Missa Sanctae Caeciliae was the first composition Jan Dismas Zelenka presented after he was employed as a musician at the court in Dresden in 1711.

[4] Zelenka structured the mass in several individual movements, subdividing the parts of the liturgical text especially in the Gloria and the Credo.

[2] In this early work, described as "masterful" ("grande maîtrise")[2] and "glorious",[5] Zelenka used several features that became characteristic for his music, including "jaunty" rhythms, "intense" harmonies, vocal lines in high register and long fugue subjects.

The solo voices at times "oppose the choir dramatically",[2] and choral fugues of great scope end the extended movements.

[2] Missa Sanctae Caeciliae was first recorded in 2021 by Ensemble Inégal [cs] and the Prague Baroque Soloists, conducted by Adam Viktora [cs],[2][3] with soloists Gabriela Eibenová, Kai Wessel, Tobias Hunger, Marián Krejčík and Jaromír Nosek In a series of Zelenka's works by the same performers, which previously contained psalm settings for Vespers and two masses,[2] it was coupled with a Marian offertory hymn, Currite ad aras (Precipitate yourselves to the altars), ZWV 166,[5] probably the first work composed in Vienna, in June 1716.