Mass (Jongen)

The Belgian composer Joseph Jongen is known mostly for instrumental and chamber music. He has written around 60 art songs and secular choral works, but little sacred music. After he retired as the director of the Brussels Conservatoire in 1939 however, his interest in choral compositions for the church was raised by Georges Alexis, who had studied with him at the Liège Conservatoire. Alexis possibly initiated the writing of a mass to celebrate the 700th anniversary of the feast Corpus Christi in Liège.[1]

During world War II, Jongen could not compose anything from August 1944, due to the depressing circumstances of his life at the time. His brother Alphonse who had been a canon at the Liège Cathedral and to whom he had been close, died after surgery.[2][1] His son Jacques was arrested by the Gestapo. Jacques was freed again in March 1945, and Jongen wrote later: "It was then that I began to write the Mass."[1]

Jongen completed the Mass at Sart-lez-Spa between 9 July and 16 August 1945 and dedicated it to the memory of his brother Alphonse. Jongen first wrote a missa brevis, omitting the Credo from the mass ordinary.[1] The full title is Messe en l'honeur du Saint-Sacrement, marking it as a mass in honour of the Blessed Sacrament.[2]

The Mass was first performed on Corpus Christi, 23 June 1946, during a pontifical mass at the Cathédrale Saint-Paul de Liège, conducted by the composer.[2] The work is also known as Messe de la Fête-Dieu, after the feast day.[1]

Jongen completed it to a setting of the full mass by adding the Credo in 1949. It was published by Oxford University Press in 1990.[2]

The mass is structured in six movements.[2] All four voices SATB are at times divided, mostly in homophony. The voices are marked "solo" at the beginning of the Benedictus. The brass ensemble consists of two trumpets, four horns, three trombones and tuba.[2]

In the following table of the movements, the markings and time signatures are taken from the vocal score.[2][3]

Incipit	Voices	Marking	Key	Time
Kyrie	SATB	Modéré	G minor
Gloria	SATTBB	Allegro (ma moderato)	D major	3/4
Credo	SATB	Allegro moderato	D major	2/2
Sanctus	S A T B SATB	Maestoso (Fanfare)	D major
Benedictus	SATB	Andantino (non troppo mosso)	G major	12/8
Agnus dei	SATB	Grave	E minor

Alexis inspired several musical features of the Mass, such including elements from Gregorian chant, the inclusion of brass instruments after the model of Giovanni Gabrieli, and writing more counterpoint than before, such as fugato for "Pleni sunt caeli" of the Sanctus, and counterpoint in the voices in the "Cum Sancto Spiritu" of the Gloria and the "Et resurrexit" of the Credo. Links between movements are subtle, "often texturally rather than thematically related".[1]

The first performance of the Mass in Germany was performed by the Reger-Chor, conducted by Gabriel Dessauer, in 1988 before it was printed, at the Stiftskirche of Aschaffenburg, repeated in St. Bonifatius, Wiesbaden.[4]

The Mass was recorded in 1994 by the Brussels Choral Society and the Luc Capouillez Brass Ensemble, conducted by Tom Cunningham.[5] It was recorded again in 2007 by St. John's College Choir, Cambridge, the London City Brass and organist Paul Provost, conducted by David Hill.[1]

• Works by Joseph Jongen (1873–1953) / Jongen's Mass for choir, organ and brass edited by John Scott Whiteley and Tom Cunningham Tom Cunningham
• Belgian Choral Works mdt.co.uk
• Review: Rachmaninov Vespers / Jongen Mass Chichester Singers