The Missa Sti Bernardi von Offida (1796) stands at the beginning of Joseph Haydn’s late works. The Mass earned its nickname because in the Sanctus Haydn quoted the then well-known sacred hymn “Heilig, heilig, heilig.” The text of the music for this critical edition presents the work with the complete scoring for winds, including the clarinets and horns missing in the autograph score and the first edition. The optional horn parts are contained in the appendix and as part of the performance material. However, these parts cannot be dispensed with if we wish to fully re-create the Mass within the context of Eisenstadt.
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Composer
Joseph Haydn
| 1732-1809As Kapellmeister to Prince Esterházy, Haydn composed numerous instrumental works and various operas, as well as making important contributions to the genre of church music, including fourteen Latin masses, of which only twelve are authentic or complete; these are complemented by motets and offertories, two important Te Deum settings, two Salve Reginas, a Stabat Mater, and the different versions of the Sieben Worte des Erlösers am Kreuze. The masses were composed continually between 1749 and 1802, except for the years 1783–1795, and therefore constitute the genre with which Haydn was occupied over the longest period of time. The six (authentic or complete) masses composed before 1782 are stylistically very different, and as well as short Missae breves there are more extended masses with rich orchestral scoring; by contrast the six so-called late masses, written from 1796 onwards, form a comparatively homogeneous group of more extensive works scored for large forces. With his two great oratorios Die Schöpfung (The Creation) (1798) and Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons) (1801) Haydn established the tradition of the German oratorio for middle-class music making. Personal details