1772 – The Music part 4 - Thank you, kind Sir!

Hob. #	Genre	Key	Name	Instruments / Notes
22:06	Mass Ordinary	G	Nikolaimesse (Mass for Saint Nicholas)	S-A-T-B, Chorus, 2 Oboes, 2 Horns, Strings & Continuo (Organ)

The gilded Altar in the Bergkirche

Quid pro quo. Something for something. What might this mean in the context of composing a mass? Let's explore a bit. One of the things I have discovered is that when one researches anything to do with Church music in Austria, one is investigating not just music, but the traditions themselves. And there are a fair number of them involved here!

We have seen, while looking at the compositions of the early 1760's, Haydn composed some fine works as gifts for the Name Day of the Prince. Name Days are not as commonly celebrated today, and especially not in America, as they once were. In 18^th Century Austria, one's Name Day was considered more important than one's birthday, a tenet fostered by the Church, based on the belief that birthdays were a strictly pagan tradition. Simply put, one celebrated the day (called a 'Feast Day') on the liturgical calendar which was dedicated to the saint which one was named for. For Prince Nicholas, this day was December 6^th, the Feast of St. Nicholas.

Haydn, in 1763, composed the Italian cantata Destetevi, O miei Fidi (Awake, my faithful ones) (Hob 24a:2) as a Name Day gift for Nicholas. The following year he composed another cantata, Hob. 24a:4, Qual dubbio ormai (With Humility, my friend). These are the ones we certainly know, there are likely to be others. Were any of these works a quid pro quo? Probably not, or if they were, we have no knowledge of the circumstances. And none of them were masses.

As we saw in late November, only two or three weeks previous to the premier performance of the Mass, the entire band was mired in a funk in Eszterháza, looking at being trapped there for the next several weeks away from their families. Haydn worked his musical magic, the Farewell Symphony, and Hey, Presto!, the ordeal was over for another year and by 20 or 21 November, at worst, they hit the road for Eisenstadt.

A very major event every year in the Liturgical Calendar is the resetting of it with the beginning of Advent, which is the fourth Sunday before Christmas, so no later than December 3^rd. Since the Feast Day of Saint Nicholas is on the 6^th, it always falls in the first week of Advent.

It is interesting to note, if just in passing, how little Prince Nicholas cared for being a part of the Church. Given his position in the Holy Roman Empire, and his leadership role in one of the largest fiefdoms in the whole Habsburg domain, it is rather surprising to see that his Kapellmeister wrote virtually no sacred music for home. Nearly all of it was for other places. This missa brevis, however, is an exception, receiving its premiere in the Bergkirche, Haydn's home church in Eisenstadt, and, incidentally, the place where his body lies today. As you can see above, it is rather Baroque-styled but unpretentious nonetheless. It's main feature, rather out of place during the Advent season, is a wonderfully carved Stations of the Cross. This is where Haydn was the organist during the winter season, a duty which we shall soon see he took upon himself for a variety of reasons.

A longstanding tradition of Advent in the Catholic countries of Europe, particularly Austria and Italy, was the Pastoral Mass, so called because the music was rustic in character and intended to be reminiscent of the shepherds in the Nativity story. The characteristics are very well defined, and would have been easily deciphered by even the most rustic peasant, given they heard this music year after year in the Advent season. A few of them are:

• Sonically:
  • Tender, gentle, simple & direct.
  • No high drama.
  • Passages in unison – denoting 'naïve piety'.
  • Restrained use of dynamics.
  • Occasional echo effects.
  • Endings often soft and subdued.
• Harmonically:
  • Drones like bagpipes.
  • Frequent pedal points.
  • Use of a 'pastoral' key, like C, G or D
• Melody:
  • Lyrical, flowing and graceful.
  • Regular phrases, songlike.
  • Fanfares
  • Horn calls imitating herders.
  • Dance-like tunes in some passages.
  • Quotation of existing tunes, folk tunes, local Christmas tunes etc.
• Rhythm:
  • Triple meters like 3/8 and 3/4

The meaning of these comes through without a lot of further explanation: the point is to bring modern listeners into a shared experience with the shepherds in Bethlehem. The methods used were so ingrained they were meaningful in specific ways to all of the faithful. Just like hunting horn calls, which even when played on violins instead of horns, as in the opening of Mozart's string quartet K 458, emulated the hunt, and you knew it as soon as you heard it.

The opening Kyrie of the Nikolaimesse, in a lilting 6/4 meter in G major is a fine example of a Pastoral opening. This same character is shared throughout the mass, particularly in the Sanctus and the Benedictus, both of which are intensely lyrical. Unlike in others of Haydn's masses, he leans heavily here on the soloists rather than the chorus. The overall tenor of the entire mass is one of cheerful optimism. Interestingly, Robbins-Landon goes on at some length about the dichotomy between the wintry, bleak and tragic writing of the Farewell and the sunny cheer of the Mass. This is less obvious to me since I hadn't ever considered the f# minor symphony to be particularly bleak. Perhaps it does to you though?

The score of the mass also abounds in musical shorthand, such as simultaneously setting consecutive lines of text in the Credo, and other such oddities like using the same music for the Dona nobis pacem as he used for the Kyrie. It should be pointed out that procedures such as this were not unusual at the time, and musicians and singers would have had little problem interpreting his intentions. He also notated only part of the viola's music and directed him to double the bass otherwise. Haydn even helped Ellsler to copy out the parts! It is the cumulative presence of all of these things which is unusual, not the occurrence of any one or two of them. What might be the reason for all this?

We have seen that Haydn was in Eszterháza as late as November 20, thus only back in Eisenstadt and ready to work by the 21^st or 22^nd. This doesn't leave a lot of time if he wishes to fulfill what is thought to be his intention; to compose a combination Name Day and Thank You gift for Nicholas, ready to go on the 6^th! Even if he had a start on it before then, the amount of work that goes into a mass is significant. But the result of all this is a very beautiful, simple mass which completely embraces the Austrian idiom of the Pastoral Mass, and yet remains typically Haydn. Happy Name Day, Prince Nicholas, thank you for returning us to civilization! Quid pro quo.

Next time, we will look at the year 1773. Changes are on the horizon yet again.

Thanks for reading!