Editor's Note: Written in 1777, the Missa Sancti Hieronymi (Saint Jerome Mass) in C major is scored for soloists, wind orchestra, and mixed choir. It is also known as the "Oboe Mass" for the prominent use of that instrument in the opening Kyrie and the Credo. It is one of many Masses that Michael Haydn wrote in [...]
“Should not church music be mostly for the heart?” —Joseph Martin Kraus The Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead—the Requiem, sometimes called Missa pro Defunctis (or Defuncto) or Messe des Morts—is surely the most dramatic of liturgical forms and has inspired countless composers, from medieval times to the present. What the Czech composer Antonin Dvořák, a [...]
Michael Haydn's Requiem—like the composer himself—has receded into the historical mists. But this astounding work heavily influenced Mozart's own Requiem and is worthy of comparison with every other setting of the Mass for the Dead ever composed. The 1984 film Amadeus brought to the general public's attention that many minor composers of music—such as Antonio [...]