Father Amandus Ivanschiz was a Slavic-Austrian member of the Pauline Order, that is, the Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit (OSPPE). These are the monks perhaps most famous to Americans as the inhabitants of the Jasna Góra (Bright Mountain) monastery famous for its miraculous icon of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa. He is also known as an early classical composer of worth, and one who had, surprisingly, achieved some popularity in his short lifetime.
It is impressive that the man who composed the Mass embedded below died at the young age of 31. For some ten years, he was a prolific composer and left behind quite a body of oeuvre: “His output comprises about 20 symphonies, 15 string trios, 17 masses, 13 litanies, 7 short cantatas (each named “Oratorium”), 9 settings of Marian antiphons, 8 arias and duets to non-liturgical texts, vespers and Te Deum” (Wikipedia).
Here is a brief sketch of his life from the YouTube video I’ve embedded below (more information is available at Wikipedia):
Austrian composer of south Slav extraction. Only fragmentary information about his life is available. He entered the Pauline order in his hometown and choose the name of Amandus likely by the end of 1742. After his novitiate in the Ranna monastery at the age of 16 (Dec. 25, 1743) he took his monastic vows. He then studied in Maria Trost and Wiener Neustadt, where he was ordained a priest on November 15, 1750. Between 1751 and 1754 he stayed in Rome as an assistant to the Procurator General of the order, from where he returned to Wiener Neustadt. In 1755 he was sent again to the Maria Trost monastery, where he died in 1758, at the young age of 31. He was evidently a prolific and popular composer: there survive about 100 works by him in manuscripts, dating mostly from 1762 to 1772 and scattered throughout the Habsburg Empire and in south Germany. His music is characteristic of the transition from late Baroque to early Classical style, and his best works are his masses and symphonies. The masses are mostly scored for four soloists, four-part choir, two violins and bass and a pair of trumpets; some are of considerable dimensions, and they show distinct Neapolitan traits. The symphonies, many of which have four movements, are scored for strings, sometimes with a pair of trumpets or horns. The trios, entitled variously ‘Divertimento’, ‘Nocturno’, ‘Sinfonia’, ‘Sonata’ and ‘Parthia’, are mostly in three movements in the same key; Ivanschiz’s frequent use of the viola as the second solo instrument is a forward-looking trait.
