Kyrie eleison – C minor
Andante moderato (“at a moderate walking pace”)
Four-part chorus
Soprano section—highest note G
Longest, Paumgartner (5:22); shortest, Parrott (3:26)
The Kyrie movement, divided in two by a very different “Christe eleison”, is a stately, impassioned prayer to the heavens. The rhythm is steady, not too fast, not too slow, the mood stern and churchy. After the heavenly reply of a radiant, gentle soprano solo on “Christe eleison”, the opening music returns assertively and then the movement ends quietly.
Scholars see a fugue in both sections of “Kyrie eleison”. As I have said before, I can’t tell a fugue from a fugato from a fuguelike passage from just imitative voice entrances and in my previous discussions have lumped this sound as Type II writing, which is easy for the ear to distinguish from the big block chords of Type I. Since those wonderful scholars say the same thing for several other movements of “K427,” a brief digression is in order on structure, though I do not want to detract from the active, intelligent listening that continues to be our primary focus.
Part of my problem is that when I went to school a hundred years ago, “a fugue” was a thing, a musical form which had a strong, assertive, easily recognizable theme called the “subject” which then appeared successively in several voices on different pitches. A first voice played the subject. When it was almost done, a second voice played the subject and the first voice played a “countersubject”. When a third voice played the subject, the second voice played the countersubject and the first voice played a second countersubject. There might be more voice entries with similar patterns until the structure began to collapse under its own weight. Then there would be a free-for-all and the whole thing might start again, with the subject at times maybe stretched out or squooshed together or upside down or backwards or even upside down and backwards. And so forth. Highly intellectual—and not something which one can generally hum (at which Mozart would likely have scowled during van Swieten’s soirées).
It turns out these rules were mostly invented by nineteenth-century scholars who actually advised against studying Bach, because he seldom followed them. I now understand that “fugue” is no longer considered to be a form at all, like a sonnet, but rather a procedure, like writing poetry in iambic as opposed to, say, dactylic feet. Are you with me so far? It’s still based on a “subject” theme, which still recurs in subsequent voices on different pitches and in different shapes. But formal countersubjects are old hat, and really what you have is the subject and several other recurring themes chasing each other around in different ways that give a distinctive sound.
This makes sense in that the word itself is derived from both the Latin fugare: “to chase” and fugere: “to flee”. William Smith Rockstro (1823-1895), an English musicologist and expert on ancient music, wrote the article on fugue (along with 239 other articles) in the original edition of “Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians” (1878). It persisted (updated by Ralph Vaughan Williams, no less) into the 5th edition (1954), though not beyond. Rockstro says “a famous aphorism” has it that, “A fugue is a composition in which one voice runs away from the others and the hearer from them all”. I have not seen that quote or anything like it anywhere else and I suspect that the professor himself was the author of that droll sentiment.
But we will flee no more. I will continue to refer to imitative sections simply as Type II writing and Mozart will magically and defiantly provide within these jumbles wonderful hummable tunes. The scholars can have their fugues and we can safely return to just listening to the music.
I see the structure of the “Kyrie” section as five Type II “episodes”, anchored by successive statements of Theme1 in various lengths, with additional interplay of several other recurring themes. Nonetheless, the overall effect remains grounded in C minor, giving it a strong Type I flavor.
The first episode is just the strings, with Theme1 in the violins. The chorus answer with a magnificent theme which rises and falls again, each voice entering in close imitation. We sense that this will soon be combined in some masterful way with Theme1, but Mozart, with a completely straight face, doesn’t repeat any part of it. It serves as part of the first episode, but it’s a ghost theme.
With the weaving together, it’s sometimes hard to hear the individual themes clearly. Here is a statement of each one in as much isolation as I can manage: Theme2 in the sopranos; Theme3 in the sopranos; Theme4 in the basses.
The violins begin the second episode with Theme1 again and the sopranos intone Theme2, followed by the orchestral basses introducing the first rumblings of Theme3 near the end.
The third episode is the trickiest to hear. The sopranos take Theme1 and the altos Theme2. The sopranos move briefly to Theme4 while the string basses play Theme3, which is then picked up by the sopranos and then the altos. The violins double all four themes. Try the sound sample one time listening to just the sopranos, then just the altos, then just the string basses.
The fourth episode has Theme1 belted out by the basses, with the tenors taking up Theme2. The sopranos appear to have a new theme, but it’s really a variant, stretched-out Theme4 (Th4v in the table below). The episode is extended as the basses sing the original Theme4 against Theme3 in the violins. The sopranos then take over with repeated cries of Theme3, alternating with the same theme in the violas and string basses. Alas, I know about the strings only from looking at the score, as I have not yet found a conductor who exploits what should sound like an echo. I will get back to you if I find one.
The fifth episode is just Theme1 again in the sopranos and violins, winding down toward a key change and a mood change for “Christe eleison”.
The second “Kyrie eleison” is similar to the first, but starts with the second episode and is a little shorter in the middle. I have put “Th3” in quotes for the sopranos in the fourth episode, as the last note lacks the theme’s dramatic upward jump. Since they are now in a different key, If they sang it as before, they would have to hit high C, way beyond their range, so Mozart alters the phrase accordingly.
| Kyrie I | E1 – 5m | 3m | E2 – 4m | E3 – 5m | E4 – 9m | E5 – 6m | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violins | Th1 | Th1 | Th 1&2 | Th 4&3 | Th4 | Th3 | Th1 | ||
| Violas | Th2 | Th3 | |||||||
| String Basses | Th3 | Th3 | Th1 | Th4 | Th3 | ||||
| Sopranos | Ghost | Th2 | Th1 | Th 4&3 | Th4v | Th3 | Th1 | ||
| Altos | Th2 | Th 2&3 | |||||||
| Tenors | Th2 | ||||||||
| Basses | Th1 | Th4 |
| Kyrie II | E1 – 5m | 3m | E2 – 4m | E3 – 5m | E4 – 9m | E5 – 6m | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violins | Th1 | Th1 | Th3 | Th1 | |||||
| Violas | Th2 | Th3 | |||||||
| String Basses | Th1 | Th4 | Th3 | ||||||
| Sopranos | Th2 | Th4v | “Th3” | Th1 | |||||
| Altos | Th1 | ||||||||
| Tenors | Th2 | Th2 | |||||||
| Basses | Th1 | Th4 |
Christe eleison – E flat major
Continuation of andante moderato
Solo soprano—highest note high A flat
Longest, Karajan (3:14); shortest, Parrott (2:06)
This is a reworking of a vocal exercise Mozart wrote for Constanze in preparation for her first solo in this mass. It represents the musical introduction of his wife to Salzburg and to the family, and Mozart might have wanted it to dazzle in a way different from mere nimble technique. I see this as the first side of Constanze—Das Ewig-Weibliche, the ideal of eighteenth-century womanhood: eternal, radiant, pure, morally and spiritually uplifting. I like best the recordings that capture this tender, intimate, and unaffected spirit.
We needn’t worry about themes, as the structure is rhapsodic and free-flowing. All we need to do is listen. There are two vocal jumps that are hard to hit cleanly, tripping up many a singer. Jump1 is in the middle and Jump2 is at the end.
Is this church music? I don’t know for sure. But however it is sung, it is stunning, arresting, hypnotic, and, despite the large interval jumps and melismatic runs, does not overstep its sense of reverence. I give it an enthusiastic pass, when properly sung, as clouds parting and an angel, illuminated by a ray of heavenly light, descending to earth to sing to us.
NEXT: GLORIA
