“From the heart – may it return to the heart.” Beethoven’s Religious Views and the “Missa Solemnis” (By David McCulloch)
The religious views of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) have been a subject of considerable scholarly debate. This discussion normally takes place within the context of the composition of the “Missa Solemnis”, one of Beethoven’s last and greatest works, written between the years 1819 and 1822. The production of this work late in life has caused much discussion among scholars about the nature of Beethoven’s faith – was he authentically a Roman Catholic, or did he hold the agnostic views of the late 18th century’s intellectual Enlightenment? The citation in the title of this article is Beethoven’s own comment about his mass, written on the title page of the autograph copy. This comment implies that the Missa Solemnis was an intensely personal work for Beethoven, giving unusual insights into his most personal thoughts and feelings. This article aims to explore exactly what religious ties Beethoven had with the Catholic Church in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and how this is visible through the Missa Solemnis.
We know very little directly about Beethoven’s views concerning religion and faith, so much has had to be inferred. Due to his deafness, we have many questions about his personal views written in his daily notebook for Beethoven to read, but because his answers to these questions were normally spoken, they are very rarely recorded. We can clearly describe his religious background however. His family lived close to the court of Elector Max Franz in Bonn and to its Catholic cathedral, as his father was employed as a court singer and in the cathedral choir. Beethoven’s mother was described by contemporaries as devout. It is important to understand that the Catholic faith was practised very differently in late 18th century Bonn than the standard Catholic piety of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Religious life in Bonn at the end of the 18th century has been described by a modern biographer of Beethoven, Maynard Solomon, as a “compromise ideology that permitted a relatively peaceful coexistence between the Church and rationalism”. This “Enlightened Catholicism” seems to have been influential for much of Beethoven’s life, more than was normally supposed by Beethoven’s earlier biographers.
Traditional Beethoven scholarship considered that he set aside his Catholic upbringing and became an Enlightenment humanist, believing in God as a transcendental deity, seeking the betterment of ordinary people, and encouraging them to reach out to each other in universal brotherhood. This connects Beethoven to a European-wide movement inspired by Enlightenment rationalism, which among some dissenting preachers in England prompted the ideas of people such as Richard Price at the Newington Green meeting house and also many of the radical views of Mary Wollstonecraft.
After 1800, Beethoven appears to have developed an interest in Eastern religions, quoting texts from the Rig Veda and other works in his notebooks. The quotations emphasise the transcendence and divinity of God, rather than traditional Christian teaching about his humanity in Jesus as the Son of God made flesh, for example, Beethoven quoted with approval a Hindu text which says: “no man has pierced God’s veil”. This is not a text that could ordinarily be quoted with approval from a person with an orthodox Catholic belief in the Incarnation.
In the last decade of his life, Beethoven discovered the works of the German “Catholic Enlightenment” theologian Johann Michael Sailer, and had three books of Sailer’s in his personal library. Sailer propagated a number of non-traditional Catholic views, including a more “rational” approach to religion based on (a) theological education, rather than the encouragement of traditional pious practices: (b) a stronger awareness of God revealing himself through his creation, rather than through the teachings of the Church: (c) a more “humanist” approach to the human condition, emphasizing that human beings have potential to raise their eyes towards God, rather than an emphasis on the removal of original sin through Baptism as necessary for salvation: and (d) a more positive approach to other denominations of Christianity. Sailer also wanted Catholics to have a close personal faith in Christ’s empathy to humanity through Jesus’ experience of suffering.
Many of Beethoven’s religious views seem to have a close connection to Sailer’s. Contemporaries of Beethoven constantly noted his profound,, almost “religious”, connection to nature. This appears to have strongly influenced his music, most of all in the Sixth symphony (“Pastoral”) which has an inscription above the last movement, “Grateful thanks to the Almighty after a storm”. Beethoven also regularly credited God with direct intervention into his life, ensuring his recovery from ill health. This is shown particularly by an inscription over one of his most profound slow movements in the late B flat String Quartet saying, “a holy song of thanksgiving to God after recovery from illness.”
The entry of his nephew Karl into Beethoven’s life around 1817 appears to have been a major factor in possibly Beethoven “rediscovering” his faith. After arguing with Karl’s mother over who should be his guardian following the death of Beethoven’s brother, Beethoven went to court over Karl’s custody. Following his success in court, Beethoven insisted on Karl being brought up as a Catholic and attending church. Additionally, Beethoven planned to send Karl to Sailer’s university and ask him to be the boy’s personal mentor and tutor. This plan never materialised, as Beethoven was forbidden to send Karl far away from his mother to Bavaria and Sailer’s university.
Overall, we can say that although Beethoven was not a traditional Catholic believer, he nevertheless appears to have maintained a stronger connection to his Catholic faith than traditionally assumed by scholars. Beethoven has often been described as a Deist, with little interest in the doctrines of God as Trinity or becoming a male human being through the Incarnation in the person of Jesus. However, this conclusion has been coherently challenged in recent years, and due partly to the influence of Sailer, it appears that Beethoven had a closer connection to an “Enlightened” Catholic faith and practice. This harks back to Beethoven’s earlier life in Bonn, and makes it appear that his religious views were consistent with the practices and experiences of his Catholic upbringing than used to be generally thought.
These factors may all have been present as Beethoven planned a monumental setting of the Mass in 1819. He examined the texts of the Ordinary of the Latin Mass afresh and studied several Masses of 15th and 16th century Renaissance composers such as Josquin des Pres, Palestrina and Victoria. Beethoven appears to have wished to align himself in the long Catholic tradition of Mass composition. Nevertheless, he would not be Beethoven if he did not create something radically different from traditional forms, as he had done in other classical genres throughout his life. The Mass was planned for the enthronement of his friend and former piano pupil, Archduke Rudolf, as Archbishop of Olomouc in the present-day Czech Republic. However, it was not completed in time for the ceremony, and was not performed until 1824. Beethoven was extremely proud of his achievement, believing it to be his greatest work. Some compositional decisions are now being proposed by scholars as less reflecting Beethoven’s Deism or humanism, but seem to have been influenced by Beethoven’s desire to reflect some of Sailer’s opinions about the purpose of the Mass.
Sailer argued that it was important for the words of the Mass to inform the ordinary Catholic about their faith and he wished to encourage individual piety through communal participation in the Church’s public worship. Aspects of Beethoven perhaps reflecting Sailer’s view could include the direction that the Kyrie of the Mass should be performed “with devotion.” Secondly. Beethoven also alters a long violin solo at the start of the “Benedictus” section of the Sanctus movement. Starting very high and descending gradually in pitch, this passage has widely been interpreted as an image of God’s descent from heaven to earth at the Incarnation. However, the music would have coincided with the elevation of the host, accompanying the moment when the Body and Blood of Christ is believed by Catholics to become present on the altar. Beethoven appears to have attempted through this music to raise the heart and mind of a believer to Christ made present in the Blessed Sacrament, creating an aural as well as a visual moment of contemplation at the most sacred moment of the Mass.
It is always necessary to remember, however, that Beethoven was primarily a musician rather than a theologian. The final sections of the longest two movements, the Gloria and Credo, are two gigantic fugues setting the texts “in gloria Dei Patris. Amen” (to the glory of God the Father. Amen) and “et vitam venturi saeculi. Amen. (and the life of the world to come. Amen) respectively. Not for the first time in his musical life, Beethoven’s desire to excel musically and express his personal musical vision appears to have been more powerful than any desire to express his or another’s religious vision, even one which had a major impact on his like Sailer’s “Enlightened Catholicism”
This article attempts to reflect on the connection to Beethoven’s Catholic faith with his musical vision through the composition of the Missa Solemnis. Traditional scholarship saw Beethoven as predominantly a humanist and Deist, with little interest in orthodox expressions of Catholic faith. The Missa Solemnis was seen by these commentators as expressing a total disconnection from the Catholicism of his youth. However recent scholarship on Sailer and the German Catholic Enlightenment shows that the Missa Solemnis is more of an expression of Beethoven’s faith informed by some of the theological currents of Beethoven’s own time. What can be definitively said is that the Missa Solemnis was an enormously significant composition for Beethoven. He himself said that it was music “from the heart – may it return to the heart.” The Missa Solemnis uniquely combines the religious and philosophical currents of Beethoven’s age with Beethoven’s matchless ability for personal musical expression. It is my conviction that the Missa Solemnis can speak to us of things beyond even the greatest intellectual understanding.
This blog is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. It was made by New Unity and David McCulloch. Find out more: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
