Dettingen Te Deum
Operatic composer George Frederic Handel was an astute ‘survivor’, having maintained working relationships with four British monarchs— Queen Anne and Kings George I, II, and III—as well as the Elector of Hanover, his first royal employer. Having essentially snubbed the latter— who later became George I! – Handel also survived, among other things, the near-eclipse of grand opera in Britain by homegrown parodies (e.g., The Beggar’s Opera); the ecclesiastical prohibition of opera during Lent; and various production calamities, e.g., a hairpulling onstage fight between two divas (with the Crown Prince in the audience, no less!). But his survival as a royal composer depended on cultivating those he needed to impress, and at that he was a master. (Twenty years earlier, Handel’s contemporary, J. S. Bach, tried the same approach less successfully, failing to impress the Margrave of Brandenburg.) This Te Deum was one of at least two works Handel prepared to welcome King George II home from the European battlefields: The King was commanding a multinational army against the French during the War of Austrian Succession, and a battle in June 1743 at Dettingen, on the Main River in northwestern Bavaria, proved a turning point— not, we must note, owing to George’s leadership, but because a blunder by a French commander resulted in severe French losses instead of the intended entrapment, and decimation, of the British-Hanoverian-Hessian “Pragmatic Army”. (By the way, this war marked the last time that a British monarch led troops in battle.)
A Te Deum is a liturgical work of praise, often used as a thanksgiving. The traditional Latin text, thought to have originated in the 4th century, begins “Te Deum laudamus”, or “We praise thee, God”, and this liturgy is still used in many denominations, typically at “matins”– morning prayer services. Handel was no stranger to this text; he had composed at least four earlier Te Deums although some were retreads of other compositions. Many other composers have set this text; the Chorus has previously sung settings by Bruckner, Dvorak, Mozart, and Sir Arthur Sullivan, in addition to a 1989 performance of the present work. The traditional Latin text includes ‘credo’ language, that is, expressions of belief; Handel, writing for an English audience, set his work in English, and the connection to a creed is somewhat muted. The latter portion of a typical Te Deum also borrows from psalm verses. Handel had just been through a three-months-long illness—possibly a stroke, since it affected his speech and cognition— but clearly was back in his element when he dashed off this work; it was performed just ten days after he started composing. These pieces for the King’s homecoming were kept secret; it appears that using them to celebrate the victory was Handel’s own idea. However, while his Te Deum was apparently intended for a grand performance in a large space, such as St. Paul’s cathedral, its initial performance on July 27, 1743 was instead given in the decidedly cramped Chapel Royal.
Handel was always stupendously productive; in addition to these celebratory works, he had in process at this time the opera Semele; the first London performance of Messiah had been given four months earlier, in March, and he had been working on the oratorio Samson immediately prior to that presentation. Less than two months after the Te Deum performance, he returned to Bible-based oratorio with Joseph and His Brothers: Apparently, Semele, a story from Greek mythology, had been criticized as too bawdy, and Handel, ever the survivor, decided that a more feel-good story line (think Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) had to follow!
Coronation Mass
Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart—as he was christened— who was born in Salzburg, Austria on January 27, 1756, about three years before George Frederic Handel died, represents, to most of us, the very image of a musical prodigy. (“Amadeus” is the Latin form of the Greek “Theophilus”—the latter was after a businessman who had befriended his father Leopold Mozart. Wolfgang himself preferred “Amadeus” and also used other versions of that name.) His piano skills were impressive as early as age four, and his first compositions were written when he was six or seven. He came by these skills quite naturally; Leopold, though not originally trained in music, was a court violinist and sometime conductor, and his own compositions – though much of his output is now lost—were substantial: One source points out that “…several of [Leopold’s] works were at one time thought to be compositions by Wolfgang”, certainly a compliment when viewed in retrospect. And Leopold’s influence was also apparent on Wolfgang’s older sister, known in the family as “Nannerl”, an excellent pianist herself, who traveled extensively with her father and brother in the nature of a “road show” when both were young children.
Wolfgang’s compositional output was prodigious. The Mass on this program is number 317 in Kochel’s chronology; Mozart’s Requiem, which was left unfinished at his death in 1791, is K. 626, so this Mass represents roughly a halfway point in his composition. It was first performed in March 1779, when Mozart was 23, and it was the 14th mass he had composed (of a total of 16). (That count includes several “missa brevis”, or shorter mass-related compositions; masses, of course, are structured religious services, culminating in the celebration of the Eucharist, and musical treatments had become traditional as early as the ninth or tenth centuries.) There had been a push by ecclesiastical authorities—of which Mozart was well aware—to limit service music, including masses, to 45 minutes. Mozart did not always conform to such dicta, although this work fits well within that limit. However, this mass does in fact break some new ground; one authority wrote, “…The Credo of the Coronation Mass has a symphonic thrust lacking in his earlier works… [And it] shares with [his instrumental works]… a self conscious exploitation of musical and affective disruption.” (One of the “instrumental works” referred to is the contemporaneous “Posthorn Serenade”, K. 320.) It is not clear what “Coronation” refers to, or when that nickname was applied; the coronation of Leopold II in Prague occurred 12 years later, and it is unlikely that the work was named for that event. The mass may have been intended for an annual ceremony “crowning” a statue of the Virgin near Salzburg.
Mozart had been in Paris during much of 1778; his mother had been with him. But after a two-month illness, she died there, and Wolfgang had to communicate the news to his father; the latter, understandably, was angry and criticized his son for laziness and for insufficient attention to his mother. That Wolfgang was saddened by that outburst goes without saying; he had not liked Paris to begin with, and he left Paris that autumn (lingering long enough for a reunion with London visitor Johann Christian Bach– son of J. S. Bach– whom he had met before). Wolfgang started for Salzburg, stopped in Mannheim, and then stayed in Munich until January, angering Leopold again. When he finally reached Salzburg, his father had arranged for him to be appointed court organist; the composition of the Coronation Mass was one of his first duties there. But neither Wolfgang nor the court authorities were pleased with that employment, and Mozart moved on, going back to Munich in late 1780, and to Vienna in 1781, where he would spend most of the rest of his life. (The vacated Salzburg organist position went to Michael Haydn, younger brother of Mozart’s mentor Josef Haydn.) In August 1784, at age 28, Wolfgang married Constanze Weber, against his father’s wishes, in St. Stephan’s cathedral. Scholars consider the period 1784-1788 to be “the busiest and most successful years of (Mozart’s) life”, during which, in the operatic genre alone, he produced Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi Fan Tutte, La Clemenza di Tito, and Magic Flute. He also became a Freemason in 1784, writing music for that activity over the next several years. After 1788, however, financial difficulties and family problems—Constanze bore him six children but only two survived to adulthood— clearly weighed on him. His father had died in 1787, and he apparently did not contact his sister after 1788; Constanze, almost penniless after her husband’s death, contacted Nannerl in 1792, requesting help in organizing a benefit concert.
-J. R. Fancher – 2018