October 2024 Cherry Creek Chorale Concert

A Compact Masterpiece–Mozart’s Coronation Mass

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Interior of Salzburg Cathedral, where the first performance of the Coronation Mass probably took place. Image source: Image by 🌼Christel🌼 from Pixabay

Unemployment is a terrible thing—except when it leads to the composition of a masterpiece. In Mozart’s case he was only 23 years old when he wrote his Coronation Mass in 1779, having reluctantly taken up once again the position of court organist and sacred music composer in Salzburg after having failed to find anything more attractive over 16 months of traveling around Europe. He heartily disliked his birthplace Salzburg, considering it to be a backwater, and he also disliked his employer, Archbishop Hieronymous Colloredo. Mozart’s position lasted only two years, at which time the Archbishop decided he’d had enough of his court composer’s frequent absences and disrespectful behavior. Mozart describes in a letter being “kicked in the backside” by the Archbishop’s steward, an act which ended his career in Salzburg. He’d go on to (some) fame and (less) fortune in Vienna, where he would live for only ten more years.

During his time at the Archbishop’s court he wrote only two masses, one of which is rarely performed and the other is the one labeled “coronation” for reasons that remain somewhat murky. Mozart had written about a dozen masses before returning to his native city, but this would be the first one published, and it was probably first performed on Easter Sunday, April 4, in the Salzburg cathedral. He dated the mass’s completion as March 23, so the choir, soloists and orchestra had less than two weeks to prepare. Yikes! (But they were, after all, paid professionals.)

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The Text of the “Te Deum”

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Imagine yourself to have traveled back in time to around 400 A.D. You’re in the Italian city of Milan, standing in the Basilica of Saint Lawrence, at this point a Roman Catholic church but showing definite signs of its early origins in the Roman Empire. Suddenly you hear a choir of monks start to sing a hymn (I almost wrote “an ancient hymn,” but of course to them it’s brand new) starting with the words “Te Deum.” ‘Hmmm,’ you might think. ‘I’ve sung those words myself in October 2024 with the Cherry Creek Chorale, my own wonderful choir. Cool!’  This (now) ancient hymn is usually dated to around 390 and seen as possibly written by either Saint Ambrose or Saint Augustine. Or perhaps someone else, for all we know. Whoever wrote it, however, surely knew what he (or she!) was doing. Some real heavy hitters over the centuries have taken a crack at it, with one of the most famous being Franz Joseph Haydn in around 1800.

Haydn was a tremendously prolific and popular composer. His output is astonishing: this evening I scrolled through the list of his compositions on Wikipedia, and honestly–I think it probably took me longer to do that than it took Haydn to write the piece. He produced a huge range of compositions, from symphonies to oratorios to string quartets to masses to operas to folk song arrangements to everything else you can possibly imagine. (If there had been MOOG synthesizers around back then, be assured that he’d have written a concerto or two using that instrument.) The composer spent 30 years under the patronage of the Hungarian Prince Esterhazy, who was extremely jealous of Haydn’s time. The patronage was therefore both a blessing and a curse: Haydn had an assured income, but he was also limited in his ability to travel and to take on other commissions. The prince was finally persuaded, however, to allow Haydn to fulfill the request from the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa to write her a setting of the “Te Deum.”

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The Long and Winding History of “Ain’t No Grave”

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Image by person678 from Pixabay

I used to get a Sunday newsletter from a journalist named David French, and he’d always include a video of a contemporary worship song. I’m not a big fan of such music as a usual thing, finding most of it syrupy and breathy. (Sorry!) But I’d usually click on the video at least briefly, and one Sunday he’d put up a performance of “Ain’t No Grave” with a singer named Molly Skaggs. Hmmm, I thought, is she related to Ricky Skaggs, the great bluegrass performer?

Oh my! She is indeed his daughter, and a worthy representative of his musical tradition. I don’t know how many times I’ve watched/listened to that video. (It’s great for getting myself going on cleaning up the kitchen.) I love the words, and the music, and Molly standing there with her acoustic guitar and belting out the song. No glamor, no glitz—just pure talent. Later I found out that the song had been covered by many, many artists—including Johnny Cash. (After I insisted that my whole family watch the video my son said he really liked the song, and when I expressed astonishment he said, “Someone made an animation sequence to go with the Johnny Cash version.” Oh.)

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