Missa in tempore belli

Missa in tempore belli
Mass by Joseph Haydn
The composer in 1991, Portrait by Thomas Hardy
Other name	Paukenmesse
Key	C major
Catalogue	Hob. XXII/9
Performed	26 December 1796 (1796-12-26): Vienna
Vocal	SATB choir and soloists
Instrumental	orchestra

Missa in tempore belli (English: Mass in Time of War), Hob. XXII/9, is a setting of the mass by Joseph Haydn. It is catalogued Mass No. 10 in C major, (H. XXII:9). Known also as the Paukenmesse due to the dramatic use of timpani, it is one of the most popular of his fourteen mass settings. The autographed manuscript contains the title "Missa in tempore belli" in Haydn's handwriting.

Haydn composed this mass at Eisenstadt in August 1796, at the time of Austria’s general mobilisation into war. Four years into the European war that followed the French Revolution, Austrian troops were doing badly against the French in Italy and Germany, and Austria feared invasion. Reflecting the troubled mood of his time, Haydn integrated references to battle in the Benedictus and Agnus Dei movements. The Mass was first performed on 26 December 1796, in the Piarist Church of Maria Treu in Vienna.

Haydn was a deeply religious man, who appended the words “Praise be to God” at the end of every completed score. As Kapellmeister to the Prince Nikolaus II Esterházy, Haydn’s principal duty in the last period of his life, beginning in 1796, was the composition of an annual mass to honour the name day of Prince Nicholas’ wife, Princess Maria Hermenegild, 8 September, the birth of the Blessed Virgin. In a final flowering of his genius, he faithfully completed six magnificent masses (with increasingly larger orchestras) for this occasion. Thus Missa in Tempore Belli was performed at the family church, the Bergkirche, at Eisenstadt on 29 September 1797. Haydn also composed his oratorio The Creation around the same time and the two great works share some of his signature vitality and tone-painting.