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Mass for the Dresden court (Bach)

Missa
BWV 232
Missa (Kyrie and Gloria) by J. S. Bach
Key B minor
Related
Composed 1733 (1733): Leipzig
Performed possibly 1733 (1733): Dresden
Movements 12 in 2 parts (3, 9)
Text
Vocal ssatb/SSATB
Instrumental

The Mass for the Dresden court is a Kyrie–Gloria Mass in B minor composed in 1733 by Johann Sebastian Bach. At the time Bach worked as a Lutheran church musician in Leipzig, but he composed the mass for the Catholic court in Dresden. The Mass (or in Latin: Missa) consists of a Kyrie in three movements and a Gloria in nine movements, and is an unusually extended work scored for SSATB soloists and choir, and an orchestra with a broad winds section.

It seems not very likely the work was ever performed during Bach's lifetime. After reusing some of its music in a cantata he composed around 1745 (BWV 191), Bach finally incorporated this Kyrie–Gloria Mass as first part of four in his Mass in B minor, composed/assembled in the last years of his life, around 1748–1749.

The Kyrie–Gloria Mass for the Dresden court was not assigned a separate number in the BWV catalogue, but in order to distinguish it from the later complete mass (BWV 232), numbers like BWV 232a and BWV 232I are in use. In 2005 Bärenreiter published the 1733 version of the Missa as BWV 232 I, in the Neue Bach-Ausgabe series. The work is also referred to as Missa 1733 or "The Missa of 1733". The Bach-Digital website refers to the work as "BWV 232/I (Frühfassung)", i.e. "BWV 232/I (early version)".


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