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Missa brevis ( Latin for 'short Mass'; plural: Missae breves) 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.
The concise approach is found in the mostly syllabic settings of the 16th century, and in the custom of "telescoping" (or simultaneous singing by different voices) in 18th-century Masses. After the period when all church music was performed a cappella, a short execution time usually also implied modest forces for performance, that is: apart from Masses in the "brevis et solemnis" genre.
For composers of the classical period such as Mozart, missa brevis meant "short in duration" – as opposed to missa longa (long Mass), a term that Leopold Mozart used for his son's K. 262 [2] – rendering the complete words of the liturgy. As the words were well known some composers had different voice parts recite simultaneously different sections of long texts. This is especially characteristic of Austrian Masses in the Gloria and the Credo.
Partial settings are seen in both the Roman and Lutheran traditions, where many works consist of the Kyrie and Gloria. These masses came to be called Missae breves because they are shorter in words, the opposite being Missae totae (complete Masses).
Protestant liturgies did not have a mandated set of Mass ordinary sections to be included in a Mass composition. Thus, in addition to settings of all five sections (e.g. Hieronymus Praetorius, Christoph Demantius), there are many Kurzmessen (short masses) that include settings of only the Kyrie, Gloria, and Sanctus (e.g. Stephan Otto, Andreas Hammerschmidt). From the early 17th century, many Kurzmessen consist only of Kyrie and Gloria sections, e.g. those by Bartholomäus Gesius (eight out of ten Masses included in his 1611 Missae ad imitationem cantionum Orlandi). [5]
In the second half of the 17th century the Kyrie–Gloria Kurzmesse was the prevalent type in Lutheranism, with composers like Sebastian Knüpfer, Christoph Bernhard, Johann Theile, Friedrich Zachow and Johann Philipp Krieger. [5] Gottfried Vopelius included a Kyrie–Gloria Mass in Gregorian chant on pages 421 to 423 of his Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch (1682), introducing its Gloria as "... what the old church has done furthermore in praise of the Holy Trinity". [6]
In the first half of the 18th century Kyrie–Gloria Masses could also be seen as a Catholic/Lutheran crossover, for example for Johann Sebastian Bach: not only did he transform one of Palestrina's a cappella missae totae in such a Kyrie–Gloria Mass for use in Lutheran practice, [7] he also composed one in this format for the Catholic court in Dresden.
Some Mass settings consisting of only three or four sections of the Mass ordinary can be indicated with a specific name, rather than with the generic Missa brevis name:
Masses written for the Anglican liturgy often have no Credo (usually recited by the congregation and rarely sung to a choral setting in Anglican services) and no Agnus Dei. For American denominations, the Sanctus is usually without Benedictus. The Gloria section may be moved to the end of the composition.
Some Masses in this category are rather to be seen as incomplete, while the composer did not write all the movements that were originally planned, or while some movements went lost, but the extant part of the composition found its way to liturgical or concert practice recast as a Brevis.
Whatever the reason for omitting part of the text of the Mass ordinary from the musical setting, the umbrella term for such Masses became Missa brevis. Partial Mass settings that are not a Kyrie–Gloria Mass include:
From the late 19th century Missa brevis (or French: "Messe brève") may refer to a Mass composition with any combination of the following characteristics: (1) short execution time, (2) limited forces for performance, (3) leaving out part of the Mass ordinary and/or (4) the composition is incomplete so that the extant complete parts are seen as a Missa brevis. A Mass being short in this sense does however not exclude that sections based on texts outside the Mass ordinary are added to the composition (like the O Salutaris Hostia in several of Gounod's Messes brèves).
As concert performance of liturgical works outside a liturgical setting increased, for some of the composers the brevis/solemnis distinction is about the breves, which not always needed professional performers, being intended for actual liturgical use, while a Missa solemnis was rather seen as a concert piece for professional performers, that could be performed outside an actual Mass celebration, similar to how an oratorio would be staged.
The Mass is a form of sacred musical composition that sets the invariable portions of the Christian Eucharistic liturgy, known as the Mass.
The Mass in B minor, BWV 232, is an extended setting of the Mass ordinary by Johann Sebastian Bach. The composition was completed in 1749, the year before the composer's death, and was to a large extent based on earlier work, such as a Sanctus Bach had composed in 1724. Sections that were specifically composed to complete the Mass in the late 1740s include the "Et incarnatus est" part of the Credo.
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 Golitsyn; 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.
Great Mass in C minor, K. 427/417a, is the common name of the musical setting of the mass by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, which is 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. The 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.
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. While it is relatively short, Bruce C. Macintyre, writing in the Cambridge Mozart Encyclopedia, classifies it as a Missa Longa, on the basis of the festal character, size of the orchestra, which includes a substantial brass section, orchestral introductions for the movements and the setting of the intonations for the Gloria and Credo.
The Mass No. 2 in E minor, WAB 27 is a setting of the mass ordinary for eight-part mixed choir and fifteen wind instruments, that Anton Bruckner composed in 1866.
Most of Johann Sebastian Bach's extant church music in Latin—settings of the Mass ordinary and of the Magnificat canticle—dates from his Leipzig period (1723–50). Bach started to assimilate and expand compositions on a Latin text by other composers before his tenure as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, and he continued to do so after he had taken up that post. The text of some of these examples by other composers was a mixture of German and Latin: also Bach contributed a few works employing both languages in the same composition, for example his early Kyrie "Christe, du Lamm Gottes".
The Mass No. 1 in D minor, WAB 26 by Anton Bruckner, is a setting of the Mass ordinary for soloists, mixed choir and orchestra, and organ.
The Credo Mass in C major, K. 257, is a mass composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1776. It is scored for SATB soloists, SATB choir, violin I and II, 2 oboes, 2 clarini, 3 trombones colla parte and basso continuo.
The Missa brevis No. 7 in C major, K. 258, is a mass composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1776. It is scored for SATB soloists, SATB choir, violin I and II, 2 oboes, 2 clarini, 3 trombones colla parte, timpani and basso continuo.
Mozart's Mass in G major, K. 49/47d), is his first full mass. It is a missa brevis scored for SATB soloists and choir, violin I and II, viola, and basso continuo.
The Windhaager Messe, WAB 25, is a missa brevis composed by Anton Bruckner in 1842.
The Kronstorfer Messe, WAB 146, is a missa brevis composed by Anton Bruckner in 1843-1844.
The Messe für den Gründonnerstag, WAB 9, is a missa brevis composed by Anton Bruckner in 1844.
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.
The Missa cellensis, Hob. XXII:8, fully Missa cellensis fatta per il Signor Liebe de Kreutzner composed in 1782, is Joseph Haydn's eighth setting of the Ordinary of the Mass. The title translates and is often identified by the German name Mariazeller Messe. It was commissioned by the officer Anton Liebe von Kreutzner on the occasion of his ennoblement.
The Missa Brevis is a mass written by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina first published in 1570 in Palestrina's Third Book of Masses and reprinted several times since. Its title may be misleading, as a missa brevis commonly refers to a short mass, which this is not. It is among the most performed of Palestrina's polyphonic repertoire.
Missa Providentiae is a Kyrie–Gloria Mass in D minor composed by Antonio Caldara, which around 1728 was expanded into a Missa tota by Jan Dismas Zelenka: this composer derived a Sanctus and Agnus Dei from Caldara's Kyrie and Gloria, and added a Credo, ZWV 31, of his own hand. Around 1738–1741, Johann Sebastian Bach made a copy of a Sanctus, BWV 239, which was based on the first section of the Gloria of Caldara's Kyrie–Gloria Mass.
Deutsche Messe is a Lutheran mass in C minor by Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel. He set the text of Kyrie and Gloria in German in 1739.