Friday, March 30, 2012

April 1, 2012 - Palm Sunday

Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Gates - Andreas Hammerschmidt
b minor Mass BWV 232: "Crucifixus" - J.S. Bach
 
Hymns: #154 Valet will ich dir Geben, #147 Bourbon, #160 Coss of Jesus
 
This week because of the structure of the Palm Sunday liturgy there will be no organ prelude or postlude. The service will begin with the liturgy of the palms and end in silence. Because of this I am again this week only discussing the two choir anthems.
 
The gradual anthem is Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Gates by Andreas Hammerschmidt (c.1612-1675). The original version of this piece is for 6 part choir and bears the German title Machet die Tore weit. This setting of Psalm 24 shows the lighter more celebratory side of the Palm Sunday service. The choir demands that the gates of the city be lifted to allow the entry of the King of Glory. The next section has the choir asking between the different voice parts: “Who is this King of glory?” which is of course answered “the Lord strong and mighty in battle.”  Much like the more well known setting from Handel’s Messiah, there is an antiphonal quality to the writing. This could have had something to do with Johanniskirche having three organs that were positioned opposite one another allowing for different possibilities of antiphonal effects. After the question has been asked and answered the choir again demands that the gates be lifted and then breaks into cries of  “Hosanna.” Hammerschmidt was a prolific composer of sacred choral music. He was well respected and well liked church musician. He has been hailed as one of the most distinguished composers of church music in the 17th century having more than 400 sacred vocal works to his credit.
 
As you might know I have been drawing on the music of J.S. Bach for my preludes and postludes during Lent both for consistency through the season and to allow for personal reflections on the works of the master. I thought it only fitting to still include him in this week’s musical offerings (pun fully intended). For the communion anthem we are sing the Crucifixus from the b minor Mass BWV 232. I of course wish to give credit where credit is due. Many of my observations and a great deal of my thoughts on this piece come from Calvin R. Stapert’s My Only Comfort: Death, Deliverance, and Discipleship in the Music of Bach. This book views Bach’s music through the lens of the Heidelberg Catechism. Many of you may know that Bach throughout his life was fascinated with numerology and symbols. There are few if any pieces of his sacred compositions that do not have some form of religious symbolism buried in them. Crucifixus comes from the Credo of Bach’s monumental mass. It is literally the central movement (movement 5 of 9 movements in the Credo). The chorus is actually an example of Bach borrowing from himself. It is a reworking of the music from Cantata 12 Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen (Weeping, lamenting, sorrow, fear, anxiety and need). The movement is scored very simply for strings, continuo and two flutes. The flutes and strings overlap with the strings playing on beats 3 and 1 while the flutes play on beats 2 and 3. This is all done over a pulsing chromatic bass line which continues to the end of the movement even after the rest of the instruments have stopped. The piece begins in e minor  but rather than concluding in the same key, which it easily could, the final variation (according to Stapert there are 11) has the basses change direction and ascend to a d before cadencing on a very low G major chord. It is likely that Bach chose to end this way to prepare for the chorus Et Resurrexit which follows in the triumphal key of D major. A fitting piece to take us into the intense emotion of Holy Week.

Friday, March 23, 2012

March 25, 2012 - Lent 5

None Other Lamb - Jane M. Marshall/Christina Rossetti
Miserere Mei - Antonio Lotti

Hymns: #439 Wondrous Love, #302 Rendez A Dieu,
              #474 Rockingham


This week I will only discuss the choir anthems. We are again privileged to be joined by a musician who will be providing the prelude and postlude for us. The choir anthems this week are very different from one another but still work together to create a cohesive message for the service. The gradual anthem comes from the pen of Jane Marshall, a noteworthy church musician, teacher and composer. Her best known contribution to the literature is probably the anthem My Eternal King. One of the aspects that set Ms. Marshall apart from other church composers of her time is her attention to extremely high quality texts. This anthem published in 1954 sets the Christina Rossetti hymn text None Other Lamb for four part (often a cappella) choir, organ and cello obbligato. Marshall handles the change in mood and theme of the text by fluctuating between e minor and E major with interludes played by the organ and cello to aid the otherwise a cappella choir in finding the shifts in tonality. The piece requires a great degree of musicianship from the singers as Marshall calls on them to execute large crescendos and decrescendos with little time. In addition to these demands the text often calls for long sustained lines and a great deal of sensitivity to word stress and breaks in the phrases. The text by poet Christina Rossetti is filled with images of longing and desire. It has been suggested that later in life, after resigning herself to never finding a fulfilling relationship in another man that Rossetti turned her visions of love toward the image of Christ as the bridegroom. I think that this text can easily be viewed with this in mind and that it only serves to deepen the sense of longing that the speaker feels.

The communion anthem has a much older text than the 19th century None Other Lamb. Miserere Mei is a setting of the first three verses of Psalm 51 by the Italian Baroque composer Antonio Lotti. Lotti spent his entire career in Venice at St. Mark’s Cathedral (with the exception of a two years spent in Dresden where a number of his operas were produced.) Lotti started at St. Mark’s as a singer and rose through the ranks finally being named maestro di cappella in 1736. He composed numerous masses, cantatas, chamber works, operas and sacred pieces. His Miserere Mei is still performed at the Cathedral on Maundy Thursday. This setting starts with each voice entering in imitation with lush (for the time period and the ultra-conservative Lotti) suspensions and harmonies. The piece is very short (only 27 measures) but Lotti manages to squeeze the meaning out of every note and every word. For me, the piece ends in a fulfilling way but it is so good that I just want there to be more. It is a truly stunning piece.

Friday, March 16, 2012

March 18, 2012 - Lent 4

O Mensch bewein dein Sunde gross BWV 622 - J.S. Bach
Go Not Far From Me, O God - N.A. Zingarelli
The Crucifixion: "God So Loved the World" -
    Sir John Stainer
Concerto in d minor after Vivaldi: "Finale" BWV 596 -
    J.S. Bach

Hymns: #727 Woodslake, #467 St. Bees, #603 St. Botolph

This week I have turned to not one but two old stand-bys of the choral literature. Go Not Far From Me, O God was written by the Italian composer, Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli (1752-1827). Zingarelli was a prolific composer. Most of his contributions fall into the category of either opera or church music. He was born in Naples and began studying music at age 7. In the early part of his career he held several church positions including Milan Cathedral and the Sistine Chapel. In 1811 he was taken as a prisoner to Paris because he refused to conduct a Te Deum for Napoleon’s son. He was quickly released because Napoleon liked his music. Later in his career he turned to sacred compositions, writing masses, cantatas, and oratorios including “The Flight to Egypt” which was written for the Birmingham Festival (17 years later Mendelssohn’s Elijah was premiered at the festival.) The motet Go Not Far From Me, O God is simple. The opening f minor section is filled with sighing motives that are spread throughout. These are followed by a short imitative section (foreshadowing of things to come in the second half) on the text “forsake me not.” The piece then bursts in to F major as the choir’s mouth is “filled with Thy praise.” This joy continues through the rest of the piece with strongly contrasted dynamics and a care free dance like quality that continues to the end.

God So Loved the World is probably Sir John Stainer’s (1840-1901) best known work. It is taken from the Lenten work The Crucifixion and is the piece’s central movement. Stainer was an English organist and composer who was very popular during his own lifetime, but whose works have largely fallen out of favor today. They are frequently criticized as being too overtly emotional and romantic and lacking in real substance. Stainer began his career as a choir boy at St. Paul’s Cathedral and at age 16 was appointed organist of St. Michael’s college. He went on to hold similar posts at Magdalen College and St. Paul’s Cathedral. He was also made a professor at Oxford. In addition to his compositions, Stainer made contributions to music by writing treatises on harmony, composition and the organ. He was also a notable musicologist who rediscovered the works fifteenth century composers including Guillaume Dufay. God So Loved the World remains a staple in most church libraries because of its simple beauty and flexibility. Despite being quite simple a good degree of musicality is necessary on the part of the singers to realize the piece’s potential.

For the prelude and postlude I have again turned to the music of J.S. Bach (1685-1750.) For the postlude I am playing the last movement of Bach’s Concerto in d minor after Vivaldi BWV 596. This piece is likely based on RV 565 the Concerto in d minor for two violins. The piece works well as an organ transcription and the listener can still hear the interplay between the two “violin” parts and the continuo in this movement. It is possible that this piece is based on a work by W.F. Bach but one can easily hear the Italian influence that makes it easy to believe that Vivaldi’s influence was at the root of it. The piece requires the organist to change manuals quickly and fairly frequently, probably to imitate the trading back and forth of the soloists and the orchestra in the original concerto.

The prelude is the beautiful chorale, O Mensch bewein dein Sünde gross BWV 622 (O Man, lament your great sin.) In this chorale prelude Bach has taken into account the lengthy text of the chorale tune which he presents here as an ornamented solo (in this case for me, an 8’ principal) James Moeser suggest that Bach’s treatment of specific passages in the prelude directly relates to the text, for example, the last line talks about Christ being “stretched out on the cross” and here in the music Bach elongates the note values and draws the piece to a close with a rallentando. This same chorale is used to conclude the first part of the St. Matthew Passion, Bach’s monumental retelling of Christ’s last week. Here again, the sopranos sing the chorale tune while the lower three voices provide flowing contrapuntal leans that are woven together seamlessly to support the chorale tune.

Friday, March 9, 2012

March 11, 2012 - Lent 3

Trio Sonata No. 1 in Eb BWV 525: "Adagio" - JS Bach
Messiah: "Their Sound is Gone Out" - GF Handel
"Ave Verum" - Edward Elgar
Passacaglia and Fugue in c minor: "Fugue" - JS Bach

Hymns: #455 Dunedin, #360 Rouen, #574 St. Petersburg

The gradual anthem for this Sunday comes for the frequently cut second part of Messiah. I have always felt that Part II contains some of the most dynamic and interesting choral writing in that oratorio. The text painting that Handel uses in Let All the Angels, The Lord Gave the Word, and Their Sound is Gone Out is simply inspired. It could also have something to do with the fact that these are some of the lesser done choruses and so I haven’t heard them sung to death every year for as long as I can remember but I digress. The text of this chorus comes from Paul’s letter to the Romans but is actually a quote from Psalm 19:4. One of the amazing things about Handel is his ability to do so much with so little. The text for this chorus is very short, and the melodic ideas are equally as short. The voice parts enter in quick succession on theme A depicting a quick dissemination of the gospel on the text “Their sound is gone out into all lands.” This is then followed by theme B on the second half of the text “and their words unto the ends of the world” which is set to a sweeping scale that peaks on the word “world” and then descends depicting the gospel going into every corner of the world. This rousing chorus is actually the third and final solution that Handel found for setting this text. Messiah was composed in 1741 and first performed in 1742. This chorus was not written until 1749. Prior to this the movement had been a tenor solo.

The communion anthem is a setting of the Ave Verum by Edward Elgar (1857-1934). He enjoyed a great deal of success during his lifetime but quickly fell out of favor after his death until a resurgence in the 1960’s. Elgar’s composition style was out of touch with his nationalistic contemporaries. He believed that it was a composer’s job to write melodies not to borrow and arrange pre-existing ones. Elgar composed for massive forces combining chorus and orchestra for many pieces. His best known pieces today are probably The Enigma Variations, and his March No. 1, known to most of us as Pomp and Circumstance. It turns out that though this piece garnered him great fortune and fame, it was what turned “serious” musicians off of his music and resulted in him retiring from public life completely in the post World War I years. Elgar’s father, William was the organist at St. George’s Church, Worcester. In the mid-1870’s Elgar became his father’s assistant and in 1885 took over as organist. This Ave Verum began as a setting of Pie Jesu for soprano and organ written for the funeral of William Allen, a family friend and was later sung at Elgar’s funeral. In 1902 the composer reworked the piece for full choir and changed the text. He described the work as “too sugary, I think, but it is nice and harmless and quite easy.”
I have decided to program the works of J.S. Bach throughout Lent partly to honor his birthday (March 21) and partly because of their devotional quality both in general and for me personally. This week’s selections are Trio Sonata No. 1 in Eb BWV 525: “Adagio” and Passacaglia and Fugue in c minor BWV 582: “Fugue.”

The slow movement from the trio sonata features three intertwining lines, two played on contrasting flutes and the third on an oboe stop. The piece is in 12/8 and has a graceful yet mournful feel to it, possibly due to the number of suspensions in it. Another reason for selecting this piece is that it is in the same key as the postlude but with a very different character. These pieces are quite difficult to play because it requires the performer to keep track not only of the notes and rhythms of three different lines but also of the phrasing and articulation. Each line is truly a solo melody and they must all be given equal attention.

The Passacaglia and Fugue in c minor is one of my all time favorite pieces to play and to hear. I first encountered the piece, not in its original form for organ but in the orchestral transcription by Ottorino Respighi. I was driving from one church service to the other and the piece came on the radio and I was completely overwhelmed. I got to church and sat in my car to hear the rest of it. The theme of the work is (likely) taken from two short works by the French composer Andre Raison. The fugue follows the passacaglia without break to serve as the 21st variation on the theme. The fugue (actually a double fugue) uses the first half of the passacaglia theme as its subject. An altered version of the theme is used as the second theme. The piece builds to a strong close on a totally unexpected chord and ends with a low c in the pedal filling out a triumphant final chord.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

March 4, 2012 - Lent 2/St. David's Day

Prelude on Cwm Rhondda - James Jacka Coyle
Because It Must - Owain Glandon
I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes - Howard Boatwright
Chorale Prelude on Aberystwyth
 
Hymns: #594 Cwm Rhondda, #675 Bourbon, #699 Aberystwyth
 
This week we are celebrating St. David's Day. Because of this, our music is Welsh themed. The prelude is based on the Welsh hymn tune, Cwm Rhondda. The tune is named for the Rhondda River, a coal mining area in Wales. The Psalter Hymnal Handbook comments that "this tune draws into question the belief that most Welsh hymn tunes are minor." This tune is sometimes known as the "Welsh Rugby Hymn" and has been used at many state events and funerals. This setting by James Jacka Coyle is in 10/8 and features the melody in the left hand played on a reed stop while the right hand plays eighth notes (grouped 3+3+4). The uneven rhythm somehow works despite the normally foursquare hymn tune. The meter fluctuates with measures in 4/4, 11/8, and one measure of 14/8 (which I'm not sure I've seen before.) It is a light piece and a good way to start out the service.
 
The gradual anthem, Because It Must,  is a setting of 1 Corinthians 15:52-57 and is subtitled A Remembrance Anthem. One day I received a letter from a woman in Phoenix, NY that had seen a write up in the paper about a program that I was giving or had given and she had this piece of music. The piece was written by her (great?)grandfather and she wanted an organist to record it. She had the piece translated from the original Welsh but didn't think that it had ever been performed in the US. I recorded the piece on the organ at SU and premiered the work with a choir I was working with at the time. The piece works reasonably well as an organ solo. The anthem is quite traditional and very sectional. It opens with a dark homophonic section followed a short imitative passage and then returning to homophonic texture. The tempo quickens for the text "Death has no victory" and then slows drastically for "O death where is thy sting?" The final statement of praise and thanksgiving bring the piece to an exciting close. One of the challenges with this piece is that the English translation pays little attention to word stress resulting in unaccented syllables being placed on accented beats and vice versa. Enjoy this little known gem of the Welsh choral tradition.
 
For the communion anthem rather than turning to another Welsh piece I chose a piece that has St. David's church connections. I picked Howard Boatwright's setting of Psalm 121 I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes Unto the Hills. I had programmed this piece in the fall but changed it so that we could devote a bit more time to the sensitivity required by the piece. As with much of Boatwright's choral music, this is likely a product of his time in New Haven. The piece is for SSATB choir a cappella. The piece opens with imitative entrances on the text "I will lift up mine eyes" before coming together on "unto the hills." Another imitative phrase leads us into the B section. This section features the men in unison on the melody with the ladies floating above in three part harmony. For me this is reminiscent of Mendelssohn's setting of this text in Elijah for a ladies trio. It is possible that Boatwright had this in the back of his mind but who can say. The imitation comes back and the piece closes with a quiet but initially unsettling Amen. The piece is very specific in it's musical direction and the demands on the singers. It is a beautiful piece that I have grown to love.
 
 The postlude is a setting of Aberystwyth by T. Tertius Noble. This hymn tune was written by Joseph Parry, and is perhaps his best known hymn tune. Parry began working in steel mills at age 9. His family immigrated to the US in 1854. Here Parry's musical talents flourished. Several interested community members paid for him to study music. He went on to compose cantatas, oratorios, instrumental music and more that 400 hymn tunes. Aberystwyth is named for the seaside school that Parry taught at when he wrote the tune in 1876. T. Tertius Noble is a name that most of us have seen but may not be able to place. Noble is primarily remembered as an organist, choirmaster and composer of Anglican music. He is perhaps best known today for having edited the G. Schirmer edition of Handel's Messiah. Noble studied at the Royal College of Music and served as assistant organist at Trinity College, Cambridge. He later held positions at Ely Cathedral and York Minster. In 1913 he moved to New York City as organist at St. Thomas where he established a boy's choir and choir school. Noble composed orchestral and chamber music but is best remembered for his Anglican church music and anthems including Evensong services in b minor and a minor. This setting of Aberystwyth shows off Noble's pedal technique with fast moving scale passages in the pedal. The piece is back and forth between sections played on the full organ and the hymn tune being played on a solo reed stop accompanied by swirling toccata like figures in the manuals. The piece is strong and imposing throughout growing to a finish played on full organ.