B Minor Basics: Gloria, Part II

To Your Royal Highness I submit in deepest devotion the present small work
of that science which I have achieved in musique, with the submissive prayer
that Your Highness will look upon it with most gracious eyes …

— J. S. Bach, from the dedication of
the Kyrie-Gloria Mass, 1733
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On Easter Sunday this month, the Gloria of the Divine Liturgy will return after its omission for the penitential season of Lent. This seems to be a fitting time for another installment in our “B Minor Basics” series, focusing on the last four movements of the Gloria.

Recall from the September 2016 and February 2017 issues of “Lifted Voice” that the complete Mass in B Minor (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei) was compiled by Bach in 1748-1749, just before his death in 1750, as a musical last will and testament. The Kyrie and the Gloria, however, were originally composed as a Missa Brevis—a  “Brief Mass” or “Lutheran Mass”—in 1733 during a period of respite from church music that followed the death of the Elector of Saxony. Later that year, Bach presented the score to the new ruler, along with a dedication that indicated his desire to become the court composer. (The title was granted three years later, but at a disappointing salary.) It is possible, but by no means certain, that the Kyrie-Gloria Mass was performed in Leipzig in April 1733 after the period of mourning was over, and even more likely to have been performed again in Dresden in July of the same year.

The Qui tollis (please see the complete text and translation below) presents a unique opportunity to the composer since it contains the first reference in the Kyrie-Gloria to Jesus’ Passion: “Thou that takest away the sin of the world,” etc. Bach reduces the voicing from five parts (SSATB) to four (SATB), with the top part specifically marked “Soprano II”—a feature that he uses only one other time in the complete B Minor, viz. for the Crucifixus. The tempo is marked “Lento,” which might be a less-than-subtle hint that the text of the Gloria is now shifting, if only briefly, to the theology of the cross and the self-offering of the Lamb of God, which is a special focus of the Lenten season. Two flutes hover above the orchestra and voices, a soothing and yet somehow disturbing presence. The lower strings pulsate in quarter notes, while the violas “slice through the texture with sighs of lamentation” (John Eliot Gardiner, Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven, p. 495). The mood is tranquil, even heavy at times, for the most serious moment in the Gloria:

Qui tollis peccata mundi,
misere nobis.
Qui tollis peccata mundi,
​Suscipe deprecationem nostram.
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Thou that takest away the sin of the world,
have mercy upon us.
Thou that takest away the sin of the world,
​receive our prayer.
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Like the Qui tollis, the subsequent Qui sedes is also a relatively “still” piece, but with much smaller instrumentation than the Qui tollis. The text describes the risen and ascended Son of God, sitting at God’s right hand. Since the Father and the Son work together, Bach sets this text to a duet for Oboe d’amore (the “sweeter” of the two oboes available at the time) and alto (or countertenor, as you will hear in the following video from BBC Proms). Listen to the initial theme in the oboe, which is later carried by the countertenor: three sixteenth notes, followed by a large intervallic leap, after which the melody “sits” on a longer note. This depicts the good news that Christ now sits at the right hand of the Father. The close, canonic interweaving of the alto and the oboe depict the mutual indwelling of the Father and the Son.

Qui sedes ad
            Dextram Patris,
                        miserere nobis.
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Thou that sittest at
            the right hand of the Father,
                        have mercy upon us.
​

​The final aria in the Gloria, the Quoniam, is perhaps the most unique of the movements featured in this article, if not in the entire Kyrie-Gloria Mass. The scoring alone is unique, if not bizarre: the rarely-used Corno da caccia or “hunting horn,” two bassoons, and basso continuo (harpsichord and cello). The net effect, with the hunting horn in the upper register and the bassoons in the lower register, is indeed that of “the highest,” a perfect fit for the words, “the most high, Jesus Christ.”

The Corno da caccia or "hunting horn"

​The opening, five-note motif of the horn features an octave leap (D to D), a dip down to the leading tone, back to the high D, and another octave leap down to the lower D (please see the first five notes of the melodic line below). The octave leap depicts the “highness” of the Son of God, but there is more. These fives notes – two D’s, a C-Sharp, and two more D’s – are known as a “perfect motif” because they read the same from left to right as they do from right to left. This perfect music is, well, a perfect fit for the proclamation that Jesus alone is, in Old Testament terms, the Holy One of Israel. In the language of the New Testament, He is the perfect Son, in whom the Father is well pleased.

Quoniam tu solus Sanctus,
            Tu solus Dominus,
Tu solus Altissimus, Jesu Christe.
​

For Thou only art holy;
            Thou only art the Lord.
Thou only art the most high, Jesus Christ.
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The final note of the Quoniam for the instrumentalists becomes the first note and down beat of the Cum Sancto Spiritu. Indeed, during the final instrumental ritornello of the Quoniam, it’s almost as if the bass soloist is being “piped ashore” (as we say in the Navy) to make room for the chorus and orchestra to sing the final movement! The Cum Sancto Spiritu surpasses even the opening movement of the Gloria in its virtuosity and its utilization of all groupings of the ensemble. Scholars and conductors through the years have called it “a tremendous jolt,” “a free-spirited, corybantic dance,” “breathless counterpoint,” “spicy rhythmic virility [with] ornamental daring,” and “the sort of Dionysian abandon one might associate more with Beethoven or Stravinsky than with Bach.” Now press the play button below and see if you agree with their assessments:

Cum Sancto Spiritu
            in Gloria Dei Patris
                        Amen.
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With the Holy Spirit
            In the glory of God the Father.
                        Amen.
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The excerpt from Bach’s dedication of the Kyrie-Gloria Mass (see the header to this article) was written to ask the Elector of Saxony for a promotion from a church music post in Leipzig to the position of court composer in Dresden. Bach also asked the Elector to look at the Kyrie-Gloria Mass “according Your Highness’s world-famous clemency and not according to the poor composition” (cited in Christoph Wolff, Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician, p. 370). One might question if Bach’s humility was genuine since (1) he was seeking a new employer and (2) such humility was expected when petitioning a Sovereign, at least among those who hoped to achieve their desired end!

And yet, even though the history of the performance of the Kyrie and Gloria in Bach’s day is sketchy, and even if Bach truly thought of the Kyrie-Gloria Mass as a “trifle of a work” (my translation), it is safe to say, nearly 300 years later, that George Stauffer was quite correct in saying, “The Kyrie and Gloria represent the apotheosis of Bach’s Leipzig cantata style” (Bach: The Mass in B Minor: The Great Catholic Mass, p. 97). In other words, these two movements might be the apex of his sacred music composed for worship during his tenure in Leipzig (1723-1750). Indeed, is it possible that Bach could have left the Kyrie-Gloria in tact, with no further additions, and it would still be looked upon “with most gracious eyes” as one of the greatest choral-orchestral masterworks for the ages?

Electors, employers, and my humble analysis aside, the words appended to the end of the Gloria in the autograph of the Kyrie-Gloria Mass summarize the theology of this Mass and of all sacred music that gives us voice to sing the Gospel: “Fine. SDG.” That is to say, “It is finished. Soli Deo Gloria (Glory to God alone).”
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​Addendum: Watch the video below to hear a complete performance of the Mass in B-Minor under the capable baton of John Eliot Gardiner, with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists. To hear the excerpts addressed in this issue of “Lifted Voice,” please scroll ahead to 38:40.