Missa in angustiis
Encyclopedia
The Missa in Angustiis or "Nelson Mass" (Hob.
XXII:11), is one of fourteen masses
written by Joseph Haydn
. It is one of the six masses written near the end of his life which are now seen as a culmination of Haydn's liturgical composition.
Haydn's chief biographer, H. C. Robbins Landon
, has written that this mass "is arguably Haydn's greatest single composition." This mass, written in 1798, is one of the six late masses by Haydn for the Esterhazy family composed after taking a short hiatus when elaborate church music was inhibited by the Josephinian reforms of the 1780’s. The late sacred works of Haydn are masterworks influenced by the experience of his London symphonies
and highlight the soloists and chorus while allowing the orchestra to play a prominent role.
Due to the political and financial instability of this period in European history, Haydn’s patron Nikolaus II dismissed the Feldharmonie, or wind band octet, shortly before Haydn wrote the Missa in Angustiis for the Princess’s name day. Haydn, therefore, was left with a “dark” orchestra composed of strings, trumpets, timpani, and organ. Later editors and arrangers added what they perceived to be missing woodwind parts, but the original scoring has again become the accepted choice for modern performances
Though in 1798, when he wrote this Mass, Haydn's reputation was at its peak, his world was in turmoil. Napoleon had won four major battles with Austria in less than a year. The previous year, in early 1797, his armies had crossed the Alps and threatened Vienna
itself. In May of 1798, Napoleon invaded Egypt to destroy Britain's trade routes to the East.
The summer of 1798 was therefore a terrifying time for Austria, and when Haydn finished this Mass, his own title, in the catalogue of his works, was "Missa in Angustiis" or "Mass for Troubled Times." What Haydn did not know when he wrote the Mass — but what he and his audience heard (perhaps on the very day of the first performance September 15) was that on Aug. 1, Napoleon had been dealt a stunning defeat in the Battle of the Nile
by British forces led by Admiral Horatio Nelson. Because of this coincidence, the Mass gradually acquired the nickname "Lord Nelson Mass." The title became indelible when in 1800, Lord Nelson himself visited the Palais Esterházy
, accompanied by his British mistress, Lady Hamilton, and may have heard the Mass performed.
Haydn’s original title may also have come from illness and exhaustion at this time following the supervision of the first performances of The Creation, completed a few months earlier, or even from the challenge of composing without the desired instrumentation. The solo parts for two of the vocal quartet are virtuosic, the bass line perhaps written for the accomplished Christian Specht, and the soprano line, even more demanding, could have been written for Barbara Pilhofer or Therese Gassmann. The piece was premiered September 23, 1798 at the Stadtpfarr church, a last minute venue change from the Bergkirche in Eisenstadt
.
For Haydn, writing the Mass in the late summer of 1798, the mood in Eisenstadt was one of foreboding, to the point of terror, and this is what we hear as the great work opens: Haydn chose to write the opening movement in the key of D minor
. During the course of the composition the mood shifts as the predominant, and concluding tonality is D major. In 1788, Haydn had attended the first Vienna performance of Mozart's opera Don Giovanni
. From contemporary accounts, we know it made a great impression on him, and in Don Giovanni, the most memorable scene portrays the unrepentant anti-hero being dragged down to the underworld. Here, according to Landon, the listener hears, "perhaps the first time in music history, the presence of real fear, nay terror." This music is all in D minor. It is easy to imagine that when Haydn, ten years later, wished to evoke this emotion in his music, his ears were still ringing with Giovanni's terrible D-minor fate.
of the Catholic church. It includes the following sections.
The first movement of the Mass communicates just such an atmosphere of terror and confusion. The text, "Lord, have Mercy; Christ, have mercy," is most frequently set as a pious, even submissive plea, but in this Mass it becomes a nearly profane expostulation, such as one might utter when presented with a disaster of incomprehensible magnitude. Anguished confusion permeates virtually every note of the first "Kyrie" movement.
The movement that follows, the Gloria, is the exact opposite of the first. It's a song of exultant praise, directed to the same creator whose world, in the first movement is so fraught with perils. Haydn's treatment is utterly without irony. The vision of the Gloria is as elemental and complete as the dark vision of the Kyrie. The world may be beset with dangers and terrors, but it is at one and the same time a glorious world of diverse miracles, and the soprano, alto, and chorus compete in the joyful praise. "We praise thee, we magnify thee, we adore thee, we glorify thee..."
Haydn starts the Credo movement with a canon, as the altos and basses repeat exactly the music sung by the sopranos and tenors. The repeating voices in canon are an ingenious way of providing reinforcement for the statement of belief. Then comes the most dramatic section of the Credo. It is introduced by a lovely soprano solo set to the words "et incarnatus est—and he was made incarnate." What follows is the central drama of the New Testament
—the idea that God took on human form and lived on earth—the Christmas story and all that follows it.
But because every birth on this earth foretells a death to come, this section also leads through the terrible events of the crucifixion, and the music reflects that agony, as the trumpets and the tympani play echoes of their motifs from the dark Kyrie. In response, in one of the most transcendent moments in the Mass, a trio of soloists assures us that the birth and death were not futile but were in fact for our benefit--"pro nobis, pro nobis, pro nobis," repeated three times, perhaps to invoke the power of the Trinity. This assurance seems to transform the mood from one of agony and despair to one of acceptance. It is an extraordinary moment. The “et resurrexit" is predictably fast paced and joyous and leads the Credo to an almost delirious conclusion, led by glorious writing for the violins, and proceeding to a magnificent "Amen
."
In the “Benedictus,” Haydn chooses to focus on just part of the text: “In the Name of the Lord." Together, the soprano soloist and chorus imagine for us the sort of Pomp and Circumstance that would surround such a messenger. Near the end, the trumpets and tympani suddenly enter to create extraordinarily grand music, suggesting a magnificent procession. Some people have interpreted this section as a martial tribute to Lord Nelson himself, but we believe now that Haydn did not have Nelson in mind but a far greater power.
The "Agnus Dei" is a personal address, a prayer, appealing to a personal God through Jesus for a personal blessing--"miserere nobis." Haydn in this section emphasizes the intimacy involved by setting the entire petition for the four soloists, not the chorus.
That movement, and the Mass as a whole ends in a very glad setting of the "famous last words" of the Mass--"Dona nobis pacem--grant us peace." We have been transported from the greatest depths of despair in the first movement to a great and certain joy.
Hoboken-Verzeichnis
The Hoboken-Verzeichnis is the catalogue of over 750 works by Joseph Haydn as compiled by Anthony van Hoboken.Unlike Ludwig von Köchel's catalogue of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's works, or Otto Erich Deutsch's catalogue of Franz Schubert's works, which are both arranged chronologically by date of...
XXII:11), is one of fourteen masses
Mass (music)
The Mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the invariable portions of the Eucharistic liturgy to music...
written by Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
. It is one of the six masses written near the end of his life which are now seen as a culmination of Haydn's liturgical composition.
Background
H. C. Robbins Landon
Howard Chandler Robbins Landon was an American musicologist.He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and studied music at Swarthmore College and Boston University. He subsequently moved to Europe where he worked as a music critic. From 1947 he undertook research in Vienna on Joseph Haydn, a composer...
, has written that this mass "is arguably Haydn's greatest single composition." This mass, written in 1798, is one of the six late masses by Haydn for the Esterhazy family composed after taking a short hiatus when elaborate church music was inhibited by the Josephinian reforms of the 1780’s. The late sacred works of Haydn are masterworks influenced by the experience of his London symphonies
London symphonies
The London symphonies, sometimes called the Salomon symphonies after the man who introduced London to Joseph Haydn, were composed by Joseph Haydn between 1791 and 1795...
and highlight the soloists and chorus while allowing the orchestra to play a prominent role.
Due to the political and financial instability of this period in European history, Haydn’s patron Nikolaus II dismissed the Feldharmonie, or wind band octet, shortly before Haydn wrote the Missa in Angustiis for the Princess’s name day. Haydn, therefore, was left with a “dark” orchestra composed of strings, trumpets, timpani, and organ. Later editors and arrangers added what they perceived to be missing woodwind parts, but the original scoring has again become the accepted choice for modern performances
Though in 1798, when he wrote this Mass, Haydn's reputation was at its peak, his world was in turmoil. Napoleon had won four major battles with Austria in less than a year. The previous year, in early 1797, his armies had crossed the Alps and threatened Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
itself. In May of 1798, Napoleon invaded Egypt to destroy Britain's trade routes to the East.
The summer of 1798 was therefore a terrifying time for Austria, and when Haydn finished this Mass, his own title, in the catalogue of his works, was "Missa in Angustiis" or "Mass for Troubled Times." What Haydn did not know when he wrote the Mass — but what he and his audience heard (perhaps on the very day of the first performance September 15) was that on Aug. 1, Napoleon had been dealt a stunning defeat in the Battle of the Nile
Battle of the Nile
The Battle of the Nile was a major naval battle fought between British and French fleets at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt from 1–3 August 1798...
by British forces led by Admiral Horatio Nelson. Because of this coincidence, the Mass gradually acquired the nickname "Lord Nelson Mass." The title became indelible when in 1800, Lord Nelson himself visited the Palais Esterházy
Palais Esterházy
----Palais Esterházy is a baroque palace in Vienna, Austria, owned by the noble Esterházy family. It houses a famous and popular restaurant in the former wine cellars, called Esterházykeller....
, accompanied by his British mistress, Lady Hamilton, and may have heard the Mass performed.
Haydn’s original title may also have come from illness and exhaustion at this time following the supervision of the first performances of The Creation, completed a few months earlier, or even from the challenge of composing without the desired instrumentation. The solo parts for two of the vocal quartet are virtuosic, the bass line perhaps written for the accomplished Christian Specht, and the soprano line, even more demanding, could have been written for Barbara Pilhofer or Therese Gassmann. The piece was premiered September 23, 1798 at the Stadtpfarr church, a last minute venue change from the Bergkirche in Eisenstadt
Eisenstadt
- Politics :The current mayor of Eisenstadt is Andrea Fraunschiel ÖVP.The district council is composed as follows :* ÖVP: 17 seats* SPÖ: 8 seats* Austrian Green Party: 2 seats* FPÖ: 2 seats- Castles and palaces :...
.
For Haydn, writing the Mass in the late summer of 1798, the mood in Eisenstadt was one of foreboding, to the point of terror, and this is what we hear as the great work opens: Haydn chose to write the opening movement in the key of D minor
D minor
D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. In the harmonic minor, the C is raised to C. Its key signature has one flat ....
. During the course of the composition the mood shifts as the predominant, and concluding tonality is D major. In 1788, Haydn had attended the first Vienna performance of Mozart's opera Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
. From contemporary accounts, we know it made a great impression on him, and in Don Giovanni, the most memorable scene portrays the unrepentant anti-hero being dragged down to the underworld. Here, according to Landon, the listener hears, "perhaps the first time in music history, the presence of real fear, nay terror." This music is all in D minor. It is easy to imagine that when Haydn, ten years later, wished to evoke this emotion in his music, his ears were still ringing with Giovanni's terrible D-minor fate.
Compositional sections
The text, slightly altered, is taken from the Latin MassMass
Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...
of the Catholic church. It includes the following sections.
- KyrieKyrieKyrie, a transliteration of Greek κύριε , vocative case of κύριος , meaning "Lord", is the common name of an important prayer of Christian liturgy, which is also called the Kýrie, eléison ....
(Lord have mercy) - GloriaGloria in Excelsis Deo"Gloria in excelsis Deo" is the title and beginning of a hymn known also as the Greater Doxology and the Angelic Hymn. The name is often abbreviated to Gloria in Excelsis or simply Gloria.It is an example of the psalmi idiotici "Gloria in excelsis Deo" (Latin for "Glory to God in the highest")...
(Glory to god in the highest) - CredoCredoA credo |Latin]] for "I Believe") is a statement of belief, commonly used for religious belief, such as the Apostles' Creed. The term especially refers to the use of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed in the Mass, either as text, Gregorian chant, or other musical settings of the...
(I believe or the Nicene creedNicene CreedThe Nicene Creed is the creed or profession of faith that is most widely used in Christian liturgy. It is called Nicene because, in its original form, it was adopted in the city of Nicaea by the first ecumenical council, which met there in the year 325.The Nicene Creed has been normative to the...
) - SanctusSanctusThe Sanctus is a hymn from Christian liturgy, forming part of the Order of Mass. In Western Christianity, the Sanctus is sung as the final words of the Preface of the Eucharistic Prayer, the prayer of consecration of the bread and wine...
(Holy) - Benedictus (Blessed)
- Agnus Dei (Lamb of God)
The first movement of the Mass communicates just such an atmosphere of terror and confusion. The text, "Lord, have Mercy; Christ, have mercy," is most frequently set as a pious, even submissive plea, but in this Mass it becomes a nearly profane expostulation, such as one might utter when presented with a disaster of incomprehensible magnitude. Anguished confusion permeates virtually every note of the first "Kyrie" movement.
The movement that follows, the Gloria, is the exact opposite of the first. It's a song of exultant praise, directed to the same creator whose world, in the first movement is so fraught with perils. Haydn's treatment is utterly without irony. The vision of the Gloria is as elemental and complete as the dark vision of the Kyrie. The world may be beset with dangers and terrors, but it is at one and the same time a glorious world of diverse miracles, and the soprano, alto, and chorus compete in the joyful praise. "We praise thee, we magnify thee, we adore thee, we glorify thee..."
Haydn starts the Credo movement with a canon, as the altos and basses repeat exactly the music sung by the sopranos and tenors. The repeating voices in canon are an ingenious way of providing reinforcement for the statement of belief. Then comes the most dramatic section of the Credo. It is introduced by a lovely soprano solo set to the words "et incarnatus est—and he was made incarnate." What follows is the central drama of the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
—the idea that God took on human form and lived on earth—the Christmas story and all that follows it.
But because every birth on this earth foretells a death to come, this section also leads through the terrible events of the crucifixion, and the music reflects that agony, as the trumpets and the tympani play echoes of their motifs from the dark Kyrie. In response, in one of the most transcendent moments in the Mass, a trio of soloists assures us that the birth and death were not futile but were in fact for our benefit--"pro nobis, pro nobis, pro nobis," repeated three times, perhaps to invoke the power of the Trinity. This assurance seems to transform the mood from one of agony and despair to one of acceptance. It is an extraordinary moment. The “et resurrexit" is predictably fast paced and joyous and leads the Credo to an almost delirious conclusion, led by glorious writing for the violins, and proceeding to a magnificent "Amen
Amen
The word amen is a declaration of affirmation found in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. Its use in Judaism dates back to its earliest texts. It has been generally adopted in Christian worship as a concluding word for prayers and hymns. In Islam, it is the standard ending to Dua and the...
."
In the “Benedictus,” Haydn chooses to focus on just part of the text: “In the Name of the Lord." Together, the soprano soloist and chorus imagine for us the sort of Pomp and Circumstance that would surround such a messenger. Near the end, the trumpets and tympani suddenly enter to create extraordinarily grand music, suggesting a magnificent procession. Some people have interpreted this section as a martial tribute to Lord Nelson himself, but we believe now that Haydn did not have Nelson in mind but a far greater power.
The "Agnus Dei" is a personal address, a prayer, appealing to a personal God through Jesus for a personal blessing--"miserere nobis." Haydn in this section emphasizes the intimacy involved by setting the entire petition for the four soloists, not the chorus.
That movement, and the Mass as a whole ends in a very glad setting of the "famous last words" of the Mass--"Dona nobis pacem--grant us peace." We have been transported from the greatest depths of despair in the first movement to a great and certain joy.
Selected discography
- Lord Nelson Mass, performed in 1962 by the King's CollegeKing's College, CambridgeKing's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....
Choir and a reduced London Symphony OrchestraLondon Symphony OrchestraThe London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...
conducted by Sir David Willcocks, recording re-released in 2000 by London/Decca Legends CD 458623 - Missa In Angustiis (Lord Nelson Mass), performed in 1986 by the English Concert Choir and the English Concert conducted by Trevor PinnockTrevor PinnockTrevor David Pinnock CBE is an English conductor, harpsichordist, and occasional organist and pianist.He is best known for his association with the period-performance orchestra The English Concert which he helped found and directed from the keyboard for over 30 years in baroque and early classical...
, recording released in 1990 by Archiv Produktion (Deutsche Grammophon) CD 423097 (BBC Radio 3 CD Masters)