Two Festive Works for the Christmas Season

J.S. Bach, Missa brevis BWV 233

In the 18th century, the Advent season was particularly conducive to the composition of choral works, festive and concertante in character. During his stay in Leipzig, Bach composed cantatas and oratorios for this important moment in the liturgical calendar. But what about his four short masses? In the absence of clear indications, it cannot be asserted that these magnificent choral frescoes were specifically intended for Christmas. However, the grandeur of the writing, the musical borrowings from cantatas composed for previous Christmases, and the pastoral key of F major allow us—without being able to affirm their exact purpose—to attribute them to a musical celebration of Advent. Much like Pergolesi’s Missa romana, the rich and luminous orchestration, dominated by horns and oboes, emphasizes its joyful and pastoral character.

G.B Pergolesi, Missa concertata

In the 1730s–1740s, Pergolesi already enjoyed a strong European reputation. His Stabat Mater—of which the Lyon Municipal Library preserves a unique manuscript version—was widely circulated, and his opera La serva padrona would soon fuel the famous Querelle des Bouffons, pitting supporters of Italian taste against defenders of French tradition. The mass on this program occupies a special place in his sacred output: sometimes referred to as Missa Romana or Missa di Sant’Emidio—linked to a later reuse—it is preserved as an unpublished manuscript in the Rare Books Collection of the Lyon Municipal Library. The Missa concertata, a term also used by biographers of the Neapolitan master due to the virtuosity of its writing, belongs to the form of the Missa brevis (JS Bach), centered around the introductory prayer of the Kyrie and a rich development across the seven sections of the Gloria. A luminous and festive work, it was likely composed to celebrate a return to calmer times shortly after the 1732 earthquake in Naples: a piece both deeply expressive and closely tied to its context.