Bach’s “Osanna in Excelsis”: Celebrating a Milestone at The Listeners’ Club

We begin the year by celebrating a milestone at The Listeners’ Club. This is our 2,000th post.

I have enjoyed exploring all of this music with you during these years, and I look forward to continuing the journey.

For today, I have selected the brief and festive Osanna in excelsis (“Hosanna in the highest”) which opens the fourth section of Bach’s Mass in B minor, BWV 232. Set in 3/8 time, its lively forward motion suggests the French courtly dance of the passepied. Beginning as an ecstatic whisper, its contrapuntal voices grow into a jubilant and soaring proclamation, punctuated by trumpets and timpani. The counterpoint takes on magical, angelic qualities. Just after the 1:00 mark, notice the way the rising voices enter and float on top of one another in an ever intensifying celestial pyramid. The line is picked up and brought back to earth by the instrumental basso continuo.

Bach compiled the monumental B minor Mass over decades and completed the work in 1759, a year before his death. Blending the Lutheran cantata and the Catholic Mass, it was not written for a specific occasion, but as a gift to posterity and as a majestic summation. The Mass in B minor was premiered 84 years after Bach’s death. We will explore the complete work in a future post.

Recordings

• J.S. Bach: Mass in B Minor, BWV 232, Philippe Herreweghe, Collegium Vocale Gent Harmonia Mundi

Featured Image: “The Rocket” (1909), Edward Middleton Manigault