September 21, 2014 - Proper 20

Aria - Flor Peeters

Israel in Egypt: "Egypt Was Glad" - G.F. Handel

Missa Festiva: "Agnus Dei" - Flor Peeters

Fanfare - Jacques Nicolas Lemmens

This week’s music delves into the traditions of Belgian music in the 19^th and 20^th century. The music of Belgium greatly influenced the great French organ tradition. The teaching of Jacques Nicolas Lemmens (1823-1881) led to the great French tradition. He was the teacher at the Royal Brussels Conservatory and counted both Guilmant and Widor among his students. It was also Lemmens’ playing and concertizing that led to an interest in the organ works of J.S. Bach. His excellent technique led to an increase in the standards of organ playing and furthered the study of church music. His Fanfare is a light bouncy piece which relies on staccato manual playing. There are also definite similarities between this piece and the famous Widor Toccata from Symphony No. 5.

Flor Peeter’s (1903-1986) studied at the Lemmens Institute and in 1925 became the professor of organ at the institute. Peeter’s career as teacher, organist, and composer placed him in a very prominent position in the world of church music. He was nominated as an advisor to the Vatican II Council, wrote the largest collection of chorales of any composer, and contributed greatly to the music of the organ as an editor and composer. His Aria, Op. 51 is one of his most popular works for the organ. It is just that, a song with the theme played on a reed solo and accompanied by the foundation stops has interesting color chords against a beautiful but winding melody.  The communion anthem is also by Peeters but more on that next week when we present the whole Missa Festiva.

G.F. Handel is known to us today primarily for his oratorios, the most notable one being Messiah. It is commonly accepted that Handel turned to oratorio when opera was not an option. In May of 1738 the sale of season tickets was opened and by July the season had to be called off due to lack of subscriptions. Handel realized that he had to rethink his plans and began writing Saul and Israel in Egypt.

The work came together rather quickly and was composed from back to front. Handel first composed what we know today as Part 2, The Song of Moses. Musicologist Richard Streatfeild believes that this was initially to be a stand-alone anthem. He then composed Part 1, the Exodus in four days. In the original composition these served as parts 2 and 3 with part 1 being a reworking of a Funeral Anthem written for the death of Queen Caroline which became Lamentations of the Israelites for the Death of Joseph. The text for this work is taken directly from scripture, primarily the books of Exodus and Psalms. Some researchers believe the libretto to have been assembled by Charles Jennens who also assembled the text for Messiah. Egypt Was Glad closes the first large scene of the Exodus and depicts the reaction of the Egyptians to the Israelites leaving.