Bach's spiritual masterpiece in one of Britain's finest cathedrals, a fitting climax to our 40th anniversary year!
“I noted a pronounced stillness among the departing company,
the sort that occurs when a group of people have experienced a truly
transformational occurrence together which then compels the individual
to reflect on that experience.”
(Jaqui Strevens, Wells Journal)
read more...
“It was a splendid performance, so full of life. The choir
were on very good form and exuded a wonderful sense of excitement. The
fast passages were beautifully sung and the orchestra were first-rate
as were the soloists.”
Professor Raymond Warren (Composer
and Professor of Music at Bristol University 1972-94)
For biographies and further information on the soloists, orchestra and conductor, click the relevant name above
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)
By 1733 Bach had been in the Saxon town of Leipzig for ten years. That
decade had seen the composition of five complete cycles of church
cantatas, the St John and St Matthew Passions and many instrumental
works and orchestral pieces. Despite this period of unbridled musical
productivity, Bach was clearly feeling unappreciated and was often in
disputes with his employers. Like most musicians of his era, he always
had an eye for greener grass, and would not have turned down the
opportunity to gain employment at a prestigious and powerful court.
Early in 1733 Augustus II, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, died.
Five months of mourning followed, during which all public music-making
in the region was temporarily suspended. Bach used the opportunity to
work on the composition of a Missa, a portion of the liturgy sung in
Latin and common to both the Lutheran and Roman Catholic rites. His aim
was to dedicate the work to the new Catholic sovereign Augustus III,
and by so doing, hope to improve his own standing. Upon completion,
Bach visited Augustus and on 27 July 1733 presented him with a copy of
the torso of the Missa (Kyrie and Gloria), together
with a petition for
the post of 'Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Court Composer'. The
petition did not meet with immediate success, but Bach did eventually
gain a minor court appointment to Augustus in 1736. The Missa torso was
first performed in 1733 during the festival of the Oath of Allegiance
to Augustus III.
In the words of Christoph Wolff, 'the musicological debate over Bach's
B minor Mass has been going on ever since Friedrich Smend's edition of
the Symbolum Nicenum (Credo, Sanctus etc.) in 1955'.
The genesis of the
complete work is far too complicated to consider fully here, but as far
as the Missa torso is concerned, the background is certainly
intriguing. During his Leipzig period Bach was occupied with the study
of masses by composers such as Palestrina and Antonio Lotti. Wolff has
demonstrated that in addition to the numerous Italian works represented
in Bach's library there is a a copy in the composer's hand, dating
possibly from the 1720s, of a mass by the Palatine court composer J H
von Wilderer, the structure of which shows strong similarities with the
B minor Missa. Exactly how Bach obtained the Wilderer work is not
known, though it most probably came from the circle of Dresden
composers with whom Bach had been in contact: Pisendel, Zelenka, Graun,
Heinichen and Hasse. If nothing else, the existence of the Wilderer
copy demonstrates Bach's strong links with Dresden long before his
contemplation of a court position there. It also shows definite
early-Neapolitan traits then popular at Dresden, with highly varied
orchestral writing and an extended tri-partite Kyrie-Christe-Kyrie.
Although this form of Kyrie was traditional, the
importance of the
Wilderer work is that like the B minor Kyrie it has
a homophonic
opening statement as a prelude to the main material. In all of the
surviving copies made by Bach of other masses, none has this feature.
Wilderer also chose to use instruments to introduce the fugal theme and
to use the opening stepwise motif as the basic material for the fugue.
For Wolff, these and a sufficient number of other coincidences between
the Wilderer work and Bach's show that it must have been influential in
the genesis of the latter.
At what point Bach decided to expand the Missa into a complete setting
of the Catholic Mass is not known. Some researchers suggest that the Symbolum
Nicenum (or Credo)
was composed between 1742 and 1745 and
added to the autograph score around 1747. Others have shown that
preparatory material for the Crucifixus probably
dates from 1714 and
that of the Et expecto from 1728-9. The remaining
parts (Sanctus,
Osanna, Benedictus and Agnus Dei and Dona nobis
pacem) were all
probably added to the score between 1747 and 1749, derived from
material which emerged in the first half of the 1730s. The Mass in B
Minor therefore did not assume its final form until Bach's last years,
perhaps as late as 1748. It may
be that Bach wished the Mass in B Minor to be regarded as a grand
monument to
his skill, for it is a work based upon so many earlier compositions
which
he adapted and refined to satisfy the purposes of an extended Latin
mass,
the orchestrated and quasi-operatic form of which had become the
standard
model in European Catholic courts by the middle of the eighteenth
century.
Indeed, by expanding the work into an entity which certainly would not
have
received a complete liturgical performance in Leipzig, Bach showed not
only an
awareness of the general trend towards large-scale masses elsewhere,
but also
that he may still have had the possibility of a Catholic court
appointment lurking
at the back of his mind.
Bach never heard the Mass in B Minor, as we know it, performed in its
entirety. It
is possible that he only intended that parts of the Mass be used where
and
when they might be appropriate. Such was the case when his son C.P.E.
Bach
first performed the Credo in 1786. Although various
other
sections of the Mass were performed over the following sixty years, it
was not until 1859,
more than a century after Bach died, that the entire work was performed
at a
single sitting.
What is most remarkable about the overall shape of the Mass in B Minor
is the fact
that Bach managed to construct a coherent sequence of movements from
such diverse
and scattered material. When he presented the Missa torso in 1733 he
clearly viewed it as a complete and independent work, yet he quickly
relished the
chance to improve upon it. Manuscript sources suggest that Bach
conceived the
final result in four major sections, similar to the sections in the
Roman
Catholic Mass Ordinary. The first section is the torso (Kyrie
and Gloria), with the second being the Symbolum
Nicenum (or Credo).
The third consists of a single movement, the Sanctus,
and the
fourth comprises the Osanna, Benedictus, Agnus Dei
and Dona
nobis pacem.
The magnificence of the work is evident at the very outset with the
mighty
adagio five-part setting of the words Kyrie eleison
succeeded by a fugal section of monumental grandeur and chromatic
complexity. The Christe
eleison is a gentle duet for sopranos with a charming
ritornello for strings.
The second Kyrie, for four-part choir, has an
intense, chromatic fugal subject.
The first part of the Gloria, a joyous outpouring,
was
probably reworked from a lost instrumental movement. The setting of Et
in terra pax
was grafted on to it without a break. The Laudamus te,
with its
sublime soprano solo balanced by an equally beautiful violin obligato,
has, according to
some writers, all the hallmarks of having originally been a violin
duet. The Gratias is more or less a straight
adaptation
of the opening chorus of Cantata
No. 29 (1731), the words of which 'Wir danken dir, Gott'
('We thank Thee, O God') represent a literal German translation of the
Latin text, set
with such solemn nobility and assurance. The Domine Deus,
a
duet for tenor and soprano with accompaniment from flute and muted
strings, leads directly
into the Qui tollis, a revision of part of the
opening
chorus of Cantata No. 46 (1723), 'Schauet doch und sehet'
('Behold and
see if there be any sorrow like unto His sorrow'). The alto solo of the
Qui sedes
is matched by an accompanying instrument of corresponding pitch, the
oboe d'amore.
The Quoniam, with its dark tones of horn obligato
and playful bassoon duet
figurations, provides an impressive vehicle for the bass soloist, and
leads straight
into the gloriously jubilant Cum Sancto Spiritu,
complete with an angular
virtuoso choral fugue, marking the end of Bach's original Missa.
Like the Missa, the Symbolum Nicenum is an
excellent example
of Bach's concern with symmetry: the Crucifixus is
the central pivot
around which the trinity of movements concerning Christ's incarnation,
crucifixion and
resurrection revolve.
The Credo bursts forth with two vibrant fugal
choruses. The first stile
antico section, based upon one of the plainchant intonations
associated
with 'Credo in unum Deum', symbolises strength of
faith. The second is
adapted from a chorus of praise from Cantata No. 171 (1729) Gott,
wie dein Name, so ist auch dein Ruhm ('God, Your fame is as
Your
name'). The duet Et in unum Dominum is set for
soprano and alto with oboe and
strings. The chorus Et incarnatus est depicts an
intense
awe-struck moment, with emotional intensity further deepened into
despair at the Crucifixus,
reworked from a chorus in a youthful Weimar Cantata, No. 12 (1714) Weinen,
Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen. Springing from the depths of
hopelessness, the
jubilant Et resurrexit, apparently reworked from an
instrumental
movement, propels the listener into an elevated, ethereal world,
suspended by the sheer power and energy of the writing. The symmetry of
the
structure is apparent as the bass aria, Et in Spiritum,
recalls the tone
of Et in unum Dominum, just as the fugal Confiteor,
like the first movement of the Credo, harks back to
the older church style
and uses plainsong to underpin the traditions of the belief it
represents. It is linked to
the final joyous Et expecto by a passage of the
strangest, most
haunting quality - quite a contrast with the exuberant chorus which
concludes the Credo.
Bach's magnificent Sanctus, with its exultant
fugue, was
written originally for Christmas Day, 1724. The choir for this piece is
divided into six
parts. But a double (eight-part) chorus is required for the sprightly Osanna,
based an the opening chorus of the secular Cantata No. 215 (1734) Preise
dein Glucke, gesegnetes Sachsen ('Praised be your fortunes,
ye
most blessed Saxons'), a piece performed in honour of the coronation of
Augustus III
as King of Poland. As one critic has observed, 'In a society which
regards
Kings as divinely appointed by God, [Bach] would have seen no
incongruity in
using the same music to praise the King of Poland and the King of
Heaven'.
The Benedictus, apparently the vestige of a lost tenor aria, with its
slow,
long, graceful vocal and instrumental lines is an evocation of serene
love
and longing. The Agnus Dei, which follows a
straight
reprise of the Osanna, is scored for alto solo
matched to a low-lying ritornello for strings.
It uses almost the same music as Ach bleibe doch, mein
liebstes Leben
('Oh, stay with me, my dearest life'), from Cantata No. 11 (The
Ascension
Oratorio). The Dona nobis pacem reprises the iconic
Gratias agimus tibi,
bringing the Mass in B Minor to a triumphant close and linking
majestically the
concepts of peace, praise, and gratitude to God.
If ever there was a perfect demonstration in music of the divine
majestic
upward movement of figures in the greatest religious paintings and
sculptures
of the late Renaissance and Baroque period, then Bach's music for the Gratias
and Dona nobis surely achieves this end. Proceeding
almost like a slow and solemn, somewhat drawn-out Mannheim crescendo,
this writing, with
its combination of choral sonority and orchestral power, almost defies
description. It surely comes close to being an aural representation of
what the art
historian Kenneth Clark referred to as 'an ecstatic repudiation of the
forces of gravity'.
These
programme notes
have been expanded from
material formerly used by
Aylesbury Choral Society
©
ACS and Peter Leech 2007