Index to References to Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works
Bach Compendium
Work Group E: Latin Church Music

Group Description

Work Group E consists of the B-Minor Mass, the Christmas festal music "Gloria in excelsis Deo", several Masses consisting of Kyrie and Gloria only, along with individual movements of the Mass ordinary, and Magnificat settings. The works are arranged chronologically within each category.

According to the available evidence concerning his estate (Obituary, Dok III, no. 666; Bach Reader, p.221), Bach is reported to have written "many oratorios, Masses, Magnificats, and individual Sanctus movements..." This formulation in the obituary corresponds to a note on a title wrapper, written by Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, in connection with the division of the estate in 1750 (now with → B l, source St377, pasted over): "Magnificat and Sanctus by the late Papa as well as several Sanctus by other authors." J.F. Agricola, F.W. Marpurg, J.P. Kirnberger, C.D. Ebeling, M. Gerbert, and J.A. Hitler refer repeatedly to Bach's Latin church music as an especially important body of works (Dok II, no. 620; Dok III, nos. 655, 748, 760, and 798; see also the first editions), but there is no evidence to suggest that any substantial quantity of original music has been lost. For Bach's copies and arrangements of corresponding works by other composers → E 8, E 9, E 15, E 17 and Work Group X.

Masses

Bach's composition of Masses (Kyrie and Gloria) began with the Missa in B minor (→ E 2: dedicated in 1733 to the Court at Dresden, with the offer of further church music ["Kirchen Musique"] for the repertoire of the Hofkapelle). Whether or not the four Masses originating after 1733 (→ E 3 - E 6) belong to this group remains unclear, especially in light of the fact that these works represent the Kyrie-Gloria Mass type (often designated, inappropriately, as "Lutheran Mass") and as such would also have been usable at Leipzig church services on the high feast days.* Bach's copies of Masses by other composers (including Lotti, Palestrina, Peranda, Pez, and Wilderer) have survived from both the Weimar and Leipzig periods (→ Work Group X).

The four Kyrie-Gloria Masses (E 3 - E 6) can be documented as a closed group (copy by Johann Christoph Altnickol) from around 1748. The Missa in B (E 2) was expanded by Bach in 1748/49 to a full setting of the Mass ordinary (→ E l). As Bach's sole "Missa tota" (listed in the catalogue of Johann Christoph Altnikol's estate of 1790 as "the great Catholic Mass") it seems to have been planned for a specific occasion whose precise nature has yet to be ascertained.

Single Movements of the Mass Ordinary

In the Lutheran worship service, the liturgical need for single movements of the Mass ordinary was confined to settings of the Kyrie and Sanctus. The only work transmitted from the pre-Leipzig years is the Kyrie "Christe, du Lamm Gottes" (E 7). While figural settings of the Kyrie (without Gloria) were assigned to specific Sundays (e.g., the First Sunday in Advent), the Sanctus compositions (E 10 - E 12, E 17) were performed in the Leipzig main churches on the high feast days: For copies of corresponding works by other composers → Work Group X.

The Christe in C minor (E 8) and the Credo Intonation in F major (E 9) do not represent self-contained compositions, but rather interpolations into Mass ordinary settings by other composers.

Magnificat

Bach's performances of the Magnificat - whether wntten by others (→ Work Group X) or by himself - belong liturgically to the Vesper services of the two main Leipzig churches, St. Nicholas and St. Thomas. In these services (according to C.E. Sicul, Annales Lipsienses, Leipzig 1717), "the Magnificat was sung in German on ordinary Sundays, but on high feast days. it was performed ['musiciret'] in Latin."

The Magnificat in E flat major (E 13) of 1723, Bach's first large-scale Leipzig work, together with its interpolated Christmas movements (A, B, C, and D), incorporates the tradition of "Rotulae" or "Laudes," a tradition reaching back into the Middle Ages. It is possible that these interpolations were performed by a special ensemble from the small east organ loft (the "swallow's nest") in the St. Thomas Church. By contrast, the later D major version of the Magnificat (E 14), with its deletion of the interpolated movements, strives for greater universality as regards both the liturgical year and the location of performance. It seems almost certain that this version was prepared in conjunction with the creation of the Missa in B minor (E 2).

* The first and second days of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, as well as New Year's Day, Epiphany (January 6), Ascension, Trinity, St. John (June 24), St.Michael (September 29) and the three Marian Feasts - Purification (February 2), Annunciation (March 25), and Visitation (July 2).

Synopsis - List by Group and BC Number - Work Group E

BC

BWV

BGA

NBA

Year

Title / Comments

Masses

E 1^I-IV

232^I-IV

VI

II/1

1748-49

Messe in h - Mass in B minor
I: Missa (Kyrie, Gloria) → E 2
II: Symbolum Niceum (Credo) → A 24, A 68, B 6, G 14, G 18
III: Sanctus → E 12
IV: Osanna, Benedictus, Agnus Sei et Dona nobis pacem → B 8, D 9, G 16, G 21, G 42

E 2

[232^I]

Missa in h - Mass in B minor → A 117, B 8, E I^I, E 16

E 3

234

VIII

II/2

1738

Missa in A - Mass in A major → A 62, A 111, A 121, A 184

E 4

236

VIII

II/2

1738-39

Missa in G - Mass in G major → A 121, A 131, A 132, A 184

E 5

235

VIII

II/2

1738-39

Missa in g - Mass in G minor → A 37, A 110, A 119

E 6

233

VIII

II/2

1738-39?

Missa in F - Mass in F major → A 12, A 119, E7

Anh 29

Missa in c - Mass in C minor (incomplete) → Work Group T

Single Movements of the Mass Ordinary

E 7

233a

XLI

II/2

1708-17?

Kyrie "Christe, di Lamm Gottes" in F major → E 6

E 8

242

XLI

II/2

1727-31

Christe eleison in G minor (interpolation in Missa in C mninor by Francesco Durante) → Work Group X

-

Kyrie (?) in E minor (incomplete) → Work Group T

E 9

1081

-

1747-48

Credo in unum Deum in F major (Credo intonation to Missa in F major by Giovanni Battista Bassani) → Work Group X

E 10

237

XI/1

II/2

1723?

Sanctus in C major

E 11

238

XI/1

II/2

Sanctus in C major

E 12

[232^III]

Sanctus in D major → E1^III

239

XI/1

II/9

Sanctus in D minor → Work Group X

240

XI/1

II/9

Sanctus in G major → Work Group X

Addendum

E 17

241

XLI

II/9

1747-48

Sanctus in E major (arrangement of Sanctus from Johann Kaspar Kerll's Missa Superba)

Magnificat

E 13

243a

XI/3

II/3

1723

Magnificat in E flat major → A 10, E 14

E 14

243

XI/3

II/3

1728-31

Magnificat in D major → E 13

E 15

1082

-

I/9

1740-42

Suscepit Israel (arrangement of a movement from Antonio Caldara's Maginificat in C major) → Work Group X

E 16

191

XLI

I/2

1740

Gloria in excelsis Deo → E 2

→ Work Groups T, V, X

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Source: Bach Compendium - Volume 1, Part 4: Vocal Works IV (containsthe works of groups E, F, G and H),
Leipzig 1989, ISBN 3-369-00051-2 or Frankfurt / M. 1989, ISBN 3-876-26084-1, pp 1449, 1153,-1154, 1157-1158
Prepared by Aryeh Oron & David O. Berger [Concordia Seminary Library, St. Louis, MO, USA] (September 2009)