19.11.2012 Views

J. S. BACH Jonathan Berkahn - Victoria University - Victoria ...

J. S. BACH Jonathan Berkahn - Victoria University - Victoria ...

J. S. BACH Jonathan Berkahn - Victoria University - Victoria ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

happened, on October 26 1783 at Benedictine Abbey of St. Peter, but alas almost<br />

nothing else is known about the occasion. Parts must once have existed for the version<br />

that was performed, presumably supplemented with parts of another mass (K.262/246a<br />

or K.317, perhaps?); it is a great shame that they appear not to have survived.<br />

If we know very little about the biographical circumstances which led to its<br />

composition, we can at least make a reasonable guess as to the musical impetus behind<br />

it. Under the influence of the Baron van Swieten Mozart had just discovered the riches<br />

of the north German contrapuntal tradition. For the first time in his life he had come<br />

across a way of writing music which, as we have seen, he could not immediately and<br />

effortlessly replicate. He may have come across J. S. Bach’s B minor mass—the size<br />

of the work he wrote would tend to suggest this, although there were a number of<br />

Viennese precedents for work on this scale. In particular, a useful comparison could<br />

be made to Haydn’s Missa Sanctae Ceciliae (Missa Cellensis) Hob.XXII:5. Both<br />

works communicate a sense of liberation and expansion: Haydn’s because the death of<br />

Werner meant that he was now able to write liturgical music for the Esterházy court;<br />

Mozart’s because he had just escaped from the restrictions of Salzburg into the wider<br />

musical world of Vienna. A curiosity of this mass is the number of extended passages<br />

that consist of almost nothing but an arpeggiation of the tonic chord (cf Kyrie bb.6-9;<br />

Gloria bb.12-15, 34-37; Credo bb.1-4, 14-19 etc., and the immensely slow harmonic<br />

rhythm thereafter). Far from being barren and tautological, these passages give a sense<br />

of immense space and confidence; one can almost hear the young Mozart flexing his<br />

wings after the limitations of Salzburg: ‘Forty-five minutes for an entire mass indeed!<br />

I’ll need most of that for the Gloria alone, thank you very much!’ The division of<br />

movements within the Gloria and the Credo (at least so much as was completed in<br />

Mozart’s case) is identical, although this may simply represent the point of maximum<br />

possible expansion, rather than any specific influence. The scale of the mass allows<br />

292

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!