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[+] Kirkendale, Warren. "New Roads to Old Ideas in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis." The Musical Quarterly 56 (October 1970): 665-701. Reprinted in The Creative World of Beethoven, ed. Paul Henry Lang, 163-99. New York: W. W. Norton, 1971.

In the Missa Solemnis, Beethoven uses numerous rhetorical gestures to express the meaning of the text. Some of the gestures were conventional in his day, such as a static motive with which to begin the Kyrie, used at least as far back as Benevoli in 1628. Known to have been studying Handel's Messiah while he composed the Missa Solemnis, Beethoven is indebted for the Katabasis (lowering of the elevated host) in his Agnus Dei to "He shall feed his flock," and for a fugato subject to the "Hallelujah Chorus," both from Messiah.

Works: Beethoven: Missa Solemnis.

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Rob Lamborn

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