Not composed for, but performed at
Coronation of Francis I in Prague, 1792 and probably Leopold II,
1791.
1. Kyrie
2. Gloria
3. Credo
4. Sanctus
5. Benedictus
6. Agnus Dei
Of the sacred works that Mozart composed in Salzburg none is as well
known or as popular as the Mass in C K. 317. In 1779 Mozart returned
from his disastrous trip to Paris and, partly out of material
necessity and also to please his father, he took up a position in
the Archbishop's service in Salzburg. He was to "unbegrudgingly and
with great diligence discharge his duties both in the cathedral and
at court and in the chapel house, and as occasion presents, to
provide the court and church with new compositions of his own
creation". At the first opportunity Mozart fulfilled this demand,
composing the mass for the Easter Day service on 4th April 1779.
The musical style of the piece corresponds to the hybrid form that
was preferred by the Archbishop: its use of wind instruments
suggests a "Solemn Mass", and its length suggests a "Short Mass".
Mozart himself described his task in a letter: "Our church music is
very different to that of Italy, all the more so since a mass with
all its movements, even for the most solemn occasions when the
sovereign himself reads the mass [e.g. Easter Day], must not last
more than 3 quarters of an hour. One needs a special training for
this kind type of composition, and it must also be a mass with all
instruments - war trumpets, tympani etc." It therefore had be a
grand ceremonial setting, but the mass also needed to have a compact
structure. Mozart therefore omits formal closing fugues for the
Gloria and Credo, the Credo with its problematic, vast text is in a
tight rondo form, and the Dona nobis pacem recalls the music of the
Kyrie.
Even as early as the 19th Century the mass was already popularly
referred to as the "Coronation Mass". The nickname grew out of the
misguided belief that Mozart had written the mass for Salzburg's
annual celebration of the anniversary of the crowning of the Shrine
of the Virgin. The more likely explanation is that it was one of the
works that was performed during the coronation festivities in
Prague, either as early as August 1791 for Leopold II, or certainly
for Leopold's successor Francis I in August 1792. (There is a set of
parts dating from 1792, and the same parts were probably used the
year before.) It seems that Mozart must have seen the chance to be
represented at the coronation festivities in 1791, not only with La
clemenza di Tito, but also with a mass composition: he wrote from
Prague requesting that the parts for his old Mass in C be sent to
him there. He was held in very high regard in Prague: The Marriage
of Figaro had been a smash hit there, and they had commissioned Don
Giovanni. It seems likely therefore that the city would have taken
on the mass as its own, and the nickname would have grown from
there.
Certainly the music itself is celebratory in nature, and would have
fitted a coronation or Easter Day service perfectly. The soloists
are continually employed either as a quartet, in pairs or in solo
lines that contrast with the larger forces of the choir. The most
stunning examples are the central hushed section of the Credo, and
later when the Hosanna section of the Benedictus is well under way,
the quartet begins the piece again, seemingly in the wrong place!
Perhaps the most obvious reason for the mass's popularity in Prague
in 1791/2 was the uncanny similarity between the soprano solo Agnus
Dei and the Countess's aria Dove sono from Figaro which had been so
successful there in the 1780's.
[Note to other societies: you are welcome
to use the whole or parts of this text in your own programmes, but
if you do please include an acknowledgement to the Aylesbury Choral
Society.] |