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Mostly Mozart
conducted by Stella Hull Lisa Jasmine Rijmer
(soprano)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756 - 1791)
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Mozart's sacred music is mainly vocal, and the many works
cover a range of styles: Gregorian choral elements meet rigorous counterpoint, and even
operatic elements can sometimes emerge. Stylistic unity and consistency can be seen in all
the sacred music works. The sacred compositions include 19 masses, mainly written in
Salzburg, of which the Spätzenmesse K220, the Krönungsmesse K317, and
the Great Mass in C minor K427 are the best known, alongside his last unfinished Requiem
mass K626. |
The six
movements are the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus and the Agnus
Dei. The musical style of the piece corresponds to the hybrid form that was preferred
by the Archbishop: its use of wind instruments suggests a "Solemn Mass", and its
length suggests a "Missa brevis". Mozart himself described his task in a letter:
"Our church music is very different to that of Italy, all the more so since a mass
with all its movements, even for the most solemn occasions when the sovereign himself
reads the mass [as on Easter Day], must not last more than 3 quarters of an hour. One
needs a special training for this kind type of composition, and it must also be a mass
with all instruments - war trumpets, timpani etc." Thus the mass had to have a grand ceremonial setting, but also needed to have a compact structure. Mozart therefore omits formal closing fugues for the Gloria and Credo. The Credo with its problematic, vast text is in a tight rondo form, and the Dona nobis pacem recalls the music of the Kyrie. The soloists are continually employed either as a quartet, in pairs or in solo lines that contrast with the larger forces of the choir. The most stunning examples are the central hushed section of the Credo. Later when the Hosanna section of the Benedictus is well under way, the quartet begins the piece again. Perhaps the most obvious reason for the popularity of this mass in Prague in 1791 and 1792 was the uncanny similarity between the soprano solo Agnus Dei and the Countess's aria Dove sono from Figaro which had been so successfully performed there in the 1780s. |
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