Bach’s Mass in B minor

Bach’s profound spiritual conviction is the soul of his sacred works, and his genius may perhaps be called the perfect synthesis of music and theology. Nowhere is this genius better expressed than in this supreme legacy of his craft, the Mass in B minor.

The Mass is in a sense a retrospective of a lifetime’s work. It is not the product of one inspired moment, nor of any one particular period of his life. Bach completed the Mass near the end of his life, between 1745 and 1750, the same period during which he composed such vast monuments as The Musical Offering and The Art of the Fugue. Several movements of the Mass were anthologized from earlier compositions. Other movements Bach composed at that time or, in typical Baroque fashion, adapted from other works he had written.

Bach never heard the Mass performed in its entirety. Possibly, he did not intend that it be performed on a single occasion. Like movements from The Well-Tempered Clavier and The Little Organ Book, Bach expected parts of the Mass to be used when appropriate. Such was the case when his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach first performed the Credo in 1786. Although various other sections of the Mass were performed over the next sixty years, it was not until 1859, more than a century after Bach died, that the entire Mass was performed at a single sitting.

The Mass reveals its anthologized nature without sacrifice to its sense of unity or strength of identity. Bach wrote it in the Italian opera tradition, with numbered movements. Bach’s original manuscript divides the Mass into four major sections, similar to the sections in the Roman Catholic Mass Ordinary. The newly composed sections were the “Symbolum Nicenum” or Credo and the final section with the Osanna, Benedictus, Agnus Dei, and Dona nobis pacem. The third section in the manuscript, the Sanctus, is the one Bach wrote first. It was composed in 1724 and performed many times during his life. The first section, entitled “Missa” and comprising the Kyrie and Gloria, was first performed April 12, 1733, as a Lutheran Mass during the festival of the Oath of Allegiance to Augustus III, upon his succession as Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. Bach had submitted the Missa with a request that he be appointed court composer, but the request was denied.

The four major sections are fragmented into sentences or phrases to give 26 independent movements. The fragmentation facilitated incorporation of previously composed movements into the new, larger work. Of the 17 choruses, nine are set for five voices (SSATB) in the Italian Baroque choral tradition: Kyrie I, Gloria, Et in terra pax, Cum sancto, Credo I, Et incarnatus, Et resurrexit, Confiteor, and Et expecto. Six are for four voices (SATB): Kyrie II, Gratias, Qui tollis, Credo II, Crucifixus, and Dona nobis pacem. The Sanctus is set for six voices (SSAATB), and the Osanna is for two antiphonal four-voice choruses.

The Mass in B minor opens with the intense and momentous Kyrie I, followed by a gentle, comforting duet between two sopranos in the Christe. Kyrie II, with its twisting, chromatic fugal subject and its syncopated entrances, is an eloquent plea for God’s mercy.

The Gloria is a contrast to the Kyrie in sound and intent. Predominantly set in major keys, it is a jubilant hymn of praise and thanksgiving in honor of Augustus III. The nine movements are arranged symmetrically and feature all five vocal soloists with violin, flute, oboe and horn obbligati. Many parts of the Gloria are derived from other works. The opening of the Gloria is undoubtedly a portion of a lost instrumental concerto to which Bach later added the chorus. The Gratias is taken from the opening chorus of Cantata 29, “Wir danken dir, Gott.” And the Qui tollis is adapted from Cantata 46, “Schauet doch und sehet.” Bach not only borrowed from cantatas to compose the Gloria, but also later refashioned the first two movements of the Gloria, its central Domine Deus, and the final Cum sancto into Cantata 191, “Gloria in excelsis Deo.”

The architecture of the Credo is a sequence of nine movements laid out in a symmetrical design, with the Crucifixus at the center, and the other pieces framing it on each side to form a palindrome. Credo I is built on the ancient plainsong Credo melody. Credo II is adapted from Cantata 171, “Gott wie dein Name.” A passacaglia, the Crucifixus is fabricated from the opening chorus of Cantata 12, “Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen.” The Confiteor is a chorale fantasia, while the Et expecto, fashioned from Cantata 120, “Jauchzet ihr erfreuten Stimmen,” is written in a concerto form.

The trumpets and the palette of solo instruments Bach uses in the Sanctus add splendor to the proclamation of the glory of the Lord God of hosts. The Osanna can be found in another form in Cantata 215, “Preise dein Glücke.” And the Agnus Dei is an expansion of the alto aria from Cantata 11, The Ascension Oratorio.

The musical setting of the final chorus, Dona nobis pacem, is the same as the Gratias found in the Gloria. The repetition links the texts of these two movements, as if Bach considered the plea for peace to be a thanksgiving. Bach might well have used the musical idiom in the closing of this Mass as a personal message, that in the eve of his own life, he was grateful to have attained an almost mystical depth of inner peace, both within himself and with the rest of the universe.

What Bach has given to musical posterity in the creation of his Mass in B minor is indisputable. Ironically, during his era, he was primarily known not for his composing, but for his incredible pioneering keyboard technique. From the vantage point of our time, however, his genius as a composer is obvious. The Mass is truly an encyclopedic fusion of every possible Baroque compositional style and form, and it embodies the very essence of the Baroque art.

Still, Bach’s sacred works cannot be analyzed simply in musical terms, as his music is but a vehicle for the greater message. Beyond its intricacies as an inimitable study of Baroque vocal music, the Mass captures an inspirational quality defying description in words. It is also a luminous statement of the depth of the composer’s spiritual commitment, and of his personal validity. In a lifetime of serving God through music, Bach had finally created the ultimate expression of his faith.

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