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“From The Heart, May It Go To The Heart”: Liturgy And Embodiment In Beethoven’S Missa Solemnis, Brigid J. Coleridge
“From The Heart, May It Go To The Heart”: Liturgy And Embodiment In Beethoven’S Missa Solemnis, Brigid J. Coleridge
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Since its 1824 premiere in St. Petersburg, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, Op. 123 has only ever been performed in secular concert settings. This performance history is reflected in critical trends in Missa solemnis scholarship. Following Adorno’s 1959 essay that characterized the Missa as “alienated,” critical perspectives on Beethoven’s last Mass have largely responded to the work as "absolute" music, indifferent to or disregarding the Mass text. Despite its exclusively secular performance history, however, the Missa solemnis was written for use in the Mass liturgy (at the installation of the Archduke Rudolf as Archbishop of Olmütz). Moreover, the Missa was composed …