December 7, 2014 - Advent 2

Es ist ein Ros entsprungen - Johannes Brahms

Requiem: "All Flesh is Grass" - Johannes Brahms

Comfort Ye - Katherine K. Davis

Symphonie VI: "Intermezzo" - Charles Marie Widor

Hymns: #65 Berden vag for Herran, #76 Winchester New,

              #59 Merton

The music this week sits on the line between comfort and devastation. The anthem All Flesh is Grass and the postlude are pretty apocalyptic in nature with bright moments of serenity. The prelude and communion anthem focus on the comforting aspects of the Isaiah passage this week.

The gradual anthem is taken from the German Requiem by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897). 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 second movement begins with an instrumental funeral march the lower three voices of the choir enter in unison. The march returns and builds to a forte unison entrance of the full choir that dies away to a new section with text from the book of James in a gentle homophonic (initially) section. The funeral march resumes with an exact repeat of the first two sections of the movement. Brahms moves to the parallel major key of Bb with a verse from 1 Peter that leads to a joyous statement started in the basses then joined by the full choir. This leads to a back and forth section between the tears and sighing that will flee and the joy of the redeemed.  The piece ends with the individual sections stating “joy everlasting.” They then join and build to one final climax before the final decrescendo to the end.

The prelude is also by Brahms. His Es ist ein Ros entsprungen from the Op. 122 set of Eleven Chorale Preludes.  These intimate pieces along with a prelude and fugue in Ab minor are Brahms’s only works for organ.  The opus 122 chorales were the last pieces written by Brahms and are often viewed as a commentary on his impending death.  This piece is a setting of the familiar chorale Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming.  The melody is mildly ornamented and the piece, like most in the set, is played on a quiet registration.

The postlude is the Intermezzo from Symphonie VI in g minor by Charles Marie Widor (1844-1937). Charles-Marie Widor was born in Lyons to a family of organ builders. He began his career as an organist at age 11 and soon sparked the interest of Cavaillé-Coll, the famous organ builder. Cavaillé-Coll made arrangements for Widor to study at the Brussels Conservatory with the renowned organist Nicolas-Jacques Lemmens. Upon completion of his studies he moved to Paris where he was appointed organist of the five manual, 100 stop organ at St. Sulpice in 1870 where he remained for 64 years. Influenced by the organs of Cavaillé-Coll, Widor created a new medium that he called the “organ symphony,” a multi-movement work for organ that borrows its forms from the traditional orchestral symphony which allowed Widor to explore the orchestral capabilities of the Caviellé-Coll organs. Symphonie VI in g minor was composed in 1878 for the inauguration of the organ at the Trocadéro and was premiered there on August 24 by the composer. The overall structure of the symphony alternates slow and fast movements as well as alternating tonal centers. The first and third movements are in g minor while the fifth is in G major. The Intermezzo highlights the reed choruses and cornets of the organ. This movement is in ternary form with fiery arpeggios shared between hands flanking either side of a lyrical trio section. This movement was criticized after the first performance of the symphony for being “too pianistic.”

Comfort Ye is a setting of the familiar passage from Isaiah that we often associate with the opening tenor recitative from Handel’s Messiah.  This setting was written by Katherine K. Davis (1892-1980). Davis was born in Missouri and attended Wellesley College and the New England Conservatory. She also studied with the renowned French composer and teacher Nadia Boulanger.  She taught music at the Concord Academy and the Shady Hill School for Girls. During her lifetime she wrote more than 600 compositions but is probably best remembered for Carol of the Drum more commonly called The Little Drummer Boy. She also wrote the hymn Let All Things Now Living which is sung to the hymn tune “Ash Grove.” The piece opens with a lovely soprano solo that is then taken up by the full soprano section and echoed by the tenors with the altos and basses providing accompaniment. The piece picks up and breaks into a joyful fugato (little fugal section) and at the end returns to the soprano’s solo line and then the answering chorus. This adds a nice contrast to the more gnarly postlude and dramatic gradual anthem.