O Lord Our Governor - Benedetto Marcello
Ave Verum Corpus - William Byrd
Psalm 19 - Benedetto Marcello (arr. E. Power Biggs)
Hymns: #388 Hanover, #495 In Babilone,
#678 College of Preachers
The music for this week comes from two very
different composers. Both of these composers completed a monumental composition
which has left an indelible mark in the catalog of Sacred music. The writing of William Byrd (1539/40-1623)
represents the height of compositional achievement in England during the
Renaissance. In fact, some musicologists argue that Byrd is the most
influential British composer ever. William Byrd studied composition with Thomas
Tallis and later the two shared duties as organist at the Chapel Royal. In 1577
he moved to Middlesex with his family. Byrd preferred to live outside of London
because he was a devout Catholic at a time when Catholics were being persecuted
by the government. Despite his faith his devotion to the monarchy was never
questioned. He was so highly thought of by Elizabeth I that he and Tallis
received a monopoly on the publishing and sale of all print music. In 1593 he
retired to Stondon Massey, Essex where he lived until his death in 1623.
Byrd’s keyboard music was unrivaled at the
time of its composition. The pieces rarely specified which keyboard instrument
they were for, some for virginal and some for the organ. His musical style
changed from the early works which resembled the more austere vocal writing of
the time. His later worked became more idiomatic and virtuosic incorporating
scalar runs and more advanced rhythms. One of his favorite compositional genres
is the dance pair, Pavan and Galliard.
The pavan is a slow stately dance in
duple meter often used to open a ball. This is followed by the faster galliard in triple meter. The Pavan that I am using as the prelude is
in ABC form (the repeats have been omitted) and exploits some of the ensemble
sounds that could be found on an English organ from that time period. These
organs were typically very small. They had only one or two manuals and no pedal
board. The stops of these instruments were primarily flutes and principals of
small scale and high pitch. This pavan
begins with a ponderous minor variation followed by a slightly lighter and
faster section. I have registered the third and final section on a single 4’
flute. The section is in major and creates tension through the use of gentle
dissonances.
All of Byrd’s compositions were recognized
for their quality but it is felt that his Latin motets are among his greatest achievements
both in quality and creativity. Byrd’s greatest contribution to sacred music
was his two volume Gradualia (1605
and 1607). This collection contains proper cycles, as well as settings of the
ordinary of the mass for every major feast day and votive mass of the Roman
Catholic Rite. Byrd’s setting of the Corpus Christi hymn Ave Verum (Hail the true body) shows the great care that Byrd took
with setting the Latin text. One compositional technique that is frequently
employed is that of “false relation” – a note and its chromatically altered
pitch appearing in close proximity. The first instance of this is between the
soprano and bass of measure one and two. This highlights the word verum (true) which as a Catholic would be a particularly important distinction
for the Catholic Byrd (Atrium Musicologicum). Byrd also includes a great deal
of text painting in this motet. The text in
cruce (on the cross) literally
forms a cross in the music with the tenor entering first followed by soprano
and bass [aligned vertically] and the altos after. The entrances of unda fluxit sanguine (flowed water and
blood) are staggered descending lines. The pitches of Jesu and Mariae are the
highest pitches of the piece giving greater importance to the settings of these
names. It is incredible to note the care taken to set texts in a work that was written
basically for private devotion as it is unlikely that it would have ever been
performed because Latin motets were not a part of the liturgy in the newly
formed Church of England.
Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739) was born
into an influential aristocratic family in Venice. Both he and his brother
Alessandro enjoyed success as composers but were not allowed to pursue music as
more than a hobby. Marcello instead enjoyed a successful career as a lawyer,
the governor of Pola and at the end of his life chancellor of Brescia. Most of
his compositions come from his early life where music played a larger role and
was encouraged as part of his studies. The most enduring of Marcello’s contributions
is his Estro poetico-armonico. This
work is a setting of the first fifty Psalms as translated by his friend
Girolamo Ascanio Giustiniani. It was published in eight volumes between 1724
and 1726. The texts are very free translations of the Latin thought to make the
Psalms more accessible to the general public. The setting of Psalm 8 O Lord Our Governor is a light dance
like piece originally for alto solo and unison choir with basso continuo. This
arrangement features soloists alternating with full choir.
The postlude is an arrangement for organ solo
by E. Power Biggs (1906-1977) of another of Marcello’s Psalm settings from this
collection, Psalm 19. As with the setting of Psalm 8 there is a lot of back and
forth between the full organ and the softer secondary manual. This is
representative of the concertato style of writing popular in Italy during the
Baroque period. In this style of writing a small group (the ripieno) alternates
with the full ensemble (tutti). This is a through back to the earlier polychoral
styles of the Gabriellis. At St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice instrumental and
vocal ensembles would be placed throughout the church and would play or sing
antiphonally, exploiting the possibilities of having ensembles in different
parts of the church and in essence creating the first stereo sounds.
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