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II. The music and architecture of the baroque period shared the same ideas. One of the basic principles of baroque architecture is the symmetric ground plan. The palace of Versailles in France served as a model for many other buildings. Its centerpiece is the main building, which is itself axial-symmetric; this is framed by two huge wings. Norbert Elias has noted in his study The Court Society to what extent the architecture of Versailles reflected (and shaped) society, and how the European nobility, by imitating the architecture of the palace, took over the sociological paradigms of the French court.16 Thus the palace served not only as an architectural paradigm but was an emanation of the sociological structure of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. In Germany several residences were built, or re-built, according to this model, although in a much smaller size, but with the symmetric outline preserved. We know that Bach was familiar with this type of architecture since the palace of Friedrichsthal in Gotha, close to Weimar, was constructed about 1710 according to the model.17 Even apart from architecture, symmetry was seen in the baroque world as a sign of perfection, mirroring the beauty and perfection of the divine creation. An example is the title page of Michael Praetorius's Musae Sioniae, one of the most successful music collections of the seventeenth century, of which the first part was published in 1605.
In the upper register we see God Father represented by the divine name in Hebrew letters, and underneath is the lamb, Jesus Christ. God is framed by the evangelists, two on either side, and he and Christ are surrounded by the heavenly choirs. The music-making on earth is a reflection of this heavenly scenario, with a choir on a balcony on either side, and in the middle the great organ. The symmetry on earth mirrors the symmetric perfection of heaven.18 The purpose of art at this time—in architecture, the visual arts, and music—was not to create something entirely new, but to reflect this divine perfection, and in this way to praise God. We find such a symmetric outline in many pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach,19 but only in a few cases is this outline as consequent as in the B Minor Mass. Kyrie The first example is the Kyrie. Its middle section, the Christe eleison (Christ, have mercy), is framed by two huge movements for choir and orchestra, each presenting the phrase Kyrie eleison (God, have mercy) in a polyphonic fabric. But there is a significant difference between these two movements. The first Kyrie is composed as a modern fugue with an instrumental theme and—at least at the beginning—independent instrumental voices. When the Kyrie eleison is repeated after the Christe eleison, the texture is again polyphonic, but in quite a different way. While the first Kyrie had an instrumental character, the second is influenced by the polyphonic vocal style of the early modern period; this is known as "Palestrina style" after the famous Roman sixteenth century composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594), or stile antico.20 The instruments in the second Kyrie basically follow the vocal parts, and the whole piece could easily be performed without the instruments. Bach had several reasons for using this compositional technique. One is his interest in different musical styles, and his desire to improve his own style during his lifetime. He was always looking for compositional challenges, and to compose a movement in this elaborate vocal style was a challenge. His other motivation follows from the purpose of the Mass as a "job-application" for the court in Dresden: Bach knew the musical style the court in Dresden preferred. Because the stile antico, or Palestrina style, was very frequently used by composers in Dresden at this time,21 Bach likely used it to improve his chances of getting the position he wanted. In other words, writing some movements of the Mass in Palestrina style was a part of his advertising strategy. The first music example shows the beginning of the second Kyrie. The bass begins with a long soggetto, sharpened by chromaticisms and supported by the bassoon. The tenor enters with the same soggetto and is accompanied by the viola. The different timbres of the reed instrument and the string instrument make the polyphonic fabric even more transparent. The same is true when eventually the alto (with the oboe) and the soprano (with oboe and flute) enter. The instrumentation, characteristic of the German seventeenth century ideal of Spaltklang, underscores the polyphonic texture of the setting (see Example 1). 
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