Litanies, Vespers

Abstract

Mozart wrote four litanies, two of which are settings of the Litany of Loreto and two of the Litany of the Sacrament. The text of the Litany of Loreto, codified by papal approval in 1587, consists of a Kyrie, multiple responsorial petitions to the Virgin Mary, and a concluding Agnus Dei. It still forms part of the liturgy on Easter Saturday and is used in the ordination of priests and in penitential processions. The text of the Litany of the Sacrament, in contrast, was not codified. It was subject to local variants and intended solely for non-liturgical devotions. An opening Kyrie, and a concluding Agnus Dei with “Miserere” frame a four-part central section describing, with a wealth of words and images, the redemptive powers of the Eucharist. Mozart’s litanies come closer than his masses to the language of contemporary opera, though his contemporaries would not have considered this a stylistic inconsistency.

The extraordinarily concise Lauretanische Litanei in B-flat, dating from May 1771, K. 109, contrasts with its considerably more spacious counterpart in D (K. 195). The first of the sacramental litanies, in B-flat (K. 125), is clearly patterned after a D-major litany by Mozart’s father. The fugue at “Pignus futurae” is almost long-winded, with 226 bars; Mozart later made it more concise by deleting 46 bars. Here, too, the young composer has taken his bearings on outside models, especially Johann Michael Haydn, two of whose “Pignus futurae” fugues he wrote out for purposes of study. In variety and level of invention, the Sacramental Litany of spring 1776 (K. 243) proves to be especially engaging. It is one of Mozart’s best church compositions and was performed many times in Salzburg and Augsburg during his lifetime. Mozart’s two settings of the Vespers, K. 321 and 339, were written during his final years in Salzburg. Like the litanies, they embody both basic types of Vesper composition. K. 321 is a Vesperae de Confessore and thus includes the psalms “Dixit Dominus” (Ps. 109 in the Vulgate Bible), “Confitebor” (Ps. 110), “Beatus Vir” (Ps. 111), “Laudate pueri” (Ps. 112), and “Laudate Dominum” (Ps. 116). The Vesperae de Beatae Mariae Virgini, and hence K. 339, includes the “Dixit Dominus” (Ps. 109) followed by the psalms “Laudate pueri” (Ps. 112), “Laetatus sum” (Ps. 121), “Nisi Dominus” (Ps. 125), and “Lauda Jerusalem” (Ps. 147). Both sets of Vespers conclude with a setting of the “Magnificat” (Luke 1:46–55). Mozart had already produced earlier settings of the two outside movements, “Dixit Dominus” and “Magnificat,” in the summer of 1774 (K. 193).