Francesco Gasparini

Missa a quattro voci

Particularly during the early 1740s, Johann Sebastian Bach concentrated intensely on studying the compositional technique of strict vocal polyphony. As an inspiration, he studied the works of older masters, copying them and, for the most part, performing them as well. A set of single parts for the Missa canonica by Francesco Gasparini in an instrumentation by Bach were recently discovered in the collection of the former 'Ephoralbibliothek Weißenfels'; some of the parts are in Bach's own handwriting. Gasparini was esteemed in Germany particularly as a master of elaborate counterpoint and audacious harmonic writing. Bach amended the music text with a view to certain aspects of performance practice, clearly following a very specific concept of sound organization.
His interest in strict counterpoint was paralleled by a tangible re-orientation in Bach's own compositional technique at the beginning of the 1740s. Francesco Gasparini's Missa canonica therefore served as a practical model for the highly developed art of canon writing and the strict polyphony in Bach's late works, as we encounter them, for example, in the B minor Mass.