Turn Back O Man - Gustav Holst
Lord, My God, Hear Now My Pleading
- Felix Mendelssohn
Postlude in C - Henry Smart
Hymns: #150 Aus der Tiefe Rufe Ich, #143 Erhalt Uns Herr, #529 McKee
The music for this first Sunday in Lent sets the tone for
the season. This year I am programming music from the Romantic period for the
season of Lent. I thought it might be interesting to see the contrast between
the music last year which was primarily a cappella and rather stark and the
lush rich harmonies of Mendelssohn and Reger.
The prelude is Max Reger’s (1873-1916) setting of Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten (He Who Lets Only Beloved God
Rule),a tune composed by Georg Neumark (1621-1681). This hymn of
consolation was penned in 1641 while Neumark was serving as a tutor for the
family of Stephan Henning. The text was inspired by Psalm 55:22 “Cast thy
burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.” Reger’s Chorale Preludes Op.
67 were published in 1902. This simple setting features the chorale tune in the
soprano voice of a five part chorale. Reger’s music was both progressive and
traditional at the same time. His pieces feature some of the most sophisticated
contrapuntal writing since the music of J.S. Bach but with a forward looking
harmonic language that bears similarities to Wagner and Liszt and verges on
atonal. The piece has winding serpentine like lines which contain a canon
between the soprano and pedal.
Reger was born the son of a village school teacher in Brand,
Bavaria. In 1874 the family moved to Weiden. Reger began his music studies with
his father, an amateur musician who taught him piano and organ before sending
his son to study with Adalbert Lindner. In 1888 after attending the Bayreuth
Festival he decided to forego a career in teaching for one in music. He
enrolled in the Sonderhausen Conservatory where he studied with Hugo Riemann.
(More to come…)
The communion anthem is by another German Romantic musician.
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) who died 26 years before Reger was born also felt
the influence of the music of J.S. Bach and is often credited with reviving
interest in his music. The anthem Lass, o
Herr, mich Hülfe finden Op. 96 No. 1 (Lord,
My God, Hear Now My Pleading in the English version by Lloyd Pfautsch) is
the first of three hymns for alto solo, chorus and orchestra. This piece in ABA
form is very typical of Mendelssohn’s choral writing. The piece opens with the
alto soloist singing the first theme which is then repeated by the choir in
simple homophonic fashion. The soloist returns to sing the B section which is a
slightly more agitated melody in minor which leads to a short choral fugato
before it returns to the entry of the soloist on the A theme. This time the
choir does not wait for a full statement of the theme but instead enters
halfway through. Not to be outdone the soloist comes back in and leads the
piece to its gentle conclusion with the text “nevermore my sins to see” the
choir enters on the final statement of the repeated word “nevermore.”
Just as Mendelssohn did we will now cross over to England
for the other two pieces. The gradual anthem is Gustav Holst’s (1874-1934) setting
of the Clifford Bax (1886-1962) text Turn
Back O Man. Bax was a playwright, poet, essayist and journalist. Bax was a
close friend of Holst and an astrologer that is credited with introducing Holst
to this discipline and possibly inspiring Holst’s most famous composition the
Op. 32 Planets. This setting of the
hymn tune Old 124th from
the Genevan Psalter is the second of Three
Festival Choruses Op. 36a (1916). The first piece in the set is Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, and the
third piece is another text by Bax called A
Festival Chime. This setting of Turn
Back O Man clearly shows similarities to Holst’s military band writing with
its march-like mood. The piece begins with a descending bass line and the choir
singing the hymn as a simple four part chorale. The men start the second verse
and are then joined by the altos and the sopranos in a choral fugue that , like
the Mendelssohn seems to lead us far away from the home key only to find us
unexpectedly back there this time on a full voiced unison statement of the
final verse of the hymn that leads to a triumphal finish with a unison statement
of unity – “Earth shall be fair, and all her folk be one.”
The postlude was written by a composer who lived during all
three of the previous composer’s lifetimes. Henry Smart (1813-1879) was born in
London, worked in London, and died in London. Smart came by his career in music
quite honestly. He was the nephew of a prominent conductor and the son of a
music publisher. After rejecting a career in law Smart took several church
posts and in 1864 was appointed to the post of organist at St. Pancras Church
where he stayed until his death. Smart composed operas, oratorios, part songs
and organ works. He is best known for his hymn tune Regent Square which is commonly paired with the text Angels From the Realms of Glory. Smart’s
Postlude in C is exactly what the
title suggests. It is a stately march like piece (similar in character to the Holst)
with a recurring theme which is very triumphal in nature interspersed with bits
of imitative writing on a secondary manual. The piece makes for a stately but
not overbearing close to the First Sunday in Lent.
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