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Christopher Hrtel Music History I Fall, 2008 The Mass Ordinary as a Musical Genre, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

The Mass is the vessel which contains the very heart of Catholic worship. From the very first celebration of the Eucharist, the last supper on the eve of Passover, the Mass has been intertwined with music. Both Matthew (xvi, 30) and Mark (xiv, 26) describe the singing of hymns following the supper. This evidence suggests the origin of the Mass was as Jewish Ceremonial Meal1. Even before the collapse of the Roman Empire, psalms were being chanted during sections of the Mass. It was not until the publication of Ordo romanus I in approximately 700 that we get a picture of the Pontifical Mass. The Pontifical Mass (c. 700AD)2 Proper Chants FORE-MASS Introit Gradual Alleluia/tract (Sequence)
MASS OF THE FAITHFUL
Non-baptized were dismissed at this point (until 11th century)

Ordinary Chants Kyrie (replacing the Fore-Mass c. 700AD) Gloria (Credo not until 11th century) Sanctus Agnus Dei

Prayers/Readings Collect Apostle (Epistle) Gospel

Offertory

Communion

(Ite Missa Est)

Preface Eucharistic Prayer Pater Noster Post-Communion

Essentially, all the elements of the Mass Ordinary one would find in a 19th century setting were present at the end of the Romanesque era of chant, plainsong and ars antiqua. The text of the Mass Ordinary remained relatively unchanged from this time until the 1960s and the advent of the Vatican II council, which allowed the Mass to be presented in the vernacular rather than in Church Latin.

With the coming of the Renaissance came the emergence of polyphony, and the ascendance of composers like Guillaume de Machaut (c.1300-1377), the first composer known to compose a polyphonic setting of the entire Mass (c.1364). Machaut was an early innovator in the technique of text painting. His Credo, for example, is set in a broad homophonic texture, contrasting with the polyphony of the other sections. This use of alternating textures for dramatic effect established a tradition that would survive well into the nineteenth century. 3 Josquin des Prez (c.1450-1521) brought a variety of tonal colors and extended vocal ranges to the Mass, also trends that would continue until the present. The major contribution to the Mass as a musical form in this period was the development of an entire Mass from the polyphonic material of its antecedent.4

Baroque counterpoint in the Mass reached its zenith with the works of Joseph Fux (1600-1741) and J.S. Bach (1685-1750) Bach in particular was a key figure in opening up the Mass to include Lutheran Chorales as congregational responses.

Bach was also among the first composers to create Masses of such size (the mammoth Mass in B minor (1724-47) in particular) that they ceased to be of practical liturgical use in Catholic or Lutheran services. This approach to a Mass as a concert work rather than as an aspect of worship opened up a schism between those who felt the purpose of the Mass was to glorify Christ, and those who saw it as a musical genre, ripe for the kinds of developments that were taking place in other genres of music.

The classical period saw the continued expansion of the Mass as a performance piece, too outsized to be contained within a worship service. Noteworthy developments in this period were near-symphonic sized settings, particularly by Mozart (1756-1791) and Haydn (1732-1809). These large-scale scorings paved the way for even greater settings to come.

As the classical period drew to a close, the essential conflict between liturgical and concert settings of the Mass became more pronounced. Many commissioned composers produced large-scale works that included the use of techniques and devices that were being used in other genres. Not surprisingly, many of these works contained elements of their composers favorite styles. The Italian Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842) wrote 15 Masses, 8 of which survive. All are influenced in varying degrees by his interest in Opera. His last Mass (1825) was written for the

coronation of Charles X, and includes a Marcia Religiosa for the communion; certainly a theatrical flourish. 8

In Germany and Austria, Mass settings tended to be in a more symphonic style, and large-scale settings were predominant. Perhaps the seminal large-scale Mass setting of the 19th century was Ludwig von Beethovens (1770-1827) Missa Solemnis (1817-23), a monumental work that the composer considered to be his finest. It is scored for full orchestra, SATB chorus, and SATB soloists. The Kyrie and the Sanctus are of fairly straightforward, classical construction; the Kyrie is sung by the choir, the Christe by the soloists, and the writing is stately and traditional, using an ABA form. The Gloria is a cornucopia of shifting themes and contains the first of two enormous fugues, at In Gloria Dei Patris, Amen. The Credo is perhaps one of the most challenging pieces in all of 19th century choral repertoire. The Benedictus is truly beautiful in its seeming simplicity and humility, as the Holy Spirit descends to earth. The Agnus Dei brings the work to a satisfying conclusion.

Beethoven stood at the crossroads between where the Mass had come from, and where it would go. Many of his thematic treatments are either consciously or unconsciously reminiscent of Josquin des Prez and Johannes Ockeghem (c.14101497). Beethovens use of expressive tone color for dramatic effect can certainly be traced in a straight line to Josquin. The critic Theodor Adorno wonders

whether this was a deliberate attempt at an earlier style, or a case of convergent evolution; similar solutions to the challenges of setting the Mass text. 12

The critical response to the Missa Solemnis was mixed; many listeners knew theyd heard something monumental, but the work was atypical for the period, and for the composer. The musician-journalist Donald Francis Tovey put it succinctly: Not even Bach or Handel can show a greater sense of space and of space and of sonority. There is no earlier choral writing that comes so near to recovering some of the lost secrets of the style of Palestrina. There is no choral and no orchestral writing, earlier or later, that shows a more thrilling sense of the individual colour of every chord, every position, every doubled third or discord.11

After Beethoven, the schism between liturgical and concert settings tore wide open. There were many reasons for this; the demise of Royal Chapels following the French Revolution meant that composers were no longer being commissioned to create new masses, the growth of amateur choral societies in Britain and Germany, and a general trend towards antiquarianism brought on by the publication of new editions of older works for use by the new choral societies all contributed to a dearth of new Mass settings that lasted almost 40 years.

By the end of the 19th century, composers had begun to turn away from the grand orchestrations of the romantic period. The revival of the Eucharist in the

Anglican Church led to a flurry of new, smaller Mass settings for use in the liturgy, usually just for choir and organ. There were several composers who attempted to draw on Anglican and Protestant hymn tunes for thematic material in their Masses, with varying degrees of success. The most lasting of these are the Anglican Folk Mass (1918) by Martin Shaw (1875-1958), and The Way of Jesus (1974) by Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000). Hovhaness also wrote a Missa Brevis (1935) for mixed chorus, orchestra, and strings that was in a much different, almost neoRenaissance style. Both works are functional liturgical pieces.

In America, the Vietnam War and the social upheaval of the 1960s led to a disavowal of anything that seemed old-fashioned on the part of many Protestant sects, notably Baptists and Methodists. 9 This infatuation with youth and the feeling that the past was unimportant led to a secularization of worship and the creation of vast numbers of simple, non-threatening, popflavored Mass settings that can be charitably characterized as adolescent easy listening.10

There were however, many composers who took up the challenge of writing musically worthwhile Mass settings in the United States. Gian Carlo Menotti (b.1911) set 2 Masses, the Missa Pulchritudo in Honorem Sacratissimi Cordis Jesus (1979) for four soloists, mixed chorus, and orchestra; and Mass for the Contemporary English Liturgy (1985) for congregation, optional mixed chorus, and

organ. Norman Dello Joios (b.1913) Mass (1969) was set for mixed chorus, brass, and organ. Vincent Persechetti (1915-1987) set an a cappella Mass that contains a poignant and oft-performed Agnus Dei (1960). These works and many others by 20th century American composers are congregation-oriented without being dumbed down to the level of insipid pop music.

In Europe, huge social change came in the wake of the two World Wars, (19141918) and (1939-1945). The British Empire spent itself in the course of defeating Nazi aggression, and much of the continent lay in ruin. We may never know how many promising composers were among the estimated 450,000,000 dead, but many of those that survived were deeply affected by the war. The first composition by Ralph Vaughn Williams (1872-1958) following a five-year hiatus caused by WWI was his one and only Mass, the Mass in G minor (1922). It is compact, tightly focused, and both anachronistic and modern in its design. Vaughn Williams use of the Dorian mode and frequent cross-relations are evocative of the great Elizabethan choral masters, especially William Byrd (d.1623) and Thomas Tallis (d.1585), yet the harmonic structure is very 20th century, and distinctly Vaughn Williams.5 The text is set forth swiftly, and without rhetoric6 using only single iterations of each phrase, with very few exceptions. This work reignited a general interest in the polyphonic choral works of the Elizabethan era. Although its use of double choir and soloists is well within twentieth century practice, many of the choral textures can be found

in mass settings from the sixteenth century, although not all of them in a single work.7

Following the Second World War, the Hungarian composer Zoltn Kodly (18821967) set his stirring Missa Brevis (1945,48) which the composer in his first edition subtitled in tempore belli. It is an unusual setting, in that unlike the traditional Missa Brevis setting, he does not omit the Credo, and in fact he adds an organ Introit and a short Ite, Missa Est. Kodly, never afraid of chromaticism, is surprisingly restrained in his scoring. Although, like the Vaughn Williams Mass in G minor, there is little doubt about the composers identity, so too is his idiom made secondary to the liturgical purpose of the work. The Kodly Missa Brevis is, like the Vaughn Williams, a work created for worship.

The beginning of the 19th century saw the Mass Ordinary as a genre split into two strains; one, setting music to the text for use in worship, and the other using the text as a vehicle for the composers grand designs. Changes in the relationship between clergy and congregation beginning with the secularization of the church following the French Revolution, the re-introduction of the Eucharist into the Anglican rites, and eventually the sea-change that was Vatican II influenced the latter strain, which had reached its zenith with Beethovens mighty Missa Solemnis. Suddenly the financial incentive to create such megaworks was gone, and composers turned to more lucrative endeavors. At the

same time, the need for small-scale, utilitarian works produced a flurry of such efforts from composers all over the Christian world. In America, this trend split again into works that continued to honor their European roots and their musical heritage, and the trendy, insipid pop Pabulum of the new Evangelical sects.

Where is the genre headed in the future? If the past is any predictor, changes in the church itself are the harbingers of change in the musical content of the Mass. The ordination of women cannot be put off forever, and the complexion of the church is changing; the largest concentration of Catholics in the world is now in Latin America. Spanish was once the most-spoken language in the church, so it is once again. Perhaps this points to more new Sacred works like La Pasin segn San Marco (2000) by Osvaldo Golijov (b.1960), with its harmonious mix of Latin rhythms, Hebrew chants, electronic instruments, and dance. It is certain that our world continues to shrink, with cultures mixing and melding more than ever. Christianity is flourishing, and the continued need for the Mass as a musical genre seems assured.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1: Mass: Liturgy and Chant: Early History, by James W. Mackinnon, Grove Music Online, accessed 12/8/2005 2: Ibid. 3: A Survey of Choral Music, by Homer Ulrich. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, New York, 1973, p 19 4: The Polyphonic Mass to 1600: The Cyclic Mass in the Later 15th Century, by Lewis Lockwood and Andrew Kirkman, Grove Music Online, accessed 12/8/055: 5: The Works of Ralph Vaughn Williams, Michael Kennedy. Oxford University Press, London, 1964; p. 174-5 6: Ibid. 7: Vaughn Williams, James Day. Oxford University Press, London, 1998; p.128 8: Mass 1600-2000: 19th Century, by Denis Arnold and John Harper, Grove Music Online, accessed 12/8/05 9: Choral Music in the Twentieth Century, by Nick Strimple, Amadeus Press, Portland Oregon, 2002, p.268-9 10: Ibid. 11: Essays in Musical Analysis, by Sir Donald Francis Tovey, Oxford University Press, London, 1968, p.118 12: Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missa_Solemnis_%28 Beethoven%29, accessed 12/8/2005

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