Carlos CamejoMUSIC HISTORY II4/14/2015Did Franz Schubert Kill
Stile AnticoFranz Schubert was an Austrian composer and pianist of
essentially, both the Classical and Romantic Eras. He wrote pieces
for voice and piano, which he codified as the lieder, or songs and
works for orchestra among many things. Like the Austrian compatriot
musicians of his time, and nearly anyone before and after him,
Schubert wrote for the Church. He wrote several works intended to
be performed in religious settings, like Masses, compositions and
even something for the Jewish community.Figure 1: Psalm 92 by
Schubert, m. 1-4[endnoteRef:1] [1: Breitkpf & Hartel, Psalm 92,
Schubert]
His main religious compositions, were settings of the Ordinary
of the Mass as codified in 1570s Quo Primum, a document by Pope St.
Pius V making the current form of the Catholic Mass the form to be
used worldwide. As a well-known composer in the vein of his
Germanic compatriots, Schubert set these to music numerous times.
His most well-known, Mass no. 2 in G major is the focus of this
analysis.The Ordinary of the Mass has five words and six movements
that Schubert set to music. In his epoch of rapidly changing
musical styles, he set this to music, taking on a fairly simplistic
style in composition of his religious opuses. The people around him
who were also composers took a more refined approach in their
works, going for the style of the era of their forefathers a style
known as stile antico. Schuberts Austrian compatriot and fellow
dweller of the precursor to modern rocks cabal of artists felled in
youth, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart took notice and employed it, as you
will see below.
Figure 2: Mozarts Krnungmesse[endnoteRef:2], the 4th movement.
Notice the intricacies in the bass line, where likely the low
brass/strings wouldve played. Also pay attention to the vocal
lines. [endnoteRef:3] [2: Breitkpf & Hartel, Coronation Mass,
Mozart] [3: Breitkpf & Hartel, Mass no. 2 in G, Schubert]
Contrast toFigure III: Schuberts Mass no. 2 in G. The stile
antico of his time, had likely been over, with composers choosing
to set the Ordinary in a more methodical, simplistic style.It could
be likened to the development of languages, inasmuch that languages
over thousands of years continued to dramatically simplify and
modify themselves into whatever their modern form may be allowing
for some modern corruptions and introductions of foreign words and
technological development in the lexicon. E.g., the Hebrew of the
epoch of the Old Testament prophets millennia ago is not the same
Hebrew heard walking through Tel Aviv in 2015. The contrast in
styles to the writing of Church music seemingly introduced by
Schubert could be a similar analogy. To again use the analogy
between development of language and development of music, think of
how certain dialects of a language (certain dialects of English,
Dominican Spanish, etc.) will drop endings of words and speak in a
faster way than normal, seemingly omitting words and almost
slurring them. Other dialects will articulate words and speak whole
and inviolate, like in some upper-class dialects of British
English. In writing for the Ordinary of the Mass, the latter
analogy is what often must be used that is, having all the words
whole and inviolate for the majority of the year and days of said
year. There are some allowed exceptions, notably when the text
would be inappropriate for the situation or if its a weekday. The
Gloria in Excelsis Deo is not said during penitential seasons like
Lent or Advent, for example. The Credo in unum Deum is not said
during weekdays to maintain brevity. The pomp of the era in music,
though, was left to Sundays, which does not seem to excuse Schubert
of his weird omissions of the text. However, its possible that the
Mass omissions were created by the Josephinian reforms in Austrian
church music.[endnoteRef:4] He was an Austrian emperor that wanted
to introduce reforms in the Church in Austria, one of them being
the reduction of the saintly, grandiose and Handel-esque regalia of
its Sunday Masses, instead relegating them to solemnities like
Easter and Christmas. Its possible that this is, to keep in that
style of limited pomp and maintain his work as a Church musician,
Schubert omitted words of the Ordinary for brevity. Though in the
large mass of monarchies, war and the early musings of the
Enlightenment between the Moor coast and Sweden lied the hegemony
of the European Church, in which Schuberts job as a composer would
be severely compromised by daring to omit anything, Austria did not
seem to mind[endnoteRef:5], as his Masses were performed in their
respective audiences each time. [4: De La Rosa, Louis Michael. The
Influence of Josephinism upon the Omission of Text in Schuberts
Mass in G. Masters thesis, San Jose State University, 1990.] [5:
Moon, Jason. "GUIDE TO FRANZ SCHUBERTS RELIGIOUS SONGS."Indiana
University. N.p., n.d. Web.p.24]
Figure IV: One of the many ommissions of words Its possible that
through the reforms of the emperor, Schubert started a trend. With
his Austrian compatriots composing fairly conservative, musically
complex settings of the Mass before him, in a different time before
Joseph II had the musical and religious reforms into place, they
were given free reign to do as they wished. Once the reforms were
in place, the musical regalia that accompanied the epoch of Mozart
and Haydn was over and the simplistic style of Schubert began.
Stile antico was a way to bring Church music back to the generation
before it Classical to Baroque, e.g. See one of the examples of
complex instrumental writing in Mozarts work for an example. The
Baroque era was known for complex, intense vocal and instrumental
compositions and writing the melismatic and evocative vocal lines
in J.S. Bachs Johannes-Passion as an example. Stile antico was a
way to return to that and abandon the new style. It literally means
old style. However, its possible that through Schubert, he ended
stile antico and made the primary form of Church music the style of
the current era. A disconnect from the other aspects of European
Catholicism, which was (and would be for another century and a
half) elements predating modern European civilization words of a
language not spoken colloquially in two thousand years, the
writings of saints canonized who rebelled against 3rd century
apostasies. The style of returning to the musical epoch before has
not really been a thing since pre-Schubert. You can even look at
todays Church music and while the Western world is not under the
hegemony of grand kings, elegant Cathedrals and regal religion, you
can see today that it is not trying to express and convey much pomp
and regalia. Simply your average choral harmonizations out of your
everyday hymnal with an everyday organ accompaniment that may or
may not go full in the last verse or add improvisation. A striking
contrast to the opuses of Mozart and Haydn, that fueled the
Viennese way of composing Church music with as much fervor, joy and
grandeur as possible while still retaining to the ways of old.