How many masses did mozart write

Why he left it, however, remains a matter of conjecture. Time for its completion seems to have been available in , but perhaps not enough to satisfy the gigantic demands made to match what had already been written. Later, other projects simply took precedence - added to the fact that Mozart's gifts as a composer of choral music were decreasingly in demand as the Vienna years progressed.

Still the music did see the light of day after that Salzburg premiere when, in the composer - in a bit of crossover magic worthy of a Bach or Handel names not lightly dropped in this connection - took the music of the Kyrie and Gloria, added a couple of arias and, presto! But there is yet another seeming mystery regarding the Mass in C minor, only partially explained by the letter quoted above and the conclusions to be drawn from it: Why he wrote the Mass in the first place; why, freed from the tyranny of his employment at the Salzburg court and relocated to Vienna, where church music was not in demand at least not of him , should Mozart have set himself such a task?

He could readily have written something with greater practical application as an act of thanksgiving for Constanze's "recovery. The most logical explanation - supported to a considerable extent by the score itself - is the great discovery that Mozart made just before he started on this work: the music of the late-Baroque, most importantly that of Johann Sebastian Bach and Handel, which had until then been generally regarded as hopelessly dated.

It was a discovery that forced Mozart to re-examine his values as a composer, to question - and this, again, is conjectural - whether moving backward, to embrace major stylistic ingredients of the age of Bach and Handel, didn't in fact indicate a sort of progress. The notion of the music of the past feeding the present and future was by no means a common one at the time. Constant novelty was demanded by audiences then, with Vienna's being the most fickle audience of all.

The only music heard in the city's fashionable salons was contemporary music. A living composer, especially one who, like Mozart, was a celebrated performer as well in his case on the piano could conceivably revive one of his hits of preceding seasons on occasion. But as for a repertoire to draw on, as we have and demand today, forget it.

Missa solemnis in C minor, K 47a 'Waisenhausmesse'. Missa brevis in G major, K 49 47d. Missa brevis in D minor, K 65 61a. Missa solemnis in C major, K 66 'Dominicusmesse'. Missa brevis in F major, K f.

Missa brevis in D major, K h. Missa brevis in C major, K 'Spatzenmesse'. Mozart mentioned in a letter to his father that he wanted to write a mass for his new wife Constanze, who was a soprano. The work is a "cantata mass" where choruses alternate with elaborate arias.

There are also fugues and double fugues—more reminiscent of Bach and Handel than late 18th-century composers. Mozart never wrote all the sections needed for a mass, and the first performance—with Constanze as soloist at the Abbey of St.

Yet even in its unfinished form, says Zohn, "The music is Mozart at his most dazzling. You get Mozart the opera composer, Mozart the composer of sacred vocal music, and Mozart the explorer of Baroque counterpoint Search Query Show Search.