Missa in tempore belli (Mass in Time of War)
Missa in tempore belli ("Paukenmesse")
Mass in Time of War ("Timpani Mass")
First performances: September 13 and December 26, 1796
Four vocal soloists (SATB)
Chorus (SATB)
Orchestra: 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings, organ
(flute added later)
Program Notes by Martin Pearlman
In 1796, when Haydn was composing this first of his six late masses, Europe was in turmoil. Napoleon's army was winning one battle after another in Italy and now threatened the entire continent. In August, the government in Vienna ordered its troops to be mobilized and prepared for war. Although Haydn was ostensibly writing a mass to celebrate the name day of the Princess Hermenegild of Esterhazy, the wife of his employer, he could hardly ignore the atmosphere all around him. While he did not often express political views, his title for this mass, Missa in tempore belli (Mass in Time of War), as well as its music reflect a sense of foreboding as Austria and its allies were about to face Napoleon.
This mass is thought to be the one that Haydn premiered on September 13, 1796 in Eisenstadt to commemorate the princess's name day. He then gave a public performance of it on December 26 of that year in suburban Vienna. Along with the Lord Nelson Mass, another work concerned with war, it has remained one of Haydn's most popular religious works. The nervous quality of the introductions to the first and last movements and the brilliant symphonic writing and military fanfares made this work a novel and moving experience for the apprehensive, patriotic audiences that heard the first performances.
The famous timpani solo near the beginning of the Agnus Dei creates a tone of apprehension, "as if one heard the enemy approaching in the distance," as one of Haydn's associates remarked. This passage, which was imitated by Beethoven in the Agnus Dei of his Missa Solemnis, gives the Mass in Time of War its popular nickname, the Paukenmesse, or Timpani Mass. The timpani solo is followed by terrifying trumpet fanfares, and military music then leads into an unusually forceful and urgent setting of "dona nobis pacem" ("grant us peace").
The dramatic, symphonic character of this last movement, as well as the beautiful virtuosic cello solo in the Gloria are among the features that offended some later critics, who found them too secular for a mass. But these were preconceptions about religion from a later age. Haydn would no doubt have been surprised at the controversy, since he himself was a devout Catholic. Rather, he has found a new way of treating the traditional mass text, one that looks forward more to Beethoven than it looks back to earlier settings.
When Haydn brought the work to Vienna, he augmented the orchestration, writing more extensive parts for the clarinets and horns and adding a flute to the orchestra. He evidently preferred this larger orchestration, since he kept it for the first printed edition.
The war against Napoleon continued throughout the remainder of Haydn's lifetime. Shortly before his death in 1809, Napoleon occupied Vienna, but war and culture were different from what we might expect today. One of Napoleon's first commands was to station a guard before the aged composer's house to protect him from danger. During Haydn's last days, a French officer came to visit him and sang for him an aria from his oratorio The Creation.
Boston Baroque Performances
Missa in Tempore Belli (“Mass in Time of War”)
February 22, 1991
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloists:
Sharon Baker, soprano
Lorraine Hunt, mezzo-soprano
Frank Kelley, tenor
Myron Myers, bass