Johann Sebastian Bach - booksnow.scholarsportal.info

'26 "JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH.and the first question must be whether, and in what way,these stood in any connection with the Protestant form ofdivine service.The form of worship in the principal churches of Leipzighad remained nearly allied to that of the Catholics, as wasalso the case in various other places, and I have alreadyfully discussed the subject (Vol. IL, p. 263). With the Latinhymns and responses and Latin motetts, the Magnificat wasalso sung in Latin at Vespers on the three great festivals,and we have seen how Bach thus found the opportunity forcomposing one of his most important works (Vol. IL p. 369).In this way the principal portions of the choral Latin massmaintained their existence and actually the very sameplaces in the service that they had always held : partly,replaced them did the same..indeed, the German texts thatHowever, the Kyrie, Gloria, and Credo only were retained forall Sundays and Holy days, and even these were not alwayssung all through. The Sanctus was introduced only on thegreat festivals, and we have no evidence as to the Agnus Dei;it does not seem to have been used in the choral form.The case is different as regards the figured treatment of thesentences of the mass, which was never used in a connectedform in the divine service as performed at Leipzig. Theintroduction of the Protestant Church Cantata had partlydisplaced and throughout restricted all other part music.Indeed, there was not even space left to perform the wholeof the shorter mass, Kyrie, and Gloria. From the accountpreviously given of the forms of worship at Leipzig we canonly find certain evidence of the use of the Kyrie on thefirst day of Advent and the Reformation festival, and of theSanctus on the three great festivals. If any other portionof the mass was sung, it must have been an occasionalperformance. Christmas offered an obvious opportunity forthe useoi the. Gloria; it then took the place of the cantata, andBach did actually make use, for a Christmas performance, ofthe Gloria from his B minor mass in a somewhat abridgedform. If we desire to acquire any further information as tooccasional use of parts of the mass, we must derive it froma time later than Bach's ;this can be done with considerable