Ludwig van Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in D Major, Op. 123 was composed in 1817-1823. Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptized December 17, 1770; died March 26, 1827) was a German composer of classical music, who predominantly lived in Vienna, Austria. ... Opus is a Latin word which means work (in the sense of a work of art). Some composers musical pieces are identified by opus numbers which generally run either in order of composition or in order of publication. ...

Beethoven's second setting of the mass (his first being the Mass in C, Op. 86, which is far less admired), is one of the composer's supreme achievements, and, with Bach's Mass in b minor, the most significant mass setting of the Common practice period. Beethoven himself, in his last years, referred to it as his finest work, and though it has notably failed to reach the popularity of many of the symphonies and sonatas, it indisputably represents Beethoven at the height of his powers. This article discusses the Mass as a standard form of classical music composition. ... The Mass in B Minor (BWV 232) is a work of music by Johann Sebastian Bach. ... In music the common practice period is a long period in western musical history spanning from before the classical era proper to today, dated, on the outside, as 1600-1900. ...

The mass is scored for full classical orchestra (including trombones), four-part chorus, and SATB soloists. This article is about choirs, musical ensembles containing singers. ...

Structure

Like most masses, the Missa Solemnis is in five movements:

• Kyrie: Perhaps the most traditional of the mass movements, the Kyrie is in a traditional ABA' structure, with stately choral writing in the first movement section and more contrapuntal voice leading in the Christe, which also introduces the four soloists.

• Gloria: Quickly shifting textures and themes highlight each portion of the Gloria text, in a beginning to the movement that is almost encyclopedic in its exploration of 3/4 time. The movement ends with the first of the work's two massive fugues, on the text "In Gloria Dei Patris. Amen" leading into a recapitulation of the initial "gloria" text and music.

• Credo: One of the most remarkable movements to come from Beethoven's pen opens with a chord sequence that will be used again in the movement to effect modulations. The Credo, like the Gloria, is an often disorienting mad rush through the text. The poignant modal harmonies for the "et incarnatus" yield to ever more expressive heights through the "crucifixus," and into a remarkable, a cappella setting of the "et resurrexit" that is over almost before it has begun. Most notable about the movement, though, is the fugue on "et vitam venturi" at the close, that includes one of the most difficult passages in the choral repertoire when the subject returns at twice the speed for a thrilling conclusion.

• Sanctus: Up until the benedictus of the Sanctus, the Missa Solemnis is of fairly normal classical proportions. But then, after an orchestral "preludio,:" a solo violin enters in its highest range--representing the Holy Spirit descending to earth--and begins the missa's most simply beautiful music, in an remarkably long extension of the text.

• Agnus Dei: A setting of the plea misere nobis that begins with the men's voices alone yields, eventual, to a bright D-major prayer "dona nobis pacem" (grant us peace) in a pastoral mode. After some fugal development, it is interrupted by martial sounds (a convention in the 18th century, as in Haydn's Missa in Tempore Belli) but eventually brings itself to a stately conclusion.

Kyrie is the vocative case of the Greek word κύριος (kyrios - lord) and means Oh, Lord. ... In music, a fugue is a type of piece written in counterpoint for several independent musical voices. ... A chord is a geometric figure. ... In music, modulation is most commonly the act or process of changing from one key (tonic, or tonal center) to another, also known as a key change. ... A cappella music is vocal music or singing without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. ... (Franz) Joseph Haydn (in German, Josef; he never used the Franz) (March 31, 1732 – May 31, 1809) was a leading composer of the classical period. ...

Critical Response

Some critics have been captured by the problem that, as Theodor Adorno put it, "there is something peculiar about the Missa Solemnis." In many ways, it is an atypical work, even for Beethoven. Missing is the sustained exploration of themes through development that is one of Beethoven's hallmarks. The massive fugues at the end of the Gloria and Credo align it with the work of his late period--but his simultaneous interest in the theme and variations form is more than absent. Instead, the missa presents a continuous musical narrative, almost without repetition, particularly in the Gloria and Credo movements which last longer than any of the others. The style, Adorno has noted, is as close to treatment of themes in imitation that one finds in the Flemish masters such as Josquin des Prez and Johannes Ockeghem, but it is unclear whether Beethoven was consciously imitating their techniques or whether this is simply a case of convergent evolution to meet the peculiar demands of the mass text. Donald Francis Tovey has connected Beethoven to the earlier tradition in a different way: Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and Jürgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund Adorno (September 11, 1903 – August 6, 1969) was a German sociologist, philosopher, musicologist and composer. ... In music, a theme is the initial or primary melody. ... In music, variation is a formal technique where material is altered during repetition; reiteration with changes. ... Josquin Des Prez Josquin Des Prez (diminutive of Joseph; latinized Josquinus Pratensis) (c. ... Ockeghem (with glasses) and his singers Johannes Ockeghem (c. ... In evolutionary biology, convergent evolution describes the process whereby organisms not closely related independently acquire similar characteristics while evolving in separate and sometimes varying ecosystems. ... Sir Donald Francis Tovey (July 17, 1875 - July 10, 1940) was a British musical analyst, musicologist, writer on music, composer and pianist. ...

"Not even Bach or Handel can show a greater sense of space and of sonority. There is no earlier choral writing that comes so near to recovering some of the lost secrets of the style of Palestrina. There is no choral and no orchestral writing, earlier or later, that shows a more thrilling sense of the individual colour of every chord, every position, and every doubled third or discord."

Perhaps the best way to recognize the importance of the mass in Beethoven's work is to acknowledge its singularity, and to view its remarkable variety and forceful individuality as the reflection of Beethoven's own relationship with the divine. Some have remarked that his treatment of the text--including the addition of a sigh, "a," in the Miserere section of the Gloria, and the quick disposal of several lines of text in the Credo underneath the weight of the two other choral parts and orchestra--shows a willful indifference to the more dogmatic precepts of the church, while others see the forceful expression of the central movements as having a sincerity that could only be borne of true belief. What is certain is that the Missa Solemnis is a difficult work, and a contentious one. But perhaps in being so, it mirrors Beethoven's own faith. Johann Sebastian Bach, 1748 portrait by Elias Gottlob Haussmann Johann Sebastian Bach (21 March 1685 (O.S.) – July 28, 1750 (N.S.))[1] was a German composer and organist of the Baroque period, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time. ... George Frideric Handel (German Georg Friedrich Händel), (February 23, 1685 – April 14, 1759) was a German-born British Baroque music composer. ... Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (Born in Palestrina (Praeneste) or Rome, 1525, latest February 1, 1526 – February 2, 1594 in Rome) was an Italian composer of Renaissance music. ... In poetry, dissonance is the deliberate avoidance of patterns of repeated vowel sounds (see assonance). ...

External link

• Missa Solemnis - Essay about the Missa Solemnis at Good-Music-Guide