ABSTRACT
An exploration of the ways in which Joseph Haydn portrays the emotions of the liturgical texts of the Mass, while also tailoring his music to meet the requirements of the occasion for which the mass has been commissioned, helps to explain why the concert mass became so popular among nineteenth-century composers and remains so to the present day. Using Harmoniemesse as a case study, aspects of Haydn’s setting of each liturgical text highlight five factors important to the establishment of the concert mass genre in the late eighteenth century: the commission context, contemporary musical style, faith, availability of musical resources, and interpretative options.
