PROGRAM 2026
Festival service
Mozart's Coronation Mass
Tromsø Cathedral invites you to the Northern Lights Festival service with communion, where the Tromsø Cathedral choir and soloists perform the popular and well-known Coronation Mass by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart under the direction of domcantor Hijoo Moon.
Coronation Mass, composed in 1779, is one of the most popular of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 17 extant settings of the Ordinary of the Mess.
Mozart wrote his Mass in C, K. 317 in 1779, while he was a court organist and composer for the Archbishop of Salzburg. It is arguably the best known, and for many, the finest of the fairs he wrote for Salzburg. Although there is no sure record of a performance, its full orchestration and clear tone suggest that it was probably performed in Salzburg Cathedral at Easter 1779. It is also believed that it was performed years later during the celebration of the coronation of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II and perhaps also for the coronation of his successor, Francis II.
There is also a “short fair,” the kind of condensed work that Mozart's employer required even for solemn occasions. As Mozart described it in a letter, the music plus the spoken parts of the service “must last no longer than three quarters. This applies even to the solemn Mass that the archbishop himself performs.
The Mass is performed on Sunday at 11 a.m., that is, in ordinary church time. Two young children are baptized and the congregation is allowed to use their voices to sing along to hymns. Sunday's theme is seeds. Traditionally, this is associated with the spoken word of God to be spread out into the world. But how poor would the Church's message have been without the music? This Sunday during the Northern Lights Festival, we can enjoy some of the real gems of church music: from Mozart's Coronation Mass from 1779 to Kari Bremne's beautiful baptismal hymn from 2006.
Welcome to Tromsø Cathedral!