6. Messa

The Credo, which already had been performed in 1878 together with the Mottetto per San Paolino (2 [see 4]), undoubtedly originated as a separate piece. This calls into question the assertion common in Puccini scholarship that the Messa was Puccini's submission for his final examinations at the Pacini Institute in Lucca.Note: *All the extant documents pertaining to Puccini's student years in Lucca are quoted by Giulio Battelli in Ravenni and Gianturco 1997, 3-21. 
The first performance of the Messa was announced in the newspaper La Provincia di Lucca of 10 July 1880 for a religious service on the occasion of the feast of San Paolino, which was certainly on 12 July 1880. A report about the performance is contained in the 24 July 1880 issue of the same newspaper, which also mentions that on the morning of 11 July a performance of the Kyrie, Gloria, and Agnus Dei took place in the Istituto musicale Pacini.Note: *For a facsimile of the program of this concert, see Niccolai 1999, Riproduzioni 3.  The performances in Lucca remained the only ones ni Puccini's lifetime and for more than a quarter-century thereafter.
The expanded instrumentation of some passages in 6.B.1, particularly in the wind parts, might indicate that Puccini began a revision of the work (probably in the spring of 1893), but obviously did not finish it. As with the Capriccio sinfonico (see NOTES to 55), it is possible that he planned a revival of his most extensive youthful work, but dispensed with that idea after the surprising success of Manon Lescaut, which established him as an opera composer. It is possible that the young Guido Vandini took part in that revisionNote: *Puccini's first known letter to Vandini dates from January 1893; see Pintorno 1974, No. 5. and the initials "V.G." in 6.B.1 might signify his name. This could be the source of the later erroneous assumption that 6.C.1 was written by Vandini.
6.C.1 was acquired after World War II by Dante Del Fiorentino, who saw to the first publication of the work, even though its existence had always been known. That publication led to a lawsuit with Puccini's heirs and Ricordi, which was finally settled by the agreement that the primary publisher, Mills Music (for the United States, Canada, and Mexico), and Ricordi (for the rest of the world) would jointly distribute the editions of the Messa.
Puccini used the Kyrie for the church scene in Act 1 of Edgar. The Agnus Dei ultimately became the madrigal in Act 2 of Manon Lescaut (64). The strangely secular sound of this Agnus Dei (including its later very unliturgical reuse) could mean that the composition originally was not at all intended for the Messa, and was included therein only under the pressure of the pending deadline for the first performance.