This collection of essays presents a thorough and systematic study of Bach's B-minor Mass by leading scholars in the field.

Part I. Historical Background and Contexts: 1. Past, present, and future - perspectives on Bach's B-minor Mass Christoph Wolff; 2. Bach's Mass: 'Catholic' or 'Lutheran'? Robin A. Leaver; 3. Bach's Missa BWV 232I in the context of Catholic Mass settings in Dresden, 1729-1733 Janice B. Stockigt; 4. The role and significance of the Polonaise in the 'Quoniam' of the B-minor Mass Szymon Paczkowski; 5. 'The Great Catholic Mass': Bach, Count Questenberg and the Musicalische congregation in Vienna Michael Maul; Part II. Structure and Proportion: 6. Some observations on the formal design of Bach's B-minor Mass Ulrich Siegele; 7. Chiastic reflection in the B-minor Mass: lament's paradoxical mirror Melvin P. Unger; 8. Parallel proportions, numerical structures and harmonie in Bach's Autograph score Ruth Tatlow; Part III. Sources: 9. Many problems, different solutions: editing Bach's B-minor Mass Uwe Wolf; 10. Manuscript score No. 4500 in St Petersburg: a new source of the B-minor Mass Tatiana Shabalina; Part IV. Reception: 11. Haydn's copy of the B-minor Mass and Mozart's Mass in C Minor: Viennese traditions of the B-minor Mass Ulrich Leisinger; 12. A 'fairly correct copy of the mass'? Mendelssohn's score of the B-minor Mass as a document of the Romantics' view on matters of performance practice and source criticism Anselm Hartinger; 13. The B-minor Mass in nineteenth-century England Katharine Pardee; 14. Bach's B-minor Mass: an incarnation in Prague in the 1860s and its consequences Jan Smaczny; Appendix 1; Appendix 2.