Mass in D (Smyth)

Last updated

The Mass in D by Ethel Smyth is a setting of the mass ordinary for vocal soloists, chorus and orchestra.

Contents

Background

Smyth composed the Mass following a renewal of her High Anglican belief, [1] stimulated by reading a copy of The Imitation of Christ , by Thomas à Kempis, while she was ill in Munich on Christmas Eve 1889. The book belonged to her Catholic friend Pauline Trevelyan, [2] to whom Smyth dedicated the Mass. [1] She composed much of it while a guest of Empress Eugénie at Cape Martin, [3] near Monaco, [4] in the summer of 1891. [5]

Eugénie was also a friend of Queen Victoria. [6] In October 1891, [7] Smyth was staying with Eugénie on the estate of Balmoral Castle when the Queen paid a visit. Smyth gave a rendition at the piano of two movements of the Mass, and the Queen invited her to the castle where she gave another, longer rendition. Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh subsequently asked the Royal Choral Society to schedule the premiere. [8] This took place on 18 January 1893 in the Royal Albert Hall, [9] conducted by Joseph Barnby. [10] The soloists were Esther Palliser, Belle Cole, Ben Davies and Robert Watkin-Mills. [9]

The reception in the Albert Hall was enthusiastic, as were some reviews: J. A. Fuller Maitland praised the work's structure and rich orchestration. [11] George Bernard Shaw wrote that the Mass was a sign of the rise of woman composers, though he called the work "the light literature of church music". [12] Smyth was stung by what she saw as the patronising attitude of many reviewers towards a female composer. [13]

After composing the Mass, her religious belief faded. [1] She turned to opera, following the advice of conductor Hermann Levi, who praised her aptitude for dramatic composition when she showed him the Mass in Munich. [3] After composing her first opera, Fantasio , she travelled around Europe during the mid-1890s seeking to arrange a premiere for it, and also a further performance of the Mass. [14] In fact, the Mass was not performed again anywhere until 1924. [15] Smyth blamed this on prejudice against female composers. [16]

The Mass was revived on 7 February 1924 by the Birmingham Festival Choral Society, conducted by Adrian Boult. [17] Its success prompted the arrangement of another performance on 8 March 1924 at Queen's Hall in London. [18] George Bernard Shaw now thought the Mass "magnificent". [19] In the years following, it was performed a number of times. [20] In 1934 a performance of the Mass conducted by Thomas Beecham, attended by Queen Mary, was the culmination of the Festival Concerts celebrating Smyth's 75th birthday. [21]

The Mass received its United States premiere in a performance by the Plymouth Music Series conducted by Philip Brunelle, its U.S. East Coast premiere in a performance on 23 January 1993 by the Monmouth Civic Chorus conducted by Mark Shapiro, and its New York City premiere in Carnegie Hall on 14 April 2013 in a performance by The Cecilia Chorus of New York, conducted by Mark Shapiro.

A performance billed as 'the first Proms performance since the composer’s own lifetime' was given at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall London on 20th August 2022 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus and soloists conducted by Sakari Oramo.

The Mass in D Australian premiere was performed on the 9th of October 2022, by Camberwell Chorale, conducted by Douglas Heywood OAM [22]

Structure

The work is divided into six parts:

  1. Kyrie
  2. Credo
  3. Sanctus
  4. Benedictus
  5. Agnus Dei
  6. Gloria

This was the concert order in 1893 [9] and 1924. [23] Although the score was printed with the movements ordered as in Catholic liturgy, with the Gloria coming second, it included a note stating Smyth's preference for the Gloria to be performed last. Anglican services of the time had the Gloria at the end, [23] but Smyth later wrote that her only reason for it was to finish triumphantly. [24] According to musicologist Donald Tovey, the joyful mood sustained in the Gloria [25] is an example of the close attention which Smyth paid to matching the music to the religious meaning of every part of each movement's text. [26]

The Mass remains almost entirely in D minor or D major throughout. [27] The Kyrie starts with the bass section entering softly, joined successively by the other sections, [9] and builds to a choral crescendo, [23] which then subsides. [28] Chorus and orchestra also dominate in the Credo, with a fugal "Crucifixus", short fugal sections at "Dominum et vivificantem", and ending with a fugal "et vitam venturi". [26]

The Sanctus starts with alto solo, joined by the soprano and alto sections, [29] who continue in the lyrical "pleni sunt coeli", [21] leading into a climax, [30] with an eight-part chorus for the "Hosanna". [9] The Benedictus, for soprano solo and the soprano and alto sections, [9] is soaring and melodious. [29] There is a contrapuntal theme for cor anglais, and a trumpet joins the solo at the "Hosanna". [31] The Agnus Dei is for tenor solo and chorus. [9]

The Gloria starts with an orchestral outburst and then a change in time signature at "et in terra pax", where what Tovey calls a "radiant melody" [25] is taken up first by the tenor solo and then by the other parts. [9] This is succeeded by a number of further themes. [25]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Collis (1984), p. 49
  2. ↑ Collis (1984), p. 47
  3. 1 2 St John (1959), p. 83
  4. ↑ Seward (2004), p. 288
  5. ↑ Collis (1984), p. 59
  6. ↑ Seward (2004), p. 287
  7. ↑ Collis (1984), p. 60
  8. ↑ St John (1959), pp. 83–84
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Royal Choral Society". The Times, 19 January 1893
  10. ↑ Collis (1984), p. 61
  11. ↑ St John (1959), p. 86
  12. ↑ St John (1959), pp. 185–87
  13. ↑ Collis (1984), p. 63
  14. ↑ St John (1959), p. 91
  15. ↑ Collis (1984), p. 64
  16. ↑ St John (1959), p. 88
  17. ↑ Kennedy (1987), p. 94
  18. ↑ "News in Brief. Dame Ethel Smyth's Mass". The Times, 21 February 1924
  19. ↑ St John (1959), p. 185
  20. ↑ St John (1959), pp. 187–88
  21. 1 2 "Dame Ethel Smyth's Music. The Queen at Festival Concert". The Times, 5 March 1934
  22. ↑ Camberwell Chorale 2022 Concerts https://www.camberwellchorale.org.au/concerts-2022/
  23. 1 2 3 "Dame Ethel Smyth's Mass". The Times, 8 February 1924
  24. ↑ St John (1959), p. 187
  25. 1 2 3 Tovey (1968), pp. 241-42
  26. 1 2 Tovey (1968), p. 238
  27. ↑ Dale (1987), p. 296
  28. ↑ Tovey (1968), p. 236
  29. 1 2 "Concerts. Dame Ethel Smyth's Mass". The Times, 10 March 1924
  30. ↑ Tovey (1968), p. 239
  31. ↑ Tovey (1968), p. 240

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethel Smyth</span> English composer and suffragette (1858–1944)

Dame Ethel Mary Smyth was an English composer and a member of the women's suffrage movement. Her compositions include songs, works for piano, chamber music, orchestral works, choral works and operas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Missa solemnis (Beethoven)</span> 1824 mass by Beethoven

The Missa solemnis in D major, Op. 123, is a Solemn Mass composed by Ludwig van Beethoven from 1819 to 1823. It was first performed on 7 April 1824 in Saint Petersburg, Russia, under the auspices of Beethoven's patron Prince Nikolai Galitzin; an incomplete performance was given in Vienna on 7 May 1824, when the Kyrie, Credo, and Agnus Dei were conducted by the composer. It is generally considered one of the composer's supreme achievements and, along with Bach's Mass in B minor, one of the most significant Mass settings of the common practice period.

The BBC Symphony Chorus is a British amateur chorus based in London. It is the dedicated chorus for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, though it performs with other national and international orchestras.

<i>Mass</i> (Bernstein) Musical theater work by Leonard Bernstein

Mass is a musical theatre work composed by Leonard Bernstein with text by Bernstein and additional text and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy, it premiered on September 8, 1971, conducted by Maurice Peress and choreographed by Alvin Ailey. The production used costume designs by Frank Thompson. The performance was part of the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Mass premiered in Europe in 1973, with John Mauceri conducting the Yale Symphony Orchestra in Vienna.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Hillis</span>

Margaret Eleanor Hillis was an American conductor. She was the founder and first director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melinda O'Neal</span>

Melinda O'Neal is a conductor of choral and choral-orchestral music, professor emerita of music, and author.

<i>The Boatswains Mate</i>

The Boatswain's Mate is an opera in one act written by British composer and suffragette Ethel Smyth in 1913–14 set to her own libretto, which was based on a story of the same name by W. W. Jacobs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frederic Austin</span> English composer and baritone (1872–1952)

Frederic William Austin was an English baritone singer, a musical teacher and composer in the period 1905–30. He is best remembered for his restoration and production of The Beggar's Opera by John Gay and Johann Christoph Pepusch, its sequel, Polly, in 1920–23, and for his popularization of the melody of the carol The Twelve Days of Christmas. Austin was the older brother of the composer Ernest Austin (1874–1947).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gloria (Rutter)</span>

John Rutter's Gloria is a musical setting of parts of the Latin Gloria. He composed it in 1974 on a commission from Mel Olson, and conducted the premiere in Omaha, Nebraska. He structured the text in three movements and scored it for choir, brass, percussion and organ, with an alternative version for choir and orchestra. It was published in 1976 by Oxford University Press.

<i>The Wreckers</i> (opera)

The Wreckers is an opera in three acts, composed by Dame Ethel Smyth to a libretto in French by Henry Brewster. After spending considerable energy in trying to get the work performed in French, the first performance took place in a German translation by John Bernhoff, under the title of Strandrecht, at the Neues Theater, Leipzig on 11 November 1906. Smyth persisted in her attempts to see it staged elsewhere, but it was not until the conductor Thomas Beecham championed the work that a complete, staged performance was achieved in England in 1909 with funding support from her friend Mary Dodge.

The Cecilia Chorus of New York, formerly known as the St. Cecilia Chorus, is an avocational chorus and nonprofit organization based in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The March of the Women</span>

"The March of the Women" is a song composed by Ethel Smyth in 1910, to words by Cicely Hamilton. It became the official anthem of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and more widely the anthem of the women's suffrage movement throughout the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Activists sang it not only at rallies but also in prison while they were on hunger strike. Smyth produced a number of different arrangements of the work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Kennedy Scott</span>

Charles James Kennedy Osborne Scott was an English organist and choral conductor who played an important part in developing the performance of choral and polyphonic music in England, especially of early and modern English music.

Odaline de la Martinez is a Cuban-American composer and conductor, currently residing in the UK. She is the artistic director of Lontano, a London-based contemporary music ensemble which she co-founded in 1976 with New Zealander flautist Ingrid Culliford, and was the first woman to conduct at the BBC Promenade Concerts in 1984. As well as frequent appearances as a guest conductor with leading orchestras throughout Great Britain, including all the BBC orchestras, she has conducted several leading ensembles around the world, including the Ensemble 2e2m in Paris; the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra; the Australian Youth Orchestra; the OFUNAM and the Camerata of the Americas in Mexico; and the Vancouver Chamber Orchestra. She is also known as a broadcaster for BBC Radio and Television and has recorded extensively for several labels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monmouth Civic Chorus</span>

Monmouth Civic Chorus is a community chorus in Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA. The Monmouth Civic Chorus was established in 1949 and draws its members primarily from the Monmouth County community. Its performances encompass choral classics; premieres; rare and contemporary music; musical theater, opera, and operetta. The annual December concert features selections from Handel's Messiah and well-known holiday music; Christmas carols and small-ensemble performances around the community; and collaborations with arts partners. Monmouth Civic Chorus has performed on tour in many European countries, and at numerous performance venues in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.

<i>Fantasio</i> (Smyth) Opera by Ethel Smyth

Fantasio is an opera in two acts composed by Ethel Smyth. The German-language libretto was written by Smyth and Henry Bennet Brewster. Described in the libretto as a phantastische Comödie, it was based on Alfred de Musset's 1834 play of the same name. The opera premiered at the Deutsches Nationaltheater in Weimar on 24 May 1898.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass No. 1 (Schubert)</span>

Mass No. 1 in F major, D 105, is a mass composed by Franz Schubert in 1814. It is scored for two soprano soloists, two tenor soloists, alto and bass soloists, SATB choir, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, 2 horns, violin I and II, viola, and basso continuo. It was the first of Schubert's masses to be performed, and is of the missa solemnis type.

<i>Entente Cordiale</i> (opera)

Entente Cordiale is a comic opera in one act by Ethel Smyth with an English-language libretto by Smyth, who describes the work as "a post-war comedy in one act ". It was first performed by students at the Royal College of Music in London on 22 July 1925.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caroline Hatchard</span> British soprano, musical theatre and opera singer

Caroline Gertrude Hatchard was a British soprano, musical theatre and opera singer of the 20th-century who was the first English-born and trained soprano to be engaged by the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden where she played Sophie in the British premiere of Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier on 29 January 1913 with Thomas Beecham conducting.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.