Choral Music Magazine

Lotti, for example, left a great treasury of unaccompanied mass settings, and several are available in print today. Most choral musicians know the 8-part Crucifixus, a very fine motet. In the masses, most of which are fairly brief, Lotti’s counterpoint is clear and the rhythms vital, not unlike the example set in the Crucifixus. Homophony occasionally takes over, which can make for some very exciting contrasts. Several of the settings are available on the Choral Public Domain Library, and some are available from European publishers. One particular favorite of mine is the TTB setting of his Mass for Three Voices.

Not exactly an unheard-of composer, yet some of his great masses manage to slide under the radar of most conductors. The Sparrow and Coronation masses are not the only settings he wrote. Of the lesser known Missae Brevis, the Missa Brevis in B-flat (K. 275) and the Pastoralmesse (K. 140) are my favorites. The Pastoralmesse is full of "shepherd" tunes and, perhaps not just in my imagination, shepherds chasing shepherdesses around in the Osanna sections of the Sanctus and Benedictus. It is an utterly charming piece. The Mass in B-flat, particularly in the Agnus Dei, is profound, and, with its distilled versions of larger forms, gives the effect of a great sprawling Missa Solemnis in a compact package.

It would be a remarkable underestimation to think the man who wrote Stille Nacht never wrote another good tune in his life. In fact, Gruber wrote several wonderful mass settings, at least two of which are in print by Anton Böhm & Sohn, Augsburg and give wonderful insight into Gruber’s real compositional style (Stille Nacht having been written for reduced forces). Hochzeitsmesse (Missa Brevis in D-dur) and the Missa in Contrapuncto exhibit all the charm of the Austrian music of the period. The Deutsche Messe, Hornmesse in D, is also charming, and the simple, idiomatic horn parts are easily accomplished with two players.

With competitors like Mozart and a brother who was the great Papa Haydn, it is understandable that Michael Haydn often appears, in history's eyes, to have been swallowed up by his contemporaries. Not simply a less-inspired Mozart or a less-seasoned Papa Haydn, Michael Haydn had his own voice, and his works are full of little moments of shining brilliance. The masses he wrote for Grosswardein, where soloists of great skill were not available, have little or no solo activity, and the choir parts are largely straightforward, which makes the works readily accessible to high school or college choirs. (That is, instead of attempting a Papa Haydn mass and not quite pulling it off, a younger chorus could make a real success of one of Michael Haydn’s little gems). Many are available from Carus-Verlag.

Grechaninov was born in Moscow in 1864 and died in New York in 1956. His mass settings are fascinating, because he brings the Russian church music sound to the Latin mass. Rachmaninov’s divine liturgy has been arranged into an English communion service, which he approved of, but Grechaninov wrote his settings in Latin originally. One is entitled Missa Ecumenica, and there is nothing more ecumenical than a mass that sounds very Russian, full of dark timbres, sung in the Latin of the Western church. That setting is immense and out of reach for most of us, but my favorite is the Missa Et in Terra Pax, scored for choir and organ. These Grechaninov pieces are entirely out of print, but available to those willing to do a little detective work!

David Enlow is Organist & Choir Master of the Church of the Resurrection, New York, where his professional choir romps through the works mentioned above. He is also Juilliard’s service playing instructor and a recently-minted Fellow of the American Guild of Organists.

Photo: David Enlow