Missa Salisburgensis (Heinrich Biber)
Music files
Full score and parts
- Editor: Philip Legge (added 2007-12-10) Score information: A3, 4 pages, 320 kB Copyright: © 2007 Philip Legge
- Edition notes: Full score. This is only a beta version of the score - I will periodically update this file when I finish each movement (Kyrie, Gloria etc) :)
General Information
Title: Missa Salisburgensis à 54
Composer: Heinrich Biber
Number of voices: 16vv Voicing: SSAATTBB–SSAATTBB
Genre: Sacred, Mass
Language: Latin
Instruments: 2 string groups (2 violins, 4 violas each), 2 descant recorders, treble and tenor recorders, 2 oboes, 2 clarini, 2 cornetti, 3 trombones, 2 trumpet groups (4 trumpets, timpani each), 2 organs, continuo
Published: Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich, Band 20 (Vienna, 1903) edited by Guido Adler; attributed there to Orazio Benevoli (1628).
Description: This mass and the accompanying hymn Plaudite tympana were composed by Biber in 1682 for the 1100th anniversary of the founding of the archbishopric of Salzburg by Saint Rupert. The vocal and instrumental forces comprise 16 solo and ripieno voice parts, and at least 38 instruments (the continuo is assumed to include a bass viol amongst other bass instruments, and possibly another keyboard instrument in addition to the two organs).
The score survives as a manuscript inscribed on massive 80 centimetre tall pages. From the time of its rediscovery in the late 19th century the work was attributed to the early 17th century composer Orazio Benevoli (who would have been 23 years old at the assumed date of composition), or the later Salzburg composer Andreas Hofer, however the noted Biber scholar Ernst Hintermaier showed in the 1970s that Biber is the only possible composer of the work.
External websites: Wikipedia entry on the Missa Salisburgensis