Missa solemnis in C minor

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Mass in C minor, K. 139 ( KV3 114a/KV6 47a) Waisenhausmesse is called, in the assumption that it was composed for the inauguration of the orphanage church in Vienna on December 7, 1768. The emergence period could be limited by studies of the autograph ( watermark and format) in 1768/1769.

First performance

Mozart composition sounded a solemn concelebrated Mass ( the first read in the new church ) and also to be designated by the musical side through orchestra and plant composition as Missa Solemnis.

System of composition

Mozart used the form of the cantata mass. Arias, duets and choruses are the external features here. The sections Cum sancto spiritu and Et vitam venturi Gloria saeculi of the Credo are composed each as a fugue.

The slow parts of the Mass are almost all composed in a minor key: The opening of the Kyrie ( Adagio ), the Qui tollis of Gloria ( F minor ), the pastoral Et incarnatus est, Crucifixus and the last the beginning of the Agnus Dei are additionally highlighted by slow tempos in its central liturgical significance.

Mozart Waisenhausmesse is very close in their other parts of the expressive means of expression of contemporary opera.

Related Offertory

To the cycle of the Ordinary Mass Mozart, the auspicious occasion set to music accordingly, still a part of the Proper Mass: the offertory Benedictus sit Deus. Two sets for chorus and orchestra frame a sentence for solo soprano and orchestra. The instrumentation corresponds to the setting of the Ordinary. Another example of the expressive " opera style " within the composition is the last sentence of the offertory, and there especially the final bars of the words " Jubilate ".