EASTER MONDAY

By Judith Eckelmeyer

(GRACE WOODS MUSIC SESSION APRIL 6, 2026)

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1748 portrait of Bach holding a copy of the canon BWV 1076

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) hardly needs introduction, I suspect. We all know he was German, a scion of a musical family and parent of 20 children (among them a  further generation of musicians), an organist, a choir director, composer, virtuoso performer on keyboards (including organ) and violin, teacher, and in an unofficial capacity a theologian. His last and longest employment was at Leipzig, where he was busy in the two main Lutheran churches as well as involved with the secular world at the University’s Collegium Musicum. In his two previous employments he distinguished himself as a master of virtually all the instrumental genres of the time and as not only a composer of organ works and an organist but a consultant on organ construction as well. ​

This evening’s program will draw on one of the major monuments of his career: the Mass in B-minor. It may be surprising to learn that Bach, born and bred a Lutheran, would turn to the liturgy of the Roman Catholic rite; but we should remember that Martin Luther was first a Catholic before breaking from the church to set up his alternate practice that drew heavily from its parent. For example, the Mass was the central liturgy of Catholic worship, but Luther paralleled the Catholic practice his new liturgy, in some cases using his German translation in place of the Latin of the Catholic original. And Bach did likewise, composing what was essentially a German Mass. Bach’s B-minor Mass, however, is the complete Ordinary of the Mass, fully in Latin, and in almost every regard a work that satisfies the practice of the Catholic populace as well as the Lutheran.

Unsure what we mean by the Ordinary of the Mass, or even the Mass as such? You can find out all the basics at this link.

Bach follows the traditional order of the Ordinary of the Mass with its five sections: the Kyrie/Christe eleison, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus/Benedictus, and Agnus Dei. Each of these  sections was extended by breaking individual text phrases into separate complete movements treating individual passages of the text. The actual composition of the whole was accomplished over a period of years, beginning in 1724 with sections in which he reworked some of his earlier works and its completion in 1749 with several newly composed sections. The music Bach provided for the text employed both instrumental and vocal forces; an orchestra of 2 flutes, 2 oboes d’amore which also double on oboes (along with a third oboe added for the Sanctus), 2 bassoons, 1 natural horn (i.e. without valves), 3 natural trumpets (without valves), timpani, strings, and basso continuo (cellos, basses, bassoons, organ, harpsichord), and vocalists—2 choirs SATB, and soloists (2 sopranos, alto, tenor, bass). The entire Mass takes about 2 hours to perform.

Bach's 1748–1749 autograph score of the "Et incarnatus est"

In this session we’ll approach the focal section of the Credo, “Et resurrexit”, from the previous movement, “Crucifixus”, to get the full flavor of the way Bach takes us from deep sorrow and suffering to vivid joy and uplifting elation. I find it hard to think of a more satisfying setting of this portion of the Credo.

And [he] was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried.
And the third day he rose again according to the scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory, to judge both the quick [living] and the dead. His kingdom shall have no end. 

Bach - Mass in B minor BWV 232 
Netherlands Bach Society | Jos van Veldhoven, conductor
​Hana Blažíková, soprano 1 | Anna Reinhold, soprano 2 | David Erler, alto | Thomas Hobbs, tenor | Peter Harvey, bass

0:00 Kyrie eleison (Coro)
​11:07 Christe eleison (Duetto)
15:56 Kyrie eleison (Coro)
19:43 Gloria in excelsis Deo (Coro)
21:25 Et in terra pax (Coro)
26:07 Laudamus te (Aria)
30:10 Gratias agimus tibi (Coro)
33:19 Domine Deus (Duetto)
38:39 Qui tollis (Coro)
41:39 Qui sedes (Aria)
45:50 Quoniam tu solus sanctus (Aria)
50:33 Cum Sancto Spiritu (Coro)
54:15 Credo in unum Deum (Coro)
56:14 Patrem omnipotentem (Coro)
58:15 Et in enum Dominim (Duetto)
1:02:38 Et incarnatus est (Coro)
1:05:52 Crucifixus (Coro)
1:08:58 Et resurrecit (Coro)
1:12:57 Et in Spiritum Sanctum (Aria)
1:18:13 Confiteor (Coro)
1:22:18 Et expecto (Coro)
1:24:31 Sanctus (Coro)
1:26:59 Pleni sunt caeli
1:29:20 Osanna in exelsis (Coro)
1:32:00 Benedictus qui venit (Aria)
1:36:23 Osanno in excelsis (Coro)
1:39:06 Agnus Dei (Aria)
​1:45:19 Dona nobis pacem (Coro)

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Gustav Mahler, photographed in 1907 by Moritz Nähr at the end of his period as director of the Vienna Hofoper

​Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) worked in a distinctly personal manner, especially when composing symphonies. So many of them included either texted songs lifted wholesale from his early works, or referred to by the use of recognizable melodies from early songs, or borrowed existing melodies known to the general population at the time (for example, “Frère Jacques” in his first symphony). And he wasn’t shy about creating his own texts to set to music (for example, extending with his own continuation of Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock’s [1724-1803] “Resurrection” poem in his second symphony). However, one of his favorite text sources was a collection of “folk” poetry in three volumes by Achim von Arnim (1781-1831) and Clemens Brentano (1778-1842). These two German poets, emersed in the young German Romantic movement, culled material from the Rhineland and even added their own poetry to the folk texts, and established a strong national resource called Des Knaben Wunderhorn—The Boy’s Magic Horn. From this collection Mahler drew on a number of poems which he set as solo songs early in his career, then later used them in symphonic works, notably in his fourth symphony’s last movement. ​

Title page of Des Knaben Wunderhorn: Alte deutsche Lieder, volume 1, published in 1806

Title page, volume 2, published in 1808

Frontispiece and title page, volume 3, published in 1808

Mahler himself commented that his fourth symphony in G major (1902) needs to be understood “backwards”, in other words, understanding the contents of the last movement to recognize them as the source of music in the three previous movements. The whole symphony, then, is a kind of progression of clues about the work that is finally manifest in the last movement. A case in point: the opening measures of the 4th movement is the music that begins the entire symphony.

​The poem Mahler used in the final movement of Symphony 4 is titled “Das himmlische Leben”—“The heavenly life”. It presents a child’s idea of heaven in which the longings of the impoverished population of the Rhineland in the early years of 19th century Germany find their desires richly satisfied. Mahler calls for the soprano soloist to sing in a simple, unsophisticated manner; and the end of the movement (and symphony) is not grandiose but rather fades away in a kind of rocking motive.

Note the variety of foods the “folk” have been missing:

We enjoy the heavenly pleasures, so we avoid all earthly things.
No worldly clamor is heard in heaven! All live in gentle peace!
We lead an angelic life, yet we are quite merry nevertheless.
We lead an angelic life, we dance and leap, we skip and sing!
St. Peter in Heaven looks on!

(St.) John lets the little lamb loose. Herod the butcher waits for it.
We lead a patient, innocent, meek, sweet little lamb to its death.
St. Luke slaughters the ox without a thought or concern,
The wine costs not a penny in the heavenly cellar,
The angels bake the bread.

All kinds of fine herbs grow in the heavenly garden!
Fine asparagus, beans, and whatever we want! 
Whole platters are prepared for us.

Fine apples, fine pears and fine grapes!
The gardener allows us everything.
            
If you want venison or hare, they run up in the open streets!
If there is a fast day (implying no meat) all the fish joyfully swim up.
There comes St. Peter running with his net and bait into the heavenly pond.
St. Martha must be the cook!
            
​There is no music on earth that can compare with ours!
Eleven thousand maidens boldly dance!
St. Ursula herself laughs at the sight!
Cecelia and her kin are splendid musicians. 
The angels’ voices lift our spirits so that everything awakens to joy!

​Mahler: 4. Sinfonie 
hr-Sinfonieorchester – Frankfurt Radio Symphony ∙ Mojca Erdmann, Sopran ∙ Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Dirigent ∙

I. Bedächtig. Nicht eilen 00:00 
II. In gemächlicher Bewegung. Ohne Hast 17:39 
III. Ruhevoll 27:54 
IV. Sehr behaglich (Sopran-Solo: »Wir genießen die himmlischen Freuden«) 49:41

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Judith Eckelmeyer ©2026