Joseph Haydn’s Missa in Bb with the nickname "Creation Mass," the fifth of his six late Missae solemnes, was composed in 1801 within only six weeks. Like all his great masses, he composed also this mass on behalf of his employer, Prince Nicholas II Esterházy, for the name day of the prince’s wife. The nickname "Creation Mass" – referring to Haydn’s oratorio The Creation, first performed three years earlier – is not authentic, but is based on a quotation in the Gloria from the duet "Holde Gattin, dir zu Seite." The Mass shows Haydn at the height of his compositional development; it is largely thoroughly composed, the vocal quartet increasingly takes the place of arien-like passages, the motivic-thematic work determines both the vocal and the independent instrumental parts.
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Composer
Joseph Haydn
| 1732-1809As Kapellmeister to Prince Esterházy, Haydn composed numerous instrumental works and various operas, as well as making important contributions to the genre of church music, including fourteen Latin masses, of which only twelve are authentic or complete; these are complemented by motets and offertories, two important Te Deum settings, two Salve Reginas, a Stabat Mater, and the different versions of the Sieben Worte des Erlösers am Kreuze. The masses were composed continually between 1749 and 1802, except for the years 1783–1795, and therefore constitute the genre with which Haydn was occupied over the longest period of time. The six (authentic or complete) masses composed before 1782 are stylistically very different, and as well as short Missae breves there are more extended masses with rich orchestral scoring; by contrast the six so-called late masses, written from 1796 onwards, form a comparatively homogeneous group of more extensive works scored for large forces. With his two great oratorios Die Schöpfung (The Creation) (1798) and Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons) (1801) Haydn established the tradition of the German oratorio for middle-class music making. Personal details
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Editor
Volker Kalisch
| 1957
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