The beginning of a monumental sacred work
From his post as Kantor in Leipzig, Johann Sebastian Bach long entertained the idea of applying to His Lord for a courtly title. But Frederick Augustus I, known as the Strong One, had little time to answer the notes of footmen because he was busy making love to damsels and bearing children (a brood that numbered more than the days in a year, hence his nickname). So, he simply waited, because sooner or later so much virility would have to affect the health of the monarch who finally left this world at the age of 63, in February 1733. He was succeeded by his son who, as expected, was named Frederick Augustus II. To him are addressed these restrained words, written in the handwriting of Johann Sebastian Bach:
"With the greatest devotion I present to your Royal Highness this little fruit of that skill which I have attained in the science of music, with the humblest request that you will deign to consider it not according to the imperfection of its composition, but with the most clement of eyes...and thus take me under your most powerful protection."
Bach accompanied his humble request with the offering of a "missa brevis" which, as you may have guessed, is a short mass, consisting of only two pieces of the traditional Christian liturgy: Kyrie Eleison and Gloria. They were composed during the six months of national mourning for the death of the monarch during which the public performance of music was forbidden. As the monarch was a Catholic and Bach a Lutheran, nothing was more suitable for the sacred homage than a mass, a common territory of the two doctrines, although built on the Latin texts of the Catholic liturgy.
Mass in B minor, for soloists, choirs, and orchestra
If Bach had six months for the offering, the complete Mass took the rest of his life. In 1749, a year before his death, the King's Court Composer (a title given in 1736) finished the remaining sections of the work that would become known as Mass in B minor, a timeless interdenominational work, which his son Carl Philipp Emanuel would call the "Great Catholic Mass," and which the Western world would cherish as the greatest musical construction of all time,
Sections
The work contains 27 "movements" (if the subsections or subparts are considered as such). But not all of them were written especially to integrate the mass. A good part of them are "parodies", that is, already existing original material, rewritten and given a new dimension.
The complete performance of the mass takes almost two hours, which made it difficult to perform in a traditional liturgy, whether Catholic or Lutheran. It is very likely, then, that Bach himself never heard the complete work. The first complete performance that can be attested to took place only in 1859, in Leipzig.
Kyrie eleison 1 - Chorus
The section called "Kyrie eleison" is the heart-wrenching chant that begins the work. It is a plea, in three parts, addressed once to Christ and twice to the Lord, with the English equivalent of: "Lord, have mercy". It does not reach ten minutes in duration but it is the beginning of the greatest musical legacy of the Leipzig Kantor, a monumental sacred work that managed to transcend linguistic, confessional, and even territorial boundaries. Since 2015, Bach's Mass in B-flat has been part of the Documentary Heritage of Humanity.
The rendition is by the English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Choir, conducted by the British maestro Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
