The Missa Brevis No. 10 in C major, K. 220, was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

 in 1775 or 1776 for Salzburg

Salzburg

-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...

. The mass is scored for soloists, choir, 2 trumpet

Trumpet

The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

s, 3 trombone

Trombone

The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...

s, timpani

Timpani

Timpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet...

, strings and organ, the latter supplying figured bass

Figured bass

Figured bass, or thoroughbass, is a kind of integer musical notation used to indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones, in relation to a bass note...

 for most of the duration. It is called the Sparrow Mass (or Spatzenmesse) on account of "the violin figures in the "Hosanna" of the "Sanctus" and "Benedictus" which recall the chirping of birds." The Sparrow Mass is the first of five Mozart wrote in the same key, C major

C major

C major is a musical major scale based on C, with pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature has no flats/sharps.Its relative minor is A minor, and its parallel minor is C minor....

, as if he was setting himself a compositional challenge. Furthermore, Mozart wrote four other missae breves in C major.

The setting is divided into six movements.

1. "Kyrie" Allegro, C major, common time
   Common Time
   "Common Time" is a science fiction short story written by James Blish. It first appeared in the August 1953 issue of Science Fiction Quarterly and has been reprinted several times: in the 1959 short-story collection Galactic Cluster; in The Testament of Andros ; in The Penguin Science Fiction...
   
   
2. "Gloria" Allegro, C major, 3/4

1. "Credo" Allegro, C major, common time

   —"Et incarnatus est..." Andante

   —"Et resurrexit..." Allegro

2. "Sanctus" Andante, C major, 3/4

   —"Pleni sunt caeli..." Allegro, common time

3. "Benedictus" Andante, G major
   G major
   G major is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has one sharp, F; in treble-clef key signatures, the sharp-symbol for F is usually placed on the first line from the top, though in some Baroque music it is placed on the first space from the bottom...
   
   , common time

   —"Osanna..." Allegro, C major

4. "Agnus Dei" Adagio, C major, 3/4

   —"Dona nobis pacem..." Allegro, common time

Even in a missa brevis

Missa Brevis

Missa brevis literally means "short mass" and can refer to different types of musical setting of the Mass. Modernly, Missa brevis is generally understood as a setting of parts of the ordinary mass...

, fugues are expected to conclude the Gloria and the Credo, but Mozart does not write fugues at those points in this mass. Following the example of Joseph Haydn

Joseph Haydn

Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...

 (such as in the Nicolaimesse) and Michael Haydn

Michael Haydn

Johann Michael Haydn was an Austrian composer of the classical period, the younger brother of Joseph Haydn.-Life:...

, Mozart in this mass recalls the music of the Kyrie in the Dona nobis, something which Franz Xaver Süssmayr

Franz Xaver Süssmayr

Franz Xaver Süssmayr was an Austrian composer, now famous for his completion of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Requiem.-Early life:...

 did in his completion of Mozart's Requiem

Requiem (Mozart)

The Requiem Mass in D minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in Vienna in 1791 and left unfinished at the composer's death. A completion by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who had anonymously commissioned the piece for a requiem Mass to commemorate the...

. Incidentally, the Requiem contains an almost literal quotation from this mass in the Requiem aeternam.