Note 83 — Chapter IV
Henry Edward Krehbiel translation
In his letter to Zelter, Beethoven says that one of the numbers of the Mass was without accompaniment. There being no a cappella setting of any section of the missal text in the Mass in D, it is likely that Beethoven here, too, had the three additional pieces in mind. For this speculation, however, as well as the hypothesis that the settings originally contemplated for the “second” mass in C-sharp minor were transferred to the scheme of the Missa Solemnis, the present editor is alone responsible. In a Conversation Book of 1823 an unidentified friend answers several questions about the hymn “Tantum ergo” and its introduction in the service.