Klosterkirche, Dießen am Ammersee,
the venue for
Karl Richter and the Munich Bach Choir and Orchestra’s
performance of Bach’s Mass in B Minor.
(An alternative view.)
BWV 232 Mass in B Minor, Messe in h-Moll
@Wikipedia; @bach-cantatas.com; Latin text; English translation;
Mass Sections;
A YouTube playlist containing a large number of complete recordings
The arrangement or tableau below should be viewed
as having the Table of Contents at the center,
with performances extending off to the sides.
In this instance,
- Karl Richter with the Munich Bach Choir and Orchestra,
Gundula Janowitz, Hertha Töpper, Horst Laubenthal, and Hermann Prey
(1969, Klosterkirche, Dießen am Ammersee, Bayern)
is on the left, - Ton Koopman with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir
(1994, Église Wallonne, Amsterdam, Holland)
is on the right
[alas, as of 2011-06, the account of the uploader, StefanoF87,
has been terminated by youtube. Schade!], and - Herbert Blomstedt with the Gewandhaus Orchestra and GewandhausKammerchor
(2005, Bach’s own Thomaskirche, Leipzig, Saxony)
is below.
When the videos are in fact live videos of performances
(rather than merely audio together with a static photo),
text boxes are adjacent to the video,
to allow following the text while watching the video.
For playlists click on the appropriate header
in the “Performances” section of the table.
In some browsers, some of the color images for the videos are not displayed;
clicking on the appropriate play symbol (the triangle) starts play even so,
at least in Internet Explorer.
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Here are the Richter and Leipzig videos on the left, with the text frames on the right:
J.S.Bach: Mass in B minor, BWV232 - Koopman/BRSO(2007Live)
Uploaded on Nov 1, 2011 by magischmeisjeorkest (audio-only, 1h50m14s)
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Mass in B minor, BWV232
Soprano: Carolys Sampson
Counter Tenor: Daniel Taylor
Tenor: Charles Daniels
Bass: Klaus Mertens
Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Ton Koopman
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Herkulessaal, München, 22 12/2007
Then there is:
Performer:
Johannette Zomer, soprano
Véronique Gens, soprano
Andreas Scholl, alto
Christoph Prégardien, tenor
Peter Kooy, bass
Hanno Müller-Brachmann, bass
Conductor: Philippe Herreweghe
La Chapelle Royale & Collegium Vocale Gent
Choir and Orchestra of Collegium Vocale Gent
which seems to be the 1996 CD here; see also the rave reviews at Amazon.
This is available as a
complete video, published on Mar 25, 2012 by EssentialClassical (audio-only, 1h48m28s)
or a playlist.
Also:
Joélle Harvey soprano
Carolyn Sampson soprano
Iestyn Davies counter-tenor
Ed Lyon tenor
Matthew Rose bass
Choir of the English Concert
The English Concert
Harry Bicket conductor
Royal Albert Hall
2 August 2012
Published on Oct 26, 2012 by Simon Birch
• Bach: Mass in B minor, BWV 232
• Johanette Zomer: soprano
• Maarten Engeltjes: countertenor
• Thomas Walker: tenor
• Peter Harvey: bass
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Conducted by Daniel Reuss
Recorded & filmed live at Sainte Marie-Madeleine Basilica, Vézelay,
France, during Vézelay Festival 2010. Directed for video by Vincent
Massip.
1st recording of Mass in B minor BWV 232 by D. Reuss.
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV232-Rec8.htm
Published on 2014-10-20 by Oedipus Tyrannus (1:47:21 720p HD)
Capella Reial Catalunya, Le Concert des Nations, Savall
An extensive table containing performances of settings of the Mass by some of our greatest composers,
including Ockeghem, Josquin, J.S. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven,
used to be here on this web page
(it started out as an expansion of the Table of Contents above),
but now has been moved to a web page of its own:
The Mass in Music.
Here is an adaption of the discussion of BWV 232 in
Christoph Wolff’s biography Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician.
The first paragraph is mainly about The Art of the Fugue,
but provides the context for the beginning of the next paragraph.
The Art of the Fugue and the B-minor Mass
confirm to the ever-present Bachian intention
of excelling beyond himself and others.
The Art of the Fugue, though linked to earlier fugue compositions,
moves to a level that is utterly novel.
The entire multisectional work is derived from the same thematic material,
a musical plan that presupposes a far-reaching thought process
regarding the harmonic-contrapuntal implications of the chosen theme.
The result is more than a study of fugue:
it is a compendium of the range offered by the utmost concentration and
the highest technical demands of instrumental counterpoint.
The B-minor Mass figures as a fully comparable counterpart.
Its dimensions correspond to those of the St. Matthew Passion,
but the Mass stands out, not just for its dominant choral fugues
but for its exclusive focus on contrapuntal settings.
It features a dynamic interplay of unparalleled dimensions,
pitting vocal against instrumental counterpoint and vice versa,
exposing styles conceived both vocally and instrumentally, and
integrating many different vocal textures, with and without obbligato instruments,
into a large-scale, complex score that has no room for
such “lower” categories as recitatives and note-against-note chorale settings.
.
.
.
The Mass in B Minor reflects a long-term engagement and—
within the limitations dictated by
word composition, a fixed liturgical genre, and a long historical tradition—
a systematic musical exploration that Bach defined for himself.
Bach’s grandiose plan to set a solemn Mass can already be discerned in
the layout of the Kyrie-Gloria Mass of 1733.
This aim is apparent in
the five-part texture of the vocal writing, the large orchestral contingent,
and especially in the sophisticated design of its individual movements.
The opening three-movement Kyrie group
clearly proclaims the composer’s ambition:
Kyrie I is an extended fugue with obbligato orchestra,
the Christe adopts the style of a contemporary opera duet,
and Kyrie II draws on retrospective vocal counterpoint,
thereby relegating the orchestra to the role of doubling the choral parts.
The entire complex shows the great value Bach placed in
highly contrasting compositional styles and techniques.
Its movements also outline a sequence of keys
from B minor to D major to F-sharp minor, forming a B minor triad,
thereby signaling a broadly conceived harmonic scheme for the entire work
that centers on D major (the trumpet key).
The Gloria complex of the musically self-contained Kyrie-Gloria Mass of 1733
resolutely builds on the stylistic variety of the Kyrie group
by offering four large-scale choruses
(“Gloria in excelsis / Et in terra pax,”
“Gratias agimus tibi,”
“Qui tollis peccata mundi,”
“Cum sancto spiritu”)
interspersed with
four equally large-scale solo movements with obbligato instruments,
each with a full polyphonic orchestral accompaniment.
Thus, the Gloria section gives
a solo aria to each concertist of the five-voiced choir
and an obbligato part to each family of instruments in the orchestra
(strings, flutes, reeds, and brass):
combining solo soprano II with solo violin (“Laudamus”),
soprano I and tenor with flute (“Domine Deus”),
alto with oboe d’amore (“Qui sedes”),
and bass with horn (“Quoniam”).
In its first version,
the Symbolum Nicenum (Credo section) of the B-minor Mass
comprised only eight movements,
as the duet setting of “Et in unum Dominum” also incorporated
the text portion of “et incarnatus est …”
After finishing this duet, however,
and possibly after finishing the entire score of the Symbolum,
Bach decided to reapportion the text underlay of the duet,
free up the “et incarnatus est” section,
and compose a separate movement for this liturgically pivotal text
traditionally treated with special musical emphasis.
In its overall design, now comprising nine movements,
the Symbolum gained a strengthened symmetrical layout.
Bach turned what had been
a 2 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 2 design (eight movements, choruses boldface)
into an architecture of 2 + 1 + 3 + 1 + 2.
The Symbolum opens and closes with a pair of contrasting choruses:
“Credo” (motet, on the liturgical chant)
together with “Patrem omnipotentum” (concertato fugue) at the start,
and “Confiteor” (likewise on the liturgical chant)
together with “Et expecto” (again, concertato fugue) at the end.
By including two settings in
an emphatically retrospective style (“Credo” and “Confiteor”)
based on medieval chant,
Bach added a theological, historical, and compositional dimension
that the Kyrie-Gloria Mass of 1733 lacked.
Thus, in setting the chants,
Bach uses the (musical) canon technique in order to accent
the (liturgical) canonical value of the Mass text in general
and the Nicene Creed in particular,
while the archaic style of the two cantus firmus settings
allows the work to embrace a wide span of
the compositional history of the Mass genre.
In the theological realm, we find that
following the “Confiteor,” which is set in imitative counterpoint,
two different settings of the text
“Et expecto resurrectionem” (And I await the resurrection)
draw a line between “the expecting” and “the expected):
an expressive Adagio, filled with unprecedented chromatic and enharmonic devices
that illustrate the suffering in this world, contrasting with
an upbeat Vivace that portrays, in anticipation, the life of the world to come.
The two framing choral parts of the Symbolum
are each adjoined by two arias,
“Et in unum Dominum” and
“Et in Spiritum Sanctum”,
that function as
connecting links to the central choral complex.
This center emphasizes in a musically persuasive way
the Christological core of the Nicene Creed:
“And he was made incarnate,”
“He was crucified,”
“And he was resurrected.”
This central group of three choruses includes
both the oldest and the most recent compositions of the entire Mass:
“Crucifixus,” a movement based on the chorus
“Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen” from cantata BWV 12 of 1714, and
“Et incarnatus est,” an inserted afterthough
and apparently Bach’s last choral setting, dating from 1749.
In the scheme of things,
the “Crucifixus” coming immediately after “Et incarnatus est”
would seem to threaten a stylistic and aesthetic clash of incompatible music.
Bach, however, avoids such a conflict:
he subtly links the two movements
by providing both with a similar structural underpinning,
and unifies them by using a repeated melodic pattern in each.
The six-note violin figure
that shapes the “Et incarnatus est” from beginning to end
(and, for the concluding measures,
even slips into three-part canonic counterpoint)
gives way to the seven-note ostinato bass line of the “Crucifixus.”
The Sanctus and the movements that follow it date from
the time the score of the Mass was completed in 1748–49.
All of them, however, derive from earlier works.
The Sanctus was originally written for Christmas 1724,
though in a slightly different scoring
for three sopranos, alto, tenor, and bass.
The “Osanna” derives from a secular cantata movement dating from 1732,
and the Benedictus from an unknown original.
Even the Agnus Dei is a parody of a 1725 cantata movement;
however, not only does it evince substantive changes,
it also contains newly composed passages,
such as the entrance of the alto in canon with the unison strings,
a genuine tour de force in enhancing a parody with new material.
This case strikingly documents Bach’s intention to improve where necessary
the contrapuntal structure of the work.
Finally, the “Dona nobis pacem,”
being a musical reprise of the “Gratias agimus tibi,”
shows evidence both of Bach’s understanding of
this final section of the Ordinary of the Mass—a song of thanksgiving—
and of his artistic intention to round off a work that originated over decades,
but whose separate sections were now put together to form a whole.
Even so, the paper dividers—
that is, the numbered autograph title pages inserted for all four Mass sections—
and the noticeable differences in the scoring of the various sections
preserve traces of the work’s genesis.
[Wolf above refers to Bach’s division of the Mass into
Kyrie-Gloria, Symbolum, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei ff.
(as pictured in the Richter video).
It is common, however, to divide the Mass into
Kyrie, Gloria, Symbolum, and Sanctus ff.]
In the completed score,
which embraces a wide spectrum of vocal-instrumental polyphony,
Bach was able to underline what he perceived as the timeless validity of
the liturgical and musical meaning of the ancient Mass.
Hence,
the multiple compositional styles that constitute the B-minor Mass
cannot be reduced to a mere historical anthology of exemplary settings.
True, where Bach borrowed from existing music,
he selected from among the best he had.
To some extent, he may also have been guided by the aspect of preservation,
for he could see very well the difference between
the short-lived fashions of the German cantatas on the one hand and
the longevity of the Latin Mass on the other—
not to mention the parochial qualities of the cantatas
vis-à-vis the universality of the Mass.
So he chose this most historical of all vocal genres
to embody the summa summarum of his artistry,
that of the capellmeister-cantor.
We know of no occasion for which Bach could have written the B-minor Mass,
nor any patron who might have commissioned it,
nor any performance of the complete work before 1750.
Thus, Bach’s last choral composition is in many respects
the vocal counterpart to The Art of the Fugue,
the other side of the composer’s musical legacy.
Like no other work of Bach’s,
the B-minor Mass represents a summary of his writing for voice,
not only in its variety of styles, compositional devices, and ranges of sonorities,
but also in its high level of technical polish.
The Mass offers a full panoply of the art of musical composition,
with a breadth and depth betraying not only theoretical perspicacity
but also a comprehensive grasp of music history,
particularly in its use of old and new styles.
Just as theological doctrine survived over the centuries in the words of the Mass,
so Bach’s mighty setting preserved the musical and artistic creed of its creator
for posterity.
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