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work can mean nothing less than, in Brecht's terms, to alienate it; to break
through the aura of irrelevant worship which protectively surrounds it
and thereby perhaps to contribute something to an <:1Uthentic aesthetic
experience of it beyond the paralyzing respect of the academic sphere. This
attempt necessarily requires criticism as its medium. Qualities which have
been assigned without any thought by traditional consciousness to the
Missa Solemn is must be tested in order to prepare for a recognition of its
content, a recognition which to this day is still missing. This effort is not
one of JelJ1mki11g", of tearing down recognized greatnl'ss ior the sake of
tearing something down. The disillusioning gesture which pulls down
from the heights the very thing it attacks is by that very act subservient
to the substance of that which it pulls down. Instead, criticism with regard
to a work of such demand and with regard to the total oeuvre of Beethoven,
can only be a means of penetrating the work. It is the fulfillment of a duty
vis-a-vis the work and not a means of gaining malicious satisfaction from
knowing that once again there is one less great work in the world. It is
necessary to point this out, because neutralized culture makes certain that
the names of the authors are taboo while the constructs themselves arc no
longer perceived in their original contents. Rather they are merely con-
sumed as socially acceptable works. Rage is immediately provoke~ when-
ever reflection about the work threatens to touch the authority of the
author.
This situation must be anticipated whenever one prepares to say some-
thing heretical about a composer of the highest authority, one whose power
is comparable only to the philosophy of Hegel and is still undiminished at
a time when the historical preconditions of his work are irrevocably lost.
But Beethoven's power of humanity and of demythologization demands
by its very existence the destruction of mythical taboos. There is, of course,
among musicians an underground tradition of critical reserve about the
Missa. They have also long known that Handel is no Bach and that the
actual compositional qualities of Gluck are questionable. Only fear of es-
tablished public opinion made them keep their own opinions to themselves.
So too they have known that there is something peculiar about the Missa
:£ole11111is. Little truly penetrating has been written about it. Most of what
has been written makes general pronouncements of awe about an immortal
chef d'oeuvre, and it is easy to note the embarrassment of these writers
which prevents them from stating wherein this supposed greatness actu-
ally lies. The neutralization of the Missa to cultural produce is reflected in
such writings, but it is not overcome. Hermann Kretzschmar, who comes
from a generation of music historians which had not yet cast off the, ex-
!ilic1111/1•d M11~tl'lpi1·t'1' : 'rflt' Missa Solemnis I .'>7'
had tried through the force of his will (as that force of will had ever
stamped the content of his music) to force the work externally upon those
whom it did not of its own power compel. This would hardly be conceivable
if the work did not itself contain a secret quality which Beethoven believed
justified him in influencing the history of this work. But when it had
eventually established itself it was much aided by what had become in the
meantime the unassailable prestige of the composer. His major sacred work
was vouchsafed as a sister work the same admiration accorded to the Ninth
Symphony without anyone daring to ask questions which might merely
reveal the lack of depth of the questioner, as in the fairy tale of the em-
peror's new clothes.
The Missa would never have attained to an unquestioned place in the
repetoire if it had caused a drastic shock, like Tristan, by its difficulty. But
that is not the case. If one ignores the occasionally unusual demands made
on the singing voice, a demand the work shares with the Ninth Symphony,
the work may be seen to contain little that exceeds the circumference of
traditional musical language. Very large parts are homophonous and even
the fugues and fugati fit without difficulty into the thorough-bass pattern.
The progressions of the harmonic intervals and with them the surface
context, are seldom if ever problematic. The Missa Solemn is was composed
far less against prevailing compositional traditions than are the late quar-
tets and the Diabelli Variations; above all, it does not fall under Beet-
hoven's final conception of style as derived from the quartets and varia-
tions, the five late sonatas and the bagatelle cycles. The Missa is
distinguished more by certain archaicizing moments of harmony-church
modes-rather than by the advanced compositional daring of the great
Grosse Fuge. Not only did Beethoven always keep a stricter separation
among the compositional genres than one suspects, but he also incorpo-
rated in them temporally different stages of his oeuvre. If the symphonies
are in many respects simpler than the major works of the chamber music
because of or despite the richer resources of the orchestra, the Ninth Sym-
phony is clearly different and returns retrospectively to the classical sym-
phonies of Beethoven without the sharp edges of the last quartets. In his
late period the composer did not, as one might think, blindly follow the
dictates of his inner ear, nor did he forcibly estrange himself from the
sensual aspect of his work. Instead, he disposed sovereignly over all the
possibilities which had grown up in the history of his composing. Desen-
sualization was but one of these possibilities. The Missa shares with the
last quartets an occasional abruptness, i.e., the lack of transitions. Other-
wise there are few similarities. Altogether it reveals a sensuous aspect quite
1\lic1111lcd Mt1 slc1pic(t': r/11· Missa Sole11111is I 57.3
not about the Passion of Christ. But that pathos cannot be attributed to
the contrast of the following "Et resurrexit" which, at an analogous point
in Bach, reaches toward the extreme of that emotion. Only one section,
one which has also become the most famous of the work, is an exception
to this, and that is the "Benedictus," the chief melody of which suspends
stylization. The prelude to this section is a piece of intensely deep har-
monious proportions having an equivalent only in the twentieth of the
Diabelli Variations. But the "Benedictus'( melody itself, rightly praised as
inspin:d, resembles the variat1011 theme of the E-lbt Major Quartet, up.
u7. The entire "lknedictus" reminds one of that custom attributed to
certain artists in the late Middle Ages-those who are said to have included
their own portraits somewhere on their tabernacles for the host so that
they would not be forgotten. But even the "Benedictus" remains true to
the color of the entire work. It is divided into sections by intonations, like
the other sections, and the polyphony always paraphrases the chords fig-
uratively. That in turn is the result of the planned thematic looseness of
the compositional process. It permits the themes to be treated imitatively
yet to be conceived harmoniously in keeping with the basic homophonous
consciousness of Beethoven and his era. The process of archaicizing was
to respect the limits of Beethoven's musical experience. The great exception
is the "Et vitam venturi" of the "Credo" in which Paul Bekker correctly
saw the nucleus of the entire work. 4 It is a polyphonically fully developed
fugue; in certain details, particularly in harmonic twists, it is related to the
finale of the Hammerklavier Sonata, leading into a grand development.
Therefore, it is also quite explicit melodically and heightened to an extreme
by its intensity and power. This piece-perhaps the only one which is
entitled to the epithet "explosive" -is the most difficult one in terms of
complexity and performance, but together with the "Benedictus" is the
simplest by virtue of the directness of the effect.
It is no accident that the transcendental moment of the Missa Solemnis
does not refer to the mystical content of transubstantiation but to the hope
of eternal life for humanity. The enigma of the Missa Solemnis is the tie
between an archaism which mercilessly sacrifices all Beethoven's conquests
and a human tone which appears to mock precisely this archaism. That
enigma-the combination of the idea of the human with a somber aversion
to expression-can perhaps be deciphered by assuming that there is in the
Missa a tangible taboo which determines its reception-a taboo about the
negativity of existence, derived from Beethoven's despairing will to sur-
vive. The Missa is expressive wherever it addresses or literally conjures up
salvation. It usually cuts off that expression wherever evil and death dom-
c·· -1
l I I
inate in the text of the mass, and precisely through this suppression the
Missa demonstrates the gradually dawning superior power of the negative;
despair and yet anxiety of having that despair become manifest. The "Dona
nobis pacem" assumes in a certain sense the burden of the "Crucifixus."
The expressive potential is accordingly held back. The dissonant parts are
only rarely the bearers of this expression (e.g., in the "Sanctus" before
the allegro opening of the "Pleni sunt coeli"). The expression clings much
more often to the nrchnic portions, to the sen le sequences of the old church
mudes, lo die awe aboul if1,· pasl , as ii' llll' :•ufferi11g were 111 be d1n1w11
back into the transitory realm. Not the modern but the ancient is expres-
sive in the Missa. The human idea asserts itself in this work, as it did in
the works of the later Goethe, only by virtue of convulsive, mythic denial
of the mythical abyss. It calls upon positive religion for help whenever the
lonely subject no longer trusted that it could of itself, as pure humnn
essence, dispel the forward-surging chaos of conquered and protesting na-
ture. The recourse to mention of Beethoven's subjective piety as an expla-
nation of the fact that the composer, emancipated to the extreme and self-
reliant, tended toward traditional form, is as unsatisfying as the opposite
extreme found in the academic sphere. There the explanation for this
which is offered claims that his religiosity in this work, which subjects
itself with zealous discipline to the liturgical purpose, extends beyond
dogma to a kind of universal religiosity. The claim, therefore, is made that
his is a mass for Unitarians. But confessions or announcements of subjec-
tive piety in relation to Christology have been repressed by the work. In
the section where the liturgy dictates unavoidably the "I believe," Beet-
hoven, according to Steuermann's 5 astonishing observation, betrayed the
opposite of such certainty by having the fugue theme repeat the word
Credo as if the isolated man had to assure himself and others of his actual
belief by this frequent repetition. The religiosity of the Missa, if one can
speak unconditionally of such a thing, is neither that of one secure in belief
nor that of a world religion of such an idealistic nature that it would require
no effort of its adherent to believe in it. Expressed in more modern terms,
it is a matter for Beethoven of whether ontology, the objective intellectual
organization of existence, is still possible. It is a question of whether the
musical salvation of such ontology in the realm of subjectivism and the
return to the liturgy is intended to effect this salvation in a manner par-
alleled only in Kant's evocation of the ideas of God, Freedom, and Im-
mortality. In its aesthetic form the work asks what and how one may sing
of the absolute without deceit, and because of this, there occurs that com-
pression which alienates it and causes it to approach incomprehensibility.
57~ I
This is so perhaps because the question which it asks itself refuses even
musically the valid answer. The subject then remains exiled in its finite-
ness. The objective cosmos can no longer be imagined as an obligatory
construct. Thus the Missa balances on point of indifference which ap-
proaches nothingness.
Its humanistic aspect is defined by the plenitude of chords in the
"Kyrie" and extends to the construction of the concluding section, the
"Agnus Dei," which prefigures the "Dona no bis pacem," the plea for inner
and outer peace. Beethoven superscribed the section with the equivalent
German words, and the piece once more breaks out expressively after the
threat of war allegorically presented by tympani and trumpets. Already at
the "Et homo factus est," the music begins to warm as if breathed upon.
But these are the exceptions. Most of the time, despite stylization, the
work proceeds in tone and style back toward something unexpressed, un-
defined. This aspect, resulting from the mutually contradictory forces in
the work, is perhaps the one which interferes most with its comprehension.
Having been conceived in a flat and undynamic manner, the Missa is not
arranged according to pre-classical "terraces." In fact, it often erases even
the slightest contours. Short inserts frequently do not converge into the
whole nor do they stand on their own; rather they rely upon their pro-
portions to other parts. The style is contrary to the spirit of the sonata and
yet not as much traditionally ecclesiastical as secular in a rudimentary
ecclesiastical language dredged up from memory. The relationship to this
language is as deflected as it is to Beethoven's own style. It is distantly
analogous to the position of the Eighth Symphony with regard to Haydn
and Mozart. Except in the "Et vitam venturi" fugue, even the fugue sec-
tions are not genuinely polyphonic but are also in no measure homo-
phonously melodious in the manner of the nineteenth century. While the
category of totality, which in Beethoven's works is always the major one,
results in other works from the internal development of the individual
parts, it is retained in the Missa only at the price of a kind of leveling. The
omnipresent stylization principle no longer tolerates anything which is
truly unique and whittles the character of the work down to the level of
the scholastic. These motifs and themes resist being named. The lack of
dialectical contrasts, which are replaced by the mere opposition of closed
phrases, weakens at times the totality. That is particularly obvious in con-
clusions of movements. Because no direction is traversed, because no in-
dividual resistance has been overcome, the trace of the accidental is carried
over to the entire work itself, and the phrases, which no longer terminate
in a specific goal prescribed by the thrust of the particular, frequently end
11lic11t1tcd tvl11st1·1piccc: r/1c Missa Sole11111is I i;7•)
After all that has been written above, it might appear that the Missa,
characterized in all its uniqueness, could now be understood. But the dark
quality of the work, perceived as such, docs not brighten without further
analysis. To understand that one does not understand is the first step to-
ward understanding but is not understanding itself. The above-mentioned
characteristics of the work can be confirmed by listening to it, and the
attention which is concentrated on those characteristics may prevent a
disoriented listening, but by themselves they do not allow the ear spon-
taneously to perceive a musical purpose or meaning in the Missa. If it
exists at all, such a meaning lies precisely in the resistance to such spon-
taneity. This much at least is certain: the alienating aspects of the work do
not disappear in the presence of the comfortable formula which asserts
that the autonomous fantasy of the composer chose a heteronomous form
removed from his will and fantasy, and that the specific development of
his music had thereby been hindered. For it would seem apparent that
Beethoven did not try in the Missa to legitimize himself in a genre not
familiar to him as well as in his "actual" works. This kind of legitimation
has been attempted before in the history of music. But in Beethoven's case,
there was an attempt not to overburden that unfamiliar genre. Instead,
each measure of the work as well as the length of the process of compo-
sition-unusual for Beethoven-shows the most insistent effort on the
composer's part. But the effort is not, as in his other works, directed at the
accomplishment of the subjective intention, but rather at its exclusion. The
Missa Solemnis is a work of such exclusion, of permanent renunciation.
It is already to be counted among those efforts of the later bourgeois spirit
which no longer hope to conceive and form in any concrete manner the
universally human, but which strive instead to accomplish this end
through abstraction, through the process of exclusion of the accidental by
means of maintaining a firm grasp on a universal which had gone astray
in the reconciliation with the particular. The metaphysical truth in this
work becomes a residue, as in Kantian philosophy the contentless sim-
plicity of the pure "I think." This residual nature of truth, the rejection
I Co1111' o ~itio11 , Co~11posas, r111d Works
sponds in its deceptively closed surface to the open fractures which the last
quartets demonstrate. The tendency to an archaicization which here is still
tempered, is shared by the Missa with the late style of almost all great
composers from Bach to Schoenberg. They have all, as exponents of the
bourgeois spirit, reached the limits of that spirit without, however, in the
bourgeois world ever being able to climb beyond it on their own. All of
them had to dredge up the past in the anguish of the present as sacrifices
to the future. Whether this sacrifice was fruitful in Beethoven's case,
whether the essence of that which wns left out is really the cipher of a
realized cosmos, or whether as in the later attempts to reconstruct objec-
tivity, the Missa already failed, all this can be judged only if historical-
philosophical reflection on the structure of the work were to penetrate even
into the innermost compositional cells. The fact that today, after the de-
velopmental principle has been driven to its historical conclusion and has
lost its meaningfulness, composing sees itself obliged to segmentation of
parts, to articulations restricted by fields without any thought given to the
methodology of the Missa's composition, encourages us to take Beet-
hoven's plcn in the grentest of his works for more thnn merely a plen.
been greatly expanded, chiefly in the contrapuntal passages; the instrumental writ-·
ing is considerably intensified, and the technical difficulties for both singers and
instrumentalists are very much more severe .... [The Missa is] outstanding for
[its] extremely ingenious thematic elaboration."
4. See Paul Bekker, Beetliovc11, trans. M. M. Bozman (London: J.M. Dent and
Sons, 1932), p. 274: "The finale of this 'Divine Heroic Symphony' reaches its
climax in the Et vitam Vl!11t11ri . ... It is perhaps the climax of the whole tremendous
Missa solcm11is."
5. Concerning Steuermann, seep. 159 n.3 .
6. I have not located any essay concerning the finale of the Jupiter Symphony
by Thrnsyhulos C.cor~iades.