"
In this work, however, he reaches out toward the infinite to a degree
not attempted in the symphonies; his spirit takes a bolder flight; more
of the inner nature of the artist is revealed; for the limits which
bound him in the symphony were not operative in the mass. The very mode
of projecting the first movement, the Kyrie, shows the splendor of the
conception as it took form in his consciousness. The scheme of the
movement can be summed up by the antithesis being presented of humanity,
weak and sinful on the one side, and the overwhelming majesty of a just
God on the other. It is a prayer for mercy, the cry of the soul in its
extremity; the underlying thought being repentance. Here we have the
embodiment of prayer, of supplication. A devotional feeling of the most
exalted kind pervades it. The first of the three parts comprising the
movement is storm and stress, a knocking on the gates, a De Profundus,
an accusing conscience arraigning humanity. He works out of this vein to
some extent in the second part, the Christe eleison, in which the appeal
is made directly to the human element of the Godhead.
Pages:
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230