The Litany to the Holy Sacrament, (Litaniæ de venerabili altaris sacramento), has a more serious character than the Litany to the Virgin. But appeals to the holy sacrament being of necessity abstract and dogmatic, are less suggestive of a musical rendering than those addressed to the Virgin Mary. On this account an operatic style is more avowedly employed; but it is combined with solemn dignity and thoughtfulness, and the two Litanies of this kind by Mozart are largely conceived and carefully executed compositions.[37] The first in B flat major (125 K.), composed in March, 1772, after the Italian tour, strikes throughout the tone of the heroic opera, elevated by deep and earnest feeling. The Kyrie is introduced by an instrumental passage, announcing the principal subject, which, after a short, solemn Adagio, is taken up by the chorus in Allegro molto. The plan of the whole movement, containing a second subject placed as contrast to the oft-repeated principal one, and a running orchestral accompaniment, follows the operatic mode of construction. The first movement of the Litany proper, "Panis vivus," is a soprano solo which might have been transferred bodily from an opera seria; the chief passages are given to the word "miserere." The solemn chorus which follows, "Verbum caro factum," interesting from its delicate modulations, and a characteristic passage for the violins, serves as an introduction to the agitated "Hostia sancta." Four solo voices give the chief motif in succession, with different modifications, and unite at last to rise to an appropriate climax; the chorus twice interposes with a short but weighty rhythmical passage, {CHURCH MUSIC.} (272) giving cohesion and dignity to the whole movement. A new climax occurs in the Adagio, where the chorus repeats the word "Tremendum" with an expression of solemn awe. The short, lively passage given to the next words, "ac vivificum sacramentum," is only to serve as a contrast to the "Tremendum." The movement which follows "Panis omnipotentia verbi caro factus," is again nothing but an operatic tenor song, full of passages and pleasing expression. The grave harmonies of a short Adagio in B minor, "Viaticum in domino morientium," prepare the way for something new.[38] It was the custom to write a movement in elaborate counterpoint on the words of "Pignus futuræ gloriæ," and Mozart was not one to shrink from such a task. The bass theme, answered by the wind instruments in a passage afterwards much employed, is announced with the force and decision of joyful confidence, and is then exhaustively worked out into a long fugue.[39] The one theme, hardly ever abridged or altered, runs through the whole, but it is developed with an amount of variety, especially in the modulation and in the orchestral climax, and with so much fresh tunefulness, that this work alone would prove the youth of fifteen years old to be possessed of the genius of maturity.