verba docent

Again, forgive my long absence—why did no one warn me how long it takes to proofread and edit a PhD dissertation while trying to prepare several different concerts?! Hopefully we won’t be interrupted again before the March 3rd performance of the Mass in B Minor!

In any case, with today’s post, we come to the end of our rather lengthy look at this extraordinary movement. It is a perfect example of the tightly composed, generative aspect of Bach’s writing technique: all of the material in the ritornello springs organically from the first four bars, and then the rest of the movement is entirely based on the ritornello, whether it is one of the two complete restatements of it through the use of Choreinbau, or the other material, which is derived the from fugue subject—itself part of the ritornello.

To return to that image of the big bang from many posts ago, we can trace material from the very impetus of the opening of the Kyrie as it spreads through the universe of this epic opening movement.

It has taken some time to establish the language of Bach’s compositional technique, as well as the rhetorical devices that link his music to Lutheran theology. But from this point, we’ll be able to proceed much more quickly.

Albrecht Dürer, Adoration of Trinity, 1511. In the upper center of the painting, we see the classic depiction of the Trinity: Christ on the cross, the bearded God the Father above him, and the Holy Spirit portrayed as a dove.

Of everything that I have written in these first posts, the most important thing to keep in mind is the idea of the TRINITY—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I believe that the Trinity, one of the most important doctrines in Christian theology, provides the overarching structure for Bach’s Mass in B Minor. In order to sustain that argument, I will need to move more quickly through the other movements, so that the thread of the argument isn’t lost.

But by taking our time in examining the monumental first movement, we have been able to see the Trinity at work in so many ways, not least in the three blocks of the ritornello material and its Choreinbau grafting of choral parts.

Now we move onto the other two movements in the Kyrie section, addressed to the two other “persons” of the Trinity– Christ, and the Holy Spirit.