MASS IN G MAJOR, K140
INTRODUCTION
Less than two weeks after the first performance of “K66”, Mozart was appointed by Archbishop Schrattenbach to the unpaid position of honorary konzertmeister. It was not until the nineteenth century that this term came to mean “first violin”, as it does today. In Mozart’s day, it meant something more like “court composer and conductor”. Mozart, while an excellent violinist, hated to play the instrument, possibly because of his father’s expertise. The paid konzertmeister was Michael Haydn.
Soon after Wolfgang’s appointment, father and son left Salzburg for two trips to Italy to produce operas (December, 1769, to March, 1771, and August to December, 1771), returning just one day before the archbishop’s death. Schrattenbach had been a Catholic traditionalist, a lavish spender on music, kindly disposed toward the Mozarts, and fairly indulgent of Leopold’s long journeys away promoting his son’s talents.
After three months of dissension among the electors and a strong nudge from the Imperial court in Vienna, Hieronymus Colloredo was finally elevated to archbishop in March, 1772, inheriting enormous debt from Schrattenbach. Autocratic, dour, tight with the checkbook, and generally disliked, Colloredo was a champion of the Enlightenment and supporter of the church reforms of Rome and Vienna discussed in “Cantata Mass Trends”. He did not think much of Wolfgang’s music or Leopold’s history of taking him on trips, but did appoint Wolfgang in August to receive his first salary, again as assistant konzertmeister. Colloredo was thus likely at the very least annoyed when the Mozarts almost immediately set out on yet another trip to Italy from October, 1772, to March, 1773, to produce yet another opera—and, as always, to look for a more prestigious position.
As nearly as can be determined, “K140” was written in the early 1770s, but not in Italy. As there is no autograph score and no known venue for its first performance, it shared until recently a “spurious or dubious” list with several dozen other works. It has been thought by some to have been written by Franz Xaver Süssmayr, completer of Mozart’s Requiem, or Joseph Matthias Kracher, a friend of Michael Haydn and organist at the church in Seekirchen, 15 km. from Salzburg. The year of composition was most likely 1773, when Süssmayr would have been seven years old. Not even Mozart wrote a mass that young. Kracher would have been twenty-one, but most of his church music was not written until after 1775. That the mass was quite popular in Mozart’s own time is evidenced by many copies of the score having being found in and around Salzburg. Fortunately, our friends the scholars have now rescued “K140” from the orphanage and consider it an authentic Mozart work. As do I, from the way it sounds.
Colloredo wanted masses short and simple. “K140” fulfills this requirement without reproach. It seems clearly intended for the by now scowling ears of the court.
“K140” has the most spartan scoring of any of Mozart’s masses, with only violins, basses, and organ continuo. Nonetheless, there is a light and airy sound and an impish playfulness that is hard to find in church music outside of Mozart. No parts for doubling trombones have been found, though if the mass was performed in the cathedral, they would probably have been used. My ear does not hear trombones in any of the three recorded sets, and I think they would weigh down the pastoral sound. This mass also explores prominently the use of recurring themes, which will become a major organizing feature for Mozart as time goes on. If Herr Kracher can do that, let’s see some of his twenty-two masses on CD!
KYRIE
The Kyrie is a gentle, folklike setting for Type I chorus and soloists in triple time. For a movement lasting little over a minute with only the words “Kyrie eleison”, “Christe eleison”, “Kyrie eleison”, one would think a simple A-B-A structure would be all there is time for. Mozart effortlessly uses a seven-part structure using four themes, mixing “Kyrie” and “Christe” lines again, as he has in every mass so far except the careful and reverent “K65”. He even manages solo passages for the soprano, alto, and tenor (if anyone gets left out of a sequence of solos, it will be the bass—sorry, Bubba).
“Kyrie eleison”—Theme A
“Christe eleison”—Theme B
“Kyrie eleison”—Theme C
“Christe eleison”—Theme D
“Kyrie eleison”—Theme C
“Christe eleison”—Theme A
“Kyrie eleison”—Theme A
GLORIA
Gloria, also in triple time, is set for Type I chorus and soloists. It is divided into a number of sections which are demarcated by changes in melody, basically a succession of folklike tunes. The chorus begin at “Et in terra pax” with a vigorous sound, but the rest of the movement reverts to the gentle, swaying rhythm of the Kyrie. Two themes repeat. “Laudamus te” (Theme 1) for solo voices, is one of the most charming and innocent tunes you will ever hear. The chorus invoke a brief declamatory “Gratias agimus” (Theme 2). The soloists return with Theme 1 for “Propter magnam gloriam tuam”.
The soloists continue with different music for “Domine Deus”. The chorus turn to a minor key for a declamatory “Qui tollis” with the soloists alternating lines with them in a gentler vein. Soprano and chorus alternate new material for “Quoniam”.
The soloists bring back the end of Theme 1 for the “Jesu Christe” line and the chorus once again pick up the whole tune for “Cum sancto spiritu” almost to the end of the movement. The declamatory music of Theme 2 returns for the chorus’s first “Amen”, but Theme 1 prevails at for the rest of the “Amen“. This is Mozart’s first mass without Type II treatment of “Cum Sancto Spiritu”.
CREDO
The duple-time outer sections of this fast-slow-fast movement make the child in us want to grab our fiddle and toys and march around the church. The pace is brisk, the mood is jolly, and hardly a word is repeated. The violins are as much in the foreground as the singers with a “chirping” motif that dominates nearly every measure. The singing is mostly Type I, but with brief imitative passages.
The first section, through “Descendit de caelis”, has several recurring themes, though more subtle than in the Gloria. Theme A at “Patrem omnipotentem” starts strongly. Theme B is first heard at “Et in unum Dominum”. Theme C has a Type I treatment at “Deum de Deo” followed by a Type II treatment at “Genitum non factum”. Theme B returns in compressed form at “Qui propter nos homines”. “Descendit de caelis” has a new, nonrecurring theme, but is of interest because although the voices do not descend, as is customary, the violins do.
The second section begins at “Et incarnatus est” in slow triple time. It is another gentle, ingenuous song, this time for solo soprano. I have said little about Mozart’s key centers, and I am not about to start now. That subject is of more interest to scholars and relatively unimportant to us as listeners. However, I will just say that Mozart does not meander far from the key center of any mass section during internal modulation and at the words “Et resurrexit” always resumes the key in which a Credo movement begins—except in this mass.
Here he does stray “far” from the Credo’s key center of G major, with one sharp, to write “Et incarnatus est” in E flat major, with three flats. It would seem to be much easier to have written it in the “close” key of D major, with two sharps, the dominant chord of G major (the next time you see a music scholar, ask him or her why E flat is “far” from G, as they seem pretty close on the piano).
“Crucifixus”, for Type I chorus, follows logically enough in C minor, the relative minor of E flat major and thus also in three flats. Except for another variant of Theme B at “Pontio Pilato”, the music is all new, menacing and serious in sound. This leaves Mozart with Jesus in the tomb and no more text with which to modulate back to G major. One might point to this apparent gaffe as evidence of a lesser composer’s hand, but it seems to me to be a Mozartean hijink similar to the droll games we discovered in “K66”.
The chirping violins return for the third section at “Et resurrexit” and everybody resumes marching. Mozart changes the key signature back to one sharp, but he doesn’t mean it. He has to work his way through several key centers, so absorbed that he “forgets” to have the voices ascend at “Et ascendit” but looking up in time to have them slow appropriately for “et mortuos”. The violins notice this wandering in the dark, nervously altering their chirping until the four soloists finally break in with a flashlight at “Et in spiritum Sanctum” for their only appearance in the section. At the first sign of G major, the violins are so delighted that they begin a new “skipping” motif. When the key is firmly established, they go so overboard that I can imagine them getting out of their chairs and doing a do-si-do as they play. G major can do that to you.
The original chirping from the beginning of the Credo resumes and the chorus then sing theme A at “Et in unam sanctam catholicam” and follow with another variant of Theme B at “Confiteor”. There is one more respectful slowing for “Mortuorum” and just the used-up remainder of Theme B at the very brief Type I “Et vitam venturi”. Even when the chorus begin to sing “Amen”, the violins do not give up until the eleventh and final time.
SANCTUS
“Sanctus” begins with a solemn, pious Type I choral introduction in triple time, but quickly becomes upbeat and duple at the words, “Pleni sunt caeli”. This leads directly into a Type I “Hosanna”, where irrepressible good times erupt as the chorus tosses phrases around like beanbags.
BENEDICTUS
The music turns quiet again for “Benedictus qui venit”, a gentle song in duple time with lovely part-writing for the four soloists. Despite the contrast in tempo, the return of the exuberant “Hosanna” does not sound out of place, as Mozart cleverly creates a bridge back to it using not only the rhythm but the actual tune of “Pleni sunt caeli” from Sanctus.
AGNUS DEI
The beanbags are all put away for “Agnus Dei”, for Type I chorus and soloists. The chorus sing the lines beginning “Agnus Dei” and the soloists the lines beginning “Miserere nobis”. The mood is gentle, the rhythm is duple.
DONA NOBIS PACEM
”Dona nobis pacem” is light and cheery. The soloists—even the bass—and Type I chorus take turns saying goodbye.
