Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The Missa Solemnis is a document of extraordinary richness from the last decades of Beethoven's creative life. In this compendious and accessible guide, William Drabkin considers the work as a musical expression of the most celebrated text of the Roman Catholic faith and as an example from a tradition of Mass settings in eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Austria. The opening chapters present various critical perspectives on the Missa Solemnis and chart the history of its composition, first performances and publication. But, above all, the work itself is considered in detail, including the overall design, connections between the movements, the orchestration, word painting and programmatic elements.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• List of tables (p. ix)
• Preface (p. xi)
• 1 Critical perspectives (p. 1)
• The Missa solemnis as religious experience (p. 1)
• The Missa solemnis and music history (p. 3)
• The Missa solemnis in the history of sacred music (p. 4)
• Analytical studies (p. 6)
• Source studies (p. 8)
• 2 Composition, performance and publication history (p. 11)
• Background (p. 11)
• The composition of the Mass (p. 14)
• The marketing of the Mass: publication, performance (p. 17)
• 3 Preliminaries to the analysis (p. 19)
• Beethoven and the Austrian mass tradition (p. 20)
• Analytical method (p. 21)
• Textual problems (p. 23)
• The Mass in D as a 'missa solemnis' (p. 26)
• 4 Kyrie (p. 28)
• The first 'Kyrie' (bars 1-85) (p. 29)
• 'Christe' (bars 86-128) (p. 33)
• The second 'Kyrie' (bars 129-223) (p. 33)
• 5 Gloria (p. 37)
• Gloria in excelsis Deo (p. 41)
• Qui tollis (p. 46)
• Quoniam (p. 48)
• The closing fugue (p. 49)
• 6 Credo (p. 52)
• The first section (bars 1-123) (p. 55)
• The central section (bars 125-87) (p. 57)
• The third section and closing fugue (bars 188-472) (p. 61)
• 7 Sanctus (p. 66)
• Early sketches for the movement (p. 66)
• Sanctus-Pleni-Osanna (p. 73)
• Praeludium and Benedictus (p. 76)
• The second 'Osanna' (p. 80)
• 8 Agnus Dei (p. 83)
• The 'Agnus' (p. 85)
• The beginning of the 'Dona' (p. 87)
• The 'War' interruptions and their consequences (p. 92)
• The Coda (p. 94)
• 9 Concluding thoughts (p. 96)
• Connections between the movements (p. 96)
• Orchestration (p. 101)
• The Missa solemnis as programmatic music (p. 106)
• Notes (p. 109)
• Bibliography (p. 113)
• Index (p. 117)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

One of four Cambridge handbooks on individual choral masterworks including Bach's B minor Mass, Handel's Messiah, and Haydn's Creation (reviewed together, CH, Mar'92). All are benchmark studies by experts reporting the current state of knowledge about each work. Aimed, courageously, at ^D["concert-goer, performer and student,^D]" they are also valuable to musicologists and teachers not au courant with the most recent research. Drabkin brings to his work expertise as a theorist who also has extensive experience studying Beethoven's manuscripts and sketches. The bulk of his study (68 of 118 pages) constitutes analysis of the individual movements. These comments are lucid, readable, and valuable. (One wishes he had also addressed Donald Tovey's extensive program notes, an entr^D'ee to the work for many English-speaking readers.) Drabkin notes (p. 23) that the Missa Solemnis text (most recent redaction by Willy Hess, 1964) has yet to receive scholarly attention. He discusses two problems, both concerning the use of solo voices versus the chorus, and this reviewer suspects that only his scholarly scruples kept him from reviewing and evaluating other major variant readings of the kind that conductors and students really want to know about. Drabkin's work admirably fills the need for a trustworthy monograph in English on one of Beethoven's most important and--possibly--least understood works, one that marks a turning point in his career comparable to the position of the ^D["Eroica^D]" symphony. Both undergraduate and graduate collections.