Christopher Härtel Music History I Fall, 2008

The Mass Ordinary as a Musical Genre, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

The Mass is the vessel which contains the very heart of Catholic worship. From

the very first celebration of the Eucharist, the last supper on the eve of Passover,

the Mass has been intertwined with music. Both Matthew (xvi, 30) and Mark

(xiv, 26) describe the singing of hymns following the supper. This evidence

suggests the origin of the Mass was as Jewish Ceremonial Meal1. Even before the

collapse of the Roman Empire, psalms were being chanted during sections of the

Mass. It was not until the publication of Ordo romanus I in approximately 700

that we get a picture of the Pontifical Mass.

The Pontifical Mass (c. 700AD)2

Proper Chants Ordinary Chants Prayers/ReadingsFORE-MASS Introit Kyrie (replacing the Fore-Mass

c. 700AD) Gloria

Collect Apostle (Epistle)

Gradual Alleluia/tract (Sequence)

(Credo – not until 11th century)

Gospel

MASS OF THE FAITHFUL Non-baptized were dismissed at this point (until 11th century)

Sanctus Agnus Dei

Offertory Preface Eucharistic Prayer Pater Noster

Communion (Ite Missa Est) Post-Communion

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Essentially, all the elements of the Mass Ordinary one would find in a 19th

century setting were present at the end of the ‘Romanesque’ era of chant,

plainsong and ars antiqua. The text of the Mass Ordinary remained relatively

unchanged from this time until the 1960’s and the advent of the Vatican II

council, which allowed the Mass to be presented in the vernacular rather than in

Church Latin.

With the coming of the Renaissance came the emergence of polyphony, and the

ascendance of composers like Guillaume de Machaut (c.1300-1377), the first

composer known to compose a polyphonic setting of the entire Mass (c.1364).

Machaut was an early innovator in the technique of text painting. His Credo, for

example, is set in a broad homophonic texture, contrasting with the polyphony

of the other sections. This use of alternating textures for dramatic effect

established a tradition that would survive well into the nineteenth century. 3

Josquin des Prez (c.1450-1521) brought a variety of tonal colors and extended

vocal ranges to the Mass, also trends that would continue until the present. The

major contribution to the Mass as a musical form in this period was the

development of an entire Mass from the polyphonic material of its antecedent.4

Baroque counterpoint in the Mass reached its zenith with the works of Joseph

Fux (1600-1741) and J.S. Bach (1685-1750) Bach in particular was a key figure in

opening up the Mass to include Lutheran Chorales as congregational responses.

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Bach was also among the first composers to create Masses of such size (the

mammoth Mass in B minor (1724-47) in particular) that they ceased to be of

practical liturgical use in Catholic or Lutheran services. This approach to a Mass

as a concert work rather than as an aspect of worship opened up a schism

between those who felt the purpose of the Mass was to glorify Christ, and those

who saw it as a musical genre, ripe for the kinds of developments that were

taking place in other genres of music.

The classical period saw the continued expansion of the Mass as a performance

piece, too outsized to be contained within a worship service. Noteworthy

developments in this period were near-symphonic sized settings, particularly by

Mozart (1756-1791) and Haydn (1732-1809). These large-scale scorings paved the

way for even greater settings to come.

As the classical period drew to a close, the essential conflict between liturgical

and concert settings of the Mass became more pronounced. Many commissioned

composers produced large-scale works that included the use of techniques and

devices that were being used in other genres. Not surprisingly, many of these

works contained elements of their composers’ favorite styles. The Italian Luigi

Cherubini (1760-1842) wrote 15 Masses, 8 of which survive. All are influenced in

varying degrees by his interest in Opera. His last Mass (1825) was written for the

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coronation of Charles X, and includes a Marcia Religiosa for the communion;

certainly a theatrical flourish. 8

In Germany and Austria, Mass settings tended to be in a more symphonic style,

and large-scale settings were predominant. Perhaps the seminal large-scale Mass

setting of the 19th century was Ludwig von Beethoven’s (1770-1827) Missa

Solemnis (1817-23), a monumental work that the composer considered to be his

finest. It is scored for full orchestra, SATB chorus, and SATB soloists. The Kyrie

and the Sanctus are of fairly straightforward, classical construction; the Kyrie is

sung by the choir, the Christe by the soloists, and the writing is stately and

traditional, using an ABA form. The Gloria is a cornucopia of shifting themes

and contains the first of two enormous fugues, at “In Gloria Dei Patris, Amen”.

The Credo is perhaps one of the most challenging pieces in all of 19th century

choral repertoire. The Benedictus is truly beautiful in its seeming simplicity and

humility, as the Holy Spirit descends to earth. The Agnus Dei brings the work to

a satisfying conclusion.

Beethoven stood at the crossroads between where the Mass had come from, and

where it would go. Many of his thematic treatments are either consciously or

unconsciously reminiscent of Josquin des Prez and Johannes Ockeghem (c.1410-

1497). Beethoven’s use of expressive tone color for dramatic effect can certainly

be traced in a straight line to Josquin. The critic Theodor Adorno wonders

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whether this was a deliberate attempt at an earlier style, or a case of convergent

evolution; similar solutions to the challenges of setting the Mass text. 12

The critical response to the Missa Solemnis was mixed; many listeners knew

they’d heard something monumental, but the work was atypical for the period,

and for the composer. The musician-journalist Donald Francis Tovey put it

succinctly:

Not even Bach or Handel can show a greater sense of space and of space and of sonority. There is no earlier choral writing that comes so near to recovering some of the lost secrets of the style of Palestrina. There is no choral and no orchestral writing, earlier or later, that shows a more thrilling sense of the individual colour of every chord, every position, every doubled third or discord.11

After Beethoven, the schism between liturgical and concert settings tore wide

open. There were many reasons for this; the demise of Royal Chapels following

the French Revolution meant that composers were no longer being

commissioned to create new masses, the growth of amateur choral societies in

Britain and Germany, and a general trend towards antiquarianism brought on by

the publication of new editions of older works for use by the new choral societies

all contributed to a dearth of new Mass settings that lasted almost 40 years.

By the end of the 19th century, composers had begun to turn away from the

grand orchestrations of the romantic period. The revival of the Eucharist in the

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Anglican Church led to a flurry of new, smaller Mass settings for use in the

liturgy, usually just for choir and organ. There were several composers who

attempted to draw on Anglican and Protestant hymn tunes for thematic material

in their Masses, with varying degrees of success. The most lasting of these are the

Anglican Folk Mass (1918) by Martin Shaw (1875-1958), and The Way of Jesus (1974)

by Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000). Hovhaness also wrote a Missa Brevis (1935) for

mixed chorus, orchestra, and strings that was in a much different, almost neo-

Renaissance style. Both works are functional liturgical pieces.

In America, the Vietnam War and the social upheaval of the 1960’s led to a

disavowal of anything that seemed ‘old-fashioned’ on the part of many

Protestant sects, notably Baptists and Methodists. 9 This infatuation with youth

and the feeling that the past was unimportant led to a “secularization of

worship” and the creation of vast numbers of simple, non-threatening, pop-

flavored Mass settings that “can be charitably characterized as adolescent easy

listening.”10

There were however, many composers who took up the challenge of writing

musically worthwhile Mass settings in the United States. Gian Carlo Menotti

(b.1911) set 2 Masses, the Missa Pulchritudo in Honorem Sacratissimi Cordis Jesus

(1979) for four soloists, mixed chorus, and orchestra; and Mass for the

Contemporary English Liturgy (1985) for congregation, optional mixed chorus, and

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organ. Norman Dello Joio’s (b.1913) Mass (1969) was set for mixed chorus, brass,

and organ. Vincent Persechetti (1915-1987) set an a cappella Mass that contains a

poignant and oft-performed Agnus Dei (1960). These works and many others by

20th century American composers are congregation-oriented without being

‘dumbed down’ to the level of insipid pop music.

In Europe, huge social change came in the wake of the two World Wars, (1914-

1918) and (1939-1945). The British Empire spent itself in the course of defeating

Nazi aggression, and much of the continent lay in ruin. We may never know

how many promising composers were among the estimated 450,000,000 dead,

but many of those that survived were deeply affected by the war. The first

composition by Ralph Vaughn Williams (1872-1958) following a five-year hiatus

caused by WWI was his one and only Mass, the Mass in G minor (1922). It is

compact, tightly focused, and both anachronistic and modern in its design.

Vaughn Williams’ use of the Dorian mode and frequent cross-relations are

evocative of the great Elizabethan choral masters, especially William Byrd

(d.1623) and Thomas Tallis (d.1585), yet the harmonic structure is very 20th

century, and distinctly Vaughn Williams.5 The text is set forth “swiftly, and

without rhetoric”6 using only single iterations of each phrase, with very few

exceptions. This work reignited a general interest in the polyphonic choral

works of the Elizabethan era. Although its use of double choir and soloists is

well within twentieth century practice, many of the choral textures can be found

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in mass settings from the sixteenth century, although not all of them in a single

work.7

Following the Second World War, the Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály (1882-

1967) set his stirring Missa Brevis (1945,48) which the composer in his first edition

subtitled in tempore belli. It is an unusual setting, in that unlike the traditional

Missa Brevis setting, he does not omit the Credo, and in fact he adds an organ

Introit and a short Ite, Missa Est. Kodály, never afraid of chromaticism, is

surprisingly restrained in his scoring. Although, like the Vaughn Williams Mass

in G minor, there is little doubt about the composer’s identity, so too is his idiom

made secondary to the liturgical purpose of the work. The Kodály Missa Brevis is,

like the Vaughn Williams, a work created for worship.

The beginning of the 19th century saw the Mass Ordinary as a genre split into

two strains; one, setting music to the text for use in worship, and the other using

the text as a vehicle for the composer’s grand designs. Changes in the

relationship between clergy and congregation beginning with the secularization

of the church following the French Revolution, the re-introduction of the

Eucharist into the Anglican rites, and eventually the sea-change that was Vatican

II influenced the latter strain, which had reached its zenith with Beethoven’s

mighty Missa Solemnis. Suddenly the financial incentive to create such mega-

works was gone, and composers turned to more lucrative endeavors. At the

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same time, the need for small-scale, ‘utilitarian’ works produced a flurry of such

efforts from composers all over the Christian world. In America, this trend split

again into works that continued to honor their European roots and their musical

heritage, and the trendy, insipid pop Pabulum of the new Evangelical sects.

Where is the genre headed in the future? If the past is any predictor, changes in

the church itself are the harbingers of change in the musical content of the Mass.

The ordination of women cannot be put off forever, and the complexion of the

church is changing; the largest concentration of Catholics in the world is now in

Latin America. Spanish was once the most-spoken language in the church, so it

is once again. Perhaps this points to more new Sacred works like La Pasión según

San Marco (2000) by Osvaldo Golijov (b.1960), with its harmonious mix of Latin

rhythms, Hebrew chants, electronic instruments, and dance. It is certain that our

world continues to shrink, with cultures mixing and melding more than ever.

Christianity is flourishing, and the continued need for the Mass as a musical

genre seems assured.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1: Mass: Liturgy and Chant: Early History, by James W. Mackinnon, Grove Music Online, accessed 12/8/2005 2: Ibid. 3: A Survey of Choral Music, by Homer Ulrich. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, New York, 1973, p 19 4: The Polyphonic Mass to 1600: The Cyclic Mass in the Later 15th Century, by Lewis Lockwood and Andrew Kirkman, Grove Music Online, accessed 12/8/055: 5: The Works of Ralph Vaughn Williams, Michael Kennedy. Oxford University Press, London, 1964; p. 174-5 6: Ibid. 7: Vaughn Williams, James Day. Oxford University Press, London, 1998; p.128 8: Mass 1600-2000: 19th Century, by Denis Arnold and John Harper, Grove Music Online, accessed 12/8/05 9: Choral Music in the Twentieth Century, by Nick Strimple, Amadeus Press, Portland Oregon, 2002, p.268-9 10: Ibid. 11: Essays in Musical Analysis, by Sir Donald Francis Tovey, Oxford University Press, London, 1968, p.118 12: Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missa_Solemnis_%28 Beethoven%29, accessed 12/8/2005

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