is a

mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

E-flat major E-flat major is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has three flats. Its relative minor is C minor, and its parallel minor is E minor, (or enharmonically D minor). The E-fla ...

for double choir

a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

Josef Rheinberger Josef Gabriel Rheinberger (17 March 1839 – 25 November 1901) was an organist and composer from Liechtenstein, residing in Kingdom of Bavaria, Bavaria for most of his life. As court conductor in Munich, he was responsible for the music in the ...

, composed in 1878. Its full title is . It was first performed at the

Allerheiligen-Hofkirche The Allerheiligen-Hofkirche (Court Church of All Saints) is a Catholic church in the Munich Residenz designed by Leo von Klenze and built between 1826 and 1837. The church was badly damaged from bombing during World War II and for decades remaine ...

in Munich on 1 January 1879. Rheinberger dedicated it to

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII (; born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2March 181020July 1903) was head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 until his death in July 1903. He had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of Peter the Ap ...

which earned him the

Order of St. Gregory the Great The Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great (; ) was established on 1 September 1831, by Pope Gregory XVI, seven months after his election as Pope. The order is one of the five Papal order of knighthood, orders of knighthood of th ...

for the work.

History

composed 14 masses, in addition to three Requiem masses and several youthful mass compositions. Most of these works were written during his tenure as Bavarian court composer in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, beginning in 1877, when liturgical music became his focus. He wrote the Mass in E-flat major, titled within a few days in January 1878. He dedicated it to the new

on 20 February. It was first performed at the

of the

Munich Residenz The Residenz (, ''Residence'') in central Munich is the former royal palace of the House of Wittelsbach, Wittelsbach List of rulers of Bavaria, monarchs of Bavaria. The Residenz is the largest city palace in Germany and is today open to visitors ...

on 1 January 1879, conducted by the composer. The mass was first published by in Munich the same year. Leo XIII awarded Rheinberger the

in July 1979 for the composition. The work is Rheinberger's only mass for a double choir. The mass was published by

Carus-Verlag Carus-Verlag is a German music publisher founded in 1972 and based in Stuttgart. Carus was founded by choral conductor Günter Graulich and his wife Waltraud with an emphasis on choral repertoire. the catalogue includes more than 26,000 works ...

in 1994 as part of the complete edition of the composer's works.

Structure and music

Rheinberger set the parts of the mass ordinary in six

movements Movement may refer to: Generic uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Movement (sign language), a hand movement when signing * Motion, commonly referred to as movement * Movement (music), a division of a larger c ...

: * Kyrie (Moderato) * Gloria (Allegro moderato) * Credo (Moderato) * Sanctus (Lento) * Benedictus (Andantino) * Agnus Dei (Lento) Rheinberger composed the first lines of both Gloria and Credo for the choir, Gloria for eight voices and Credo for bass. The duration is given as 24 minutes. Similarly to other vocal works by Rheinberger, the melodies are singable (''cantabile''), based on

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chord ...

. The harmonies include

chromaticism Chromaticism is a compositional technique interspersing the primary diatonic scale, diatonic pitch (music), pitches and chord (music), chords with other pitches of the chromatic scale. In simple terms, within each octave, diatonic music uses o ...

and sudden dissonances. The work has been described as 19th-century

Palestrina Palestrina (ancient ''Praeneste''; , ''Prainestos'') is a modern Italian city and ''comune'' (municipality) with a population of about 22,000, in Lazio, about east of Rome. It is connected to the latter by the Via Prenestina. It is built upon ...

. Rheinberger's student described the mass as the culmination of Rheinberger's a cappella works, "permeated with a truly religious atmosphere, with blooming polyphony".

Recordings

Kammerchor Stuttgart The Kammerchor Stuttgart is a professional chamber choir based in Stuttgart, founded in 1968 by Frieder Bernius who has remained its leader. The choir performs in changing size, according to the music, from 16-part vocal ensemble to 80 voices in an ...

, cond.

Frieder Bernius Frieder Bernius (born 22 June 1947) is a German conductor, the founder and director of the chamber choir Kammerchor Stuttgart, founded in 1968. They became leaders for historically informed performances. He founded the Stuttgart festival of Baroq ...

, Stuttgart 1989 * Choir of

Gonville and Caius College Gonville and Caius College, commonly known as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges an ...

, Cambridge, cond. Geoffrey Webber,

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum ...

, 1997 / 2015 *

St Albans Cathedral St Albans Cathedral, officially the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban, also known as "the Abbey", is a Church of England cathedral in St Albans, England. Much of its architecture dates from Normans, Norman times. It ceased to be an abb ...

Choir, cond. Andrew Lucas, Lammas, 2007 * Camerata Vocale Freiburg, cond. Winfried Toll, Ars Metalli (Membran), 2012

References

External links

* * {{italic title Rheinberger 1881 compositions Compositions in E-flat major