Carlos CamejoMUSIC HISTORY II4/14/2015Did Franz Schubert Kill Stile AnticoFranz Schubert was an Austrian composer and pianist of essentially, both the Classical and Romantic Eras. He wrote pieces for voice and piano, which he codified as the lieder, or songs and works for orchestra among many things. Like the Austrian compatriot musicians of his time, and nearly anyone before and after him, Schubert wrote for the Church. He wrote several works intended to be performed in religious settings, like Masses, compositions and even something for the Jewish community.Figure 1: Psalm 92 by Schubert, m. 1-4[endnoteRef:1] [1: Breitkpf & Hartel, Psalm 92, Schubert]

His main religious compositions, were settings of the Ordinary of the Mass as codified in 1570s Quo Primum, a document by Pope St. Pius V making the current form of the Catholic Mass the form to be used worldwide. As a well-known composer in the vein of his Germanic compatriots, Schubert set these to music numerous times. His most well-known, Mass no. 2 in G major is the focus of this analysis.The Ordinary of the Mass has five words and six movements that Schubert set to music. In his epoch of rapidly changing musical styles, he set this to music, taking on a fairly simplistic style in composition of his religious opuses. The people around him who were also composers took a more refined approach in their works, going for the style of the era of their forefathers a style known as stile antico. Schuberts Austrian compatriot and fellow dweller of the precursor to modern rocks cabal of artists felled in youth, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart took notice and employed it, as you will see below.

Figure 2: Mozarts Krnungmesse[endnoteRef:2], the 4th movement. Notice the intricacies in the bass line, where likely the low brass/strings wouldve played. Also pay attention to the vocal lines. [endnoteRef:3] [2: Breitkpf & Hartel, Coronation Mass, Mozart] [3: Breitkpf & Hartel, Mass no. 2 in G, Schubert]

Contrast toFigure III: Schuberts Mass no. 2 in G. The stile antico of his time, had likely been over, with composers choosing to set the Ordinary in a more methodical, simplistic style.It could be likened to the development of languages, inasmuch that languages over thousands of years continued to dramatically simplify and modify themselves into whatever their modern form may be allowing for some modern corruptions and introductions of foreign words and technological development in the lexicon. E.g., the Hebrew of the epoch of the Old Testament prophets millennia ago is not the same Hebrew heard walking through Tel Aviv in 2015. The contrast in styles to the writing of Church music seemingly introduced by Schubert could be a similar analogy. To again use the analogy between development of language and development of music, think of how certain dialects of a language (certain dialects of English, Dominican Spanish, etc.) will drop endings of words and speak in a faster way than normal, seemingly omitting words and almost slurring them. Other dialects will articulate words and speak whole and inviolate, like in some upper-class dialects of British English. In writing for the Ordinary of the Mass, the latter analogy is what often must be used that is, having all the words whole and inviolate for the majority of the year and days of said year. There are some allowed exceptions, notably when the text would be inappropriate for the situation or if its a weekday. The Gloria in Excelsis Deo is not said during penitential seasons like Lent or Advent, for example. The Credo in unum Deum is not said during weekdays to maintain brevity. The pomp of the era in music, though, was left to Sundays, which does not seem to excuse Schubert of his weird omissions of the text. However, its possible that the Mass omissions were created by the Josephinian reforms in Austrian church music.[endnoteRef:4] He was an Austrian emperor that wanted to introduce reforms in the Church in Austria, one of them being the reduction of the saintly, grandiose and Handel-esque regalia of its Sunday Masses, instead relegating them to solemnities like Easter and Christmas. Its possible that this is, to keep in that style of limited pomp and maintain his work as a Church musician, Schubert omitted words of the Ordinary for brevity. Though in the large mass of monarchies, war and the early musings of the Enlightenment between the Moor coast and Sweden lied the hegemony of the European Church, in which Schuberts job as a composer would be severely compromised by daring to omit anything, Austria did not seem to mind[endnoteRef:5], as his Masses were performed in their respective audiences each time. [4: De La Rosa, Louis Michael. The Influence of Josephinism upon the Omission of Text in Schuberts Mass in G. Masters thesis, San Jose State University, 1990.] [5: Moon, Jason. "GUIDE TO FRANZ SCHUBERTS RELIGIOUS SONGS."Indiana University. N.p., n.d. Web.p.24]

Figure IV: One of the many ommissions of words Its possible that through the reforms of the emperor, Schubert started a trend. With his Austrian compatriots composing fairly conservative, musically complex settings of the Mass before him, in a different time before Joseph II had the musical and religious reforms into place, they were given free reign to do as they wished. Once the reforms were in place, the musical regalia that accompanied the epoch of Mozart and Haydn was over and the simplistic style of Schubert began. Stile antico was a way to bring Church music back to the generation before it Classical to Baroque, e.g. See one of the examples of complex instrumental writing in Mozarts work for an example. The Baroque era was known for complex, intense vocal and instrumental compositions and writing the melismatic and evocative vocal lines in J.S. Bachs Johannes-Passion as an example. Stile antico was a way to return to that and abandon the new style. It literally means old style. However, its possible that through Schubert, he ended stile antico and made the primary form of Church music the style of the current era. A disconnect from the other aspects of European Catholicism, which was (and would be for another century and a half) elements predating modern European civilization words of a language not spoken colloquially in two thousand years, the writings of saints canonized who rebelled against 3rd century apostasies. The style of returning to the musical epoch before has not really been a thing since pre-Schubert. You can even look at todays Church music and while the Western world is not under the hegemony of grand kings, elegant Cathedrals and regal religion, you can see today that it is not trying to express and convey much pomp and regalia. Simply your average choral harmonizations out of your everyday hymnal with an everyday organ accompaniment that may or may not go full in the last verse or add improvisation. A striking contrast to the opuses of Mozart and Haydn, that fueled the Viennese way of composing Church music with as much fervor, joy and grandeur as possible while still retaining to the ways of old.