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The DeKalb Choral Guild, Inc.
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In Concert - Mozart's Mass in C, "Coronation"

Presented in conjunction with Arts & Ideas at Oglethorpe University

The DeKalb Choral Guild
Mary Evelyn Root, Director
Leanne Elmer Herrmann, Accompanist

The Oglethorpe University Singers and University Chorale
Dr. W. Irwin Ray, Conductor

The Atlanta Chamber Orchestra

Saturday, April 24, 1999
The Conant Center for the Arts
Oglethorpe University
Atlanta, Georgia

The Program

The DeKalb Choral Guild

This is My Song by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)

I am the Rose of Sharon by William Billings (1746-1800) from The Singing Master's Assistant (1778)

Bright Journeys: Songs of Love and Light by Daniel E. Gawthrop (b. 1949)
I.
II.
III.

Oglethorpe University Singers and University Chorale

Zum Schluss, Op. 65 by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Evening Song by Edwin Robertson from Ten Songs on Poems of Sidney Lanier

Three Elizabethan Songs by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
I. Sweet Day
II. The Willow Song
III. O Mistress Mine

Dirait-on by Morten Lauridsen (b. 1943) from Les Chansons des Roses

Tambur arr. Lajos Bárdos (1899-1986)

INTERMISSION

The DeKalb Choral Guild
The Oglethorpe University Singers and Chorale
The Atlanta Chamber Orchestra
Mary Evelyn Root, soprano
Donna Carter, mezzo soprano
James Bell, tenor
Stephen Ozcomert, bass
W. Irwin Ray, Conductor

Mass in C Major, K. 317 by W. A. Mozart (1756-1791)
I. Kyrie
II. Gloria
III. Credo
IV. Sanctus
V. Benedictus
VI. Agnus Dei

The Oglethorpe University Alma Mater
after a theme by Johannes Brahms Alma Mater
text by Linda Taylor

Program Notes

by Michaelene Gorney

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is the only one of the "great" composers who is equally famous for instrumental works as well as operas. His operas and his Requiem alone would have made any composer's reputation; add to these his symphonies, concerti, and chamber music, and one is confronted with an unsurpassed accomplishment of quantity and quality.

By 1781, when he left his native Salzburg for Vienna, Mozart had written over fifty liturgical works. This is not surprising since Leopold, his father, was court composer to Archbishop Sigismund Schrattenbach and to Schrattenbach's successor, Archbishop Hieronymous Colloredo. Under Colloredo, Wolfgang served as Konzertmeister (leader and conductor) of the court orchestra, providing music for secular and religious occasions, later serving as court and cathedral organist as well. Mozart wrote fifteen Salzburg masses, K.317 being one of the last of these and considered by many to be the best. It is a missa brevis, or "short mass." Of German church music, Mozart wrote to his friend Padre Martini: "Our church music is very different from that of Italy, since a Mass must not last longer than forty-five minutes. This applies even to the most solemn Mass said by the archbishop himself."

The Mass in C Major, K. 317, completed in 1779, was one of several of Mozart's masses conducted by Antonio Salieri for the coronation of Emperor Leopold II; thus it is referred to as the "Coronation" Mass. Harmonically conservative and, by nature of its purpose, utilitarian, its solo passages echo Mozart's growing desire to leave what he perceived to be the artistic confinement of Salzburg (where Colloredo had banished the resident musical theater) for a city where he could exercise his creativity in the writing of opera. It is probably no accident that the solo passages in K. 317, particularly the extended soprano solo that begins the Agnus Dei, are reminiscent of certain of Mozart's later operatic arias.

In the Kyrie, a solemn choral opening and closing frame a slightly faster solo passage. The Gloria resembles a symphonic movement in that its first section is recapitulated, beginning with the words Quoniam tu solus sanctus ("You alone are holy"), and its middle section pursues the musical development of orchestral motives. The Credo, with a recurring opening theme, is the most "symphonic" of movements from an orchestral standpoint. Although the instrumentation could stand on its own merits, voices are also essential to this iteration of the core beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church. The resulting interplay of instruments and voices presents us with what Dr. Ray has so aptly referred to as a "dance of ideas." The Sanctus and the Benedictus are short, rhythmic and exuberant. In the Agnus Dei, the work ends with a return of music from the K yrie on the words Dona nobis pacem ("Grant us peace").