FRANZ SCHUBERT SACRED MUSIC WORKS
Schubert produced these works at various times during his life, the last a few months before his death.
Some of the early works were performed at his local church (and indeed were written specifically for performance there), but few of the later works were performed during his lifetime.
Some ran into trouble with Church authorities for inconsistencies in the word settings (he never did set the words 'I believe in one Catholic and Apostolic Church'), and as such were not authorised for performance during services.
Nevertheless, there are some wonderful settings in the Masses, and the incomplete cantata 'Lazarus' was years ahead of its time.
LIST of SCHUBERT's SACRED WORKS
MASS in A FLAT (Missa Solemnis)
Even within Schubert's own phenomenal musical output, his Mass in A flat is exceptional, since it occupied him for a longer period than any of his other compositions, and clearly held a special importance for him. Indeed, as late as 1822, it was his intention to call the work Missa Solemnis, a title which might well have been retained had not Beethoven employed the same title for his own great mass setting a matter of weeks later. Begun in November 1819, the Mass in A flat was finished in a second version in 1822, but Schubert, still unsatisfied with parts of it, continued to revise it until 1826, even recomposing entire parts, completely reworking the fugue Cum Sancto Spiritu and the Osanna. In spite of his efforts, in April 1826 he submitted the mass as part of an application for the post of court deputy Kapellmeister, but was unsuccessful.
There is little doubt that this mass was a very personal expression of faith; the music speaks for itself. But a long held view that textual discrepancies in Schubert's masses represent his own idiosyncratic religious views (in particular the omission from the Creed of the "et unam sanctam catholicam et apostolicam ecclesiam" - "and in one holy catholic and apostolic church") has now given way to the more likely conclusion that Schubert was simply using a translation dating from the time of Emperor Joseph II, a monarch who wished severely to restrict the influence of the papacy within his domain.
More importantly, however, the Mass in A flat clearly reflects facets of Schubert's own faith, and to understand them may well give us a more profound appreciation of the music itself. Compare, for example the difference between his treatment of the chorus and the soloists. The allocation of texts to different groups might well be dismissed as the result of purely musical considerations, but the differences in their musical treatment are much harder to account for.
It seems as if he deliberately wrote music for the chorus which embodied the institutional aspects of his religion - in awe of God, solid, unchanging, powerful, sure of itself - and characterised it with forthright declamation, square melodic lines and firm unequivocal harmony. The music of the soloists, however, is more sensuous, and seems to imply a much more intimate relationship with God - perhaps his own. It is music of greater softness, delicacy (even fragility), melodic and harmonic invention.
MASS in E FLAT D.950
Franz Schubert was one of the torchbearers at Ludwig van Beethoven's funeral in the spring of 1827, and perhaps the effect of his passing can be heard reverberating in the Mass No. 6 in E flat major, D. 950, composed a year later. Indeed, the mass was dedicated to the very church where Beethoven's final rites were administered; it is difficult to imagine that Schubert would have been unaffected by the memory of an event that loomed so large in his own consciousness and in that of all Vienna.
If the mass was a conscious tribute, Schubert would not live to witness its realization: he was dead by the time the work received its first performance in late 1829 within the direction of the composer's brother Ferdinand Schubert
The E flat Mass is scored for an orchestra without flutes, and while there are parts for vocal soloists, they are a good deal less significant than in Schubert's earlier masses. All six sections of the Mass Ordinary are set: the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei. Throughout the mass there is a marked infusion of calm lyricism and songfulness into the sacred music vessel, something of which earlier composers of sacred music might have avoided. There is also a great deal more vigorous counterpoint (long a hallmark of sacred music) than one finds in Schubert's only other large-scale mass, in A flat major.
Schubert's gentle blend of wind instruments at the start of the Kyrie is no less than perfect, setting quite a standard for the chorus that immediately imitates it. The Allegro moderato e maestoso Gloria begins a cappella. Throughout his life, Schubert had been fond of virtuosic violin writing, but seldom does he match in sheer energy the violin explosion that follows this Gloria's a cappella opening. The "Domine Deus" portion of the text is set to rather less physical music. The Credo begins Moderato, gently and quietly; with the arrival of the "Et incarnatus" text there arrives also a lovely cello melody which is soon taken over by the tenor soloist, whose refined passion seems almost too great for its slender proportions. Both the Gloria and Credo conclude with large fugues that approach those of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis of a few years before.
Several great examples of Schubert's unusual and thoroughly proto-Romantic modulation technique are on display at the start of the Sanctus: Schubert moves straight from E flat major to B minor, then to G minor, and finally to E flat minor. The process and even the rhythm are strikingly similar to the one employed by Schubert at the start of the Sanctus movement of the A flat Mass. Fugues appear in both the "Osanna in excelsis" portion of the Sanctus and the Agnus Dei. Midway through the Agnus Dei the firm imitation dissolves into a rich chamber music opportunity for the soloists; the fugal writing is reprised but again melts away, this time into a warm choral passage that draws the mass to a close.
The E flat Mass is an expansive work, blending ambitious Beethovenian architecture with Schubert's lyricism ; it offers a worthy choral counterpart to the " heavenly length " of the composer's Symphony No. 9 and Piano Sonata in B flat major, D. 960.
Franz Schubert - Mass No 6 In E Flat Major "Agnus Dei"
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Franz Schubert - Mass No 6 In E Flat Major
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