Chapter Ten - Carl Czerny’s Mass No. 2 in C Major: Church Music and the Biedermeier Spirit

Summary

In a February 1844 Allgemeine Wiener Musik-Zeitung review of Carl Czerny's Offertory, Op. 737, the writer refers to the “inspired writing,” “beautiful cantabile,” and “equally effective accompaniment” found in the music. The article goes on to praise the religious effect and general suitability of the writing style and further suggests that the greatness and respect accorded to Hummel, Mozart, and Beethoven also be accorded Czerny. Given Czerny's singular reputation as a writer of keyboard exercises, it is unlikely that musicians today would place him amid such a pantheon of composers, particularly in the realm of sacred music. Indeed, Czerny's association with dry pedagogy has largely prevented recognition of the nature of Czerny's other music. A study of the recently completed performance edition of Czerny's Mass No. 2 in C Major (1830/1842), however, provides an opportunity to observe Czerny's compositional technique and approach to sacred music in detail and to place his work into a context of contemporary Mass composition. While it is unlikely that the results will convince many to rank Czerny with at least the latter two of the reviewer's trio, his sacred music nonetheless displays a distinctive and interesting style, one that epitomizes the musical Biedermeier in its combination of classical formal constraint and cautious innovation.

The same review tells us that Czerny was not a composer of church music by mere coincidence, but that higher aspirations as a composer and an inner spiritual dedication compelled a turn toward sacred music composition. The vast number of sacred compositions in his oeuvre is further proof of Czerny's dedication to this genre. Under the title “Works in Manuscript,” the inventory of his compositions compiled after his death by the publisher R. Cocks & Co. lists:

• 3. Eleven Solemn Masses for Voices and Orchestra;

• 4. One Hundred and Six Offertories and Graduals for ditto;

• 5. Two Te Deums for ditto;

• 6. A Collection of Cantatas for ditto.

Very little is known about the genesis of Czerny's sacred works. From the title under which these compositions appear in his autobiography, “Works in Manuscript,” we know these works were not written for publication—indeed, most remain in manuscript form to this day. Further, we know that at least some of these works were performed during Czerny's lifetime: two of the large-scale Masses exist in revised versions quite possibly prepared for performances, and an 1828 report in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung describes a performance of what must have been his first.