"Mystery of God" Music and Musings

Beethoven’s Mass In C Major

The music for our Mystery of God service includes Beethoven’s Gloria from his Mass in C major. This piece was commissioned by Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy in 1807 to celebrate the name day of his wife on September 13th. In fact, this piece did indeed premiere in the Esterhazy Palace, yet it is also fact that when the Mass in C major was finally published, the title page indicated that the piece was dedicated to another prince—Prince Kinsky. 

Beethoven wrote the Mass in C major in what is referred to as his middle period—his “heroic” period. This period began shortly after Beethoven's realization that he was losing his hearing which meant he would no longer be able to perform. The prospect of him losing most of his income and his identity as a performer (he was the finest pianist of his day, and some believe he could outdo Mozart as an improviser on the keyboard), and having to live solely as a composer, terrified him and began to take its toll on his already very poor health. As Jan Swafford notes in Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph, "Bach, Mozart, Haydn—none of them lived mainly on their earnings as a composer." After seriously contemplating suicide, he instead turned to life, and to the ideal of the heroic man as savior. This middle period is when Beethoven composed Symphonies 3-8, the Moonlight and Appassionata sonatas, and Fidelio, to name a few.    

So how is it that the Mass in C major, commissioned by Prince Esterhazy and first performed in the Esterhazy Palace, ended up being dedicated to Prince Kinsky? As with a large number of Beethoven's rehearsals, where the members of the orchestra or the choir revolted because his music was just too difficult for most of them, the dress rehearsal for the Mass in C major was doomed when four of the five altos in the choir failed to show up. The premiere was held in the Esterhazy Palace, the place where many of Papa Haydn's pieces had also had premiere performances. 

As Beethoven's Mass in C major progressed, it was very apparent to everyone, especially the Prince, that the music was both unrehearsed and was confounding to most everyone who was measuring this piece against Haydn's oratorio, The Creation. In short, it was a fiasco from start to finish. When Beethoven appeared before the Prince after the performance, Nikolaus is said to have barked at Beethoven, "My dear Beethoven, what is this you have done?" Keep in mind, Prince Esterhazy considered his composers to be nothing more than servants and, as Swafford also notes, "to be served badly by a mere musician sullied his court and his princely dignity." Standing beside the Prince was Kapellmeister Hummel, Mozart's famous pupil, and a less than friendly rival of Beethoven’s. Hummel is purported to have chuckled at Beethoven's face—from over the shoulder of the Prince, of course. Prince Nikolaus wrote to a friend, "Beethoven's mass is unbearably ridiculous and detestable, and I am not convinced that it can ever be performed properly.  I am angry and mortified." For his efforts, the Prince paid him the meager sum of 100 florins. Not surprisingly, there would be no other commissions of Beethoven from the house of Esterhazy. Not surprisingly then, when the piece was finally published, the title page indicated its dedication to Prince Kinsky.    

In Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph, Jan Swafford comments about this piece as follows, "For Beethoven, God was a constant presence, but religious dogma, the liturgy, the kind of incantations chanted over him at this baptism had long since lost their magic." While Beethoven himself liked this Mass, finding God and creating a sacred piece that he would be truly pleased with would have to wait until his third and final piece of sacred music, the Missa Solemnis, which was written 16 years later and four years before his death.  

After 1,100 pages of a vast biography, I could go on with story after story about Beethoven, what was happening historically during his lifetime, and how it shaped him and his music.  Let me end with this last story.  At the time Beethoven wrote this Mass, the music publishing houses had become less interested in purchasing sacred compositions. It would take Beethoven five years to get this piece published. He was only able to do so because he had included this as a freebie at the same time he offered his Symphony No. 5 and Symphony No. 6 to the publisher. Had he not done so, there is a likely chance this piece would have destroyed, lost or forgotten given its terrible premiere. Aren’t we glad he threw it in to sweeten the deal.

Mystery of God
High Service Music