Nelson Mass

Last updated

Missa in angustiis
Nelson Mass
Missa solemnis by Joseph Haydn
HoratioNelson1.jpg
Lord Nelson, for whom the mass is nicknamed
Catalogue Hob. XXII/11
LanguageLatin
Performed23 September 1798 (1798-09-23): Eisenstadt
Movements6
Vocal SATB choir and soloists
Instrumentalorchestra

Background

Haydn's chief biographer, H. C. Robbins Landon, has written that this mass "is arguably Haydn's greatest single composition". [1] Written in 1798, it is one of the six late masses by Haydn for the Esterhazy family composed after taking a short hiatus, during which elaborate church music was inhibited by the Josephinian reforms of the 1780s. The late sacred works of Haydn are regarded as masterworks, influenced by the experience of his London symphonies. They highlight the soloists and chorus while allowing the orchestra to play a prominent role. [2] Owing to the political and financial instability of this period in European history, Haydn's patron Nikolaus II dismissed the Feldharmonie, or wind band octet, shortly before Haydn wrote the Missa in angustiis for the Princess's name day. [2] Haydn, therefore, was left with a "dark" orchestra composed of strings, trumpets, timpani, and organ. [3] Later editors and arrangers added what they perceived to be missing woodwind parts, but the original scoring has again become the accepted choice for modern performances.

Though Haydn's reputation was at its peak in 1798, when he wrote this mass, his world was in turmoil. Napoleon had won four major battles with Austria in less than a year. The previous year, in early 1797, his armies had crossed the Alps and threatened Vienna itself. In May 1798, Napoleon invaded Egypt to destroy Britain's trade routes to the East.

The summer of 1798 was therefore a terrifying time for Austria, and when Haydn finished this mass, his own title, in the catalogue of his works, was Missa in angustiis (Mass for troubled times). What Haydn did not know when he wrote the mass, but what he and his audience heard (perhaps on September 15, the day of the very first performance), was that on 1 August, Napoleon had been dealt a stunning defeat in the Battle of the Nile by British forces led by Admiral Horatio Nelson. Because of this coincidence, the mass gradually acquired the nickname Lord Nelson Mass. The title became indelible when, in 1800, Lord Nelson himself visited the Palais Esterházy, accompanied by his British mistress, Lady Hamilton, and may have heard the mass performed by Haydn himself and would meet shortly afterwards. [4]

Haydn's original title may also have come from illness and exhaustion at this time, which followed his supervision of the first performances of The Creation , completed a few months earlier. More simply, it may have sprung from the challenge of composing without the desired instrumentation. [5] The solo parts for two of the vocal quartet are virtuosic: the bass line was perhaps written for the accomplished Christian Specht, and the soprano line, even more demanding, could have been written for Barbara Pilhofer or Therese Gassmann. The piece was premiered 23 September 1798 at the town parish church (now cathedral), a last minute venue change from the Bergkirche in Eisenstadt.

Movements

The text, slightly altered, is taken from the Latin Mass of the Catholic church. It consists of the following six movements.Performances require between 45 and 60 minutes. The choir sings in all movements.

  1. Kyrie, Allegro moderato, D minor, 3/4 (soprano solo)
  2. Gloria, Allegro, D major, common time (soli soprano, alto, tenor, bass [SATB])
    Qui tollis, Andante con moto, B-flat major, 3/4 (soli soprano, baritone)
    Quoniam tu solus sanctus, Allegro, D major, common time (soli SATB)
  3. Credo, Allegro con spirito, D major, alla breve
    Et incarnatus est, Largo, G major, 3/4 (soli SATB)
    Et resurrexit, Vivace, D major, common time (soprano solo)
  4. Sanctus, Adagio, D major, common time
    Pleni sunt coeli, Allegro, D major, 3/4
  5. Benedictus, Allegretto, D minor, 2/4 (soli SATB)
    Pleni sunt coeli, Allegro, Allegro, D major, 3/4 (soli SATB)
  6. Agnus Dei, Adagio, G major, 3/4 (soli SATB)
    Dona nobis pacem, Vivace, D major, common time (soli SATB)

Selected discography

Related Research Articles

<i>Great Mass in C minor</i>, K. 427 Musical mass by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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.

<i>Missa in tempore belli</i>

Missa in tempore belli is a setting of the mass by Joseph Haydn. It is catalogued Mass No. 10 in C major. Known also as the Paukenmesse due to the dramatic use of timpani, it is one of the most popular of his fourteen mass settings. The autograph manuscript contains the title "Missa in tempore belli" in Haydn's handwriting.

The Mass No. 13 in B-flat major, Hob. XXII/13, was composed by Joseph Haydn in 1801. It is known as the Schöpfungsmesse or Creation Mass because of the words "qui tollis peccata mundi" in the Gloria. He recycled music from Adam and Eve's final duet in The Creation, a fact which scandalized Empress Maria Theresa so much that she ordered Haydn to recompose that passage for her own copy.

<i>Missa solemnis</i> (Bruckner)

The Missa solemnis, WAB 29, is a solemn mass composed by Anton Bruckner in 1854 for the installation of Friedrich Mayer as abbot of St. Florian Monastery on 14 September 1854.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Missa Sancti Bernardi von Offida</span>

The Missa Sancti Bernardi von Offida is a mass in B-flat major by Joseph Haydn, Hob. XXII:10, Novello 1, was written the same year as the Missa in tempore belli (1796), and it "may have been the first mass Haydn wrote after his return from England." Yet it may also have been the second. It is usually given as Haydn's ninth setting of the mass, though its Hoboken number is XXII:10. This mass was written in honor of St. Bernard of Offida, a Capuchins who devoted himself to helping the poor; a century after the friar's death, he was beatified by Pope Pius VI.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Missa Cellensis in honorem Beatissimae Virginis Mariae</span>

The Missa Cellensis in honorem Beatissimae Virginis Mariae in C major by Joseph Haydn, Hob. XXII:5, Novello 3, was originally written in 1766, after Haydn was promoted to Kapellmeister at Eszterháza following the death of Gregor Joseph Werner. The original title as it appears on the only surviving fragment of Haydn's autograph score, that has been discovered around 1970 in Budapest, clearly assigns the mass to the pilgrimage cult of Mariazell, Styria. Until that discovery, the work was known as Missa Sanctae Caeciliae, or in German Cäcilienmesse, a title probably attributed to the mass in the 19th century. Whether the alternative title refers to a performance of the piece by the St. Cecilia's Congregation, a Viennese musician's fraternity, on some St. Cecilia's day, as has been suggested, remains speculation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass in G major, K. 140 "Pastoral"</span>

The Missa brevis in G major, K. 140, K3 Anh. 235d, K6 Anh. C 1.12, was probably composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart shortly after returning to Salzburg, in March 1773, from his third trip to Italy.

Austrian composer, Michael Haydn's Missa Hispanica or Missa a due cori, Klafsky I:17, MH 422, was presumably written for Spain, but there is no evidence of its ever having been performed there during Haydn's lifetime. The mass is scored for 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns in low C, F and G, 2 trumpets in C, timpani, strings, basso continuo, SATB soloists, and two mixed choirs.

Michael Haydn completed the Missa in honorem Sanctae Ursulae, Klafsky 1:18, MH 546, on August 5, 1793, probably for use at the ceremony in which Ursula Oswald, the daughter of a friend, professed her religious vows at the Benedictine Abbey of Frauenwörth Chiemsee. Because of that fact, the Mass is sometimes known as the Chiemsee Mass.

Missa Sanctissimae Trinitatis in A minor, ZWV 17, is the a vocal-instrumental sacred work, written by Czech Baroque composer Jan Dismas Zelenka. It was completed in 1736 as the first of five high masses he wrote in the last ten years of his life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass in C major, K. 66 "Dominicus"</span>

The Missa solemnis in C major, K. 66, is a mass composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1769. It is scored for SATB soloists and choir, violins I and II, viola, 2 oboes, 2 horns, 2 clarini, 2 trumpets and basso continuo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass in D major, K. 194</span>

The Missa brevis in D major, K. 194/186h, is a mass composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and completed on 8 August 1774. It is scored for SATB soloists, SATB choir, violin I and II, 3 trombones colla parte, and basso continuo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass in C major, K. 258 "Piccolomini"</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass in C major, K. 262 "Missa longa"</span>

The Missa longa in C major, K. 262/246a, is a mass composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in May 1776. Other sources claim it was composed in May 1775. It is scored for SATB soloists, SATB choir, violin I and II, 2 oboes, 2 horns, 2 clarini, 3 trombones colla parte, timpani and basso continuo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass in G major, K. 49</span>

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.

Missa Sancti Nicolai, Mass No. 6 in G major, Hob. XXII/6, also known as the Nicolaimesse, is a mass by Joseph Haydn, composed around 1772 and revised in 1802.

The Missa Votiva is a mass composed by the Czech Baroque composer Jan Dismas Zelenka in 1739, Dresden. The Missa Votiva is about seventy minutes long, and its twenty parts range from forty-five seconds to over seven minutes in length.

<i>Missa Cellensis</i>

Missa cellensis refers to two masses by Joseph Haydn:

<i>Mozart Mass K. 139</i> (Claudio Abbado recording) 1976 studio album by Claudio Abbado

Mozart Mass K. 139 is a 45-minute classical studio album on which Mozart's Waisenhaus-Messe is performed by Gundula Janowitz. Frederica von Stade, Wiesław Ochman, Kurt Moll, the Chorus of the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Claudio Abbado. It was released in 1976.

<i>Missa Sanctae Caeciliae</i> Mass by Jan Dismas Zelenka

Missa Sanctae Caeciliae in G major, ZWV 1, is a mass for voices and orchestra by Jan Dismas Zelenka. It was completed in 1711 as his first work for the Dresden court.

References

Notes

  1. Landon (2000), p. 7.
  2. 1 2 Webster and Feder
  3. McCaldin (1995), p. 26.
  4. Hibbert 1994, p. 216
  5. McCaldin (1995). 26.

Sources

Further reading