Ludwig Van Beethoven/'s Missa Solemnis, Mass In D, Op.123
Ludwig Van Beethoven’s
Missa Solemnis, Mass in D, Op.123
by Kristin Diana Trayer
In 1819, Ludwig Van Beethoven began the composition of what he later believed to
be his best work: the Mass in D major, or Missa Solemnis, Op.123. He left himself only
nine short months to complete the mass, which was intended to honor the elevation of his
good friend and longtime pupil, the Archduke Rudolph. However, the Missa Solemnis
was not completed until four years later evidence of Beethoven’s intense, obsessively
meticulous composing. “He was in fact as committed to his music as a saint to his God,”
writes author Edward Larkin, in his essay on Beethoven’s medical history (461). Despite
the grandiosity and apparent genius of the Missa Solemnis, it has not been widely popular
for performance over the years. Similarly, it has not been a popular work for formal
technical analysis (Kerman 1). This is most likely due to its complexity, but more
importantly, it is probably due to its unorthodox treatment of the traditional mass text.
Yet it is for this exact reason why Beethoven’s Mass in D major proves to be such an
original and innovative masterwork.
The influence of the text in the Missa Solemnis is vitally important to the composer.
Beethoven, after all, was a man who said that the prayer for peace at the end of his mass
(Dona Nobis Pacem) was “a prayer for outward as well as inward peace” (Tovey 166).
To Beethoven, the text of the mass was not simply an opera libretto, or a song text. The
words held a deeper meaning to him, and he was intent on sharing the poignancy of these
words with his listeners. Author Donald Tovey writes,
The way to grasp the form of this Mass is… to… take each clause of the text and
find out to what themes that clause is set. Where we find these themes recur, we
shall find either that the composer has returned to the words associated with them,
or that he has some more than merely conventional reason for reminding us of
those words (166).
The influence of the text is perhaps the most important formal element in Beethoven’s
mass. The importance of this element is consistent throughout the entirety of the work,
but for the purposes of this essay, we shall confine our investigation to the Credo.
When examining the Credo, we are left to speculate Beethoven’s own religious
beliefs from his treatment of the text with regard to his music (Cooper 241). For
example, the section beginning with Credo in Spiritum Sanctum contains the important
doctrinal list of beliefs, which is fundamental to organized Christianity. Most mass
settings treat this section with deliberate attention given to the doctrinal items, yet
Beethoven rushes through these thirtyseven words in twentytwo bars of Allegro ma non
troppo. Even more bizarre is the fact that most of these words are sung only once, and
only by a single voice from the choir (Kerman 2). Contrary to this, however, are the
words Credo, credo (I believe, I believe), in which Beethoven scores for the choir to sing
multiple times, and with an almost jolting power. “Sheer intensity of belief, Beethoven
seems to be saying, outweighs belief in any particular proposition,” writes author Joseph
Kerman (2). Through his music, Beethoven manages to share his own personal beliefs
with those who are privileged to listen with receptive ears. However, the influence of the
text does not end here.
In the Crucifixus section of the Credo, the words express the crucifixion of Jesus:
Crucifixus etiam pro nobis, sub Pontio Pilato passus, et sepultus est (He was crucified
also for us, suffered under Pontius Pilate, and was buried). For this, Beethoven employs
a dramatic, and at times devastating, Adagio espressivo setting. Prior to this, however,
Beethoven places much emphasis on Et homo factus est (and was made man) in a section
of Andante. Author Martin Cooper acknowledges that here, Beethoven repeats the word
‘man’ with seeming amazement. With this attention, “the truth seems to dawn on
[Beethoven]” that man, as well as humanity, is synonymous with suffering. Suffering,
says Cooper, is “objectively, an evil because it diminishes human potentialities” (248).
Interestingly enough, it is then not surprising that Beethoven chooses diminished
harmonies to follow in the Crucifixus section. Cooper writes,
[it is] a symbol of that diminishing, narrowing, confining aspect of
suffering that is reflected etymologically in the word ‘anguish’ just as the
physical tortures of the crucifixion are reflected rudely in jolting
sforzandos, the shuddering demisemiquaver figures in the strings, and the
broken or syncopated rhythms of the woodwinds (248).
In listening to this section of the Credo, the action of the crucifixion is illustrated in
the sounds. The music feels torturous, and as a listener, you can almost see the pain of
Jesus’ death. Beethoven is a master of creating sensuous sonorities that allow his
audience to participate actively in his music.
After the Crucifixus section, it was the expectation of Beethoven’s audiences to hear
a joyous et resurrexit (and rose again) immediately to follow. However, Beethoven
avoids this expectation, and isolates the et in the tenor, and sets the resurrexit tertia die
secundum scripturas (the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures) in an a
cappella section for the choir. Interestingly, this is the only unaccompanied choral
passage in any mass of the time period (Tovey 173):
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This a cappella section postpones the expected joyful sonorities until the ascendit in
coelis (and ascended into Heaven). With the ascension section, Beethoven again employs
word painting in his music. Just as Jesus ascended into Heaven, Beethoven uses an
ascending scalar motive in both the choir and the orchestra:
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By avoiding the expectations of his audience, Beethoven shows his mastery of the
element of surprise, as well as his commitment to expressing traditional ideas in novel
and rewarding ways. Author Warren Kirkendale writes,
Today we see that [Beethoven] not only retained traditional thought to an
unexpected degree [i.e. his use of the fuge, his Palestrinalike harmonies,
his Classical influence, etc.] but… with an incomparably freer, personal
vocabulary. And this is perhaps nowhere so profoundly [seen] as in his
Missa Solemnis, the work which belongs to the oldest musical tradition
[the Catholic Mass], the work which he believed to be his greatest (666).
Thus, the argument for Beethoven being both a Classicist, as well as a Romanticist,
holds true. Though he retained the use of older musical ideas, he expressed those ideas in
innovative and original new ways. The Missa Solemnis is merely one of the works in
which Beethoven employs both genres of musical thought.
A discussion of the Credo of Beethoven’s Mass in D would not be complete without
an investigation of the immense fugue that ends the movement. A fugue, according to
the New Harvard Dictionary of Music, is “the most fully developed procedure of
imitative counterpoint, in which the theme is successively stated in all voices of the
polyphonic texture” (327). Beethoven’s ending fugue lasts an impressive five minutes;
its length was probably intended to symbolize the idea of eternity (Kirkendale 684).
Philip Downs writes that the fugue “… demonstrate[s] the composer’s complete mastery
of eighteenthcentury techniques, for he is one of the very few capable of making the
fugue an expression of man’s most elevated sentiments” (623).
The evidence of Beethoven’s mastery of the fugue – the “most fully developed
procedure of imitative counterpoint” – is impressive, yet ironic, considering Beethoven’s
own claim to knowing little about the technical aspects of counterpoint. “ ‘If I, a
composer, knew as much about strategy as I do about counterpoint,’” Beethoven once
said to a French General, “ ‘I would soon send you packing’” (Downs 624).
Nevertheless, the fugue at the end of the Credo illustrates Beethoven’s genius in its purest
form.
The words of the fugue, Et vitam venturi saeculi (And the life of the world to come)
present an interesting subject for analysis. This section of the Credo is set with a
leisurely tempo (Allegro con moto) and with subdued dynamics – strange for the
expected grandiose ending. Author Warren Kirkendale suggests that the reason behind
this, is that for Beethoven, everlasting life is “envisioned not in the traditional manner as
a vigorous physical existence, but as peace, removed from the bustle and noise of life on
earth” (684). The final words of the Credo, which comprise the entirety of the fugue,
also suggest Beethoven’s contemplations on his own life after death (Kirkendale 684).
The sonorities of this section imply an almost ‘victorious peace,’ the kind fit for a
composer of his magnitude.
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In conclusion, the Credo section of Beethoven’s Mass in D, is not meant for
traditional formal analysis. It is perhaps better understood in terms of the influence of the
text, as well as a brief fugal analysis for the concluding section. The Missa Solemnis took
Beethoven four years to compose, which is evident of his commitment to musical
perfection. He was known to have been extremely emotional regarding his music, and
thus it is perhaps more appropriate to analyze his works (this Mass especially) in terms of
his musical intent, rather than his musical form. When giving piano lessons to students,
“… wrong notes hardly excited comment from him,” writes Downs, “but any failure to
observe marks of expression would make him angry” (568). Music was not merely
sounds to Beethoven – music was an expression of the deepest of human emotions, the
greatest of “human potentialities.” To analyze Beethoven’s art for anything other than
his comment on the human condition is to disregard the intent of one of the greatest
composers in history of mankind. Beethoven’s music is not merely about how it is put
together and formed. His music is about the emotions of man, and about the powerful
and poignant expression of those emotions.
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Works Cited
Beethoven, Ludwig Van. Missa Solemnis in D. <piano vocal score> New York:
G.Schirmer, Inc., 1906.
Cooper, Martin. Beethoven: The Last Decade 18171827. London: Oxford University
Press, 1970.
Downs, Philip. Classical Music: The Era of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. New York:
W.W. Norton and Company, 1992.
Kerman, Joseph. <CD insert> Beethoven: Missa Solemnis. The Monteverdi Choir and
English Baroque Soloists directed by John Eliot Gardiner. Original sound
recording: Deutsche Grammophon GmbH. Hamburg: 1990.
Kirkendale, Warren. “New Roads to Old Ideas in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis.” The
Musical Quarterly, vol. 56. G.Schirmer, Inc. 1970.
Tovey, Donald. Essays in Musical Analysis. London: Oxford University Press, 1937.
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