Category:  Choir / Vocal , Organ / Sacred Music

The 'Schwabenkinder' mass was created from materials taken from the film music for Jo Baier's film 'The Swabian Children': Kyrie, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei were already composed in autumn 2002 for this film of the Way of the Cross, which tells the passion story of the farmer boy Kaspar and the Tyrolean children who have been sold at children's markets for centuries. The remaining parts were added in May 2003 in such a way that an independent and cyclically closed mass composition was created. It is probably a novelty in the history of music that a liturgically coherent mass has emerged from a film music.

Movements: 1: Kyrie 2: Gloria 3: Sanctus-Hosanna
4: Benedictus-Hosanna 5: Agnus Dei-Dona nobis pacem

Duration: 19 Minutes

Publisher of notes/sheet music: Strubeverlag GmbH Munich , ED 6568 , 2009

Instrumentation: Soprano, tenor, choir
2 fl., ob., 2 bs., 2 hr.(F),
organ, strings (12-10-8-6-4)

Text/Lyrics by: lateinisch liturgisch

Introduction: The 'Schwabenkinder' mass was created from materials taken from the film music for Jo Baier's film 'The Swabian Children': Kyrie, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei were already composed in autumn 2002 for this film of the Way of the Cross, which tells the passion story of the farmer boy Kaspar and the Tyrolean children who have been sold at children's markets for centuries. The remaining parts were added in May 2003 in such a way that an independent and cyclically closed mass composition was created. It is probably a novelty in the history of music that a liturgically coherent mass has emerged from a film music.
In its stylistics, the work does not want to be 'modern', but consciously adheres to the idiom of the late 19th century, since the film plot is also located in this period. The tone and emotional timbre of the work is particularly indebted to the 'Cäcilien-Messe' by Charles Gounod (1818-1893), to which the film was cut by the director in the creation phase - the technique of the so-called 'temporary tracks'. Gounod's ingenious 'Sanctus' was consequently preserved in the original soundtrack. The composition of my 'Agnus Dei' refers to this 'Sanctus' in the sense of a playful homage.

Dedication: ...in memoriam of Charles Gounod

World premiere:  07.08.2004, Frauendom Munich

Performers at world premiere: Gabriele Steck, Hans-Werner Bunz, choir and orchestra of the 'Münchner Dommusik', cond.: cathedral bandmaster Karl-Ludwig Nies

Records:  Ambiente Musikproduktion Order.No. ACD 3001,  2006

Performers on recording: Munich Cathedral Music, Gabriele Steck (soprano), Giorgi Bekaia (tenor),
Munich Cathedral orchestra, conducted by Karl-Ludwig Nies

CD title:
Dom zu Unserer Lieben Frau München (Munich Cathedral of Our Lady)
Enjott Schneider: Swabian Childrens Mass
also contains works by Hans Leitner 'Improvisation on the Swabian Childrens Mass' theme and by Karl-Ludwig Nies