“. . . And by the Holy Spirit he was incarnate of the

Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified

under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was

buried . . ..”1 This passage from the Nicene Creed,

translated here into English, has inspired history’s

greatest sacred composers to portray its power through music

brought into relief from the rest of the Creed. Sixteenth-

century composers Josquin des Pres, Crístobal de Morales,

and Giovanni Perluigi da Palestrina have all set this text

with strong cadences and have all depicted God’s loving gift

through clear, homophonic declamation. Canon and textural

variety also appear in order to enrich and adorn the musical

representation of the Savior in human form, one of the most

central concepts of the Christian faith.

Beethoven follows a long tradition of Roman Catholic

composers by clearly demarcating the “Et in carnatus est”;

in contrast to the three-four Allegro con brio that begins the

Credo, the “Et in carnatus est” is composed in two-four with

1 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Sunday Missal, PrayerBook and Hymnal for 2014 (New Jersey: Catholic Book Publishing Corp., 2013), 18.

1

an Adagio tempo marking. A Common-time Allegro ma non troppo

follows.2 The “Et in carnatus est” is given more formal

independence by use of a contrasting key. C major dominates

the Credo prior to a modulation through C minor to E-flat

major. At the close of this short Adagio abundant in

emotion, indeed worthy of examination as a tonal narrative

in and of itself, a common-chord modulation into D major and

subsequent common-chord modulation to C major comprise the

most notable harmonic shifts.

Beethoven’s intention behind using E-flat major to

foreground this sacred text on Jesus Christ’s birth, death,

and burial is the subject of this study. A look at tonal

centers and modulations, vocal scoring and orchestration,

phrase structure and motivic development, dynamics, and

articulation will explain the inner workings of this

setting’s affective message. God’s love for humankind can

be easily related to the opening passage of Beethoven’s “Et

incarnatus est”, the tragic to the closing phrase. But a

2

All markings are taken from the Serie 19 Kirchenmusik edition of the Mass in C Major by Breitkopf & Härtel, which includes the Missa solemnis and Christus am Ölberge.

2

more provocative and perhaps less obvious interpretation of

how Beethoven set the words “et sepultus est” to convey

consolation, faith, and a prefiguration of good’s triumph

over evil raises some important questions. This

interpretation will investigate Beethoven’s own theological

stance as well as his use of keys as they pertain to emotion

and drama.

Beethoven specialist William Meredith likened the

temporal aspects of music to the temporal aspects of drama

in his 2002 article entitled “Beethoven’s Sonata in A-flat

Major, Opus 110: Music of Amiability, Lament, and

Restoration.” He states, “What we know of the central

character of a drama in the first scene of the first act is

not how we understand her or him at play’s end.”3

Nevertheless, it is entirely possible that a number of any

character’s defining characteristics apparent early in a

play still form part of her or his persona later on. In a

manner similar to that in which Meredith addresses Romantic

3 William Meredith, “Beethoven’s Sonata in A-flat Major, Op. 110: Music of Amiability, Lament, and Restoration,” The Beethoven Journal 17 (2002): 14.

3

music’s ultimate goal—the communication of the soul’s many

passions— distinguished musicologist Leo Treitler stresses

the importance of experiencing Beethoven’s compositional

craft in terms of how key centers interact and ultimately

generate narrative: “He composed with keys, as a playwright

with characters and plots.”4

It would seem then that the opening and closing

passages of the “Et incarnatus est” from Beethoven’s Mass in

C Major, though both in the same key, are fully capable of

conveying quite different meanings. Character development

is as present in music’s key centers as in the cast of a

play. The idea of two contrasting uses of E-flat major may

be supported by an examination of the changes in

orchestration (see Appendix, page 61 in the score).

On the first of two iterations of the word “coelis” the

orchestra sounds nearly as big as the most richly scored

section of the Credo. Before a paring down to only strings,

4

Leo Treitler, “‘To Worship That Celestial Sound’ Motives for Analysis,” The Journal of Musicology 1, no. 2 (1982): 170, accessed January 28, 2014 http://www.jstor.org/stable/763594.

4

Beethoven employs divisi flutes, oboes, horns, and trumpets

alongside first and second violins doubling G Major to C

Major stops indicate a powerful sound. The full chorus is

marked forte, the entire orchestra fortissimo. And though the

vocal soloists are silent at this point, their entrances to

begin the “Et incarnatus est” portion of this movement of

the Mass appropriately express the subject of the text—God

on earth in human form.

A solo clarinet arpeggiating down a B-flat dominant

seventh chord (at concert pitch) leads from a short passage

for arco strings only into an even more bare use of the

orchestra than what led up to the key change—pizzicato at a

piano dynamic accompanying the SATB solo quartet.

Homorhythmic writing for the first measure and a quarter

connotes the intimacy of God among mankind—reconciliation

between the divine and the human.

Smooth, diatonic melody for the soloists, who sing

first in tenor/bass and soprano/alto pairs and then in

imitation, contrasts with the short, declamatory motives on

“descendit” from the previous full choral texture. These

5

textural and stylistic changes speak of endearment and the

comfort of salvation as well as illustrating God before our

very eyes. If the fuller orchestration symbolizes the

magnificence of heaven, the texture post-key change sits God

down at our dinner table.

The first phrase is largely diatonic, ending in a

gentle half cadence on “virgine.” This particular

application of the key E-flat major hints at Beethoven’s

thorough understanding of Viennese Classical style. The D-

flat in the soprano is part of an established motif for this

key, a motif linked with religious sacrifice present in many

works from previous and contemporaneous composers, including

Beethoven’s teachers.5 How intriguing! While the text

speaks of Jesus’s virgin birth, Beethoven makes explicit use

of a melodic turn associated with having to give oneself up

for a greater good. At the most immediate level of text

expression this may not be entirely logical; there is

nothing about sacrifice yet. One may expect rejoicing or

5 John David Wilson, “Of Hunting, Horns, and Heroes: A Brief History of E-flat Major before the Eroica,” The Journal of Musical Research 32, no. 2-3 (2013): 174-77, DOI: 10.1080/01411896.2013.792037.

6

absolute elation, yet Christ’s suffering is imminent. Such

a conflict actually fortifies this paper’s thesis, which

will be explored in more detail after a look at the

instrumentation that closes the “Et incarnatus est” (see

Appendix, page 64 in the score).

A short tenor solo modulates from loving E-flat major

to gloomy B-flat minor.6 Before the clear arrival in B-flat

minor the strings revert to playing arco, and the clarinets

and bassoons reenter. Heavier orchestration, more

chromaticism, and increasingly strong dynamics transition

from soli to full chorus. Throughout this section of the

Credo Beethoven anticipates the text on more than one

occasion. Tension builds and tonal centers begin to wander

at the words “et homo factus est” (and became man).

Discontent or perhaps even an unpleasant relationship with

God is illustrated through B-flat minor as the organ and

high winds reenter.7 I am surprised at the lack of hopeful 6

Rita Katherine Steblin, “Key Characteristics in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries: A Historical Approach,” (doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1981), 277-80,327-28.

7

Ferdinand Hand, Ästhetik der Tonkunst (1837) via Steblin,

7

aspects in the treatment of this phrase. “Pro nobis” (for

us) is certainly capable of instilling a sense of

redemption, but instead diminished seventh harmonies and a

brief tonicization of E-flat minor—right before the

chromatic descent on “sub Pontio Pilato” (under Pontius

Pilate)—suggest anguish and despair.

The main focus of this paper is the music at the words

“et sepultus est” (and he was buried). At this point the

oboes and flutes have dropped out again, but most of the

full texture heard in the middle section remains. This

relatively dense orchestration could be seen to correspond

with the previous section, in which case it could convey a

similar sentiment. While entertaining the possible

interpretation of Beethoven’s treatment of “et sepultus est”

as one that evokes sadness without hope for relief, it is

important to examine other composers’ masses.

Mozart’s “Et incarnatus est” from the Coronation Mass

in C Major, K317, is similar to the setting being discussed

here in that it begins with a solo ensemble, the full choir

“Key Characteristics . . .,” 328.

8

expresses the horrors of crucifixion and death, and a

relatively full orchestration closes the section. One main

difference between the Mozart and Beethoven settings is that

the former opts for a cadence in the minor mode, the latter

for the major mode. Cherubini and Schubert also choose to

cadence in the minor mode at “et sepultus est.” This may be

a reflection of earlier ideas about key characteristics

based on differences between the major and minor mode, as

opposed to the sharp/flat principle. The sharp/flat

principle developed from modes of thinking that attributed

more lively and intense affects to keys on the “sharp” side

of the circle of fifths while leaving tranquility and

reclusion to those on the “flat” side. A wide variety of

possibilities for combining mode and accidental-based

qualities (e.g., minor keys with many sharps) make the

sharp/flat principle an incredibly dynamic system.

From the last eighth note of the measure in which the

solo ensemble cadences on “virgine” to the first eighth note

of the following measure, a melodic diminished fourth sounds

9

in the clarinets and bassoons. This interval is used

frequently throughout the rest of the movement.

Long before Beethoven’s active period as composer, but

not outside of his academic remit, the diminished fourth

stirred heated debate among musicians concerned with tuning

theory. Many considered it an impossible interval, one that

should not be used in composition, especially for the voice,

strings, and other instruments capable of microtonal

inflexion. According to Harvard professor Alexander

Rehding, the tumult over enharmonics (e.g., the diminished

fourth) continued on with early Classicists Rameau and

Rousseau.8 In observing Beethoven’s use of this interval,

one can make a strong case for his deliberately representing

turbulence and times of trouble for Christ and his

disciples.

The diminished fourth may contain a certain measure of

dissonance because of spelling. Though the diminished

fourth may appear to be enharmonic with the major third,

8 Alexander Rehding, “Rousseau, Rameau, and Enharmonic Furies in the French Enlightenment,” Journal of Music Theory 49, no. 1 (2005): 146, accessed 04/18/2014 http://0-www.jstor.org.opac.sfsu.edu/stable/27639393.

10

slight inflections will distinguish this poignant interval

from the more consonant major third on certain instruments.

Its initial appearance directly following a cadence on a B-

flat major triad (at “virgine”) suggests D minor; here the

melodic interval is comprised of the third and raised

seventh scale degrees of D minor. The next two instances

suggest C minor and B-flat minor, respectively. Such bold

modulations as these may reflect the unstable nature of the

diminished fourth. Diminished seventh harmonies on E-flat

(directly following “sub Pontio Pilato”) and F (preceding

“et sepultus est”) lie under melodic diminished fourths in

the clarinets and bassoons, both instruments capable of

subsemitonal precision. Having presented these expressive

uses of the diminished fourth during the darkest passages of

text, I will show that the last instance of the diminished

fourth consoles.

Dovetailed with the choir’s penultimate iteration of

“est,” low strings and bassoons begin a short point of

imitation on the diminished fourth interval E-flat to B-

natural. Clarinets answer a measure later with the same

11

notes. Pianissimo dynamics for all parts prepare the close of

the “Et incarnatus est”. Could this dynamic be indicative

of tranquility, a healing moment after the hysteria over the

crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ? I believe so, and I

point to changes in articulation to bolster my claim. Both

the soli opening and stormy second differ from the closing

section in regard to dynamics and articulation (see

Appendix, notes in red). The frequent slurs and more

constant dynamic level found in the closing section are

peaceful. There are no directions to play staccato and no

sforzati or surprising accents.

I have discerned that the diminished fourth alone is

not enough to generate the sound of assurance and faith.

Heard immediately after these last two iterations of the

structurally significant diminished fourth, the choral

bass’s final stepwise descent to the tonic—a descent that

appears in the bassoons, cellos, double basses, and organ as

well—confirms optimism and hope. Referring again to

Meredith’s article on Opus 110, I hope it will become clear

that “a sense of accepting joy passively, i.e., accepting or

12

welcoming blessings, relief, consolation, reassurance, or

fulfillment, together with a feeling of ‘having come home’”

was likely what Beethoven had in mind when composing the

final cadence.9

Meredith quotes Deryck Cooke’s The Language of Music to

explain the use of a variant on the common 5-(4)-3-(2)-1

motive in the major mode. In this passage, Beethoven leaves

out but one note of this typical melodic pattern that, as

Cooke demonstrates, has been known to connote deliverance

and repose. Especially when compared to the dissonant

harmonies and wide leaps preceding this last glide home to

the tonic, the descending motive is able to soothe the pain

caused by the Jesus’s crucifixion and death. (See Appendix,

page 68 in the score, red ovals.)

Beethoven takes a similar approach for the Cantata on

the Death of Emperor Joseph II, WoO 87. Composed some

twenty years before the Mass in C Major’s 1807 premiere, the

opening movement of the Cantata, a lament on the emperor’s

death, cadences with a stepwise descent to E-flat in the 9 Deryck Cooke, The Language of Music (Oxford: Oxford University

Press, 1959), 130-33 via Meredith, “Beethoven’s Sonata . . .,” 23.

13

bass before a short but expressive coda and affirmation of

E-flat major (see below).

The serene arrival in E-flat major.10

Apart from musical signifiers and descriptors,

Scriptural evidence of a triumphant mood amid the Passion of

Christ aides in showing humankind’s gratitude and comfort

expressed in the final measures of Beethoven’s “Et

incarnatus est”. Psalm 22, quoted by Jesus while he was

agonizing on the cross, speaks of the innocent and just

10 Ludwig van Beethoven, Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II, WoO 87, Serie 25, 264 (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1862-90), 1.

14

believer who undergoes immense suffering but is ultimately

saved.11 This psalm begins, “My God, my God, why have you

forsaken me?” but concludes with the promise of spiritual

prosperity for the faithful.12 Biblical professor Michael

D. Guinan writes, “Psalm 22 is, thus, the prayer of a just

one who suffers innocently, of one who is surrounded by

enemies and mocked precisely because of his fidelity to God.

When God hears this cry and delivers, the just one offers

praise and thanksgiving to God.”13

At the Last Supper, as recounted in the Gospel

According to John (chapter 13, verse 31), Jesus shares a

piece of forward-looking wisdom when, after making it clear

that Judas Iscariot is the one who is to betray him and

Judas leaves the room, he says, “Now the Son of Man is

11 Mark H. Heinemann, “An Exposition of Psalm 22,” Bibliotheca Sacra 147 (1990): 286-308, accessed April 22, 2014 http://place.asburyseminary.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1178&context=asburyjournal.

12

Catholic Biblical Association of Britain, revised version by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, The Holy Bible (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2006), 429.

13

Michael D. Guinan, O.F.M., “Psalm 22: ‘My, God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?,” Saint Anthony Messenger (April 2014), accessed April 18, 2014 http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Apr2004/Feature1.asp.

15

glorified, and God is glorified in Him.”14 This is the

preemptive and unwavering faith that Beethoven expresses,

quite possibly a representation of his own faith in God’s

goodness when confronted with not only the tragedy of

deafness, but also with a host of emotional torments during

his childhood and his many failed romances as an adult.

A connection with Beethoven’s well-known love of nature

may be proposed; inherent in the magnificence of nature is

the reality of death, a reality in which Beethoven had

probably come to trust. He copied an excerpt from German

preacher and author Christoph Christian Sturm into his diary

that reads,

Nature is a glorious school for the heart! It is well;I shall be a scholar in this school and bring an eager heart to her instruction. Here I shall learn wisdom, the only wisdom that is free from disgust; here I shalllearn to know God and find a foretaste of heaven in Hisknowledge. Among these occupations my earthly days shall flow peacefully along until I am accepted into that world where I shall no longer be a student, but a knower of wisdom.15 14

Catholic Biblical Association of Britain, The Holy Bible, Gospel According to John, 92.

15

Christoph Christian Sturm, Betrachtungen über die Werke Gottes in Reich der Natur und der Vorsehung auf Alle Tages des Jahres (Frankfurt am Mayn: Bayrhoffer, 1775) in Ludwig van Beethoven, trans. and ed. Henry Edward Krehbiel,

16

This quote, especially the final sentence, suggests a

notion of death more inspired by transcendence and salvation

than by desolation.

The most stable grounds for a counterargument stating

that E-flat major conveys only disappointment here would be

semantic. “Et sepultus est” paints a dark picture indeed—

imagery of the tomb, death, decay. Would not such text be

more logically put to music in A-flat major or C minor?

Perhaps staying in B-flat minor would have fit the words

more tightly. As it has been shown with examples from

earlier in this setting of the “Et incarnatus est” portion

of the Credo, Beethoven has been known to juxtapose joyful

texts against ominous music, and vice versa.

A potentially controversial take on the circle of

fifths and its relationship to key characteristics may help

to clarify Beethoven’s choice of key. In addition to the

sharp/flat principle, probably the most widely accepted mode

of thinking about the various keys and their assortment of

Beethoven, The Man and the Artist: As Revealed in His Own Words (New York: B.W. Huebsch, 1905), 18.

17

narrative magic, German Romantic writers G.F. Ebhardt and

August Gathy made some observations according to the

properties of a circle, nature’s complete and perfect shape.

Gathy was of the mind that the keys gradually return to

where they began, with C Major: “All these fine descriptive

shadings gradually disappear as the two end points of the

circle come together again.”16 As the circle of fifths

comes to an end at F-sharp/G-flat the emotional

possibilities are exhausted. Is it possible therefore that

keys 180 degrees away from each other on the circle of

fifths hold comparable traits? One might not assume that D

major and A-flat major would have much in common; G major/D-

flat major, C major/G-flat, or F major/B major oppositions

are no more likely to be used interchangeably. I believe

that E-flat major and A major though, due in large part to

their key signatures’ Trinitarian symbolism, promise

artistic inventiveness. Both key signatures contain three

accidentals, and therefore one may lend to the other what is

16 Rita Steblin, A History of Key Characteristics in the Early Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (Rochester: Rochester University Press, 1996), 165.

18

lacking. E-flat major may be used to temper what would

sound too bright in A major, for example.

Beethoven finds concord with the historians and

theorists who corroborate three established praxes found in

Beethoven’s work: majesty, heroism, and triumph; love and

devotion to (and intimate conservation with) God; and

unhappiness in amorous relationships—darkness and night.17

These three well-documented uses of E-flat major have their

place in the present study, but there is something more. As

I have attempted to map, E-flat major in the context of

Beethoven’s “Et incarnatus est” from the Mass in C Major

expresses a warmth that, if not quite as celebratory as the

following “et resurrexit” surprise, does align with an

understanding of A major influential during Beethoven’s

working life. A major had a strong connection to hope,

especially as it concerns a reencounter with the beloved;

and while A major reminds us at times of a cheery, youthful

17

Paul M. Ellison, “Affective Organization in Beethoven’s Gellert Lieder, Opus 48: Affirming Joanna Cobb Biermann’s Theory on Beethoven’s Intended Order of the Songs,” The Beethoven Journal 25 (2010): 25-28, 31.

19

disposition, Christoph Friedrich Daniel Schubart specifies

that this key’s characteristics include “trust in God.”18

One point simply cannot be argued: there is much more

to be written on these fifty-two measures of Beethoven. A

few more ideas will be enumerated before this paper

concludes:

After the final cadence of the “Et incarnatus est”

in E-flat major, Beethoven modulates to D major by

using a root position dominant seventh chord on E-

flat. This shift suggests augmented sixth to

dominant harmony, but the words “et resurrexit”

are in a new tonic—not the dominant of a new

tonic. I do not feel it is any coincidence that

Beethoven was able to infer key characteristics

from the dominant of the next key center. In

other words, affects pertaining to A major, a key

that would foresee a modulation to D major more

clearly than any other key would, are, as I hope

to have proved, represented in E-flat major.

18

Steblin, A History of . . ., 289.

20

The descriptor “night,” in spite of its ties to

sadness or pain or evil ghosts, holds an important

place in Holy Scripture, especially in the Gospel

According to John. An antithesis to Jesus as the

Light of the World, a lack of illumination marks

the absence of God or foretells betrayal, among

other lessons on following the Word.19 Keeping in

mind the modal mixture Beethoven employs on the

word “sepultus” (see Appendix, final system) and

modal mixture implying shadows and darkness in

Beethoven’s works in E-flat major, one could begin

quite an objection to the thesis I have developed.

Contemporaneous German musicians who worked with

orchestras often lauded E-flat major for its full,

rich sound. It seems that all the instruments of

the orchestra were well suited to it. Consider

the violins on the word “est”: an open G string

19 Clyde Muropa, “The Johannine Writings: Symbolism and the Symbolof ‘Light’ in the Gospel of John,” The Asbury Journal 67, no. 2 (2012): 112,accessed April 22, 2014 http://place.asburyseminary.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1178&context=asburyjournal.

21

(the instrument’s lowest note in standard tuning)

in the second violins and a first-finger E-flat

right next to the top nut would be very resonant—a

lush, enveloping sound perhaps too luxurious for

burial.

Choral works by Beethoven in E-flat major are

rare. The only one besides the “Et in carnatus

est” of which I am aware is the penultimate

movement of Christus am Ölberge. Beethoven’s

infrequent use of E-flat major could point to this

key being reserved for only the most special

occasions. The text from Christus am Ölberge is the

following:

Soldiers:

Quick, seize and bind this arrant traitor; Let’s here no longer stay.  Death to the archimposter!  Let’s drag him hence away.

Disciples:

O, how our Lord is hated, cruelly treated, dragged on high.  We’ll now join him in his bondage, doomed to anguish, doomed to die.

22

Jesus:

Now transgressors, see him wounded!  My redemption work is done!  Powers of Hell are now confounded and the fight will soon be won.20

Like in the mass, E-flat major is used here to

communicate faith, hope, and love in spite of extreme pain.

In conclusion, I would like to stand by an

interpretation that strengthens Beethoven’s expressing the

fulfillment of God’s will when he chose E-flat major to

close his “Et in carnatus est” from the Mass in C Major. It

would have been fully acceptable to cadence in another key,

especially after such harmonic instability in the middle

section. Venturing beyond expressing and depicting text at

the single-word level and inflexible, preformed definitions

of key centers can bring pieces more to life, and I hope to

have been successful at presenting spirited views. I allude

again to the always-relevant analogy of characters in a

dramatic production, and close this paper with an invitation

to the reader: do study and draw your own conclusions on the

20 Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Xaver Huber, Christus am Ölberge, translations via Barry Mitchell, Theory of Music (online), accessed April 23, 2014 http://theoryofmusic.wordpress.com/2010/11/05/german-and-english-texts-of-beethovens-christus-am-olberge/.

23

matter of key-specific characteristics and their expressive

capacities. Beneath a surface of what might seem like

untenable arguments and blatant contradictions lie

innumerable opportunities for creativity. It will be well

worth your while.

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