Marketing: new German text increases sales potential of Mass
Here you can see the copy of the Mass in C major op. 86 in a vocal score with basso continuo underneath. Unusual for us is that the German text is not a direct translation of the Latin Ordinary but a free rendering, even a new version. The text was written by the Silesian violinist and conductor Benedict Scholz (ca. 1760-1824). On the reverse of the cover (image 2) Beethoven's secretary Anton Schindler (who owned the manuscript for a long time) made a note of how Beethoven apparently reacted to this copy: "It was on 20 April 1823, while we were having our midday meal, when the Countess Schafgotsch's steward delivered the vocal score with a letter from H. Scholz. Beethoven quickly read through the letter and then began to read the score. His emotion became more apparent with each page, tears rolled down his cheeks, and as he came to the Credo, he began to cry loudly and said: this is how I thought and felt, as these words show, when I was writing this work! I have never seen Beethoven as overcome with emotion as I did in that moment, which characterized him so beautifully." Even if Schindler's comments always have to be taken with a pinch of salt - he was by no means as good a friend of the composer's as he liked to pretend and invented much of what he wrote about Beethoven so as to advance Beethoven's fame and his own - Beethoven's appreciation of Scholz' text is supported by evidence in his own hand. In a letter to Schindler on 1 June 1823 he referred to the writer of the text as "this worthy Scholz". He also seemed to be so convinced of Scholz' ability that he considered a translation of the Missa solemnis. In a conversation book from May 1823 Beethoven wrote: "This would be of great advantage for this work [the Missa solemnis], and maybe H. Scholz can be persuaded to write a German text, as with the first Mass." (BKh 3, p. 263, the plan was not carried out as Scholz died). Two years later, in May 1825, there is another mention of the successful German text in Beethoven's correspondence. The composer offered the Mass op. 86 with the German text to the publishers B. Schott's Söhne in Mainz. In a letter to them on 7 May 1825 he wrote: "Somebody has written an excellent German text for my Mass in C, quite different from the Leipzig one. Would you like to do a new edition of this Mass with the new text? (...)" (from the translation by Emily Anderson, 1961). The "Leipzig one" was a reference to the publishers Breitkopf & Härtel, who had also had a translation done for an edition of the Mass. The quality of the text by Christian Schreiber was not only questioned by Beethoven. The translation was criticized in a review of the time by E. T. A. Hoffmann, who considered it "contrived, precious and long-winded". But why was it thought to be so important to translate the original Latin text into German? There were many reasons for this. On the one hand the beginning of the nineteenth century was not exactly characterized by its love of the church - there was a general anti-church sentiment. A translation of the text would change the content from that of a mass to a kind of oratorio, which would greatly increase the sales potential of the composition, and also not only make it suitable to be performed in a concert hall but also for Protestant services. On the other hand the empire's censorship rules forbade the performance of church music in concert halls, at least they were not allowed to be advertised as such (they were mostly billed as "Hymns"). (J.R.)
Score with German text by Benedict Scholz, ed. by Wolfgang Horn, 2013
