The mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the invariable portions of the Eucharistic liturgy to music. Most masses are settings of the liturgy in Latin, the liturgical sacred language of the Catholic Church's Roman liturgy, but there are a significant number written in the languages of non-Catholic countries where vernacular worship has long been the norm. For example, there are many masses written in English for the Church of England. Musical masses take their name from the Catholic liturgy called "the mass" as well.
Great Mass in C minor, K. 427/417a, is the common name of the musical setting of the mass by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and considered one of his greatest works. He composed it in Vienna in 1782 and 1783 after his marriage when he moved to Vienna from Salzburg. This large-scale work, a missa solemnis, is scored for two soprano soloists, a tenor and a bass, double chorus and large orchestra. It remained unfinished, missing large portions of the Credo and the complete Agnus Dei.
Antonio Vivaldi wrote at least three settings of the hymn Gloria in excelsis Deo, whose words date probably from the 4th Century and which is an integral part of the Ordinary of the Mass. Two survive: RV 588 and RV 589. A third, RV 590, is mentioned only in the Kreuzherren catalogue and presumed lost. The RV 589 Gloria is a familiar and popular piece among sacred works by Vivaldi. It was probably written at about the same time as the RV 588, possibly in 1715.
The Mass No. 2 in E minor, WAB 27, by Anton Bruckner is a setting of the mass ordinary for eight-part mixed choir and wind instruments.
Gloria in excelsis Deo, BWV 191, is a church cantata written by the German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach, and the only one of his church cantatas set to a Latin text. He composed the Christmas cantata in Leipzig probably in 1745 to celebrate the end of the Second Silesian War on Christmas Day. The composition's three movements all derive from the Gloria of an earlier Missa written by Bach in 1733 for the Dresden court, which the composer would later use as the Gloria of his Mass in B minor.
Sub olea pacis et palma virtutis conspicua orbi regia Bohemiae Corona: Melodrama de Sancto Wenceslao , ZWV 175, is an extensive composition, written in 1723 by Czech baroque composer Jan Dismas Zelenka.
Missa Sanctissimae Trinitatis in A minor, ZWV 17, is the vocal-instrumental sacred work, written by Czech baroque composer Jan Dismas Zelenka. It was completed in 1736 as the first of five "High Mass" compositions he wrote in the last ten years of his life. Last three were also called "Missae ultimae".
Music from Eighteenth-Century Prague is a CD series published by Czech record label Supraphon since 2009.
Frieder Bernius is a German conductor, the founder and director of the chamber choir Kammerchor Stuttgart, founded in 1968. They became leaders for historically informed performances. He founded the Stuttgart festival of Baroque music, "Internationale Festtage Alter Musik", in 1987, and is a recipient of the Edison Award (1990), Diapason d'Or (1990) and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1993).
The Mass in B minor is Johann Sebastian Bach's only setting of the complete Latin text of the Ordinarium missae. Towards the end of his life, mainly in 1748 and 1749, he finished composing new sections and compiling it into a complex, unified structure.
Hana Blažíková is a Czech soprano and harpist. She is focused on Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music, appearing internationally. She has recorded as a member of the Bach Collegium Japan, among many others.
The Mass for the Dresden court is a Kyrie–Gloria Mass in B minor composed in 1733 by Johann Sebastian Bach. At the time Bach worked as a Lutheran church musician in Leipzig, but he composed the mass for the Catholic court in Dresden. This Mass is actually a missa brevis or Kurzmesse consisting of a Kyrie in three movements and a Gloria in nine movements, and is an unusually extended work scored for SSATB soloists and choir with an orchestra having a broad winds section.
Collegium 1704 is a Czech early music orchestra and choir founded in 1991 by the Czech conductor, harpsichordist and horn player Václav Luks. Luks was formerly horn soloist of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. Although founded while Luks was a student in Plzen, the seat of the orchestra is Prague. The Collegium Vocale 1704 and Amphion Wind Octet are sister ensembles.
Gabriela Eibenová is a Czech soprano in opera and concert, specialising in music of the Baroque and classical period in historically informed performance.
Apart from the 1733 Mass for the Dresden court, Johann Sebastian Bach wrote four further Kyrie–Gloria Masses, BWV 233–236. These compositions, consisting of the first two sections of the Mass ordinary, have been indicated as Missae breves or Lutheran Masses. They seem to have been intended for liturgical use, considering a performance time of about 20 minutes each, the average duration of a Bach cantata. They may have been composed around 1738/39. Possibly they were written for Count Franz Anton von Sporck or performed by him in Lysá.
Johannes Kaleschke is a German classical tenor in opera and in concert.
Johannes Hill is a German baritone in concert and in oratorios, who has performed internationally. Singing in choirs from age 10, he has performed major roles in oratorios, such as both Jesus and Pilate in Bach's Passions, and Pope Francis in the premiere of Laudato si'. He has also performed in vocal ensembles such as Kammerchor Stuttgart and Collegium Vocale Gent.
Václav Luks is a Czech harpsichordist, cornist, conductor, musicologist and pedagogue, who has been mainly active in the field of the Baroque movement since 1995.
