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Missa Providentiae is aKyrie–Gloria Mass inD minor composed byAntonio Caldara, which around 1728 was expanded into aMissa tota byJan Dismas Zelenka: this composer derived aSanctus andAgnus Dei from Caldara'sKyrie andGloria, and added aCredo,ZWV 31, of his own hand. Around 1738–1741,Johann Sebastian Bach made a copy of a Sanctus,BWV 239, which was based on the first section of the Gloria of Caldara's Kyrie–Gloria Mass.[1][2]
The Mass is composed forsoprano,alto,tenor andbass soloist singers, and a choir consisting of the four same voice types (SATB). The orchestra consists ofstrings (twoviolin parts and oneviola part) andbasso continuo, to which in some movements twooboes are added. The oboes are silent throughout Zelenka's Credo, and the BWV 239 Sanctus only requires a four-part choir, strings and continuo.[1][2]
The Kyrie of Caldara'sMissa Providentiae, in D minor, consists of the usual three movements ("Kyrie", "Christe" and "Kyrie II"), in which the singers are only accompanied by strings and continuo. The Gloria is subdivided in 9 sections, in some of which the oboes join the rest of the orchestra.[3]
Zelenka composed and acquired several Kyrie–Gloria Masses for the court atDresden, where he was employed from the early 1710s. Dresden was the capital of theElectorate of Saxony: Saxony was dominantlyProtestant, but theelector,Augustus the Strong, had converted toCatholicism in order to become eligible as king ofPoland. Initially, Augustus's Catholicism was a private matter when in Saxony, with acourt chapel within the palace building. In 1708, however, the formerOpernhaus am Taschenberg, adjacent to the palace, opened asHofkirche (court church), open to the general public. Kyrie–Gloria Masses were seen as a Protestant practice, and thus the musicians of the Dresden court started to transform these mass compositions intoMissae totae.[4][5]
Between 1725 and 1733 Caldara'sMissa Providentiae was converted in such aMissa tota: Zelenka derived the music for the Sanctus and Agnus Dei of theMissa Providentiae from the Kyrie and Gloria composed by Caldara. Sanctus and Agnus Dei each have three sections. Further, around 1728, he added a Credo in four sections, ZWV 31, for SATB soloists and choir, strings and continuo.[1][3][6]
Around 1738–1741 Bach made afair copy of a Sanctus for SATB choir, strings and continuo. The Sanctus was adopted as Bach's in the 19th-centuryBach-Gesellschaft-Ausgabe, and in the first edition of theBach-Werke-Verzeichnis (1950), where it got 239 as BWV number. In the second half of the 20th century, its authenticity was doubted in several publications, e.g. in an article by Hans T. David, published in 1961. The 1998 edition of theBach-Werke-Verzeichnis listed the composition as a doubtful work. In the 2010s theBach Digital website described BWV 239 as a work derived from the first section of the Gloria of Caldara'sMissa Providentiae.[2][7][8]
A recording of BWV 239 is for instance included inApocryphal Bach Masses II,cpo 777561-2, byWolfgang Helbich conducting the Alsfelder Vokalensemble (recorded 2009, released 2012).[9][10] A 20th-centuryADD recording is included inBach: Missae Breves,Erato 4509-97236-2, byMichel Corboz conducting the Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne and Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne.[11] Both recordings take somewhat less than 2 minutes for the Sanctus.[9][11]
