Missa Votiva

The Missa Votiva is a mass composed by the Czech Baroque composer Jan Dismas Zelenka in 1739, Dresden.

The Missa Votiva is about seventy minutes long, and its twenty parts range from forty-five seconds to over seven minutes in length.

[1][2] Most of the composition is very festive and played with vivacity, the last movement being set to the tune of the first and many of the other arias being in a major key.

Zelenka scored this work for a standard Baroque orchestra of strings, woodwinds and brass instruments, with the choral parts sung by a choir featuring several soloists who sing their own arias besides the parts for the whole choir.

Even though a mass, the work is regarded as a highly complex musical composition, featuring "polyphonic formality" as well as operatic expression.