Mozart's Mass in C Minor, also known as The Great Mass, is a large multi-movement piece of sacred music. I picked this piece because I particularly enjoyed the part commonly known as "Et incarnates" and I wanted to focus on this solo. The Great Mass was written for both vocals and orchestra, and contains vocal soloists. The entire Mass orchestration consists of a flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, three trombones, a string section, and an organ. The choir consists of four sections, soprano, alto, tenor, bass, and four soloists; two sopranos, one tenor and one bass. The particular section I am focusing on, "Et incarnates," is a solo section for a mezzo-soprano. The orchestration consists of violins, violas, two horns, and an oboe. "Et incarnates" has a ternary form including an intro and a coda. "Et incarnates" has an Andante moderato tempo, which means it was at a walking to medium pace. It sounds very joyous, and the words of praise that are sung reflect this upbeat tempo. It has a 4/4 meter, and that remains fairly steady through all sections. The melody is conjunctive, so the notes are all closer together, almost in a step-like motion. Th

The coda begins slower than the rest of the piece. It is still on 4/4 time, but it is slower, more at an adagio tempo. It uses the same theme that was introduced in the intro. The soloist is given time to be expressive and she has some long notes to carry out at very high tones. When the soloist stops singing it almost feels like the piece is over, but then the violins come in to do the build again and then after the build the section is over.

Throughout this entire part of The Great Mass, I felt the most important aspect was the repeating pattern that the violins and oboe used to mimic the soloist. I don't think the song would have felt so happy without the use of this mimicking technique. The soloist was singing an important part of the song and the violins and oboe that mimicked her reiterated the importance of it. I didn't really care for the entire Mass in C Minor. It overall felt dreary to me. The tempo was slow in most movements and the chorus seemed to lack feeling like the soloist did. That is the main reason that I did enjoy the "Et incarnates" section, it was happier. The tempo was much more upbeat. It was much more enjoyable to listen to and the soloist really expresses

Some common words found in the essay are:
Minor Mass, Mass Minor, et incarnates, violins violas, entire mass, mass minor, soloist singing, mass written, Mozart's Mass, mozart's mass minor, skip-along feel, orchestration consists, singing mimicking, tenor bass,
Approximate Word count = 813
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)