Missa sacra

Whoever attempted to compose a Latin mass in the middle of the 19th century had to compete with great models and traditional composition techniques. Bach's Mass in B minor and Beethoven's Missa solemnis, but even his earlier Mass in C major (performed by Schumann) are among the key works of a great mass tradition in the reception of High Romanticism. Not unlike Schubert and later Bruckner before, Schumann's Mass in C minor too is bound by tradition, yet finds its very own formulation of the 'Ordinarium Missae', the characteristic features of which point to the late style of the composer.