Grande Messe des morts

In May 1760, Gossec’s Missa pro defunctis (the original title of the work) rang out in the church of the Couvent des Jacobins on Rue Saint-Jacques in Paris. The success of its first performance led to several repeat performances until 1792, although the material handed down to posterity was never performed in its entirety (the order of movements given above corresponds to the first edition, of 1780, published under the title of Messe des morts). Although it continues to raise philological questions even today, its structure and the texts it sets to music are also surprising: no Kyrie; offertory on Vado et non revertar instead of the customary Domine, Jesu Christe; Sanctus without Benedictus; repeat of the text of the Introit at the end of the work (to different music). An unconventional liturgical work, it was used however for commemorative patriotic events during the Revolutionary period, but never—seemingly—for funerals. Its style combines rigorous counterpoint (fugue on the two “Et lux perpetua”) with ideas from the world of opera, particularly in the Dies irae and the offertory. For the Tuba mirum, Gossec called for two orchestras, describing their startling impact as follows: “The audience was scared by the terrifying, sinister effect of three trombones with four clarinets, four trumpets, four horns and eight bassoons hidden in a distant, high place in the church to announce the Last Judgement, while the orchestra expressed terror with muted tremolos on all the stringed instruments.” This made him the first composer to incorporate the type of orchestral effects in a requiem that composers would turn to good advantage in the next century. It is impossible not to think of Berlioz here.