page_title: Mass in B minor
section_title: III. Sanctus
hierarchical_section_title: Mass in B minor / Movements and their origins / III. Sanctus
caption_attribution_description: English: First page of the Benedictus from the autograph score of the Mass in B minor
context_page_description: The Mass in B minor, BWV 232, is an extended setting of the Mass ordinary by Johann Sebastian Bach. The composition was completed in 1749, the year before the composer's death, and was to a large extent based on earlier work, such as a Sanctus Bach had composed in 1724. Sections that were specifically composed to complete the Mass in the late 1740s include the "Et incarnatus est" part of the Credo.
  As usual for its time, the composition is formatted as a Neapolitan mass, consisting of a succession of choral movements with a broad orchestral accompaniment, and sections in which a more limited group of instrumentalists accompanies one or more vocal soloists. Among the more unusual characteristics of the composition is its scale: a total performance time of around two hours, and a scoring consisting of two groups of SATB singers and an orchestra featuring an extended winds section, strings and continuo. Also its key, B minor, is rather exceptional for a composition featuring natural trumpets in D.
  Even more exceptional, for a Lutheran composer such as Bach, is that the composition is a Missa tota.
context_section_description: Six-part chorus (Soprano I & II, Alto I & II, Tenor, Bass) in D major, no autograph tempo marking,  time signature; leading immediately—without double bar in the sources—into the Pleni sunt coeli , marked Vivace,  time signature. Derived from an earlier three soprano and one alto work written in 1724 and repeated and altered slightly on Easter 1727; in that 1724/1727 Sanctus the first section was marked in , perhaps suggesting a tempo faster than what Bach conceived of when he finally re-used it in the Mass.
caption: Autograph score of the Benedictus, aria for tenor and obbligato flute
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