Missa brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo (Little Organ Mass)
Soprano solo (in Benedictus only)
Chorus (SATB)
Violins 1 & 2, basso continuo, organ (solo and continuo)
(A later adaptation has added winds)
Program Notes by Martin Pearlman
This beautiful, miniature mass is thought to come from Haydn's stay at Eisenstadt during the winter of 1777-78. He wrote it for the Brothers of Mercy, whose chapel in that town had a very fine small organ that is featured in this mass. He dedicated the work to the patron saint of their order, St. John of God (Sancti Joannis de Deo). The music calls for the limited forces that would have been available to him at the chapel: small chorus, strings without violas, and organ. Only in the Benedictus is there a soloist, one soprano who is accompanied by obbligato organ that was probably first played by Haydn himself. A surviving set of parts suggests that the mass was later adapted to add several wind parts, but it is normally played in its original, more intimate scoring.
The work is written in the tradition of the missa brevis, in which some of the lengthier parts of the text, particularly in the Gloria and Credo, are telescoped -- i. e. the four voices of the chorus sing different words of the text simultaneously. It does not make for a particularly intelligible text, but it does make the movements shorter, a trade-off that some worshipers in the freezing cold churches of the time may have found fair.
This small, intimate mass has always been popular, particularly in central Europe. It conjures up an image of the small country church of the Brothers of Mercy and the quiet, devotional character of their worship. As it ends, it turns inward and gradually dies away at the words dona nobis pacem ("grant us peace").
Boston Baroque Performances
Missa brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo (“Little Organ Mass”)
April 24, 1998
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloist:
Karyl Ryczek, soprano