B Minor Mass and J. S. Bach

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Table of Contents

Abstract
A Historical Overview of Bach’s B Minor Mass
Evolution of B Minor Mass
The Impact of B Minor Mass in Worship
References

Abstract

This research paper provides a discussion on an overview of the history Bach’s B Minor Mass based on how it was it created, evolution of B Minor Mass, and the impact of B Minor Mass in worship and its place today.

A Historical Overview of Bach’s B Minor Mass

B Minor Mass was written by Johann Sebastian Bach who was a musician in the Orthodox Church. He lived in Leipzig, the center of the Orthodox Church. One of the greatest works of the western art was B Minor Mass produced by Bach. The B Minor Mass was produced in a large scale setting of the ordinary of the Roman Mass. It covered approximately two hours in length. The Mass was referred to us Missa in Latin meaning a worship service in which the Eucharist was observed. The Eucharist is the re-enactment of the last supper. The Eucharist was referred by St. Ambrose as part of the service in the fourth century as “Missa Catechumen rum” which meant after the dismissal of members of the church who were not confirmed. The church members were “dismissed” at the end of the Eucharist referred in Latin as “Missa fidelium” (Stauffer, 2003).

There were two portions of the Mass in the beginning that is, the synaxis and Eucharist. Synaxis meant “to come together” and was a service originally observed in homes consisting of readings, a homily interpreting the readings, and partitioning of prayers based on the readings and homily. The Eucharist joined the synaxis in 313 C.E when the Milan edict removed obstacles to the public practice of Christianity. Eucharist means “giving thanks” and comes from the Greek Eucharista (Bernstein, 2005). The Eucharist is today commonly known as “The Great Thanks giving” in the communion liturgy of the United Methodists. Missa Catechumen rum was faced out by the Middle Ages and there remained one connected service maintaining the name Missa. The Mass was used both to instruct and observe “unbloodied” versions of sacrifices of Christ. Greek was used as the initial language of the Mass, later translated in Latin. In the late sixth and early seventh centuries, it was codified by Pope Gregory. It has since been maintained to date although with a few localized changes in Western Europe (Stauffer, 2003).

The Mass consisted of six portions referred to as “Ordinary”. These portions were Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, and the Ite Missa Est (Cunningham, 2008). This portion of the Mass was fixed, that is, it remained the same. The rest of the Mass has been dynamic changing in tandem with specific needs of the occasion, called proper. Initially the Mass was a means used to transfer words in the “live” acoustic of cavernous spaces over a distance from the priest to the faithful. The coming into existence of the polyphonic or multiple voice settings in the 12^th century was a way to embellish the mass on festival occasions. In the 13^th century, composers focused entirely on Ordinary portions of the mass because they could be used repeatedly. From the 14^th century, collected cycles of the ordinary began to appear. The Ite Missa Est portion had been dropped from inclusion in subsequent collections by the time of Renaissance. This left just five portions of the ordinary (Stauffer, 2003).

Evolution of B Minor Mass

Bach’s B Minor Mass is a musical setting of a text which was conceived as part of part of the extensive liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church in 1014. The Mass is central of the Catholic Church liturgy. It forms the central act of Catholic worship and it symbolically represents the last supper, a liturgical drama. The Mass text was not produced by any one individual or any one church but was formed as a result of a long process of development and evolution (Bernstein, 2005).

The Mass text was divided into two major parts: one, the Proper-Propium Missae; two, the Ordinary-Ordinarium Missae. The Proper has those elements of the Mass which change according to day or season. The Ordinary contains a text which has been fixed since it took the final shape. The Ordinary contains five fixed parts bearing designation such as Kyrie eleison, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. No other text has been set to music most frequently (Bernstein, 2005).

One may wonder how Bach, a Lutheran set a text closely related to the Roman Catholic Church. A gain Bach had extended interest in the Latin Church music. His library had several Mass settings by Italian composers. This kept a breast of Roman Catholic Church. The Lutheran Church kept many of the Roman Catholic Church ritual elements. While the Ordinary of the Mass was not used as an entity, each of the five parts was heard at different times during the church year. For instance, the Lutheran Mass was composed of the Kyrie and Gloria. In 1733, Bach sent a Kyrie and Gloria to Sovereign Frederick Augustus II who was a Roman Catholic (Stauffer, 2003). This was a petition requesting that he be appointed a court composer accompanied the music. Sovereign Augustus III conferred Bach him the title in 1736. However, there was no record of the Lutheran Mass performing in Dresden. Apparently, Bach’s nature was such as to compel him to complete a work. Therefore, he added more movements to the Lutheran Mass. In 1737, an entire Catholic Mass was created. Adopted from the church cantatas, were eight movements seven of which were choruses. The setting of the Mass by Bach is scored for chorus, soloists, and orchestra (Stauffer, 2003). These consists of twenty four movements of which 15 are choruses, 6 are arias, and 3 duets. Despite of being a Lutheran, Bach conforms to the Catholic tradition in not admitting recitative. The B Minor Mass comparatively larger orchestra consists of strings, two flutes, two oboes, two bassoons, one horn, three trumpets, and indispensable continuo. B Minor is the basic tone as shown by the designation B Mass Minor. However, the work does not remain in this key throughout; rather use is made of the closely related keys. Of the 24 movements, only five are in the key by which the Mass is known (Bernstein, 2005).

Four more additional Mass settings were written by Bach during the late1730s. He copied out and performed Palestrina’s Missa sine nomine, Kerll’s Sanctus from Missa superba, Pergolesi’s stabat mater in Leipzig (Stauffer, 2003). This exposed Bach to three different styles of composition. This was shown in B Minor Mass of renaissance a Capella style, Baroque concerted style, and Gallant style. In Renaissance a Capella style, the vocals and instruments were interchangeable in church music. Here, the vocal lines were either unaccompanied or doubled by the instruments. The manner of performance of this style of composition was flexible and easy as long as part of the structure was not tampered with. Renaissance a Capella style allowed three possibilities, that is, voice performances alone, application of instruments alone, and combining both instruments and voices. The combination of instruments and voices was the most common of the three possibilities. Baroque concerted style develops two musical elements of voice and instruments. The baroque composers developed them first in the concert style of the early baroque. Finally, the Gallant style with less complexity, less ornamentation, less polyphony, and emphasizes more on melody and regular length musical phrases (Bukofzer, 2007).

The Impact of B Minor Mass in Worship

Bach’s B Minor Mass had its debt in tradition. Despite of this, it’s use of Dresden models, Bach’s mass setting is still relegated in any historical overviews. First, B Minor Mass was delayed for many years and therefore was received late by later generations. By then, only portions of the work had been done by the time of Beethoven’s great mass. Secondly, the work of Bach originated from the Lutheran tradition and not from the mainstream of mass compositions of the Roman Catholic Church. Furthermore, Bach’s mass seems to have been written with no discernible purpose in mind. Most mass settings were composed for practical applications in specific institutions and for specific occasions (Cunningham, 2008).

The notion of using instruments and songs with praising God is of very ancient origin. It traces its origin from the Jewish worship traditions from which Christianity took its bearing. Bach’s B Minor Mass has been influential to the Christian tradition contributing to the ethical formation of Christians. In Europe, Christianity had deep and broad influence through the middle ages and well into the modern era. Therefore, most European music compositions were specifically tailored for Christian purposes: hymn tunes, with a variety of arrangements and harmonization of these tunes; mass settings of particular worship services such as requiem mass or the passion; anthems on a particular prayer book text, for the performance of a choir; and a wide variety of incidental music of all types of religious occasions (Cunningham, 2008).

Bach’s B Minor Mass has exerted more influence to the Christian tradition thus contributing to the ethical formation of Christians. The mass setting exerts this influence through hymns and religious songs. B Minor Mass sets narratives of faith to music. This makes it easy for the faithful to memorize and thus take a firmer hold of faith in their psyche. It also sets various verbal elements of worship service to music. For instance, this encompasses providing music for the six parts of the mass that are sung in response to the worship leader in a service (Stauffer, 2003). Bach’s musical settings have had tremendous influence in western culture. They derived their names from the initial Greek or Latin words in the six portions of the Ordinary: one, the Kyrie eleison which means “Lord has mercy”. It is an invocation at the start of mass for God to be present and to be merciful to worshipers; two, the Gloria which means “Glory”, a song of worship and praise; three, the Credo which means “I believe”, this is a recitation of the Nicene creed; four, the Sanctus which means “Holy”; fifth, the Benedictus which means “Blessed”, beginning the Eucharist prayer; sixth, the Agnus Dei which means “Lamb of God”, accompanies the breaking of bread and distribution of the Holy communion to the congregation (Cunningham, 2008).

Bach’s musical setting forms the traditional of the mass which has the primary response to the priest who speaks or sings the remainder of the liturgy in a single voice. The musical setting of these responses makes them memorable and beautiful. When these texts and hymns preoccupy the minds and lips of believers frequently, they begin to play a restructuring role in their entire lives (Cunningham, 2008).

References

Bernstein, M. 2005. An Introduction to Music. New Jersey: Kissinger Publishing.

Bukofzer, M. 2007. Music in the Baroque Era- From Monteverdi to Bach. New York: Read Books.

Cunningham, D. 2008. Christian Ethics. New York: Routledge.

Stauffer, G. 2003. Bach: The Mass in B Minor. The Great Catholic Mass. New Haven: Yale University Press.

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B Minor Mass and J. S. Bach

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