Bradley M. Johnson, horn
Daniel W. Hoy, baritone
Jeremy Martin, bassoon
Leinaala Dicus, bassoon
Stephanie Simmons, cello

Quoniam, tu solus sanctus
Tu solus Dominus
Tu Solus Altissimus
Jesu Christe

For you alone are holy
You alone are the Lord
You alone are high above all
Jesus Christ

Johann Sebastian Bach was arguably the greatest composer who ever lived. Bach’s tremendous output was established largely through his association with churches throughout Germany, for which he was asked to provide new music for Sunday services each week. While many of Bach’s work consist of transcriptions of other works, adaptations of his own compositions, and harmonizations of traditional chorales (such as Ein Feste Burg), they still show Bach’s incredibly musical mind. It is through the works of Bach that traditional music theory is established.

The first section of Bach’s Mass in B Minor was conceived as a presentation to the elector of Leipzig, who was a Roman Catholic, in 1733. Despite Bach’s Lutheran background, his research of the Roman Catholic mass and Latin polyphonic liturgical compositions gave him the foundation on which to construct the piece. The Kyrie and Gloria (from which this selection is taken from) were completed in 1733, the Credo was completed by 1745, and the Sanctus was borrowed from Bach’s 1724 composition. Over twenty-five percent of the mass was borrowed from previous works, and the mass was put together in 1748.

This selection is the only part of the mass in which the horn is utilized. As is characteristic of the music of Bach, the music for the bass is filled with syllables in which multiple notes are sung. The horn, like in most Baroque brass compositions, has many notes in the upper register, whereas the lower notes are spaced out in larger intervals. This is because brass instruments in the Baroque era did not have valves. Bach maintains a sense of balance by pairing the deep bass part with the higher voice of the horn. This movement leads directly into the next and final movement of the Gloria.

This setting of “Quoniam, tu solus Sanctus” uses what would be comparable to the ensemble that would be normally be used for this piece. The horn part is being played on a Paxman descant horn (B-flat and High-F tubing), while the continuo is being played by the cello.

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Latest Update: 11/6/99
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