Setting: Studenten messe – Antonio Lotti
Plainsong propers
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Missa in A major (Op. 126) – Josef Rheinberger (1839 – 1901)
Although Josef Rheinberger is not one of the 19th century’s “big names”, he should be. He was almost exactly contemporaneous with Johannes Brahms. Rheinberger had an unusually successful career spanning more than 45 years and encompassing nearly 200 published compositions. In the early part of his career, he also built an illustrious reputation as a virtuoso pianist and organist. Later in life he became a sought-after teacher of composition as well as the organ.
Though he was born in the principality of Lichtenstein, Rheinberger spent nearly his entire life in Munich — first as a student, then as a virtuoso and promoter of opera, and finally 33 years as professor of counterpoint and organ at the Royal School of Music. His writing contains elements of the chromaticism characteristic of Bruckner’s motets and the gently contoured melodic features and tightly-knit harmonic style of Stanford. This Sunday’s setting of the Ordinary of the Mass in church (his Opus 126) for sopranos and altos exhibits Rheinberger’s own straightforward yet extremely effective treatment of texts, highlighted by his masterful use of harmony and rhythmic inflection to colour and inform the phrases.
Gerald Harder