SPA030_Choral_Music_2018_2019_hoch

Sacred and Secular Works
Charles Gounod Year 2018
(1818–1893)
Messe solennelle
(Ste Cécile) (Lat)
for Soloists, Choir and
Orchestra
Urtext / Ed. H. Schellevis
Piano reduction by the editor
BA 8966-90 ° V.s.
BA 8966-91 Choral score
NEW 2017
Today Charles Gounod is
associated most of all with his
opera Faust yet a large part of
his œuvre is taken up by sacred
music and it is the Messe
solennelle en l'honneur de
Sainte-Cécile which established
his fame as a church composer.
Its melodic invention and
effective treatment of the
orchestra bear witness to his
close ties to opera.
This new Urtext edition of
Gounod's Mass is primarily
based on the autograph score,
which for unknown reasons
was divided into two sections.
The first section, preserved in
the British Library, contains the
Kyrie, Gloria, Offertory
and Domine, salvum, fac.
The second, with the Credo,
Sanctus and Benedictus, is
preserved in the library of
Northwestern University,
Chicago, and was consulted
for the first time for our
edition. As the Agnus Dei
is missing entirely from the
autograph, our edition draws
on the original print in full
score (1856), which was also
consulted as an important
source for the clarification of
ambiguities.
An extensive critical
commentary clarifies the
differences between the two
main sources and provides
an insightful introduction,
thereby enabling choruses
and orchestras to perform the
Mass on a solid foundation.
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