Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

's Mass in G major, K. 49/47d), is his first full

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

. It is a missa brevis scored for SATB soloists and choir, violin I and II, viola, and

basso continuo Basso continuo parts, almost universal in the Baroque era (1600–1750), provided the harmonic structure of the music by supplying a bassline and a chord progression. The phrase is often shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing th ...

. Mozart wrote the Mass in

G major G major (or the key of G) is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative minor is E minor and its parallel minor is G minor. The G major scale is: Notable compositi ...

at the age of 12. It was however neither his first setting of a part of the

mass ordinary The ordinary, in Roman Catholic and other Western Christian liturgies, refers to the part of the Mass or of the canonical hours that is reasonably constant without regard to the date on which the service is performed. It is contrasted to the '' ...

– two years earlier he had already composed a Kyrie (K. 33) —, nor was it his largest composition with a religious theme up to date: his sacred musical play '' Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots'' had been premiered in the previous year.

History

Composed in Vienna in the autumn of 1768, this mass is Mozart's only missa brevis to feature a viola part. It is not clear what occasion it was composed for, and it has been confused with the '' Waisenhausmesse'', composed in the same year.

Religious music Religious music (also sacred music) is a type of music that is performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence. It may overlap with ritual music, which is music, sacred or not, performed or composed for or as ritual. Relig ...

at the time was increasingly influenced by opera and

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

embellishments In music, ornaments or embellishments are musical flourishes—typically, added notes—that are not essential to carry the overall line of the melody (or harmony), but serve instead to decorate or "ornament" that line (or harmony), provide added ...

in instrumentation; Mozart's early masses, such as K. 49/47d, have been seen as a return to the more austere settings of the pre-Baroque era.

Movements

The six movements of the mass follow the traditional

Order of Mass Order of Mass is an outline of a Mass celebration, describing how and in what order liturgical texts and rituals are employed to constitute a Mass. The expression Order of Mass is particularly tied to the Roman Rite where the sections under that ...

: : Kyrie ''Adagio'', G major, :: "Kyrie eleison" ''Andante'', G major, : Gloria ''Allegro'', G major, : Credo ''Allegro'', G major, :: "Et incarnatus est" ''Poco adagio'', C major, :: "Et resurrexit" ''Allegro'' – ''Adagio'' – ''Allegro'', G major, :: "Et in Spiritum Sanctum" ''Andante'', C major, ;

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

solo :: "Et in unam sanctam" ''Allegro'' – ''Adagio'' – ''Allegro'' – ''Adagio'', G major, and :: "Et vitam venturi" ''Allegro'', G major, : Sanctus ''Andante'', G major, ::"Pleni sunt coeli et terra" ''Allegro'', G major, :: "Hosanna in excelsis" ''Allegro'', G major, : Benedictus ''Andante'', C major, ; soloist

quartet In music, a quartet or quartette (, , , , ) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers; or a musical composition for four voices and instruments. Classical String quartet In classical music, one of the most common combinations o ...

:: "Hosanna in excelsis" ''Allegro'', G major, : Agnus Dei ''Adagio'', E minor, :: "Dona nobis pacem" ''Allegro'', G major,

Recordings

1988:

Edith Mathis Edith Mathis (born 11 February 1938) is a Swiss soprano and a leading exponent of the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart worldwide. She is known for parts in Mozart operas, but also took part in premieres of operas such as Henze's ''Der junge Lord' ...

(soprano),

Rosemarie Lang Rosemarie Lang (21 May 1947 – 12 January 2017) was a German operatic mezzo-soprano. Life Born in Grünstädtel, Lang studied at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig with Elisabeth Breul, Eva Schubert-Hoffmann and Helga Forner. At the ...

(contralto),

Uwe Heilmann Uwe or UWE may refer to * Uwe (given name) * University of the West of England, Bristol * UML-based web engineering * University Würzburg's Experimental miniaturized satellites for space research UWE-1 and UWE-2 * Uwe - Wreck in Blankenese Blank ...

(tenor),

Jan-Hendrik Rootering Jan-Hendrik Rootering (born 18 March 1950 in Wedingfeld near Flensburg) is a German-born operatic bass, son of the Dutch tenor Hendrikus Rootering from whom he had his first lessons. After further study at Hamburg's ''Musikhochschule'' he began ...

(bass) — Rundfunkchor Leipzig,

Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra The MDR-Sinfonieorchester (in English, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra) is a German radio orchestra based in Leipzig. It is the radio orchestra of Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, the public broadcaster for the German states of Thuringia, Saxony a ...

Herbert Kegel Herbert Kegel (29 July 1920 – 20 November 1990) was a German conductor. Kegel was born in Dresden. He studied conducting with Karl Böhm and composition with Boris Blacher at the Dresden Conservatory from 1935 to 1940. In 1946 he began co ...

—

Philips Classics Records Philips Classics Records was started in the 1980s as the new classics record label for Philips Records. It was successful with artists including Alfred Brendel, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fi ...

(later reissued in 1991 as part of ''

The Complete Mozart Edition ''The Complete Mozart Edition '' is a 180-CD collection released in 1990–91 featuring all works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (known at the set's publication) assembled by Philips Classics Records to commemorate the bicentenary of the death of Moz ...

'', Volume 19 "Missae and Requiem").

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mass in G major, K. 049 Masses by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1768 compositions Compositions in G major