"The Little Church Around the Corner"
One East 29th Street, New York
MUSIC NOTES:
Pentecost 23 - November 11, 2001
Joseph Haydn's (1732-1809) Missa brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo, also known as the Kleine Orgelmesse (Little Organ Mass) was composed in 1775. It was commissioned by a religious order of lay-brothers and dedicated to the patron and founder of the Order, St. John of God. It is a concise and restrained work, as the Brothers specified that the Mass was to be of modest length, allowing for only one extended solo at the Benedictus. Haydn carefully followed these instructions, and in the result created a work of great charm that lends itself much more readily to liturgical use than the larger-scale Masses of this period. The Sanctus is the most extended section of the work, with much interplay between the vocal soloist and the organ at the Benedictus, and it is this passage that earns the Mass its subtitle, the Little Organ Mass.
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Johann Michael Bach (1648-94) was born in the year of the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia, which ended the 30 Years' War. Germany was ravaged by this conflict, and its aftermath lingered on for generations. The inward-looking, self-effacing spirituality which came to be known as pietism took hold in this period, and became a principal component of Lutheran religious expression until nearly the end of the 18th century. Themes of resignation to God's will, acknowledgment of the sinfulness and unworthiness of the individual, and a kind of longing for death are characteristic of pietist spirituality.
Little is known of Michael Bach, and his music has been overshadowed by his better-known contemporaries such as Pachelbel and Walther, and later by the towering figure of his nephew Sebastian Bach. Nevertheless, he was a respected musician in his day. Upon his appointment as organist to the church at Erfurt, the minister and the town commissioners wrote a letter of thanks to the Count for providing the community and the church with "a quiet, modest, and experienced artist." His salary is recorded as "72 gilden, 18 cords of wood, five measures of corn, nine measures of barley, with leave to brew three and a half barrels of beer, and a few other trifles in kind, a piece of pasture land, and free residence."
Today's offertory motet is a splendid example of Michael Bach's compositional style. The work unfolds as a four-part chorale (a specifically German style of hymnody), and about a third of the way through, a fifth upper voice is added, almost like a descant, superimposing the melody and text of another chorale (Christus, der ist mein Leben) over the beautifully harmonized melody that is already in progress. The result is a rich baroque sonority that acts as an effective foil to the lugubrious and strained sentiments of the text.
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Little is known of Michael Bach, and his music has been overshadowed by his better-known contemporaries such as Pachelbel and Walther, and later by the towering figure of his nephew Sebastian Bach. Nevertheless, he was a respected musician in his day. Upon his appointment as organist to the church at Erfurt, the minister and the town commissioners wrote a letter of thanks to the Count for providing the community and the church with "a quiet, modest, and experienced artist." His salary is recorded as "72 gilden, 18 cords of wood, five measures of corn, nine measures of barley, with leave to brew three and a half barrels of beer, and a few other trifles in kind, a piece of pasture land, and free residence."
Today's offertory motet is a splendid example of Michael Bach's compositional style. The work unfolds as a four-part chorale (a specifically German style of hymnody), and about a third of the way through, a fifth upper voice is added, almost like a descant, superimposing the melody and text of another chorale (Christus, der ist mein Leben) over the beautifully harmonized melody that is already in progress. The result is a rich baroque sonority that acts as an effective foil to the lugubrious and strained sentiments of the text.
