The French Organ Mass is a type of Low Mass that came into use during the Baroque era. Essentially it is a Low Mass with organ music playing throughout: part of the so-called alternatim practice.
The French Organ Mass is a type of Low Mass that came into use during the Baroque era. Essentially it is a Low Mass with organ music playing throughout: part of the so-called alternatim practice.
The French Organ Mass is a classic example of the so-called alternatim practice, a term which indicates a type of liturgy when alternate sections of liturgical items (such as a Mass or a Magnificat) were performed by different forces. [1] In organ alternatim practice—and so, in the French Organ Mass—the organist plays when texts would otherwise have been sung. [2] The tradition stemmed from the antiphonal psalmody of the early Western church. [1] In France, organ playing was regulated by printed "ceremonials", which specified precisely when the organist should play. The surviving ceremonials are all similar in outline, but differ widely in details. A typical organ Mass comprised versets for the ordinary of the Mass except for the Credo (which was to be sung in its entirety). [3]
One of the most important extant ceremonials was written in 1662 and regulated the diocese of Paris. According to this ceremonial, the organ begins the Kyrie and alternates with the choir through ninefold repetitions (and so ends the Kyrie as well). After the priest intones the first line of the Gloria, the organ again begins the alternation with the choir. After the final verse of the Gloria (which began at "in gloria Dei Patris") the organist would accompany the Offertory: this time there is no alternation and the music does not replace the chant as earlier (while there are texts for the Offertory, they are not for the choir). After the Offertory comes the Sanctus, followed by the Elevation, a high point in the liturgy. The Sanctus begins with an organ verse and proceeds in any of the following three ways:
This is followed by the Agnus Dei, which consists of three parts. The organ begins this part of the liturgy and alternates with the choir. At the Holy Communion the music either accompanies the distribution of the elements or at the antiphon played just before that. At the end of the Mass the priest sang the last words, "ite missa est", and the organist performed the response, "Deo gratias." A Psalm verse follows, and sometimes after it there is a "sortie", a procession. [4]
Altogether, an average Mass would comprise about 20 versets. Church contracts that survive from that time show that the organist played not only at every Mass, but also during various other offices and ceremonies. An organist may have been required to play at as many as 400 services a year, which means that much—if not all—of the music was improvised, and the surviving masses can be regarded as models for such improvisations. Musically, the majority of the organ Masses were modelled after the Missa cunctipotens genitor (Mass IV in the modern collection), which contained chant melodies. However, composers differed on how they treated these melodies in their works. The 1662 ceremonial specified that the original melodies had to be clearly audible in certain versets, and in cases when Missa cunctipotens was used, organists generally complied. [5]
The following is a list of composers of French organ masses, arranged chronologically by date of publication of their masses.
Additionally, an anonymous manuscript (Paris Conservatoire Rés.746, formerly 24827) created around 1680 contains an organ mass by an unknown composer. The manuscript was attributed by Amédée Gastoué to a member of the Geoffroy family, probably Jean-Nicolas Geoffroy, however, according to later research, there is no evidence for such attribution. [6]
The Mass is a form of sacred musical composition that sets the invariable portions of the Christian Eucharistic liturgy, known as the Mass.
François Couperin was a French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was known as Couperin le Grand to distinguish him from other members of the musically talented Couperin family.
Jean (Jehan) Titelouze was a French Catholic priest, composer, poet and organist of the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. He was a canon and organist at Rouen Cathedral. His style was firmly rooted in the Renaissance vocal tradition and as such, was far removed from the distinctly French style of organ music that developed during the mid-17th century. However, his hymns and Magnificat settings are the earliest known published French organ collections, and he is regarded as the first composer of the French organ school.
Nicolas de Grigny was a French organist and composer. He died young and left behind a single collection of organ music, and an Ouverture for harpsichord.
Nicolas Gigault was a French Baroque organist and composer. Born into poverty, he quickly rose to fame and high reputation among fellow musicians. His surviving works include the earliest examples of noëls and a volume of works representative of the 1650–1675 style of the French organ school.
The Krönungsmesse, composed in 1779, is one of the most popular of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 17 extant settings of the Ordinary of the Mass. It can be classified as either a Missa brevis or a Missa solemnis because although it includes all the sections of the Ordinary, it is relatively short.
Missa brevis usually refers to a mass composition that is short because part of the text of the Mass ordinary that is usually set to music in a full mass is left out, or because its execution time is relatively short.
Nicolas-Antoine Lebègue was a French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was born in Laon and in the 1650s settled in Paris, quickly establishing himself as one of the best organists of the country. He lived and worked in Paris until his death, but frequently made trips to other cities to consult on organ building and maintenance matters. Lebègue's reputation today rests on his keyboard music. He made particularly important contributions to the development of the French organ school by devising pieces with independent pedal parts and developing the Tierce en taille genre. His oeuvre also includes the earliest published unmeasured preludes, as well as some of the earliest known noëls.
Gaspard Corrette was a French composer and organist.
André Raison was a French Baroque composer and organist. During his lifetime he was one of the most famous French organists and an important influence on French organ music. He published two collections of organ works, in 1688 and 1714. The first contains liturgical music intended for monasteries and a preface with information on contemporary performance practice. The second contains mostly noëls.
François Daniel Roth is a French organist, composer, musicologist, and pedagogue. He was titular organist from 1985 until 2023 at the church of Saint-Sulpice in France's capital, Paris, alongside Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin, and as of February 2023, will remain as emeritus titular organist.
Fiori musicali is a collection of liturgical organ music by Girolamo Frescobaldi, first published in 1635. It contains three organ masses and two secular capriccios. Generally acknowledged as one of Frescobaldi's greatest works, Fiori musicali influenced composers during at least two centuries. Johann Sebastian Bach was among its admirers, and parts of it were included in the celebrated Gradus ad parnassum, a highly influential 1725 treatise by Johann Joseph Fux which was in use even in the 19th century.
Alternatim refers to a technique of liturgical musical performance, especially in relationship to the Organ Mass, but also to the Hymns, Magnificat and Salve regina traditionally incorporated into the Vespers and other liturgies of the Catholic Church. A specific part of the ordinary of the Mass would be divided into versets. Each verset would be performed antiphonally by two groups of singers, giving rise to polyphonic settings of half of the text. One of these groups may alternatively have consisted of a soloist, a group of instruments, or organ. The missing even- or odd-numbered verses were supplied by plainchant or, perhaps more commonly, by improvisations on the organ. The verso became a particularly prevalent genre in Renaissance and Baroque organ music, both Italian and Iberian, and most of the French classical organ literature consists of alternatim versets.
The Windhaager Messe, WAB 25, is a missa brevis composed by Anton Bruckner in 1842.
The Messe für den Gründonnerstag, WAB 9, is a missa brevis composed by Anton Bruckner in 1844.
The Messe des pauvres is a partial musical setting of the mass for mixed choir and organ by Erik Satie. Composed between 1893 and 1895, it is Satie's only liturgical work and the culmination of his "Rosicrucian" or "mystic" period. It was published posthumously in 1929. A performance lasts around 18 minutes.
Henri Jules Joseph Nibelle was a French organist, choral conductor and composer.
Jean-Patrice Brosse was a French harpsichordist and organist.
The Mass in A major, Op. 126, is a setting of the mass ordinary in Latin by Josef Rheinberger. He composed it in 1881, originally for a three-part choir (SSA) with organ. When he conducted the first performance at the Allerheiligen-Hofkirche in Munich on Christmas Eve, he added a flute and a string quintet. He wrote a version with orchestra later.
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