Music Lover Haydn’s masses are absolutely *not* ‘underrated’, so you make a strange comment - really not sure from where you’ve got that idea. The fourteen masses are universally acknowledged as being some of the finest settings of the liturgy from any age, and have been continually performed over the last 200 plus years, including in non-Catholic churches and cathedrals as well as in the concert hall. Additionally, this is choral, not vocal music, and there are very few serious musicians who ‘look down’ on any area of Haydn’s work.
Musi Explora Michael Haydn was a very fine composer of sacred music and highly respected for it throughout his life, including by his brother and by his well-known Salzburg colleague. Better to leave Joseph Haydn out of it in terms of church music as the comparisons become invidious; he wrote a magnificent Requiem in 1771, but again, it’s better not to mention Mozart.
KYRIE Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison. Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. GLORIA Gloria in excelsis Deo. Et in terra pax hominibus bonæ voluntatis. Laudamus te; benedicimus te; adoramus te; glorificamus te. Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam. Domine Deus, Rex coelestis, Deus Pater omnipotens. Domine Fili unigenite Jesu Christe. Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris. Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis. Qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe deprecationem nostram. Qui sedes ad dextram Patris, O miserere nobis. Quoniam tu solus Sanctus, tu solus Dominus, tu solus Altissimus, Jesu Christe. Cum Sancto Spiritu in gloria Dei Patris. Amen. Glory be to God in the highest. And in earth peace to men of good will. We praise Thee; we bless Thee; we worship Thee; we glorify Thee. We give thanks to Thee for Thy great glory. O Lord God, Heavenly King, God the Father Almighty. O Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son. Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father. Thou that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer. Thou that sittest at the right hand of the Father, have mercy upon us. For thou only art holy, thou only art the Lord, thou only art the most high, Jesus Christ. Together with the Holy Ghost in the glory of God the Father. Amen. CREDO Credo in unum Deum; Patrem omnipotentem, factorem coeli et terrae, visibilium omnium et invisibilium. Credo in unum Dominum Jesum Christum, Filium Dei unigenitum, Et ex Patre natum ante omnia sæcula. Deum de Deo, lumen de lumine, Deum verum de Deo vero, Genitum non factum, consubstantialem Patri: per quem omnia facta sunt. Qui propter nos homines, et propter nostram salutem descendit de coelis. Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine: et homo factus est. Crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato, passus et sepultus est. Et resurrexit tertia die secundum Scripturas. Et ascendit in coelum: sedet ad dexteram Patris. Et iterum venturus est cum gloria, judicare vivos et mortuos: cujus regni non erit finis. Credo in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum, et vivificantem: qui ex Patre Filioque procedit. Qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur et conglorificatur: qui locutus est per Prophetas. Credo in unam sanctam catholicam et apostolicam Ecclesiam. Confiteor unum baptisma, in remissionem peccatorum. Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum et vitam venturi sæculi. Amen. I believe in one God; the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, light of light, true God of true God, begotten not made; being of one substance with the Father, by Whom all things were made. Who for us men and for our salvation descended from heaven; and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost, of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. He was crucified also for us, suffered under Pontius Pilate, and was buried. And on the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures: and ascended into heaven. He sitteth at the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; and His kingdom shall have no end. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life, Who prodeedeth from the Father and the Son, Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; as it was told by the Prophets. And I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. And I await the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen. SANCTUS Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth. Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria tua. Osanna in excelsis. Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts. Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory. Hosanna in the highest. AGNUS DEI Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis. Agnus Dei. Dona nobis pacem. Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Lamb of God. Grant us peace. BENEDICTUS Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. Osanna in excelsis. Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
The image is indeed by Caspar David Friedrich: the Ruins at Eldena c.1825, in the Nationgalerie, Berlin. It is a ruined Cistercian monastery by Greifswald in northern Germany, near the Baltic.
Whoever chose the Dona Nobis Pacem to accompany the images evoking events at Oradour-sur-Glane is to be congratulated for making this the most powerful televisual art. Not only is it a request for peace but because Haydn uses the same music in the Kyrie it is also, by reference to this, a plea for mercy and forgiveness for such wrongdoing.
J'ai conduit presque toutes les messes du XVIIIe siècle, mais, si vous me le permettez, celle-ci et la "Neson-Messe" sont les plus belles et les plus remples de la Foi qui conduisait toutes les oeuvres du Maître Joseph Haydn.
Sadly it reminds me of the massacre at Oradour-sur-glane as the World at War “remember” episode played to accompany pictures of the gravestones of the victims.
A great painting by CasparDavid Frederich but what expresses: the ruins of a catholic church; is the opposite to what this wonderful masses do (to me the greatest ones that have ever been written) : a powerful, strong idea of God a search to express its creative omnipotence, masses that someone qualified sometime as great non catholic masses
