B Minor Basics: Sanctus + Hosanna + Benedictus

To Thee all angels cry aloud, the heavens and all the powers therein;
To Thee cherubim and seraphim continually do cry:
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth!

— The Te Deum
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​The Nicene Creed ends with the words, “I expect the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come. Amen.” In a musical setting of the Mass, the Nicene Creed is followed immediately by the Sanctus, “Holy, holy, holy.” One would normally expect the Creed to end with a whole note, a fermata, and a short break before the Sanctus. In his Mass in B Minor, however, J. S. Bach (1685-1750), ends the Creed with a quarter note with no fermata on the “-men” of “amen,” followed by three beats of rests and a relatively quick transition to the Sanctus. In the Creed, then, the church has confessed her longing expectation for the life of the world to come. And when the new creation arrives in all its fullness, she will be ready to sing the song which will serve as the focus of this issue of “Lifted Voice,” “Holy, holy, holy.” We will also examine its liturgical companions from Psalm 118, the Hosanna and the Benedictus.
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Bach’s selection of music for the Sanctus to include in the folio of the B Minor was not without its challenges. Conductor John Eliot Gardiner summarizes the situation:
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​Having set himself standards of scale, proportion and duration in his original Missa, which he then complemented so majestically with the Symbolum, he now had the task of sustaining the dramatic momentum and epic proportions, while putting together a final sequence of movements, unified and smoothly interlocked (BACH: Music in the Castle of Heaven, p. 514).
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In selecting a setting of the Sanctus that was worthy to follow the Missa (the Kyrie and Gloria, which lasts for nearly one hour) and the Symbolum (the Nicene Creed, which could stand on its own as a great choral masterwork), Bach reached back to music for Christmas Day from 1724, the six-voice Sanctus in D Major. Moreover, as Bach was compiling the B Minor in the late 1740’s, the Second Silesian War had just come to an end in 1745. For the first time in his life, during the year of his 60th birthday, Bach experienced firsthand the reality of war as Prussian troops occupied Leipzig. A special service of thanksgiving to celebrate the Peace of Dresden was held at the University Church on Christmas Day. For this service, Bach selected the Latin cantata 191, Gloria in excelsis Deo, which includes three movements from the B Minor Mass. And Bach almost certainly included the Sanctus in D Major as part of this service to celebrate the end of the Prussian invasion, giving this setting of the Sanctus a revered place in the sacred music of J. S. Bach.

The text of the Sanctus is from Isaiah 6:1-4:
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In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”

​And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
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​As is always the case in the B Minor Mass, the music grows out of the text. The three-fold “Holy, holy, holy” and the six-winged Seraphim suggest groups of three, six, and multiples thereof, and Bach delivers the numerically-based text painting in fullest measure. Three trumpets soar above the orchestra, with two of them playing triplet figures. A third oboe appears for the first time in the Mass, playing quarter notes to emphasize the first and second beats of each measure. Meanwhile, the three upper strings (Violin I, Violin II, and Viola) soar in rhythmic unison with dotted rhythms. The orchestra, then, has three musical families (brass, woodwinds, and strings) of three parts each, playing three different rhythms! Moreover, this is the only six-voiced chorus (SSAATB) in the entire Mass. The composite sound may not fill the room with smoke as it did in Isaiah’s Temple vision, but one can certainly feel the foundation shaking as the basses sing in magnificent octave leaps. One can also sense the angelic character of the music in the upper voices, as if the cherubim and seraphim are hovering over our heads, inviting us to join with them in the heavenly choir.

Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus
Dominus Deus sabaoth:
​Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria ejus
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Holy, holy, holy
Lord God of hosts:
heaven and earth are full of Your glory.
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If the Sanctus soars to heaven, then the Pleni sunt coeli (starting at 3:05 in this video) returns to earth with an imitative section that passes through all voices in the choir, beginning with the tenor. Listen for the six-measure theme (again, the groupings of 3’s, 6’s, and 9’s are found throughout this movement), coupled with the switch to a lively 3/8 dance meter to depict the good news that the whole earth is full of God’s glory.
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If the Sanctus is the most majestic depiction of God in the B Minor Mass, then the Hosanna (“Save us now!”) is perhaps the most unique Turba or “crowd” chorus. The text of the Hosanna and the Benedictus are both from Psalm 118, a pilgrim’s Psalm that was sung by or to pilgrims as they journeyed to Jerusalem for the major feasts of the Old Testament. To depict this Psalm in music, Bach returns to normal instrumental scoring, but divides the choir into two choruses of four parts each. The result is a texture of some 20 parts (12 instrumental and 8 choral), the greatest number of parts used at any point in the Mass. In the following video, listen for the opening cry of “Hosanna,” followed by flourishes in the upper register (excelsis = “in the highest”) of the flutes, followed by the oboes, then the violins, and finally the trumpets. One can easily picture Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, with pilgrims lining the streets to welcome the One who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in excelsis.
Benedictus qui venit
            in nomine Domini.
​Hosana in excelsis.
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Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is He who comes
            in the name of the Lord.
​Hosanna in the highest.
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Following his established pattern throughout the Mass of contrasting full choruses with small arias, Bach transitions from the largest number of parts in the Hosanna to the smallest number of parts in the Benedictus (beginning at 2:44 in this video): tenor solo, one obbligato instrument (flute or violin, the two instruments that are most commonly used to depict the Holy Spirit in the Communion sections of the Mass), and continuo, although the overall effect is that of a duet between the treble instrument and the tenor. The use of one tenor and one woodwind is fitting for the description of the one who comes in the name of the Lord. The ¾ meter, coupled with several sixteenth-note triplets, might be an echo of the threefold repetition of the word “Benedictus” in most congregational liturgies. Since the Benedictus is associated with the Communion liturgy and its reverent piety, it is not surprising that meditative restraint predominates throughout this tranquil movement. After the Benedictus, the Hosanna is repeated in its entirety (the only movement in the entire Mass that is repeated), providing a second contrast between the corporate cries of “Hosanna” and the more subdued Benedictus.
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The late church historian, Jaroslav Pelikan (1923-2006), embodied the theological significance of Bach’s setting of the Sanctus, especially as he practiced the art of dying.
Shortly before his death, Dr. Pelikan, who was also a fine Bach scholar, was undergoing chemotherapy via intermuscular injection. Since the injection process took about two hours, he chose to listen to a recording of the B Minor (also about two hours in length) during each chemotherapy treatment. Could there be a more fitting use for an individual hearing of the Mass? How pertinent is the Sanctus and its companion movements at death’s door! The Sanctus unites heaven and earth around the throne of the Lamb (Rev. 4—5). Hosanna (“Save us now!”) is the plea of those who await the resurrection of all flesh. And the Benedictus describes all who die in the Lord and now rest from their labors. Perhaps the Te Deum, which includes the Sanctus (see the sub-heading of this article) puts it best: “We therefore pray Thee help Thy servants, whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy precious blood. Make them to be numbered with Thy saints in glory everlasting.”

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