The great mass setting by Mozart, Haydn and other classical composers are usually performed in churches, or in concert halls with pipe organs. There’s a large orchestra and chorus, and if the organ is used, it is generally serves as background accompaniment, or it’s completely drowned out by hundreds of singers and instrumentalists.
Tom Mueller is a doctoral student at the Eastman School of Music. While working on a project about classical orchestration, he decided to create a revision of the organ part for Franz Joseph Haydn’s Theresienmesse, using the research from his project. He also decided to use an organ with construction and sound that was similar to the instruments Haydn would have played, the Craighead-Saunders Organ at Christ Church in Rochester.
Mueller’s revision treats the organ as a melodic and integral part of the orchestra, equal to the other instruments, and augmenting the overall sound as a force multiplier. In February 2014, he presented his revised setting at Christ Church in Rochester. Mueller’s revision has created a fresh new sound for Haydn’s 215 year-old Theresienmesse. A recording of the performance is stored in the Sibley library at the Eastman School of Music.
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Watch Jesus, Creator of the World by Tom Mueller, performed at the Notre Dame Basilica 125th Anniversary Mass:
http://youtu.be/5xpv-I-bp-w
