Bach: Dona nobis pacem from the Mass in B minor | Herbert Blomstedt & Gewandhausorchester Leipzig

Dona nobis pacem (Give us Peace) is the solemn final chorale in Bach’s Mass in B minor, BWV 232. Here it is sung by the St. Thomas Boys Choir and the Gewandhaus Choir, accompanied by the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig conducted by Herbert Blomstedt. The piece featured as the finale of a concert on October 9, 1999, at St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750) did not originally intend the posthumously named Great Catholic Mass (also: Mass in B minor or High Mass in B minor) as a complete mass. The Latin Mass was the epitome of the Catholic liturgy at the time, but Bach was in the Protestant tradition. The Lutheran liturgy had a shortened mass, called the Missa, which consisted only of Kyrie and Gloria. Bach composed a Missa in 1733. This became the basis of the Mass in B minor, for which Bach had probably reworked various previously composed pieces and combined them into an extensive mass as late as 1749. The pragmatic multiple use of one’s own compositions is called the