Jan Dismas Zelenka: Missa Sancti Josephi & Litaniae Xaverianae

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The "Missa Sancti Josephi" has only been passed on in Zelenka’s autograph score, which is badly damaged but can be reconstructed with a little effort. The position of entry No. 42 in Zelenka’s catalogue, together with the style of handwriting and the style of the Mass – as well as the consideration of external circumstances – point to the year 1732 for the creation and performance of the work. The large-scale ensemble that includes the flutes as well as the brass section and the usual oboes is not to be found anywhere else in Zelenka’s work. In Zelenka’s works, the "Missa Sancti Josephi" is the key piece of evidence for a change of style that the composer, already in his fifties, carried out around and after 1730, which cannot be understood without acknowledging the influence of the modern Italian opera in the style of Johann Adolf Hasse. All of Zelenka’s masses are conceived as "number masses", as is the "Missa Sancti Josephi". The arrangement of the text and the way in which the individual sections were set to music was variable within certain limits. Certain constant features can be identified in Zelenka’s work, as with his contemporaries, but of his approximately twenty masses no individual one has exactly the same structure as any other. Over the course of the years, the types of movement did not change – arias, duets, trios, concertato arrangements, chorale fugues, and homophonic choral blocks were there from the first Mass until the last Mass. What changes is the method of musical expression, the "musical language". The "Missa Sancti Josephi" gathers together the largest orchestra formation that Zelenka ever used. This is a sign of the importance of the occasion, but also a sign of Zelenka’s intention to show himself at his best. The large ensemble of instruments is in no way only an accompaniment to the singing voices; its role is thoroughly independent, perhaps even dominant, which can be heard in the instrumental opening of the Kyrie, which is not at all usual in Zelenka’s masses.