Towards the end of his life, in the manner of artists who arrange retrospective exhibitions of their paintings, Bach put together three summative collections of musical compositions. These were to represent areas in which he had excelled, such as music for his own instrument, the organ, and fugal counterpoint. He conceived the idea of representing his choral music with a sumptuous setting of the Ordinary of the Latin Mass accompanied by an orchestra – a text to cross barriers of time and place – and assembled the movements by reworking earlier material as well as composing new sections.
The Mass setting turned out to be a work of considerable length, totally unsuitable for liturgical use. Bach himself never heard it performed – he died the year after he had finished work on it. But liturgical use was not Bach’s objective, and at two hours the Mass works particularly well in concert performance; furthermore under these conditions an audience can give it the undivided and careful attention which this wonderful work both needs and deserves.
For there was nothing random about the selection of material which Bach chose to re-work from earlier pieces. In the same way that the narrative story of the Lutheran Passion is the structural mainspring for the music of the Passions, so here Christian theology underpins the structure, the key passages of doctrinal text being assigned to the Chorus. Thus the Chorus functions like the pillars of a great cathedral edifice, delivering the doctrinal support which underpins the arches and vaulted ceiling, as the soloists embellish the intervening text with pattern and tracery. The opening Kyrie is a three-part structure in which fugal movements encircle a duet for two Sopranos; the Gloria is buttressed by choral sections glorifying God the Father, while the intervening arias and a duet extol God the Son, and the final chorus God the Holy Ghost. The Credo has fewer solo arias because its centrepiece is a triptych of three great choral movements at the heart of Christian belief – Incarnation, Crucifixion and Resurrection. The Sanctus is powerfully delivered by a 6-part Chorus and triple instrumental accompaniment; and in the final Osanna, Benedictus, Agnus Dei and Dona nobis a triumphant Chorus again buttresses the intervening arias.
There is a wide variety of styles in all these movements. For the Chorus there are sober fugues as well as dancing joy, as in the bright D major Gloria (which recalls Tovey’s observation that ‘God will not be angry at being praised cheerfully’). In fact there are several movements in D major, all enhanced by the bright open string tone of the violins and the natural pitch of Bach’s trumpets, but it seems superfluous to complain – as some people do – that the ‘B minor’ Mass has more movements in D major than in B minor (the Mass begins in B minor because it has a human starting-point, and if there are subsequently more movements in D it is because the Christian message is essentially an optimistic one). The Chorus is assigned the most weighty minor mode movements and has both the Qui tollis and Et incarnatus, as well as the sublime Crucifixus in which the dissonances convey an almost physical sense of pain and the scoring is dulled by the omission of the bright tone of the first Sopranos.
Between the great choral movements appear the gentler arias and duets. Drawing on the vast experience of his Cantatas, Bach invents inimitable introductory orchestral ritornelli and then draws solo lines of infinite variety from them. He calls for solo violin, flute, oboe d’amore and corno da caccia, and ranges in expression from the sweet optimism of the opening Laudamus te for Soprano and solo violin, through the swaggering confidence of Quoniam tu solus for Bass and corno da caccia, to the final anguish of the Agnus Dei for Alto and violin.
Our choir performed this wonderful work at the Parish Church on 19 November, accompanied by a chamber orchestra of baroque specialist instrumentalists. As in Bach’s time, the forces were small – just ten singers who sang choruses as well as stepping forward to deliver solos. They all performed quite beautifully, balanced and supported by exceptional instrumental players and superbly directed by James Sherlock. An audience of over 300 people gave them rapturous applause at the end.
The quality of the applause was striking: it was clear that everyone present had been deeply moved by this performance, which was organised by our own Friends of the Music in association with the Hampstead Arts Festival. The applause was particularly heart-warming because many there were undoubtedly non-Christians, yet all were fused in their appreciation of this great Christian work. Our differences were forgotten: we felt ourselves all to be human and vulnerable, struggling to find meaning in the world around us (more than ever, some might say, in our unfathomable contemporary world). The message of Bach’s B minor Mass was phrased in a musical language which spoke to us all: dissonances dissolving in comforting resolutions, exuberant trumpets lifting us with their joyousness, peace enveloping us in the final closure of perfect cadences. We were bound together that Sunday evening in a profound experience which transcended all differences, as the beauty of Bach’s music spoke to us of the God whom – after all – so many religions share.
This concert was generously funded by the Hampstead Church Music Trust, and all profits of the evening given to the Marie Curie Hospice, Hampstead.
J S Bach – B minor Mass
Gill Perrin