Mass in C major (Beethoven)

Mass in C major
by Ludwig van Beethoven
Beethoven around 1805, detail of a portrait by Joseph Willibrord Mähler
Key	C major
Opus	86
Text	Mass ordinary German version by Christian Schreiber
Dedication	Prince Esterházy Prince Kinsky
Performed	13 September 1807 (1807-09-13): Eisenstadt
Published	1812 (1812): Leipzig
Publisher	Breitkopf & Härtel
Scoring	soloists choir orchestra

Ludwig van Beethoven composed the Mass in C major, Op. 86, to a commission from Prince Nikolaus Esterházy II in 1807. The mass, scored for four vocal soloists, choir and orchestra, was premiered that year by the Prince's musical forces in Eisenstadt. Beethoven performed parts of it in his 1808 concert featuring the premieres of four major works including his Fifth Symphony. The mass was published in 1812 by Breitkopf & Härtel.

Both the Prince and contemporary critic E. T. A. Hoffmann were generally displeased by the work, though the latter still considered it "entirely worthy of the great master [because of its] inner structure [and] intelligent orchestration".^[1] The work has since been overshadowed by the later and better known Missa solemnis, though critics such as Michael Moore have noted the Mass in C major's superiority in "directness and an emotional content".