Missa Sancti Josephi ZWV 14

Scoring: Soli SATB, Coro SATB, 2 Fl, 2 Ob, 2 Cor, 2 Tr, Timp, 2 Vl, Va, Bc

Jan Dismas Zelenka’s Missa Sancti Josephi occupies a key position among his circa twenty large masses. In this mass, probably composed in 1732 for a feast of a Saint (thus, without a Credo), for the first time the composer took up the operatic style of Johann Adolf Hasse – the latter had first performed his opera Cleofide in Dresden in 1731. Zelenka’s unmistakable individuality created a completely independent work with great technical demands which in many details presages the important masses among his late works.

The sole source for the first edition of this mass, published here for the first time, is a considerably damaged autograph score which, however, can be reliably reconstructed. It is preserved in the Sächsische Landes- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden.