Schubert, Franz

Franz Schubert – Smaller Sacred Works

(b. Vienna, 31 January 1797 – d. Vienna, 19 November 1828)

A. Accompanied
No. 1 Offertory in C major (Totus in corde langueo) D 136 (Op. 46)
No. 2 Salve Regina (‘Offertory’) in F major D 223 (Op. 47)
No. 3 Salve Regina (‘Offertory’) in A major D 676 (Op. post. 153)
No. 4 Offertory in A minor (Tres sunt, qui testimonium dant in coelo) D 181
No. 5 Gradual in C major (Benedictus es, Domine) D 184 (Op. post. 150)
No. 6 Tantum ergo in C major D 739 (Op. 45)
No. 7 Tantum ergo in C major D 460
No. 8 Tantum ergo in D majot D 750
No. 9 Salve Regina in B major D 106
No. 10 Offertory Auguste jam coelestium in G major D 488
No. 11 Magnificat in C major D 486
No. 12 Stabat mater in G minor D 175
No. 13 Stabat mater (Jesus Christus schwebt am Kreuze) D 383
No. 14 Kyrie for a Mass in D minor D 31
No. 15 Kyrie for a Mass in D minor D 49
No. 16 Kyrie in F major D 66
No. 17 Antiphon Deutsches Salve Regina in F major D 379

B. Unaccompanied
No. 18 Six Antiphons for Palm Sunday D 696 (Op. post. 113)
No. 19 Salve Regina in C major D 811 (Op. post. 149)
No. 20 Salve Regina in B major D 386
No. 21 Kyrie in B major D 45

C. Appendix
No. 22 Tantum ergo in E flat major (draft) D 962

Foreword

This is a reprint of the collection entitled Smaller Sacred Works, which was published as number 14 in the Alte Gesamtausgabe (AGA) [Former Complete Edition] series of the composer Franz Schubert. It appeared for the first time with Breitkopf & Härtel in 1888. The driving force behind the AGA (1884–1897) was the musicologist and composer Eusebius Mandyczewski, who, together with important figures including Johannes Brahms and Julius Epstein, had been involved in the first complete edition of Schubert’s work. This present volume of music is designed for musicians and academics, as well as music lovers, who would like to study Schubert’s smaller sacred works in more depth.
Schubert, known above all for Lieder writing (he composed well over 600), had good reason to feel equally at home in the realm of sacred music. He grew up in direct proximity to the world of the church, with his father employed as a teacher in the parish of Lichtental (at that time a suburb of Vienna). It was here that the young Schubert received his earliest instrumental tuition and became first soprano in the choir.1 Spiritual works such as the Kyrie movements D 31, 45, 49 und 662 originate from his time as a choirboy at the Vienna Seminary. It is clear that the composer eventually intended to write a complete mass with these opening movements or to follow them with further movements – he entitled D 31 and 49 ‘Mass’, while his older brother Ferdinand used D 45 in his Pastoral Mass of 1833.3

The Smaller Sacred Works together form a diverse collection of single movement sacred works, comprising choral pieces from the Mass as well as settings for the liturgy of hours.4 In this edition, they are divided into three sections: works with and without accompaniment, followed by an appendix comprising a draft for a Tantum ergo.5 This last work is dated October 1828, a month before Schubert’s death.6 Both other sections include a large number of works from the composer’s youth. The volume is of exclusively vocal works, each to different settings. Generally, the pieces are for mixed choir or high solo voices, accompanied by orchestra and organ. The overwhelming majority of pieces were published for the first time as part of this collection. In Schubert’s own lifetime, only a few of his compositions were published. Among these were four works of church music – three of which are amongst the smaller sacred works in this volume: the Mass in C major D 452, Tantum ergo in C major D 739, Offertory in C major (Totus in corde langueo) D 136 and Salve Regina (‘Offertory’) in F major D 223.7 The Offertory in C major is closely linked in its origins to the C major Mass. As the commentary to the work states ‘in its paper, ink and handwriting, and all outward appearance [sic!] this autograph […] is strikingly similar to that of the Mass.8 Should the reader wish to study this aspect of each composition further, Werner Bodendorff‘s 1997 dissertation Franz Schubert’s Smaller Church Music Works is to be recommended. Bodendorff offers comprehensive analyses of the works alongside context on their origins. … (Translation: Paul Young)

Read full preface / Komplettes Vorwort lesen > HERE