Mass No. 2 (Schubert)

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Mass No. 2 in G major by Franz Schubert, D.167 was composed in 1815.

This is the best known of the three "shorter" mass compositions which Schubert composed between the more elaborate first and fifth masses. In addition, the later Deutsche Messe or German Mass D.872 (an early Deutsche Singmesse) and the ultimate sixth mass would be longer.

The second mass, commonly referred to as "Schubert's Mass in G," was composed in less than a week (2 to 7 March 1815), the year after his first mass had been successfully performed in Schubert's home parish. The second mass was originally more modestly scored (string orchestra and organ). However, in the 1980s a set of parts for the Mass were discovered at Klosterneuburg which are dated later than Schubert's full score. They not only include minor changes throughout the work, which would apparently represent Schubert's "final" intentions, they also include trumpet and timpani parts. This "final" version of the mass is available on a Carus CD; Carus-Verlag also publishes the score and parts.

There are also parts for woodwinds, brass and timpani added by Schubert's brother Ferdinand in response to the work's great popularity.

The score was not printed until several decades after Schubert's death and until then had remained one of Schubert's less noted compositions - so much so that that first edition of the mass had been usurped by another composer, who, eventually, ended up in prison for embezzlement.

Apart from some passages for the soprano soloist, the solistic interventions are very modest. Characteristically for Schubert, he is more interested in an over-all devotional mood of a religious composition than in individualistic romantic text-expression (as Beethoven for example would use in his masses).