arcticwind.com/cdb/writings/bach.shtml

. Stauffer, George. The Mass in B Minor. Simon & Schuster Macmillian (17)

. http//www.alumni.caltech.edu/~xinh/luther.html

4. http//inkpot.com/classical/bachmmass.html

5.http//www.sfbach.org/concerts/0000notes.html

6.http//odur.let.rug.nl/Linguistics/diversen/bach/leipzig.html

7.Stauffer, George. The Mass in B Minor. Simon & Schuster Macmillian (17)

8.http//www.arcticwind.com/cdb/writings/bach.shtml

.http//odur.let.rug.nl/Linguistics/diversen/bach/leipzig.html

10.http//www.alumni.caltech.edu/~xinh/compos.html

11.http//www.baroquemusic.org/bqxjsbach.html#L1

1.http//www.discordia-music.com/Bios/bach.htm

1.http//www.sfbach.org/concerts/0000notes.html

14.http//www.alumni.caltech.edu/~xinh/balanc.html

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