Missa brevis (Latin for 'short Mass'; plural: Missae breves) usually refers to a mass composition that is short because part of the text of the Mass ordinary that is usually set to music in a full mass is left out, or because its execution time is relatively short.
Full mass with a relatively short execution time
The concise approach is found in the mostly syllabic settings of the 16th century, and in the custom of "telescoping" (or simultaneous singing by different voices) in 18th-century masses. After the period when all church music was performed a cappella, a short execution time usually also implied modest forces for performance, that is: apart from Masses in the "brevis et solemnis" genre.
For composers of the classical period such as Mozart, missa brevis meant "short in duration" – as opposed to missa longa (long mass), a term that Leopold Mozart used for his son's K. 262[2] – rendering the complete words of the liturgy. As the words were well known some composers had different voice parts recite simultaneously different sections of long texts. This is especially characteristic of Austrian masses in the Gloria and the Credo.
Johann Gustav Eduard Stehle: Kurze und leichte Messe, Op.50 (Short and Easy Mass in Honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1883)
Kyrie–Gloria masses
Start of the Kyrie of Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B minor, originally composed as the start of a Kyrie–Gloria Mass in B minor dedicated to Frederick Augustus II, Elector of Saxony, when he came to power in 1733. The original Kyrie–Gloria mass was composed in 12 movements for SSATB soloists and choir, and an extensive baroque orchestra. It was probably because of its long duration that the score was archived in the Royal Library upon arrival in Dresden, instead of being added to the repertoire of the Catholic Hofkirche.[4]
Partial settings are seen in both the Roman and Lutheran traditions, where many works consist of the Kyrie and Gloria. These masses came to be called Missae breves because they are shorter in words, the opposite being Missae totae (complete Masses).
Baroque period
Protestant liturgies did not have a mandated set of Mass ordinary sections to be included in a Mass composition. Thus, in addition to settings of all five sections (e.g. Hieronymus Praetorius, Christoph Demantius), there are many Kurzmessen (short masses) that include settings of only the Kyrie, Gloria, and Sanctus (e.g. Stephan Otto, Andreas Hammerschmidt). From the early 17th century, many Kurzmessen consist only of Kyrie and Gloria sections, e.g. those by Bartholomäus Gesius (eight out of ten Masses included in his 1611 Missae ad imitationem cantionum Orlandi).[5]
In the first half of the 18th century Kyrie–Gloria Masses could also be seen as a Catholic/Lutheran crossover, for example for Johann Sebastian Bach: not only did he transform one of Palestrina's a cappella missae totae in such a Kyrie–Gloria Mass for use in Lutheran practice,[7] he also composed one in this format for the Catholic court in Dresden.
Jan Dismas Zelenka wrote and acquired many Kyrie–Gloria Masses for the Dresden court, all of them later expanded into a Missa tota or into a Missa senza credo.[4] For example, around 1728 Zelenka expanded Caldara's Missa Providentiae into a Missa tota, basing a Sanctus and Agnus Dei on Caldara's composition, and adding a newly composed Credo, ZWV 31 [scores].[8]
Some Mass settings consisting of only three or four sections of the Mass ordinary can be indicated with a specific name, rather than with the generic Missa brevis name:
Missa (in) tempore (Adventus et) Quadragesimae: without Gloria
Masses written for the Anglican liturgy often have no Credo (usually recited by the congregation and rarely sung to a choral setting in Anglican services) and no Agnus Dei. For American denominations, the Sanctus is usually without Benedictus. The Gloria section may be moved to the end of the composition.
Some Masses in this category are rather to be seen as incomplete, while the composer did not write all the movements that were originally planned, or while some movements went lost, but the extant part of the composition found its way to liturgical or concert practice recast as a Brevis.
Whatever the reason for omitting part of the text of the Mass ordinary from the musical setting, the umbrella term for such Masses became Missa brevis. Partial Mass settings that are not a Kyrie–Gloria Mass include:
Johannes Brahms: Missa canonica, WoO 18 [scores] – the composers only attempt to set the Mass, is composed of Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei only, a fourth movement, the Credo believed to have been completed five years after the other movements, is lost.[22]
From the late 19th century Missa brevis (or French: "Messe brève") may refer to a Mass composition with any combination of the following characteristics: (1) short execution time, (2) limited forces for performance, (3) leaving out part of the Mass ordinary and/or (4) the composition is incomplete so that the extant complete parts are seen as a Missa brevis. A Mass being short in this sense does however not exclude that sections based on texts outside the Mass ordinary are added to the composition (like the O Salutaris Hostia in several of Gounod's Messes brèves).
19th century
As concert performance of liturgical works outside a liturgical setting increased, for some of the composers the brevis/solemnis distinction is about the breves, which not always needed professional performers, being intended for actual liturgical use, while a Missa solemnis was rather seen as a concert piece for professional performers, that could be performed outside an actual Mass celebration, similar to how an oratorio would be staged.
CG 66: Messe brève et salut pour 4 voix d'hommes in C minor, Op. 1 (c. 1845, publ. 1846)
CG 67: Messe à 4 voix d'hommes No. 2 in C major (without Gloria, incomplete, c. 1845)
CG 68: Messe à 4 voix d'hommes No. 3 in A minor (without Gloria, only Kyrie extant, c. 1845)
CG 69: Messe à 5 voix libres in E♭ minor (incomplete, c. 1848 – Kyrie published in 1878)
CG 70: Messe No. 1 à 3 voix d'hommes in C minor (aux Orphéonistes, 1853)
CG 71: Messe brève No. 2 pour choeur d'hommes in G major (Messe pour les sociétés chorales, 1862), and its later revisions: Messe No. 3 à trois voix égales (Messe aux communautés religieuses, c. 1882, publ. 1891) and Messe brève no. 6 aux cathédrales [de] pour solistes choeur et orgue (1890, publ. 1893)[27]
CG 73: Messe des anges gardiens in C major (SATB soloists and choir, 1872)
CG 74: Messe à la mémoire de Jeanne d'Arc libératrice et martyre in F major (no Credo 1886–1887)
CG 78 and 79: Messe brève pour les morts en fa majeur (Introit/Kyrie – Sanctus – Pie Jesu – Agnus Dei, 1871 – publ. 1873),[28] and a later reworking (1875)
CG 147b: Messe funèbre in F major (Kyrie – Sanctus – Pie Jesu – Agnus Dei, 1865 – publ. 1883) is a parody by Jules Dormois of Gounod's Les Sept paroles de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ sur la croix[29]
^Black, David Ian (2007): Mozart and the Practice of Sacred Music, 1781–91, pp. 65–74. Harvard University thesis. Cambridge, Massachusetts.
^ abStockigt, Janice B. (2013). "Bach's Missa BWV 232I in the context of Catholic Mass settings in Dresden, 1729–1733". In Tomita, Yo; Leaver, Robin A.; Smaczny, Jan (eds.). Exploring Bach's B-minor Mass. Cambridge University Press. pp. 39–53. ISBN978-1-107-00790-1.
