Requiem: "Thou Knowest, Lord" - Bob Chilcott
The Crucifixion: "So Thou Liftest Thy Divine Petition"
- Sir John Stainer
Wer nur den lieben Gott lasst walten - Georg Bohm
Hymns: #467 St. Bees, #469 St. Helena,
#690 Cwm Rhonnda
This week’s music comes from two separate but not
necessarily disparate schools. The anthems this week are both excerpted from
larger works from the English Choral tradition. Bob Chilcott’s Thou Knowest, Lord is the sixth movement
of his Requiem published in 2010
while the duet So Thou Liftest Thy Divine
Petition is from Sir John Stainer’s 1887 oratorio, The Crucifixion.
Sir John Stainer (1840-1901) was an English born organist
and composer whose works, save for The
Crucifixion and an organ method book are all but forgotten. Stainer’s
musical training began with his father, a self-taught musician and a cabinet
maker by trade. He built a small chamber organ in their home which John and his
sister Ann would play. At age 10 he became a chorister at St. Paul’s Cathedral
and soon became principal soloist. Stainer held numerous church positions while
studying at Oxford and in 1860 was appointed organist at Magdalen College. His
work there aided him in his studies and bolstered his creativity. The almost brand
new organ fostered his development as a keyboardist and the choir which he over
saw gave him opportunity to write and rehearse new compositions. In 1861 he
added to his list of duties with the post of University Organist at the Church
of St. Mary the Virgin. Upon completion of his doctorate he became an examiner
for Oxford musical degrees and with the resignation of John Goss in 1871 was
appointed organist of St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1872; a position he held until
1888 when eye strain forced him to resign the post. He died unexpectedly of a
heart attack in 1901 while on holiday in Verona.
The Crucifixion is
perhaps the only work of Stainer’s still regularly performed even though the
work has been dismissed (even by its composer) as being overly emotional and of
poor quality. The piece is a prime example of Victorian Choral music with its
impassioned and occasionally over-the-top imagery. The libretto was written by
W. J. Sparrow Simpson (1859-1952), an Anglican priest who served as chaplain at
St. Mary’s Hospital, Great Ilford. Simpson collaborated with Stainer on two
earlier works, The Daughter of Jairus and
Mary Magdalene. This duet follows
Christ’s plea “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” The tenor and bass soloists then proceed to comment
on Christ’s death on the cross and his reason for doing so. They echo the words
of the famous chorus from this work (God So Loved the World) that it “twas love
in love’s divinest feature” that caused Him to die for “each low fallen
creature.”
Bob Chilcott (b.1955) is an active composer and conductor.
Chilcott began his involvement in choral music as a chorister at King’s
College, Cambridge. He later went on to be named Choral Scholar and then to
sing with and compose for the King’s Singers. Chilcott left the King’s Singers
in 1997 to pursue a career as a full time composer. The Requiem was commissioned by the Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church,
Dallas, Texas in honor of Cynthia Cole Finley and The Oxford Bach Choir.
Although the Requiem is a commissioned work it bears the dedication “In loving
memory of Samantha Verschueren (1985-2009),” the composer’s niece who died
while the composer was writing the piece. The composition combines the
traditional text of the Latin Mass for the Dead with sentences from the funeral
service in the Book of Common Prayer. The only movement of the piece in
English, Thou Knowest, Lord paints a beautiful picture with a text taken from
the Order for the Burial of the Dead from The Book of Common Prayer. The piece
is unsettling and opens with a quiet but intense plea followed by a more
fervent supplication. This gives way to a gentle rocking theme first sung by
the men and then the full choir. The music builds toward another climax but
stops just short with a descending line on the words “to fall” before ending on
a quiet cadence.
The prelude is Max Reger’s (1873-1916) Intermezzo from Neun Stücke
Op. 129. Written in 1913, this set of pieces reflects a turn away from the
thick dense writing that he is normally associated with and a movement toward a
clearer more transparent style. Reger wrote these short pieces in Kolberg while
on summer vacation. An intermezzo is generally a piece that is played in-between
things. In opera it is “incidental music” between larger arias or played during
a set change. In instrumental music it is often the movement in a
multi-movement work that connects two larger movements. In this set of pieces
it comes before the final prelude and fugue which act as a unit and end the
piece. The piece is very chromatic but gentle and intimate feeling. It
fluctuates between 3 and 4 giving it a feel of 7. The “Regeresque” fluctuation of dynamics is still
present but as with everything else about this piece it is on a smaller stage.
In 1898 Reger returned home to his family because of
illness. Here he experienced an incredibly productive period. It was during his
time in Weiden that he composed all of his large chorale fantasias, many pieces
for piano, choir, voice and chamber ensemble and some of his large organ works
without chorales. In 1901 Reger moved with his parents to Munich where he
stayed for six years.
The psalm setting during Lent uses the tune Wer nur den lieben Gott last walten.
This setting of the chorale by Georg Böhm (1661-1733) is a seven movement
partita for manuals only that could easily be adapted for the harpsichord. This
piece allows the organ to show off its colors in small combinations. The fourth
partita uses the sparkling higher pitched stops of the organ while the next
adds the color of the cromorne, a buzzy reed stop that adds richness to the
texture of the flute stops. The subsequent two bounce back and forth with a few
different combinations including a single flute stop with a gentle tremolo
added. It is interesting to hear the difference between the setting of the
chorale by Reger and this setting by Böhm the Reger is dark and heavy but
filled with interesting counterpoint – something the two pieces have in common
while the Böhm is light and playful in terms of the registration.
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