Missa Solemnis (Beethoven)

Ludwig van Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in D Major, Op. 123 was composed in 1817-1823.

Critical Response

Some critics have been captured by the problem that, as Theodor Adorno put it, "there is something peculiar about the Missa Solemnis." In many ways, it is an atypical work, even for Beethoven. Missing is the sustained exploration of themes through development that is one of Beethoven's hallmarks. The massive fugues at the end of the Gloria and Credo align it with the work of his late period--but his simultaneous interest in the theme and variations form is more than absent. Instead, the missa presents a continuous musical narrative, almost without repetition, particularly in the Gloria and Credo movements which last longer than any of the others. The style, Adorno has noted, is as close to treatment of themes in imitation that one finds in the Flemish masters such as Josquin des Prez and Johannes Ockeghem, but it is unclear whether Beethoven was consciously imitating their techniques or whether this is simply a case of convergent evolution to meet the peculiar demands of the mass text. Donald Francis Tovey has connected Beethoven to the earlier tradition in a different way:

Related Topics:
Theodor Adorno - Themes - Variation - Josquin des Prez - Johannes Ockeghem - Convergent evolution - Donald Francis Tovey

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:"Not even Bach or Handel can show a greater sense of space and of sonority. There is no earlier choral writing that comes so near to recovering some of the lost secrets of the style of Palestrina. There is no choral and no orchestral writing, earlier or later, that shows a more thrilling sense of the individual colour of every chord, every position, and every doubled third or discord."

Related Topics:
Bach - Handel - Palestrina - Discord

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Perhaps the best way to recognize the importance of the mass in Beethoven's work is to acknowledge its singularity, and to view its remarkable variety and forceful individuality as the reflection of Beethoven's own relationship with the divine. Some have remarked that his treatment of the text--including the addition of a sigh, "a," in the Miserere section of the Gloria, and the quick disposal of several lines of text in the Credo underneath the weight of the two other choral parts and orchestra--shows a willful indifference to the more dogmatic precepts of the church, while others see the forceful expression of the central movements as having a sincerity that could only be borne of true belief. What is certain is that the Missa Solemnis is a difficult work, and a contentious one. But perhaps in being so, it mirrors Beethoven's own faith.

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