December 18, 2011 - Advent 4

Nun komm' der Heiden Heiland BWV 660 - JS Bach
Nun komm' der Heiden Heiland - Hugo Distler
Magnificat - Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

Hymns: #56 Veni Emmanuel, #265 Gabriel's Message, #54 Nun Komm, Der Heiden Heiland

This week the organ music is picked based on the final hymn Savior of the Nations Come. The text of which is:

Savior of the nations, come,

Virgin's Son, make here your home!

Marvel now, O heav'n and earth,

That the Lord chose such a birth.

This is the perfect hymn for the last Sunday in advent because as we get closer to the celebration of Christ's birth this hymn becomes a prayer for us. To me it is a fitting invitation at the opening of the service and a powerful final statement to close the final service of Advent.

The prelude is a setting by JS Bach. It is the second of three settings from his 18 Leipzig chorales. In this setting the left hand and pedal dialogue as though they were two gambas (forerunner of the cello) the right hand plays an ornamented version of the chorale tune above this. This piece sounds quite simple but in reality is a bit difficult to play. Bach has no sympathy for the performer and writes a pedal line that is just as energetic and full of jumps as the left hand line. The reed solo simply dances above the counterpoint, seemingly unaware of what's going on.

The postlude is the third movement from Hugo Distler's partita on the same chorale melody. Distler was born in 1908 in Nuremberg where he was raised by his grandparents. In 1927 he was enrolled in the Leipzig Conservatory but due to financial problems was forced to withdraw in 1930. That same year he took the position of organist at the St. Jacobikirche which he held until 1937. He then moved on to academia and took a position at the Wurtembergische Hochschule fur Musik  where he developed his skills as composer and choral conductor. By the early 1940's Distler's life had become very difficult. Suffering from an unbearable workload and increasing pressure t join the Third Reich he committed suicide on All Saint's Day in 1942. The piece is in 4 movements, an opening and closing Toccata that are identical, a second movement that is a set of chorale variations and the third movement (the one that I am playing) which is a chaconne. A chaconne is  a set of variations performed over a repeated harmonic progression. In the case of this piece the repeated progression is that of the first phrase of the chorale tune. Distler was very specific about registrations and the instructions he gave were specific to the organ of the St. Jacobkirche. The piece builds and grows becoming both louder and more rhythmic closing with a big restatement of the chorale tune.

The information that I want to share with you regarding the Magnificat is primarily from the Foreword of the Walton edition written by Virginia Stroh and Buryl Red. Perhaps one of the most interesting things about the history of this piece is that we are not altogether sure that it was Pergolesi that wrote it. Nothing is known of the date of composition or the first performance. Some musicologists believe that the work was actually written by Pergolesi's teacher Durante. 

The work is based on Tone 1f for the Magnificat which has been used by other composers including Monteverdi. The first line we hear in the sopranos sets the celebratory and, more importantly perhaps, anticipatory tone of the work. This theme is passed around the choir throughout the movement and returns in the sixth movement with a similar presentation on the text sicut erat in principio et nunc et semper. The second and fourth movements each feature duets. The second is a soprano solo followed by a mezzo soprano solo that is then answered by the full choir. The fourth features a solo tenor and bass dialoguing about how God has helped His servant. There are two other choral movements, three and five, both in a minor key. The third starts with the theme in the altos and this theme is passed around the with sweeping contrapuntal lines in between. The fifth starts with a biting figure in the sopranos that is restated by the full choir before modulating and becoming the stately Gloria Patri. The work concludes with a full, but never heavy final Amen.