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The Mass
(Singers from the National Youth Choir of Scotland).
The earliest music to be written down was the chants of the Roman Catholic monks, which were sung in unison and based on the various modes which were used at this time. These chants were sung during the service within the church as processionals, for the offering, for specific dates in the church calendar, or just as part of the service. This plainsong, often called ‘Gregorian chants’ after the name of Pope Gregory, who died in 604, was the first music to be written down and was to be fundamental in the development of western music over the coming centuries. Listen to this excerpt, a chant for Good Friday, and notice the modal sound and unison singing by male voices.
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The Mass is the service of the Roman Catholic Church and there are two types:
• Low Mass, which is spoken and is the most commonly used
• High Mass, which is sung.
As could be expected, this became a focus for many composers through the ages as a major style of composition.
There are five parts to the Mass:
1 Kyrie eleison – ‘God have mercy’
2 Gloria – ‘Glory to God in the highest’
3 Credo – ‘I believe in one God’
4 Sanctus and Benedictus – ‘Holy, holy’ and ‘Blessed is he’
5 Agnus Dei – ‘Lamb of God’.
Some of the earliest and finest examples are from the Renaissance period and are by the Italian composer Palestrina. Almost all the movements in Masses of this time were fugues so listen to this typical example, the beginning of a Kyrie, and notice the polyphonic, imitative, fugal writing in the parts.
Mass
In the Baroque period many composers wrote Masses and perhaps the most outstanding of these is the Mass in B Minor by J S Bach. This was a Lutheran Mass, written for the reformed church but still with a Latin text. By this time the Mass was being performed with similar performers as those used in oratorio performances so it was normal to find, not an a cappella performance as heard in Renaissance times, but a full performance for soloists, chorus and orchestra. Listen to the start of the chorus part of the Kyrie from this Mass, which is quite clearly a fugue, a style much favoured by Bach in all his music. Notice the fugue starts with the tenor voices and then the other four parts enter in turn: alto, 1st soprano, 2nd soprano and finally basses.
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Classical period Mass
In the Classical period both Mozart and Haydn wrote a number of these works. Haydn in particular wrote regularly in this style and one of the best known is the ‘Paukenmesse’, ‘The mass in time of war’. Listen to the ‘Gloria’ from this work, a movement in a bright major key, as you would expect to reflect the translation, ‘Glory to God in the highest’. Notice the 3/4 time, the use of timpani in the orchestra, repetition, sequence and a return of the opening material at the end of the movement.
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(left) Haydn 1732 - 1809
At the end of the Romantic period Bruckner composed a large number of religious works, some of which have been mentioned in other sections of this topic. He wrote many Masses. Listen to this excerpt from his Mass in E minor. Notice the use of unison singing, chromatic sequences towards the end, and organ and orchestral accompaniment, although little is heard of the orchestra in this excerpt.
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