March 2, 2014 - Last Sunday of Epiphany

Lo, a Voice to Heaven Sounding - Dmitri Botniansky
O Nata Lux - Morten Lauridsen

The two anthems for this Sunday are both treasures of the a cappella choral literature. One is taken from the Eastern Orthodox liturgy and the other the Roman Catholic tradition. Neither bears much resemblance to the liturgical traditions of the text. The Bortniansky is a beautiful, lush Romantic motet while the Lauridsen with its seconds and suspensions throughout evokes a modern mystical image.

The gradual anthem is Dmitri Bortniansky’s (1751-1825) Cherubic Hymn, Lo a Voice to Heaven Sounding. Bortniansky began his career as a chorister with the Imperial Chapel Choir under the direction of the Italian conductor ­­­­­­­­­­Baldassare Galuppi (1706-1785), who took the young Bortniansky back with him to Italy to be educated in the Italian style of choral composition. In 1779 he returned to Russia to lead the St. Petersburg Court Cappella. His compositions combined the liturgy of the Orthodox Church with the polyphonic and polychoral styles of the Venetian composers that he studied with in Italy. In 1796 he was named Director of the Imperial Chapel choir, and was the first director not to be imported. The choir was known for its versatility and for the symphonic quality that they brought to a cappella motets. In addition to this, his choir premiered Beethoven’s monumental Missa Solemnis. This simple hymn in three verses which then concludes with a grand doxology is part of the Divine Liturgy of the Orthodox Church. In 1882 Tchaikovsky edited Bortniansky’s  liturgical works including this motet.  

The communion anthem, O Nata Lux, comes from Morten Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna for chorus and orchestra or organ. This five movement work is based on the idea of light and its different incarnations. O Nata Lux is the central movement and features the choir a cappella. The text for this piece is by the well-known composer "anonymous" and is the office hymn at Lauds of the Feast of the Transfiguration. Here is a translation of the text taken from cpdl.org. The lush rich harmonies help to create a mood of awe while the final chord which the altos never resolve leaves the listener with a sense of expectation that is not yet fulfilled. In fact, the last line that the choir sings is actually the first line of text: "O Light born of Light, Jesus, redeemer of the world." This piece lends itself to the liturgy of the day because of the text but also to the season of Lent that we will enter into on Wednesday. The music is ethereal and beautiful but also unsettled, leaving us with an unfinished feeling. This setting also invokes the sense of mystery and wonder that the disciples must have felt on the mountain that day. A lovely piece to help us transition from the end of Epiphany to the beginning of Lent.

O Light born of Light,
Jesus, redeemer of the world,
with loving-kindness deign to receive
supplicant praise and prayer.

Thou who once deigned to be clothed in flesh
for the sake of the lost,
grant us to be members
of thy blessed body.

February 16, 2014 - Epiphany 6

Requiem: "Blessed are they" - Johannes Brahms
Bless the Lord - Mikhail Ipolitoff-Ivanoff
Variaitions on a Theme of Haydn - Johannes Brahms

Hymns: #697 Song 67, #304 Loand of Rest, #674 Detroit

The music this week is mostly Brahms. It is broad and expansive, highly chromatic and flexible.

The gradual anthem is the opening movement of Brahms’s (1833-1897) German Requiem Op. 45. The Brahms Requiem is a piece that was at the time groundbreaking, and looking at the literature which has been written since, trend-setting. This work draws on the text of the Lutheran Bible rather than the Latin Mass for the Dead and is written to comfort the living rather than to pray for those who have died. Indeed, this piece has paved the way for Requiems by composers like Britten, Hindemith, Rutter, Chilcott, and Leavitt that have combined the Latin texts with other Biblical texts or poetry. The German Requiem was premiered at Bremen Cathedral on Good Friday 1868 and was an enormous success which marked a turning point in Brahms’s career. Brahms added the fifth movement in memory of his mother and the piece received its first complete performance in 1869. As with his first symphony, Brahms was very deliberate about the composition of the Requiem. The piece makes use of thematic material that he composed as early as 1854. The piece opens slowly but deliberately with a steady throbbing pulse. The organ and choir go back and forth between the choir’s sustained chords and the organs lyrical line the choir tells us that “they that mourn will be comforted.” The next section starts in a new key and leads us to a more animated theme that bounces through the voice parts and the accompaniment. Brahms moves us back to the original key and the accompaniment from the beginning and takes us again through the same modulation followed by a coda that leads to an almost celestial conclusion with accompaniment meant to imitate the harps of the orchestral version.

The communion anthem is by Russian composer and conductor Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov (1859-1935). He started his career as a choir boy and then began his formal education at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He studied composition with the renowned composer Risky-Korsakov and then took a position in Tbilisi, Georgia. In 1905 he was appointed director of the Moscow Conservatory, a position he held until 1924 when he returned to Tbilisi to organize a music conservatory there. Bless the Lord is taken from Op. 37 Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom which is the most celebrated liturgy of the Eastern Orthodox Church. This simple piece takes its text from Psalm 103 and very simply outlines the attributes of God and why we should praise Him.

The prelude and postlude are taken from an organ transcription of a piece by Brahms that is an arrangement of a theme by Haydn. The Brahms Variations on a Theme of Haydn take the “St. Anthony Chorale” from Haydn’s Divertimento in Bb, H2/46. Some scholars believe that this piece may have actually been written by Ignaz Pleyel (1757-1831). Regardless of its origin, Brahms believed them to be by Haydn and named his piece accordingly. This transcription uses the theme, third variation, fourth variation, and seventh variation. These are the lighter more sprightly variations as opposed to some of the fast and dark ones of the set. I first learned these pieces through the version for two pianos which was probably composed before the orchestral version. We studied them in my graduate theory class. The challenge of playing both this and the Requiem movement is trying to translate Brahms’s lush orchestrations to the organ. This organ does not easily lend itself to this music so some creative registration and open minded listening may be required to hear these pieces in the way that they are presented.

February 9, 2014 - Epiphany 5

Sonatina for Baritone - Warner Hutchison
Elijah: "And then shall your light break forth"
                                                               - Felix Mendelssohn
If Ye Love Me - Thomas Tallis

Hymns: #601 St. Michael, #341 Omni Dei, #779 Dunedin

This week’s music fits together in a kind of if/then relationship. The first anthem extols God’s name and his greatness while the second is his message to his people. Stylistically the two pieces are quite different. Both are contrapuntal but with varying styles of polyphony. From a mood stand point they couldn’t be more different although both pieces are uplifting they have very different messages.

The same Hutchison is a composer, hornist, and teacher having served several universities including Houghton College here is New York. His more than 160 works have been premiered at the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center as well as other prestigious venues around the world. could be said for the prelude and postlude, Warner Hutchison’s  (b. 1930) Sonatina for Baritone. The second movement reflects moments of uncertainty and searching while the third movement, filled with repetition is resolute in its joyful nature. This dichotomy is further explored in the choir anthems for today.

The final chorus in Felix Mendelssohn’s (1809-1847) monumental oratorio Elijah brings the piece to a powerful close. And then shall your light break forth follows the quartet O Come Every One that Thirsteth. This all takes place after Elijah has ascended to heaven on a fiery chariot and his mantle has been passed to the prophet Elisha. Mendelssohn seems to be telling us that if we come to him (God) that our “light will break forth,” “our health shall speedily spring forth,” and “the glory of the Lord will reward us.” The choir then breaks out into a giant fugue of praise about the excellence of the name of the Lord.  This culminates in a huge “Amen” at the end of the piece.  This moves well into the communion anthem by Tallis.

If Ye Love Me reminds us of God's promise to us to bring us comfort through His Spirit in our time of need and throughout our life. I think that Thomas Tallis's (1505-1585) setting is interesting because the first phrase "If ye love me keep my commandments" is only heard at the beginning of the piece. It is more about reinforcing the idea that we shall be comforted and that God's Spirit will "bide with you forever." This is in some way a follow up to the Mendelssohn because we end praising His name and these are His instructions to us, but instructions that again end with a reward, a promise.  There are times when I feel that Elijah could have benefited from a message like this, and in fact got them from the various angelic figures in the story. The statement made by this piece is no less powerful than the large accompanied fugal writing of the gradual anthem but it manages to make its statement with soft, unaccented vocal lines that gently rise and fall in a very unassuming way toward the hollow open fifth that ends the piece.