MASS IN F MAJOR, K192

INTRODUCTION

In July, 1773, just after “K167″, Wolfgang and Leopold tagged along when the archbishop traveled to Vienna where his own father was seriously ill.  They had learned that Florian Gassman, chamber composer and kapellmeister to Emperor Joseph II, also lay gravely ill from an old carriage accident and Leopold, with his boundless narcissism, thought that Wolfgang would be a shoo-in upon Gassman’s apparently imminent demise.  Maria Theresa, however, had not forgotten Leopold’s intrigues in 1768.  She regarded the Mozarts then as “useless people [who] go about the world like beggars” and received them coldly now.  Gassman rallied, and father and son returned, deflated, to Salzburg in September.  When Gassman finally died in January, his duties were divided between Antonio Salieri and Giuseppe Bonno.  Mozart was not summoned.

His next mass was “K192” in F, first performed June 24, 1774 in the Salzburg cathedral.  It is scored for violins, bass, organ continuo, and three trombones doubling the alto, tenor, and bass voices.  Two trumpets in C, but not timpani, were added at some indeterminate later time.  Matt and Kegel use the original scoring; Harnoncourt uses the trumpets.

Mozart had previously written for trumpets, also in C, only in the three masses in the key of C:  “K139“, “K66“, and “K167“, which also include timpani.  Colloredo had about a dozen trumpeters and two timpanists in his employ for the pomp and ceremony he loved so much.  Most if not all of these natural trumpets played in C, as that was the traditional key used by the court.  The church also sometimes used trumpets in D and the military used trumpets in D and E flat.  Mozart had previously written for D and E flat trumpets in Salzburg, so we know they were available.

Trumpets in F were rare, difficult to play, and not available in Salzburg.  Indeed, I can find no use by Mozart of an F trumpet at any time in his life.  There was probably one gathering dust in Köthen, where Johann Sebastian Bach had requisitioned it in 1721 for his “Brandenburg Concerto No. 2” before skipping town for Leipzig.  It may be there still, as I can find no major work for natural trumpet in F in the German/Bohemian/Austrian lands since then, though two of the greatest writers for natural trumpet, Leopold Mozart and Michael Haydn, lived, of course, in Salzburg.

I wonder if Colloredo might have pressed Mozart into adding the trumpet parts for “K192” even though the notes a C trumpet (much less a D or an E flat) could play in the key of F were extremely limited.  I wonder whether the archbishop could even tell one trumpet from another.  And I wonder whether Mozart’s effort here was, um, a little halfhearted.  Mozart’s parts for trumpets in C for masses in C are not particularly distinguished anyway (we’ll remember that from childhood the trumpet was one of his least favorite instruments) and here they add little more than a sort of “toot toot” sound (“All right, moron—you want trumpets, I’ll give you trumpets!”).

KYRIE

The gentle, infectious Kyrie, in duple time, begins with a lilting, toe-tapping tune in the orchestra.  The snippet here is from Harnoncourt to document the typical trumpet effect.  Most of the rest are, as usual, from Matt.  The sound is so simple and folklike, one cannot help but visualize dancers bowing and curtseying to each other.  I hope Mozart bowed and curtseyed to Michael Haydn, because he stole the initial theme from Haydn’s 1768 “Symphony No. 16“.  Mozart also previously used it as a brief orchestral introduction in his offertory “Benedictus Sit Deus Pater“, K117, in 1769, but here it permeates the entire movement.

The chorus sing in Type II fashion, with two sections on “Kyrie eleison” separated by one of “Christe eleison”, the first time Mozart has actually followed a traditional three-part “Kyrie”-“Christe”-“Kyrie” structure for this movement.

In the first “Kyrie”, the basses begin, followed in close succession by the other voices.  The soprano has a brief solo, after which the other choral voices again enter from below.

In the “Christe” section, it is the sopranos who begin, followed closely by the other voices.

The second “Kyrie” is similar to the first, but here the alto has the solo.

In Credo of “K167″, the first thirty seconds present the key themes for the movement.  Here, it’s the first nine notes.  Notes 3, 4, 5, and 6 define the vigorous theme fragment when the chorus begin to sing “Kyrie eleison” and a rhythmic variant with a different sound a little later.  Notes 8 and 9 form the distinctive ascending jump on the word “eleison” at the end of the soprano’s and alto’s solos.  The opening of “Christe” uses the whole phrase.

The working out of “eleison” by the chorus following the solos is brimming with good spirits all by itself, but in the Philips version, Herbert Kegel takes an unprecedented liberty with the score.  Instead of having the chorus pick up the tune as written, he has just the four soloists continue.  The resulting quartet is so stunning, I think Mozart would kick himself even now for not coming up with the idea himself.  The chorus then finish things out in sprightly fashion.

GLORIA

The Gloria, all Type I except the final chorus, is in moderate triple time without any pauses in the pace.  Brief solo and quartet passages alternate with the chorus in eight brief sections tied together by six recurring theme fragments, five of which are readily identifiable in the first thirty seconds.  Fasten your seatbelt for this one.

The chorus sing Fragment A to the words “Et in terra pax”.  The solo quartet sing the imitative Fragment B to the words “Bonae voluntatis”.  The chorus sing Fragment C to a repeat of the words “Bonae voluntatis”.  The orchestra announce the next section with Fragment D, three businesslike chords which similarly mark the transition to many of the subsequent sections.

“Laudamus te” for chorus is built on an interior portion of Fragment A which retains the small step up and long skip down but is different enough to call Fragment E.  It does not actually recur in Gloria, I note it here as it plays an important role later in the Credo.  The music to “Benedicimus te”, Fragment F, is distinctly unmemorable, but does recur.  The Gloria has now reached the thirty second mark.  All but one recurring theme has been introduced and the remaining four and one-half minutes are allocated for playing with them (there will not be a quiz).  There is a clear restatement of Fragment A at “Propter magnam“.  The section ends again with the transitional Fragment D.

“Domine Deus“, again for solo quartet, is Fragment B followed by Fragment C, both now in a minor key.  Mozart usually treats this entire text until “Qui tollis” as a unit, but as Fragment D again asserts itself, I am assuming the next music is intended as a new section.

Indeed, the tenor begins “Domine Fili” with a new Fragment G, the last recurring theme.  The chorus sing a dreamy theme one wants to hear again but won’t and the solo quartet finish the section with Fragment B, followed by Fragment D.

“Qui tollis“, for chorus, is new music; the first “Miserere” is a variation of Fragment A.  As with the “Domine Deus” text, Mozart usually treats “Qui tollis” as a single section until “Quoniam”, but Fragment D sounds one more time, and I am not inclined to argue with it.

The second “Qui tollis” has the same theme as the first, but “Suscipe”, “Qui sedes”, and the second “Miserere” all flow into one another and are more lyrical.

At the transition to the next section, the curt Fragment D is nowhere to be found, but the unmemorable Fragment F sounds quite nice here in the violins and serves the same function, leading to “Quoniam“, which begins with the solo soprano singing sweetly to Fragment G.  Each of the soprano’s lines has an echoing line by the chorus.

Fragment D is done for the day and Fragment F is a shoo-in again for the final transition to a brief, spirited Type II chorus on a new theme at “Cum Sancto Spiritu“.  This nearly finishes the movement, but as the chorus sing their final “Amens”, there is one final repetition each of Fragment B, Fragment C, and Fragment A.

Appearances of theme fragments in sections of Gloria.

CREDO

Credo, in brisk Type I duple time, again proceeds with alternating sections for chorus and soloists.  Tone painting conventions appear where we have come to expect them, descending and ascending on the appropriate words and becoming hushed at the words “et mortuos” and “mortuorum“.  However, the mood is serious throughout and even though the word “non” at “non erit finis” is repeated several times, it is not playful as it has been in several of the preceding masses.  The music is declamatory for the most part and few theme fragments last long enough to become a tune we can hang onto, although none of them is boring and there is not a bit of telescoping.  There are bursts of imitative voice writing, but only in “Et vitam venturi” does it reach true Type II status.

Typically, Mozart has divided Credo into three to seven sections with a full stop in the music announcing “Et incarnatus est” and “Crucifixus”, which are usually set slowly and in music distinctly different from what has gone before, with the pace of the opening resumed at “Et resurrexit”.  Here the text is divided into eleven sections of approximately equal length with no stop in the brisk pace until the end of the ninth section, “Et unam Sanctam”.

Untypically, “Et resurrexit” does not begin a section, but is lumped with “Crucifixus”.  Similarly, there is no songlike treatment of “Et in Spiritum Sanctum”, as we have often seen.  If we have been dozing through what we think is the usual “Credo in Unum Deum blah blah blah” section, waiting for a pretty song, the sudden booming bass solo at the word “Confiteor” suggests that we have missed it.  Indeed, it was never there.

Each of the eleven sections is clearly announced by a distinctive four-note theme, expanding on the function of Fragments D and F in the Gloria.  This is sometimes sung by the chorus, sometimes by the soloists, and is the same theme which Mozart will later use to great effect in the last movement of his “Symphony No. 41″.  Nine of the theme’s appearances are on the words “Credo, credo”, beginning, of course, with “Credo in unum Deum”, but the theme itself is also used for the texts themselves for “Crucifixus”, “Confiteor”, and “Et vitam venturi”.  

From the third appearance, just before “Genitum non factum”, through the ninth appearance, just before “Et unam sanctam”, the theme is each time preceded by a brief four-note figure in the violins.  This is a quotation from the Gloria of this same mass, a compressed version of its Fragment E.  Just before Et incarnatus est”, also compressed, Fragment C from the Gloria appears as well.

The “Confiteor” and “Et vitam venturi” sections begin without introductions after full stops.  At the end of the movement, there are two final repetitions of Fragment E and one of the “Credo” theme.

Sections 2, 3, and 4 do not contain the “Credo” theme and all begin with different music, but all contain internal fragments which are repeated in sections 7, 8, and 9 respectively, which also do not contain the “Credo” theme.  “Deum de Deo” is repeated at “Cum Gloria”, “Per quam omnia sunt” at “Qui locutus est”, and “Descendit” at “Et unam sanctam”. Even “Et incarnatus est”, which begins with a new theme, contains Gloria’s Fragment E.

Section Recurrent Themes Transition/End

Section	Recurrent Themes	Transition/End
“Credo in unum Deum”	“Credo”	“Credo”
“Et in unum Dominum”	“Deum de Deo“*	GlFragE, “Credo“
“Genitum non factum”	“Per quam omnia”**	GlFrE, Credo
“Qui propter”	“Descendit”***	GlFragC, GlFragE, “Credo“
“Et incarnatus”	Fragment E	GlFragE
“Crucifixus”	“Credo” theme	GlFragE, “Credo”
“Et iterum venturus”	*“Cum gloria“	GlFragE, “Credo”
“Et in Spiritum Sanctum”	**“Qui locutus est”	GlFragE, “Credo”
“Et unam sanctam”	***“Et unam sanctam”	Full stop
“Confiteor”	“Credo” theme	Full stop
“Et vitam venturi”	Credo theme	GlFragE, GlFragE, Credo

SANCTUS

I don’t know about you, but I’m very sleepy now.  There’s nothing fancy about the gentle, rocking triple-time “Sanctus” for Type I chorus.  It contrasts with a lively duple-time Type II chorus on “Hosanna“.  The rapid entry of voice after voice gives the effect of neighbors calling out good news to neighbors.  The whole movement is little over a minute long, but does not sound hurried.

BENEDICTUS

There is not a single trumpet note here, which would certainly spoil “Benedictus“, another lovely, flowing Type I song in triple time, this time just for the four soloists.  “Hosanna” repeats as usual.

AGNUS DEI

The gentle, mournful “Agnus Dei” consists of three duple-time repetitions of an orchestral passage, a solo passage, and a choral passage (“Dona nobis pacem” beginning is the “third” choral passage).  As so often happens when the music allows only three solo passages, the one who ends up warming the bench is the bass.  But remember, he got a couple of lines all to himself near the end of the Credo.

DONA NOBIS PACEM

A transparent, flowing “Dona nobis pacem” in triple time for Type I chorus finishes the mass nicely.