Beethoven Agnus Dei from Missa Solemnis

After the sublime Sanctus, the final Agnus Dei movement defies expectations. Usually a finale summarizes and “wraps up” a multi-movement work. In this finale, Beethoven not only continues an original approach to mass composition, he perhaps bites off too much, tries to include too many new ideas, too many contrasts, and too many musical references to successfully bind them all together. The Agnus Dei is bold and extraordinary, but not entirely successful. Many find the ending particularly abrupt and disappointing.

I’ll try to address all of that, but keep in mind that the music is indeed extraordinary. Also, finding a way to balance the monumental Gloria and Credo movements was no small task. Like those movements, the Agnus Dei is a work of multiple diverse sections and moods.

Following the sublime and quiet ending of the Sanctus, we might expect music more upbeat. Surprise. The slow tempo of the Sanctus is slowed down even more as the Agnus Dei opens in dark tragedy, in B minor. That was the key of the dark Christe Eleison in the opening movement. A solo bass singer pleads an emotional prayer for peace.

Then the alto and other soloists enter with expressive solos over the choir.

The choir and soloists continue this somber plea for mercy in tragic B minor. Altogether this opening is a full 105 measures total in Adagio tempo.

The second section introduces the main idea of Beethoven’s Agnus Dei—the setting of the text “Grant us peace.” (Dona nobis pacem). Beethoven assigns an unusual performance indication for this section: Prayer for inner and outer peace (Bitte um innern und äussern Frieden). Clearly the composer’s clue to the spiritual goal of this final movement.

We are now in Beethoven’s designated heaven key (D major), as the music quietly unfolds in a double fugue. Its principal subject is an arched scale going up four notes and down four notes, twice, reminiscent of the beautiful contrapuntal lines that ended the Sanctus. The double fugue builds to a beautiful tune on “Dona nobis pacem” that features two falling 6ths. This tune becomes a motto for the movement and will return several times. Think of this motto as the ultimate spiritual “goal” of the movement. I only mention the interval of the 6th because it plays a significant role later in the movement.

The opening tragic music and this beautiful fugue praying for peace together make an exposition for the Agnus Dei. Regarding the development, or middle, section that follows, we can quote the Monty Python motto: “And now for something completely different.” :)

As if from a great distance, a timpani beats a low note that introduces a rapid whisper of strings. The key is B flat—quite harmonically distant from the B minor that began the movement. A trumpet joins the timpani in sounding a military fanfare. The alto and then tenor enter with the marking “timidly, anxiously” (timidamente. ängstlich). The choir enters forte pleading for mercy and the military music continues very dramatically. Then the soloists intone the “Grant us peace” motto for the second time.

Why military music? Is it expressing the might of God? Is it a reference to the strife of war? Is it a depiction of our inner spiritual battle? It’s sure exciting music, but how does it fit into the rest of the music?

The specific answer is that this is a clear reference to the Agnus Dei Haydn’s Mass in Time of War. I’ve pointed out all the references to other music in Missa Solemnis. I believe this is very much what Wagner had in mind when he talked about a Gesammtkunstwerk (synthesis of the arts). Not simply the idea of combining different art forms–in this case, symphony, choral music, opera, military music, etc. But also collecting and foiling music from different eras and genres. The aesthetic in Mahler’s symphonies certainly stems from this process of reference. I’ve pointed out Beethoven’s nods to Gregorian chant, to Palestrina, and to Handel. Now we hear a literal reference to Haydn, using a piece that Beethoven contemporaries probably knew well.

In this Haydn excerpt, note the tragic tone of the Agnus Dei in minor, not unlike the opening of Beethoven’s Agnus Dei. More direct is the similar use of timpani and trumpet.

The answer to this invocation of war is the second section of the development, a forceful fugue on the subject based on those falling 6ths I mentioned in the “Grant us peace” motto. And it’s a reveal. The subject is an actual quote from Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah, the part with the words “He shall reign forever and ever.” Recall that the Gloria movement directly quoted Handel’s setting for “Hallelujah.” Now we have a second direct quote from the same piece. That’s why I said in the introduction that it seems the effect and affect of Handel’s Messiah was a deep source for Beethoven’s intention with the Missa Solemnis.

Notice the similarity between Beethoven’s fugue subject and Handel’s fugue tune for “He Shall Reign Forever and Ever” in the “Hallelujah Chorus.”

So Beethoven in this Agnus Dei is quoting not one, but two of his giant heroes: Handel and his teacher Haydn. Think of how many different ideas we listeners have to hold together in our head so far in this Agnus Dei—the tragic music of the opening, the imploring plea for mercy, the battlefield quoting Haydn’s war mass, the exultant music quoting Handel’s Messiah.

The orchestra seems to respond to this tension with an interlude marked Presto. It begins joyously (like the Handel) and then becomes increasingly complex and even dissonant.

The orchestral interlude precedes the most exciting moment in the Agnus Dei, a second military outburst, now not only with trumpets and timpani, but with low brass and the entire orchestra accompanying the choir. This climactic music is the retransition before the recapitulation and the return of the home key.

This recapitulation is where Beethoven’s proportion becomes problematic. It’s truncated. It functions simultaneously as a recapitulation and a coda. There is no recall of the large opening tragic section. Instead, the subject from the first fugue in the exposition returns, with its rising and falling four notes on the text “Grant Us Peace.” Variations of the fugue tune culminate in the “Grant us Peace” motto, sung softly twice by the choir, punctuated by quiet timpani strokes. Finally the motto repeats forte in the choir, and the orchestra ends the Agnus Dei with an abrupt brief fanfare of D major chords.

There are several reasons this ending is so unsatisfying. First is its harmony. It doesn’t end with a satisfying cadence. The preceding motto ends with a deceptive cadence to B minor. The orchestra quietly echoes the deceptive cadence and then abruptly jumps back to D major and ends the movement with loud tonic chords, but not as triumphant a proclamation as the choir sounded a minute earlier in the coda. We don’t hear a satisfying dominant chord to affirm the arrival of home key, or a subdominant chord, that would impart a final “Amen.” Instead, we’re left up in the air, as if the music hasn’t really ended, that there is more to go. Had Beethoven just inserted even 3 more measures before the final fanfare, moving from the subdominant to the dominant, those last chords would feel conclusive. It’s puzzling. Beethoven was a supreme master of endings, let alone harmony. Think of the exultant, almost maniacal ending of the ninth symphony, for instance. Or the end of the Gloria in this very mass.

There are direct parallels with the satisfying ending of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony. Both are in 6/8 meter. Both conclude with similar hymns of thanksgiving and Beethoven follows both hymns with “echoes” of their concluding cadences. Finally, both works end with several measures of fanfare and arpeggios on the tonic. But the Pastoral Symphony prepares those tonic measures with a glorious dominant chord, an arpeggio “rainbow” in the cellos ascending and descending. The ending of Missa Solemnis has neither a dominant chord preparation or an arpeggio “rainbow.”. Instead we experience harmonic frustration or suspension rather than conclusion.

The other puzzling thing about the ending of Missa Solemnis is that Beethoven doesn’t summarize the journey—something he does obsessively, in all of his other music. Yes, subdued timpani distantly recall the military fanfares. But why no reference to the long stretch of tragic music that began the Agnus Dei? The Handel fugue theme in the development only reappears if we make the connection that the “Grant us Peace” motto also falls by a 6th like the Handel subject. Pretty subtle for a real “wrap-up.”

Finally, there is the problem of proportion. The combined recapitulation-coda is too compressed to balance either the exposition or the development. When you add to that the lack of thematic return and the unsatisfying harmonic conclusion, it becomes clearer why many people feel disappointed with the Agnus Dei. Without the return of the opening music, all the varied music of the Agnus Dei doesn’t seem to bind together. These structural issues don’t arise in any of the other movements. It makes me wonder if this is one important reason the Missa Solemnis is still not as well known as Beethoven intended. As a composer, I am too aware how a satisfying or exciting ending has more to do with the success of a work than all of the music that happens before. Who knows? Had Beethoven concluded with the exultant ending of the Gloria movement, perhaps Missa Solemnis would be performed more often!

Beethoven’s three years of labor on this mass are abundantly evident. Why he permitted the incomplete structure and ending of the Agnus Dei is a mystery to me.

Conclusion

What I’ve tried to do in this essay is to provide listening tools to help you hear beyond these problematic issues and to enjoy the gorgeous moments in this movement. Start with the “Grant us Peace” motto. It is glorious. So too are the fugal sections. And don’t forget the pathos in the pleas for mercy that open this movement.

Finally, I hope I have helped you to hear the entire Missa Solemnis as a cohesive monumental opus. In many ways, the imagination of this work even goes far beyond Beethoven’s visions in his late quartets or 9th symphony. It goes beyond any Mahler symphony.

Consider the entire journey. The proclamation to God and the tragedy of Christ in the opening Kyrie. The continual ascending ecstasy of the Gloria. The epic saga of the Credo, encapsulating so many musical styles and containing an unbelievably wide spectrum of emotions and musical textures. The holy “chambers” of the Sanctus, culminating in the breathtaking “violin concerto” in the Benedictus. And finally the tragedy, battle, and ultimate prayer for piece in the Agnus Dei. Something Beethoven articulates in actual words for performance instructions: prayer for inner and outer peace. This is the intention he had, to instill a deep hunger for peace in humanity by laboring for years over this work that he regarded as his supreme masterpiece.