Messen; V (4), Coro, orch; h-Moll; BWV 232; BC E 1

Handschrift

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in b minor BWV 232 is surely one of the most impressive and outstanding works of music history. The genesis of this masterwork lasted over a time span of more than 15 years. Kyrie and Gloria were composed as early as 1733, when Bach dedicated a partly autograph copy to Friedrich August II, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, in order to promote his application for an official title of the Dresden court (which he finally obtained in 1736). It was not before the late 1740ies that Bach returned to his old score and added the missing Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei. For the Sanctus he re-used a single movement composed back in 1724, and for some other movements he relied on borrowings from older cantatas. Traces of this history are still visible in differences of scoring and in four title pages Bach inserted in 1749, reading „No. 1 Missa“ (Kyrie and Gloria from 1733, slightly revised), „No. 2 Symbolum Nicenum“ (Credo), „No. 3 Sanctus“ and „No. 4 Benedictus, Osanna, Agnus Dei et Dona nobis pacem“. Given that Bach as a Lutheran cantor hardly had an opportunity to perform such a „Missa tota“, it seems most probable that in completing the mass towards the end of his life, he aimed to create a paradigmatic work of sacred music, deploying a wide range of stylistic and contrapuntal mastership. After Bach’s death, the autograph score of his Mass in b minor was inherited by his son Carl Philipp Emanuel, who in 1786 performed the Credo in a Hamburg church concert. In 1805, the Swiss music publisher Hans Georg Nägeli acquired the score from C. P. E. Bach’s estate. Nägeli’s son Hermann sold it in 1856 to Friedrich Chrysander and the Bach-Gesellschaft, and one year later it came into the music department of the Berlin royal library (today Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin). Due to a combination of rather aggressive ink and fairly poor paper, many leaves suffered severe damages from a chemical process called „ink corrosion“, beginning already in the late 18th century; it was only in 2002/03 that this process could be stopped and the manuscript saved for the future. In October 2015, the autograph score of the mass was added to the UNESCO Memory of the World register, joining other outstanding monuments to the spiritual heritage of mankind.

Object Details

• Alternative title: [title page, f. [1]:] No. 1. | Missa | a | 5 Voci | 2 Soprani | Alto | Tenore | Basso | 3 Trombe | Tamburi | 2 Traversi | 2 Oboi | 2 Violini | 1 Viola | e | Continuo | di | J. S. Bach <br>[caption title, p. 1 / f. [2r]:] J.J. Missa. à 5. Voci. 6 Stromenti e Continuo di J. S. [Bach]
• Location: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, Germany -- Mus.ms. Bach P 180
• Extent: Partitur: 99 Bl.
• Edition: Autograph

References and Relationships

• Series: Musikhandschriften digital

Contributors, Places and Time

• Creator: Bach, Johann Sebastian
• Time of origin: 1733

Further information

• PURL: http://resolver.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/SBB0001B78F00000000
• Last update: 14.04.2025, 12:55 PM CEST