REQUIEM & MISERERE MISSA PRO DEFUNCTIS IN E FLAT MAJOR (HOCJ A.) FOR FOUR VOICES, STRINGS AND BASSO CONTINUO

Abstract

Niccolò Jommelli composed theMissa pro defunctis for the funeral service of PrincessMaria Augusta of Thurn und Taxis, mother of Duke Charles Eugene of Württemberg, in , during his appointment as maestro di cappella at the court. The circumstances surrounding thework and the identities of the composer and performers (eight singers and ten instrumentalists from the Hofund Kammermusik) have been well investigated and documented in detail by musicologists such as Manfred Hermann Schmid (‘Das Requiem von Niccolò Jommelli im Württembergischen Hofzeremoniell ’, Musik in Baden-Württemberg  (), –). This CD contains theMissa and the subsequent Responsorium Libera me, which often does not appear in later copies of the Missa, as noted by Wolfgang Hochstein (Die Kirchenmusik von Niccolò Jommelli (– ) unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der liturgisch gebundenen Kompositionen, two volumes (Hildesheim: Olms, )). The disc does not include the monophonic ‘Te decet hymnus’ in the Missa, which is missing in the main source of the work, a copy dated  by Giuseppe Sigismondo, now held in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (L ). The hymnus is preserved, however, in a later source held in the music collection of Staatsund Universitätsbibliothek Carl von Ossietzky, Hamburg (M.A/ ), and there is reasonable evidence to presume that similar monophonic performances took place in Dresden at that time. The Missa was performed frequently in Germany and in Italy from the late s and early s, sometimes with new instrumentation or the addition of extra parts. Antonio Salieri, for example, added oboes, bassoons and trombones when conducting the work at the funeral service of Gluck in Vienna in . A revised version featuring two orchestras was performed in Rome in  during services for the death of Antonio Canova. The piece’s widespread popularity is attested to by the high number of extant manuscripts (c) and nineteenth-century printed editions in libraries throughout Europe. It is probable that the composer had very little time to complete the work: the note ‘scritto in  giorni’ (written in three days) is added by a later hand on the Neapolitan manuscript. He incorporated revisions of his earlier compositions, in particular fugal themes from his Italian sacred works, all unknown in Stuttgart: new counterpoint that met his standards would probably have required much commitment, craft and, perhaps, time and experimentation. These revisions appear especially in fugues or fugal movements at the ends of sections, sometimes as a da capo or a varied reprise (Kyrie eleison, ‘Quam olimAbrahae’, ‘Hosanna’). Repetition of material is found in the Sequentia, where for example the music of the ‘Dies irae’ returns on ‘Judex ergo’, and ‘Salva me’ is the same as ‘Voca me’; these latter repetitions are based on corresponding meanings in the text, and are used to create greater coherence. Furthermore, the coda of ‘Pie Jesu’, ‘dona eis requiem’, at the end of the Sequentia is very similar to the coda of the second Kyrie: both consist of stately chordal acclamations alternating with staccato imitative figures in the two violins. There was also an eighteenth-century performance tradition in which the initial movement was repeated in the Communio in an identical or varied form, still in relation to a common textual basis (‘Requiem aeternam’), but here with a slightly different tempo marking: Larghetto instead of Adagio. The Communio follows the Agnus Dei with an attacca transition. Jommelli set the words ‘requiem aeternam dona eis Domine’ in consoling fashion, with throbbing syncopated rhythms in the violins and with homophonic vocal writing in the mid or low range, leading to a brief solo passage for alto and soprano in imitation and in a higher range on ‘et lux perpetua’. There is in this music more of consolation and repose than of judgment and possible damnation. After a Kyrie in stile antico, the Christe eleison begins with ‘Christe’ over a descending tetrachord in long notes (minims and crotchets) in the solo alto and tenor together with divided viola parts, while ‘eleison’ follows in short values (quavers) after a rev i ews