Give Almes of Thy Goods - Christopher Tye
Messiah: "But Thou Didst Not Leave His Soul In Hell"
- G.F. Handel
O Filii et Filiae - Jean-Francois Dandrieu
Offertory on "O Filii" - Alexandre Guilmant
Hymns: #210 Ellacombe, #206 O Filii et Filiae,
#209 St. Botolph
The Music for this Sunday draws on two different National traditions. The anthems are very British and the organ music is very French. The gradual anthem this week comes from the pen of Dr. Christopher Tye (c.1505 - c. 1572), a British organist and composer. Tye's compositions were written for the Reformed church. Tye is perhaps one of the most important and widely known composers of the mid-sixteenth century because of his writings for the Reformed Church and his connections to the reign of Edward VI. He earned a degree in music from Cambridge in 1536 and in 1543 was appointed choirmaster of the Cathedral at Ely. In 1545 he received a doctorate in music from Cambridge and in 1548 Oxford awarded him the same degree. The text for the anthem Give Almes of Thy Goods comes from the fourth chapter of the book of Tobit. This book is often connected with the Jewish wisdom literature. The fourth chapter contains Tobit's instructions to his son Tobias regarding the value of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The text of the anthem states that if we do not turn away from the poor then God will not turn His face away from us. The choir enters one part at a time starting with the basses and building from low to high before the men and women break into an antiphonal call and response. The full choir joins together on the last statement of "and turn never thy face from any poor man" before breaking off for two identical imitative statements of the next line of text, "and then the face of the Lord shall not be turned away from thee."
The communion anthem is taken (again) from Handel's Messiah. With a work that encompasses the entire life of Christ from birth through ascension it is hard not to continue to draw on it for inspiration. It just seems to always have the right piece for the day. This week I have programmed the tenor solo But Thou Didst Not Leave His Soul In Hell. In Leonard Van Camp's book, A Practical Guide for Performing, Teaching, and Singing Handel's Messiah, he describes this aria as the piece that begins Part 2 Scene 3: Christ's Resurrection and Ascension separating it even from the recitative before it, He Was Cut Off From the Land of the Living. This aria serves as a turning point in the work. The text is taken from Psalm 16:10 where it acts as a prophecy but Charles Jennens, Handel's librettist for Messiah took some liberties with the text to change it from an Old Testament prophesy to a prophesy that had been fulfilled. The aria has the tenor soloist dialoguing with the violins of the orchestra (played on a light 8' principal and 4' flute) over a bouncy continuo line. The rising scales in both the tenor solo and the violin line can be seen as examples of text painting which Handel's writing is full of. These rising scales could easily be seen as symbolic of Christ's ascension.
The two French organ pieces are very similar even though the were written roughly 150-200 years apart. They are both settings of the offertory hymn of the day, O Filii et Filiae. The prelude is a set of variations by Jean-Francois Dandrieu (c.1682 - 1738). Dandrieu was a child prodigy born into a family of musicians and artists. He gave his first public performances at age 5. He was widely known for his harpsichord and organ compositions. His mastery of counterpoint separated him from his contemporaries and was more typical of the German Baroque style, though his compositions were characteristically French. In 1705 Dandrieu was installed as organist at St. Merry Church in Paris, a position he held until his death. In 1721 he was installed as one of the organists at the royal chapel and he later added the post of organist at St. Barthelemy. It is likely that he delegated some of the work of these posts to his sister, also a talented keyboard player. This piece is a set of variations in the French Classical style which features the ornamented melody placed either in the left hand or the right hand against florid counterpoint tin the other hand. Different from the German Baroque music of the same time period is the minimal use of the pedal in this music. The pedal divisions of these organs were very small often having only one or two stops even on the large three and four manual instruments. In addition to the limited stop choices for the pedal, the pedal boards were not designed to play the fast intricate pedal lines of the German Baroque school. They were capable only of playing sustained pitches or slow moving melodies (mostly played in whole notes.) Another characteristic of this music is the relationship between registration (the sounds an organist chooses) and the character in which the piece is played. The sounds that are selected relate directly to the tempo, articulation and mood that the organist must play in.
The postlude is another set of variations on O Filii et Filiae, this time by the French Romantic organist Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911). This set of variations opens and closes with imitative sections played on the full organ with quick moving pedal passages (quite a departure from the Dandrieu) but it is in the middle section of the piece that the charm of the composition is really brought out. Guilmant, much like his counterpart Dandrieu almost 200 years earlier draws on the sounds of the organ to dictate the mood of the piece. Guilmant draws on the symphonic resources of the Cavielle-Coll organ for his inspiration. After the triumphal opening the organist creates as diminuendo by taking off the most powerful stops and then the hymn tune is played as a simple chorale on the Vox humana (literally - human voice) stop of the organ. The piece begins to build with the chorale moving to the stately 8' foundation stops (flutes and principals) of the Great (the main division of any organ). The chant melody is then placed in the pedal with light flutes dancing above before returning again to the Great foundations. The next variation is a playful duet between the 8' stops (with oboe) of the Swell (a somewhat quiet and colorful division of the organ that is enclosed behind shutters that can be opened or closed via a foot pedal to create a "swell" in the sound) and the Flutes and Strings of the Choir (a secondary division of the organ louder than the Swell but softer than the Great). The organist returns to the Great and begins adding stops to create a crescendo that leads to a return of the opening material and a triumphal "alleluia" climax on Full organ. It is interesting to note that in addition to his work as a recitalist, composer and professor of organ at the Paris Conservatoire that Guilmant also made significant contributions as musicologist. One of his contributions was as compiler and editor of ten volumes of the compositions of French composers before 1750. It is very likely that he was familiar with the works of Dandrieu and his contemporaries and may have even played the piece that I am playing for the prelude.
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