Kyrie–Gloria Mass for double choir, BWV Anh. 167

The Kyrie–Gloria Mass for double choir, BWV Anh. 167, is a mass composition in G major by an unknown composer. The work was likely written before the second quarter of the 18th century. In the 1730s Johann Sebastian Bach produced a manuscript copy of the Mass. In the early 19th century, it was published and performed as a composition by Bach. Scholarship published in the second half of the 19th century contested the work's attribution to Bach.

Title page of the 1805 edition of the Missa, BWV Anh. 167 – at that moment attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach.[1]

In the 20th-century Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV), it was initially listed as a composition spuriously attributed to Bach, and later as a doubtful composition by that composer, with Johann Ludwig Bach and Antonio Lotti mentioned as possible composers of the work. In the 21st century, the Bach Digital website indicates its composer as unknown, noting that the work has been attributed to Christoph Bernhard, Johann Philipp Krieger or David Pohle.

History

The oldest extant source of the music of the Kyrie–Gloria Mass for double choir, BWV Anh. 167, BNB I/An/3, is a manuscript score dating from the 1730s, which is partially written by Johann Sebastian Bach.[2][3]

Bach's manuscript

Bach's manuscript copy of the Kyrie–Gloria Mass BWV Anh. 167 originated in the 1730s.[4] The first part of that manuscript was written by one of Bach's scribes, who started the copy around 1732–35, while Bach himself completed the handwritten score around 1738–39.[5] The faded original header of the manuscript carries no (clearly discernible) composer indication.[6][7][8] The indication "J. S. Bach" found in that header is a later addition.[4][5] Bach's copy is classified as Mus.ms. Bach P 659 at the Berlin State Library, and is considered an original source in Bach scholarship.[2][9]

Authorship

Up to the middle of the 19th century Bach was seen as the composer of the work.[10] In the second half of that century, Bach's authorship was rejected, or at least questioned, in scholarship, and Antonio Lotti and Johann Ludwig Bach were mentioned as possible composers of the Mass.[7][11][12][13][14][15] By the end of the 20th century, the same two composers were still mentioned as the possible authors of the work.[16] In the 21st century, Christoph Bernhard (1628–1692), Johann Philipp Krieger (1649–1725) or David Pohle (1624–1695) were mentioned as more likely composers of the work, indicating that the work was likely composed before the second quarter of the 18th century.[2][17]

Structure and scoring

The Mass BWV Anh. 167 consists of two sections: a Kyrie and a Gloria,[2] and is thus a Missa brevis in a format customary in 17th- and 18th-century Protestantism.[18] All movements of the composition are in G major.[6] It is written for double choir, that is, two groups of SATB singers, and each of these groups of singers accompanied by a group of instrumentalists:[2]

The ripieno singers and organ are sometimes seen as a separate choir: some of the older descriptions of the Mass refer to it as a Mass for triple choir (German: Dreichörige Messe).[19] According to Johann Kirnberger, the ripieno voices double melody lines of other singers, and are thus no independent voices: they provide variety and are intended as a reinforcement of the second choir.[20] According to the same author, the B major key signature for the oboe parts implies that the intended instruments for these parts are in fact oboes d'amore.[20]

Kyrie

The Kyrie of the Mass has the usual subdivisions:[9]

  1. Kyrie I: (adagio – presto).[9]
  2. Christe: (allabreve).[9]
  3. Kyrie II: 3
    2    .[9]

Gloria

The eldest extant manuscript of the Mass has no written out intonation for the "Gloria in excelsis Deo" opening words of the Gloria (indicated as "Gloria tacet" in the manuscript), thus the music starts with "Et in terra pax".[6] The music of the Gloria section has these subdivisions:[9]

  1. Et in terra pax: .[9]
  2. Gratias agimus tibi: 3
    2    .[9]
  3. Domine Deus: (adagio).[9]

Reception

Several copies of the Kyrie–Gloria Mass for double choir, BWV Anh. 167, were manufactured in the second half of the 18th century.[20][21][22] As far as extant, these indicate Bach as its composer.[22][23][24][25] Johann Kirnberger, who had been a student of Bach, saw great qualities in the composition:[26][27]

Diese von Joh. Seb. Bach für zwey Chöre componirte Meße ... ist ein vollkommenes Muster sich danach in dieser Gattung zu belehren.
1) wegen der Abwechslung beyder Chöre und
2) bey der Vereinigung beider Chöre eine Belehrung wegen des vielstimmigen Sazes.[20]

This Mass, composed for two choirs by Joh. Seb. Bach, ... is a perfect example of a work of this type, to be studied,

  1. for the variety of both choirs, and,
  2. when both choirs join, an instruction because of its polyphonic setting.
—Johann Kirnberger —Translation

A further manuscript copy of the Mass was produced around 1800.[28]

First half of the 19th century

In his early 19th-century biography of Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Nikolaus Forkel listed the Mass among Bach's vocal compositions:[26][29]

3) Eine zweychörige Misse. Der erste Chor ist mit Saiten- und der zweyte mit Blase-Instrumenten begleitet.[26]

3. A Mass for double chorus, the first being accompanied by Strings and the second by wind instruments.[29]

—Johann Nikolaus Forkel (1802) —Translated by Charles Sanford Terry (1920)

A few years later, in March 1805, the Mass was performed as Bach's in the Gewandhaus in Leipzig.[15][30] The next month, Johann Friedrich Rochlitz described his impressions of the work performed at the concert in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung:[14][31]

... wie ein aus den Ruinen der grauen Vorzeit herausgegrabener Obelisk ... erfüllte das Gemüth mit einem Schauer der Ehrfurcht gegen die Kraft und Gewalt der Vorfahren, u. gegen das Grosse und Heilige ihrer Kunst ... nicht etwa, wie Viele befürchten möchten, finster, überkünstlich, nur gelehrt, sondern, bey aller Tiefe und allem Reichthum, äusserst einfach, klar und so gearbeitet sind, dass man ihnen, bey Empfänglichkeit und Aufmerksamkeit, überall sehr gut folgen kann.[14][31]

... as an obelisk, unearthed from the ruins of a grey prehistory ... filled the mind with a shudder of respect for the force and power of the ancestors, and for what is great and sacred in their art ... not something, as many might fear, dark, artificial, only learned, but, with all its depth and richness, extremely uncomplicated, clear, and executed thus that someone who is susceptible and attentive can follow it very well everywhere.

—Johann Friedrich Rochlitz (1805) —Translation

Later that same year the Mass was published by Breitkopf & Härtel as Messa a 8 voci reali e 4 ripiene coll'accompagnamento di due Orchestre, composta da Giov. Sebast. Bach: Partitura, copiata dalla partitura autografa dell' Autore.[1][10][11][30] Although this title suggests that Johann Gottfried Schicht, the editor of this publication,[7] closely followed the P 659 manuscript, he amended it in several ways, including:[13]

  • The figuration of the basso continuo was completed where lacking in the original manuscript.[6]
  • Parts for bassoon complemented and/or replaced parts written for other instruments in both choirs.[6]
  • A Gloria intonation, based on the opening measures of the Kyrie, was inserted as a replacement of the "Gloria tacet" opening of the Gloria section.[6]

In 1812, Danish composer Peter Grønland produced performance material for the Mass, apparently based on the 1805 print.[32][33] Around 1821–30, Carl Friedrich Zelter produced a copy, with his own modifications, of the Mass: this score, once in the archive of the Berliner Singakademie, went lost in the Second World War.[34] Carl L. Hilgenfeld listed the Mass as a composition by Bach in his 1850 biography of the composer.[10]

Second half of the 19th century

In 1858, the Bach Gesellschaft considered whether the work should be included in their edition of the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach (Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe, BGA).[13][15] Wilhelm Rust explains, in his preface to Vol. 11.1 of that edition, why he considers the work inauthentic, despite Kirnberger's favourable testimony:[13]

Kirnberger's Autorität haben wir freilich in dieser Frage gegen uns. Allein, ..., müssen wir annehmen, dass ... hier ein Irrthum obwaltet. Bach's Antheil an dem Werke ist vielleicht ein ähnlicher, wie bei dem für vier Clavieren arrangirten Vivaldi'schen Concerte. Dagegen findet sich selbst in seinen kleinsten und schwächsten Werken kein Satz, wie z. B. das Allegro des ersten Kyrie, welches, volkommen homophon, 40 Takte lang bei einem ebenso oft wiederkehrenden monotonen Rhythmus beharrt.[11]

Admittedly, we have Kirnberger's authority against us in this question. Only ..., we must suppose that ... an error is apparent. Bach's contribution to the work is probably comparable to that of his arrangement for four keyboards of Vivaldi's concerto. By contrast, even in his most insignificant and weakest works, there is no movement as, for instance, the Allegro of the first Kyrie, which soldiers on, completely homophonic, in a monotonous rhythm, 40 measures long.

—Wilhelm Rust (1862) —Translation

In 1865, Karl Hermann Bitter suggests Antonio Lotti as composer of the work.[12] 15 years later Philipp Spitta does the same,[16] although, according to this author, the style of the work is not completely compatible with Lotti's, and he thinks it may, alternatively, have been composed by another Italian, or by a German composer writing in the Italian style.[7][8] In 1894 Alfred Dörffel returns to the issue in a BGA preface, and suggests Johann Ludwig Bach as possible composer of the work.[13][16] Also the volume with which the BGA closes in 1899 mentions the work in its preface, which is written by Hermann Kretzschmar, who reconfirms that the work can not be attributed to Bach.[14]

20th century

Wolfgang Schmieder follows Dörffel's and Kretzschmar's judgements about the inauthenticity of the work in his 1950 first edition of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV), where it is classiffied as No. 167 in the third Anhang, that is the Annex of spurious works, hence its full BWV number: BWV Anh. III 167.[35] In his 1990 second edition of the BWV, Schmieder keeps the work listed in Anh. III.[36] According to Schmieder the work is attributed to Johann Ludwig Bach or Antonio Lotti.[36]

In the 1998 edition of the BWV (known as BWV2a), edited by Alfred Dürr and Yoshitake Kobayashi, the positions of several doubtful and spurious works are reshuffled in the Anhang sections, following a new methodology explained in the preface of this edition.[37] For BWV Anh. 167 this means that it is repositioned in Anh. II, that is the Anhang section of the doubtful works, instead of formerly in Anh. III (spurious works).[16]

Like its predecessor, the BGA, also the New Bach Edition (NBE) decided, in the second half of the 20th century, not to include BWV Anh. 167 in its publication of all works by Johann Sebastian Bach. In the Critical Commentary of the 9th volume of its second series (Masses, Passions, Oratorios), Kirsten Beißwenger describes the Mass.[38]

21st century

According to Bach scholar Peter Wollny, the Mass BWV Anh. 167 can be attributed to Christoph Bernhard (1628–1692), Johann Philipp Krieger (1649–1725) or David Pohle (1624–1695).[2][17]

Recordings

The Missa in G major, BWV Anh. 167, is included, with a recording time of 13:31, in Apocryphal Bach Masses II, cpo 777561-2, by Wolfgang Helbich conducting the Alsfelder Vokalensemble (recorded 2009, released 2012).[39][40] In 2014, this recording was re-issued in the 8 CD Box The Sacred Apocryphal Bach.[41]

References
  1. Schicht 1805.
  2. Bach Digital Work 01478
  3. Beißwenger 1992.
  4. RISM No. 467065900 (Mus.ms. Bach P 659).
  5. D-B Mus.ms. Bach P 659 at Bach Digital website
  6. Dörffel 1894, p. XL.
  7. Spitta 1880, p. 509.
  8. Spitta 1899, Vol. III, p. 28.
  9. Mus.ms. Bach P 659 at Berlin State Library website.
  10. Hilgenfeldt 1850, p. 117.
  11. Rust 1862, pp. XVII–XVIII.
  12. Bitter 1865, p. 112.
  13. Dörffel 1894, pp. XXXIX–XL.
  14. Kretzschmar 1899, p. XXIII.
  15. Forkel & Terry 1920, Terry's first footnote p. 141.
  16. Dürr & Kobayashi 1998, p. 460.
  17. Wollny 2015, p. 132.
  18. Rimbach 2005, pp. 107, 110.
  19. Rust 1862, p. XVII.
  20. RISM No. 452502956 (D-B Am.B 4a)
  21. RISM No. 452502955 (D-B Am.B 4)
  22. H. Baron, Catalogue No. 167 at Bach Digital website.
  23. D-B Am.B 4 at Bach Digital website.
  24. D-B Am.B 4a at Bach Digital website.
  25. Am.B 4a at Berlin State Library website.
  26. Forkel 1802, p. 62.
  27. Forkel & Terry 1920, p. 142.
  28. D-B Mus.ms. Bach P 660 at Bach Digital website.
  29. Forkel & Terry 1920, pp. 140–141.
  30. Dörffel 1884, p. 3.
  31. Rochlitz 1805, columns 485–486.
  32. RISM No. 150203364 (DK-A R 141).
  33. DK-A R 141 at Bach Digital website.
  34. Lost Sing-Akademie BWV Anh. 167 at Bach Digital website.
  35. Schmieder 1990, "Preface to the First Edition" (reprinted in 2nd edition), p. XXV, and note 9 p. XXXIV.
  36. Schmieder 1990, p. 881.
  37. Dürr & Kobayashi 1998, pp. XII–XVI.
  38. Beißwenger 2000.
  39. Apocryphal Bach Masses II at www.muziekweb.nl
  40. Apocryphal Bach Masses, Vol. 2 at ArkivMusic website.
  41. The Sacred Apocryphal Bach (8-CD Set) at ArkivMusic website.

Sources

Further reading
  • Wolff, Christoph (1968). Stile antico in der Musik Johann Sebastian Bachs: Studien zu Bachs Spätwerk [Stile antico in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach: Studies on Bach's late work]. Beihefte zum Archiv für Musikwissenschaft (in German). VI. Wiesbaden: Steiner. OCLC 651793960.
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