By Brad Miner Like many Enlightenment figures, Ludwig van Beethoven was both religious and secular. He was more Catholic than W.A. Mozart, although I'm not sure that means he was less secular. Secular is probably not the right word anyhow; republican is better. Beethoven was born in 1770, so he was about 19 when the French Revolution broke out. He may well have agreed with William Wordsworth that, "Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven!" Then came the terror, and Wordsworth writes, "And finally, I lost all feeling of conviction, and, in fine, Yielded up moral questions in despair." (The Prelude, 1798-1799) On June 9, 1804, Beethoven premiered his Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55, known as the Eroica ("Heroic") – very much reflecting his enthusiasm for the republicanism of Napoleon Bonaparte, to whom he dedicated the work. But the bloom quickly fell from that rose also when, six months later, Napoleon crowned himself emperor, at which point Beethoven took the manuscript of the 3rd and, fuming, furiously scratched off the dedication. Both Mozart and Beethoven found themselves near the end of their lives composing Masses that they would not live to see performed. Mozart's Requiem (1791) was left unfinished (although "completed" by his pupil Franz Xaver Süssmayr), and the work – deeply beautiful – remains among the most frequently performed of the composer's works. Rarely at funerals, however. Beethoven's Missa Solemnis (completed in 1823) is among the least performed of his compositions. There's a sad irony in this, given that the composer considered it his greatest work. Along with his Choral Symphony (No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125), the Missa Solemnis occupied the last, great creative period of Beethoven's life, from about 1820 until 1825. Beethoven's judgments about music were notably superb. But great though the Missa is, most musicologists consider the Choral to be Beethoven's best, followed by the Eroica, several other symphonies, and a handful each of glorious piano sonatas and string quartets. Only then do we get to his Masses, the other being the 1807 Mass in C major, written for the episcopal installation of his friend, student, and patron, Archduke Rudolph of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia, Cardinal-Archbishop of Olomouc, for whom he also composed the Piano Trio, Op. 97, known now as the Archduke. Beethoven, being busy and distracted, presented the Mass in C to the Archbishop two years afterthe ceremony. Of the Missa Solemnis, Beethoven wrote to his friend Andreas Streicher (September 16, 1824): "During the work on this grand Mass, my main purpose was to evoke in both the singers and the auditors [listeners] religious sentiments and to instill them permanently." I wrote above that neither Mozart nor Beethoven lived to see their final Mass compositions performed, but that's not entirely true in Beethoven's case. On May 7, 1824. Beethoven, 53, entered the auditorium of Vienna's Kärntnertor Theater, took his place on the podium, turned momentarily to acknowledge the audience, then faced the orchestra, raised his hands, and began to lead the musicians through the 11-minute overture, Die Weihe des Hauses ("The Consecration of the House"), which he had composed two years earlier for the grand reopening of another Vienna venue, the Theater in der Josefstadt. The audience at Kärntnertor enjoyed the overture. Beethoven then conducted just three settings from Missa Solemnis: Kyrie, Credo, and Agnus Dei. And the audience warmly received the music. Then the great composer led the premiere of Symphony No. 9. Nearing the end of the nearly 90-minute masterpiece, Beethoven was exhausted, physically and emotionally, and he was unaware that, all through the evening, the frenzied waving of his arms and animated facial gestures affected not at all the members of the orchestra or of the chorus. They had all been instructed to watch only the Kapellmeister, Michael Umlauf, who had been in ...
