Gerd Schaller, who has made a name for himself by discovering unknown works and versions by Herbeck's contemporaries like Bruckner and Suppé has now discovered Herbeck's completely forgotten Great Mass in E minor almost 150 years after it was premiered. Like Bruckner's Mass in E minor, the work eschews fanciful and secular-seeming (operatic) solo vocal parts and consists solely of impressive and dignified sacred choruses that vary between simple melody and eruptive Romantic harmony. The work reverts to structures from past eras, in line with the 19th c. revival movement, which championed the qualities of early choral melody, Palestrina's polyphony and Bach's fugal tradition.
