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The following preview article is a continuation and culmination of an article published in last week's edition, presented in two installments. Later this month, the William Baker Festival Singers will present a concert of Bach's immortal Mass in B Minor. Looking forward to that concert, Music Director William Baker spoke with our choral/vocal writer R. Douglas Helvering about the work and his organization's preparation for this momentous event.

The programming of a work such as the Mass in B Minor is not done lightly by any organization let alone a community-based chorus. A music director has to weigh many factors when planning the performance of such a large piece. Dr. Baker mentioned his time singing under the direction of Robert Shaw in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, getting a taste of the power and majesty of the great choral/orchestral masterpieces. He developed a lengthy "bucket list" of great works that he wanted to conduct someday. "Though I will never tire of a regular parade of Brahms German Requiem(s), HandelMessiah(s), and Vivaldi Gloria(s), I have long wanted to perform larger-scale works like theSt. Matthew Passion (Bach), the B Minor, and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. By the end of this month I will have cleared that portion of my list. The Festival Singers have other big projects planned for the next couple of years that will include Bach's St. John Passion and Beethoven's Missa Solemnis. I hope one day to also have the joy of conducting the Hindemith When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed and Britten's War Requiem, among a long list of others that will continue to grow as long as God gives me time and strength to keep working!" he said.

Bill was led to program the B Minor Mass under recommendation from Jerry Carpenter, the Festival Singers' bass section leader and retired high school choral conductor. After the group's performance of the Bach St. Matthew Passion in 2007, Carpenter suggested that the group might be ready to tackle Bach's Mass. After much consideration, less ambitious plans for the 2008-2009 season were laid aside, and the preparation for this concert began.

It is not a coincidence that Baker chose the Christian season of Lent, as believers look forward to the celebration of Easter, to program this classical but immensely sacred work. How does a music director, especially of a non-faith-based organization, juggle the classical elements of the work with the spiritual elements? Baker again looked to his mentor, Robert Shaw, for direction in answering this question. He said, "One of my favorite arguments that he (Shaw) often made was his contention that the element of spirituality and expression, and the element of musical precision, were never in conflict but always mutually supportive. Shaw believed, as do I, that the spirit of music (and I would add the spirituality of music) can only be revealed when every basic element of pitch, rhythm, dynamic, articulation (diction for singers), and texture are properly disciplined and lovingly attended. Likewise, he would say such a level of discipline is only made possible by a deep spiritual and artistic commitment. In other words, one could not exist without the other." Though Baker leads a secular cultural organization that explores music and art for the inclusive purpose of its contribution to the edification of all people (whatever their faith or lack of faith), he said that escaping the spiritual implications of Bach's faith and the spiritual power of his sacred works is impossible. On a personal level, he believes that music of such profound depth can only be made possible by the intercession of a loving creator. But, having said that, he said that the key to unlocking that spiritual power lies in the tasks of disciplining pitch, rhythm, dynamic, articulation and texture in the context of the highest musical integrity and most committed scholarship.

The history of the Mass in B Minor is very unusual. The work is a liturgical setting in Latin of the Catholic Mass. Bach was a lifelong Lutheran. There are still some people that believe the Reformation, the time in which Martin Luther created the Lutheran church, was a strict repudiation of the Catholic faith. In contrast, Luther's goal was to reform the existing church's theology. As a result, the liturgical aspects of Lutheranism and Catholicism are largely aligned. It must be noted that even though Bach was a Lutheran and the Mass in B Minor is a Catholic piece, not one word of Bach's Mass text is inconsistent with historic Lutheran theology. 

The "Missa" portion of the mass (the Kyrie and Gloria) was known to both Lutherans and Catholics in common usage in Bach's day. This portion was composed in 1733 as an application for a court appointment for the new Elector of Saxony, Augustus III (a Catholic). The dating of the rest of the piece is sketchy. Some believe the "Sanctus," the beginning of the last major section, was composed in 1724. Some of the music in the "Symbolum Nicenum" (Credo) is thought to be among the last notes of sacred music that Bach composed. It is known that Bach himself assembled the various portions of the work into a whole near the end of his life, at a time when the only other project engaging him was the completion of the Art of the Fugue.

Bach's reasons for personally taking time to assemble these separate parts of the mass, written at different times over a period of a quarter-century, remain unrealized. Some scholars have expressed a feeling that Bach was making a final statement about the universality of faith (perhaps hoping that the church would one day again be united). Such an idea is only conjecture. For Dr. Baker, the most profound aspect of Bach's assembly of the Mass in B Minor is that the composer surely knew that he would never hear a performance of the whole work. It was not customary for a mass setting to function in those days as a concert piece, and the work was too large for anything but the most spectacular of liturgical occasions. Baker added, "Nearly every other work Bach composed was created for a specific performance event that he led himself. Could it be that he left us this work as his benediction to posterity? I would like to think that is the case, but it will remain a mystery until we get the answer from the composer himself in the world to come."

In any work of such length and complexity (the full Mass in B Minor has 27 shorter sections divided into four main sections, with a performance lasting about two hours), it is conceivable that one might be drawn to a particular section or movement as a favorite. Dr. Baker said that the work is so great, profound, and multifaceted that it is hard to find one. "The two-fugue opening "Kyrie" is different than any other such setting by Bach. The second "Kyrie," by contrast, has the ancient spirit of a Palestrina motet. The "Cum Sancto Spiritu" is among the most riveting and captivating music in all of history. The performers are completely taken up in it. The setting of the "Crucifixus" is as convicting as it is expressive. Of course, the famous "Dona Nobis Pacem" has to be counted as one of history's most articulate and convincing cries for peace."  In trying to nail him down to give his absolute favorite section of the work, Baker said, "My favorite part is the mystery of how the disparate sections composed over so much time have come together as such a miraculous 'one'." 

Indeed, it will be an extremely daunting task to bring this work into a satisfying cohesion for the performance on March 31. Music director William Baker's commitment to great music-making for the community to enjoy is at the heart of his organization's mission. That mission, to enhance quality of life through the study, recording, broadcast, promotion, and performance of music of timeless beauty and inspiration, could not be applied more appropriately in this case. Kansas City music lovers should feel compelled to take advantage of this rare opportunity to hear a work widely regarded as one of the supreme achievements of classical music.


The William Baker Festival Singers
William O. Baker, conductor
Mass in B Minor, BWV 242
By Johann Sebastian Bach
Tuesday , March 31at 7:30 p.m.
Grace & Holy Trinity Cathedral
Broadway at 13th Street in Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 913.403.9223 or online at www.festivalsingers.org   

By R. Douglas Helvering

Classical and Vocal Contributor (Past writer)

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