March 3, 2013 Lent 3 (St. David's Day)

Like as the Hart - Herbert Howells
Timor et Tremor - Francis Poulenc

Hymns: #401 Leoni, #152 A la Venue de Noel,
              #145 Quittez, Pasteurs

This week’s music is a mix of very new and very old. Bells and Motley consort will be joining me for the prelude and postlude (or rather I will be joining them) in some traditional Welsh hymn tunes in honor of St. David’s day. Favorites like “Cwm Rhonnda” and “Hyfrydol” will be heard on harp, hurdy gurdy, bombarde and bagpipe. The duo will present a concert in the afternoon giving us an even more complete picture of the music of this tradition and of their vast collection of instruments.

The choir music is on the other end of the musical spectrum. The gradual anthem is Herbert Howell’s (1892-1983) Like as the hart desireth the waterbrooks. This is the third anthem in a set of four written in 1941 and dedicated to Sir Thomas Armstrong, the organist at Christ Church, Oxford. Herbert Howells is primarily remembered as a composer of music for organ and choir. His life was marked by many challenges and tragedies including a diagnosis of Grave’s disease while studying at the Royal College of Music and the death of his nine-year-old son Michael from polio. Howell’s interest in music showed at an early age. His father was, among other things, the organist of a small church in town. Howell’s filled in for his father showing great promise as a musician before being sent to the local Anglican parish as a choir boy and deputy organist. In 1912 he was awarded a scholarship to the Royal College of Music. He returned to the RCM as a teacher in 1920 when poor health forced him to relinquish his post at Salisbury Cathedral. This setting of Psalm 42 draws on lush harmonies and to depict the longing of for God. The anthem’s simplicity is a likely contributor to its success as is the influence of jazz and blues harmonies. The piece has a simple two part texture throughout most of it which expands to four and five part textures to illustrate the speaker’s questions: “When shall I come?” and “Where is now my God?” A light soprano solo floats above the choir’s final iteration of the question “When shall I come to appear before the presence of God?” a question which Howell’s leaves unanswered.

The communion anthem is also one of a set of four late Romantic pieces. This set is by the French composer, Francis Poulenc (1899-1963). Timor et Tremor is the first in the composer’s set Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence (Four motets for a time of penance) written in 1939. Like Howells, Poulenc’s first musical instruction was at home. Poulenc’s mother, Jenny was an amateur pianist and gave him his first lessons. He later went on to meet the composers Milhaud and Satie as well the virtuoso pianist Ricardo Viñes whom he studied with. Poulenc with Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger,  Darius Milhaud, and Germaine Tailleferre became known as “Les Six,” a group of contemporary French composers thought to be in opposition to the Impressionistic writing of composers like Debussy. This name was rather arbitrarily bestowed upon this group by the critic Henri Collet because they all knew each other.

The text for Timor et Tremor comes from various verses of Psalms being strung together and is translated:

Fear and trembling have come upon me
and darkness has seized my soul. Have mercy on me, O Lord,
have mercy upon me, for in you have I put my trust.

Hear my prayer, O my God,
for you are my refuge and my strong helper.
I have called upon you, O Lord, that I not be confounded.

This setting, like the more famous setting by Lassus uses texture and harmony to illustrate the text. The opening phrase is sung fortissimo on one pitch until the word “tremor” which causes the choir to tremble. The words “et caligo cecidit” (and darkness fell) are sung pianissimo with the choir jumping down a fifth from the previous line. The sopranos followed in quick succession by the other voices burst forth with a cry for mercy. The next phrase is pure Poulenc, his characteristic harmonic writing shows for the first time in the phrase “quoniam in te confidit” (for my soul trusts in you). This again gives way to the choir’s plea for God’s attention with dynamics waxing and waning from fortissimo to piano and always changing very suddenly and drastically with repeated statements of “non confundar” (I shall not be confounded). Like the Howells, the longing for God and his presence is evident through a very unsettled and unsettling musical landscape that keeps the singer and listener on edge. This illustrates some of the unsettled nature of faith – the seeking that we must do, and the lack of certainty that we will find what we seek and that it is even there. These anthems embody musically the mood of Lent.