Messe solennelle en l’honneur de Sainte-Cécile — Charles Gounod

(Solemn Mass in Honour of St. Cecilia)

Kyrie: Moderato, quasi andantino

Gloria

Gloria in excelsis Deo: Larghetto

Laudamus te: Allegro pomposo

Domine filius unigenite: Andante

Quoniam: Allegro

Credo

Credo in unum Deum: Moderato molto maestoso

Et incarnatus – Crucifixus: Adagio

Et resurrexit: Tempo primo

Sanctus: Andante – Largo

Benedictus: Adagio

Agnus Dei: Andante moderato

Gounod wrote masses of Masses – 21 of them if you count the two Requiems – and that represents just a small proportion of his church music, itself equalled by his productivity in other areas of the repertoire. By the mid-point in his career, when he had completed his Mass in honour of St Cecilia, he was also the composer of two symphonies and three of the series of operas that were soon – above all with Faust in 1859 and Roméo et Juliette in 1860 – to establish his reputation as the leading French composer of the day.

Gounod’s operatic experience, although he had still enjoyed little popular success in that line, was an important factor in his approach to the St Cecilia Mass in 1855. As a student in Rome he had been profoundly impressed by the purity of the a capella Masses of Palestrina and other 16th-century polyphonic composers performed in the Sistine Chapel. He had subsequently written Masses in a similarly austere style himself. The situation with his eighth Mass was different. It was to be performed on a special occasion, St Cecilia’s day (25 November), in a great ecclesiastical space, the Church of St Eustache in Paris, and funds were available for a large orchestra as well as soloists and chorus. So it was to be a big work in the modern manner, largely avoiding traditional features like counterpoint while indulging in operatic vocal melody, expressive romantic harmonies and atmospheric instrumental effects.

Kyrie

The work begins with a nod to tradition – a hint of Gregorian chant quietly introduced by the orchestra and taken up the chorus on its unaccompanied first entry with the words “Kyrie eleison.” But then, as the strings enter with an accompaniment figure they will repeat in every bar before the introduction is recalled at the end, the Kyrie goes its own way, modulating freely through mainly major harmonies and alternating choral passages with short trios for the solo voices.

Gloria

The most colourful of the six main movements of the work, the Gloria opens with a modest but lyrically effective horn solo and a soprano poised over harmonies quietly hummed by the chorus. After a pause, the tempo changes to Allegro pomposo for a vigorous setting of the Laudamus te, mainly for chorus but with interventions from the three soloists. Perhaps the most attractively scored section of all is the one beginning “Domine filius unigenite,” an expressive bass solo introduced by solo cello and oboe and joined in turn by the tenor and soprano soloists and, on “Miserere nobis Domine,” by the supplicating chorus. For the Quoniam the quicker tempo and the material of the Laudamus te are recalled, rare passages of choral counterpoint providing the textural variety that came from the solo interventions on the earlier occasion.

Credo

Central to the work, as it is central to the Catholic faith that inspired it, is the Credo. Thematically, it is based on the fundamental strength of the near-fanfare introduced Moderato molto maestoso by the orchestra, over a bass line inexorably rising and falling in dotted rhythms, and taken up by the chorus on the unison proclamation of “Credo in unum Deum.” The chorus remains in solid unison until, as the the dynamic level falls to pianissimo, it makes way for the three soloists to join it in a quietly contemplative (Adagio) treatment of “Et incarnatus” and “Crucifixus.” The opening Moderato molto maestoso tempo, the fanfare material associated with it and the unison chorus return in no uncertain terms for “Et resurrexit.” The movement does not end in that robust way, however. Appended to it is an atmospheric epilogue beginning with “Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum,” for six-part chorus accompanied by rippling harp arpeggios and ethereal piccolo, and concluding with a loud “Amen.”

Sanctus and Benedictus

After a beautifully scored, purely orchestral Offertoire (Offertory), the tenor soloist enters with a melodious, even operatic setting of the words of the Sanctus, to which the chorus adds its at first subdued but ultimately climactic comments. There is nothing operatic about the chaste soprano solo at the beginning of the Benedictus, a movement given over for the most part to the chorus, its sensitively conceived harmonies doubled by pious strings until the joyous outcry of “Hosanna in excelsis.”

Agnus Dei

In the Agnus Dei Gounod made a significant change to the liturgical text by interpolating words from the Communion service. ‘Between the three cries of ”Agnus Dei” by the chorus,’ he explained, ‘I have written a passage for solo voice to the words “Domine, non sum dignus…” First they are sung by a tenor, representing the man whose pangs of conscience are revealed in a tone laden with remorse. On the second occasion they are given in a somewhat varied form to the soprano symbolising the child, who is less fearful and more trusting due to the serenity conferred on it by innocence.’ Before, between and after the solo interpolations the chorus sings the regular Agnus Dei text to a radiantly lyrical melody accompanied by gently undulating string figures that retain their reassuring role as far as the closing “Amen.”