B minor mass reduction?
  • jazz_man
    Posts: 15
    Any know of a reduced version of Bach's B Minor Mass such that it could be used in an EF Mass without being overly long?

    Thanked by 1Richard Mix
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,795
    Speak the Creed and schedule for Advent or Lent ;-)
  • francis
    Posts: 10,806
    did you check imslp?

    wow... what parish is considering this?!!! can i be there??
  • CGM
    Posts: 696
    My suggestion would be to go through the scores at CPDL and make a lot of cuts:
    — replace all the solos with Gregorian chants
    — replace portions of the choruses with Gregorian chants also
    — cut out repetitions in the choruses, whenever it won't wreck the music
    — speak (or chant) the whole Credo
    Thanked by 1OMagnumMysterium
  • trentonjconn
    Posts: 620
    For the love of all that is good, don't pair a spoken Credo with the B minor Mass.
    Thanked by 2francis tomjaw
  • francis
    Posts: 10,806
    Lol
  • francis
    Posts: 10,806
    CGM

    This is definitely heading into some good ideas, but just need to be a good synthesis between Bach and chant for some of the parts
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,772
    @trentonjconn
    For the love of all that is good, don't pair a spoken Credo with the B minor Mass.

    This is the EF and some sort of sung Mass so a spoken Credo is not possible. I suspect that this will be sung on a day that the Credo is compulsory, but you could choose a day when the Credo is not said, to save time.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,806
    I would not put a time limit on an endeavor like this. Why would one introduce the idea to make haste?
    Thanked by 2tomjaw kevinf
  • GambaGamba
    Posts: 547
    If time is a concern, why not do one of his Kyrie-Gloria settings, BWV 233-236, which run about 20 minutes? I think not only the individual movements, but the relation between them and the pacing and structure of the whole Mass, are masterful and brilliantly done, and I would be terrified to tamper with that.
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,795
    The b minor may appear to us a harmonious and well-paced whole, despite its parody origins, but the Sanctus was performed in its first version in 1724, the 1733 presentation copy of Kyrie-Gloria would have fit into Leipzig's liturgy, and the rest is in handwriting dated to August 1748.

    The K/G pairing is thus not unique to the BWV 233-236 Missae, and is found as well in Bach's parts for Palestrina's Missa Beata Dei genetrix and other works copied only in part for Lutheran liturgies.

    A Facebook friend asks in jest if Antol Doráti would have been aware of JSB's shoutout in the Kyrie, flatted re being "ra".
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen tomjaw
  • GambaGamba
    Posts: 547
    @Richard Mix

    Of course. To me performing just the K/G, or S, or some other entire part is a rather different proposition, in line with Bach’s own practice. Cutting out portions of a movement and replacing them with chant, or otherwise rewriting and shortening his music, is what I can’t imagine.
    Thanked by 2tomjaw CHGiffen
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