''Messa di Gloria'' is a nine movement

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 eleme ...

, composed by

Gioacchino Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards ...

for the Arciconfraternità di San Luigi. First performed on 24 March 1820 in the Chiesa di San Ferdinando in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, it is in the traditional form of a "Gloria" mass, that is a setting of the first two prayers of the Catholic

, the

Kyrie Kyrie, a transliteration of Greek , vocative case of (''Kyrios''), is a common name of an important prayer of Christian liturgy, also called the Kyrie eleison ( ; ). In the Bible The prayer, "Kyrie, eleison," "Lord, have mercy" derives f ...

and Gloria. (A "Gloria" mass omits the

Credo In Christian liturgy, the credo (; Latin for "I believe") is the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed – or its shorter version, the Apostles' Creed – in the Mass, either as a prayer, a spoken text, or sung as Gregorian chant or other musical sett ...

Sanctus The Sanctus ( la, Sanctus, "Holy") is a hymn in Christian liturgy. It may also be called the ''epinikios hymnos'' ( el, ἐπινίκιος ὕμνος, "Hymn of Victory") when referring to the Greek rendition. In Western Christianity, th ...

, and

Agnus Dei is the Latin name under which the " Lamb of God" is honoured within the Catholic Mass and other Christian liturgies descending from the Latin liturgical tradition. It is the name given to a specific prayer that occurs in these liturgies, and ...

.) The ''Messa di Gloria'' was the only major piece of sacred music written while Rossini was still an active

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

composer.Osborne (2007) p. 325

Analysis

The "Kyrie" is divided into three portions, the first a dotted-rhythm "Kyrie eleison" for chorus in

E-flat minor E-flat minor is a minor scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature consists of six flats. Its relative key is G-flat major (or enharmonically F-sharp major) and its parallel key is E-flat major. ...

, the second, a more lyrical

E-flat major E-flat major (or the key of E-flat) is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has three flats. Its relative minor is C minor, and its parallel minor is E minor, (or enharmonically ...

"Christe eleison" for two

tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wide ...

s with the first minor-key section rounding out the prayer. The "Gloria" portion takes up the vast majority of the work and is split up into operatic-style "numbers", soprano soloists alternating with tenors, basses, etc. The high point, emotionally, comes at the "Qui tollis", which begins with a slow portion for chorus and tenor, then concludes with a brilliant

cabaletta Cabaletta is a two-part musical form particularly favored for arias in 19th century Italian opera in the belcanto era until about the 1860s during which it was one of the era's most important elements. More properly, a cabaletta is a more animate ...

("Qui sedes"), showing off the extreme upper end of the tenor's range. Critics of the time were slightly scandalized by Rossini's morphing of sacred ceremony into opera seria, and even buffa, at times. In his 1995 study of the ''Messa di Gloria'', Jesse Rosenberg agrees with contemporary reports that Rossini was helped in the composition of the concluding "number" of the ''Messa'', a four-part double fugue setting of "Cum sancto spiritu", by another Italian composer more versed in counterpoint, Pietro Raimondi.Gallo (2002) p. 269

Notes

Cited works

*Gallo, Denise P.
''Gioachino Rossini: a guide to research''
Routledge, 2002. *Osborne, Richard
''Rossini: his life and works''
2nd Edition, Oxford University Press US, 2007. .

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Messa Di Gloria (Rossini) Choral compositions by Gioachino Rossini Rossini