December 24, 2014 - Christmas Eve

A Noel Proclamation - Joseph M. Martin

O Magnum Mysterium - Tomas Luis Victoria

Hymns: #83 Adeste Fidelis, #96 Gloria, #87 Mendelssohn

              #107 in Dulci Jubilo, #111 Stille Nacht, 

The music for the Christmas Eve service mixes old and new which seems applicable given the nature of the season. Christmas for many people is about tradition and familiarity but it is also often a time of new beginnings. One week after this service we will find ourselves sitting around waiting to welcome in a new year. The new year which will bring its own challenges and adventures but will still bear resemblance to the years that have gone before. It will share the same seasons, holidays, births, deaths joys and tears but will have its own character.

For me that about sums up the gradual anthem. It is a collection of familiar carols arranged by Joseph M. Martin (b. 1959) taken from his 2009 cantata “The Mystery and Majesty.” The cantata is a lovely blend of familiar and some less familiar Christmas carols and original compositions that tell the story of the nativity through the lens of the mystery that was the birth of Christ. This large carol fantasy concludes the cantata. It opens with Angels From the Realms of Glory set in unison to an accompaniment that sounds like a Baroque chorale prelude. This segues into the 19^th century hymn Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne, a hymn that goes through the life of Christ but is most commonly (like Handel’s Messiah) sung during Advent and Christmas.  This flows into Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s text of the same year, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.  This poem was written in response to the death of Longfellow’s wife in a fire and the severe injury of his son Charles in battle. After a refrain of Adeste Fidelis we move to the final hymn, The First Noel. This builds to a in the last verse of the hymn “Then let us all with one accord.” The accompaniment explodes as though every church bell in town were pealing together for the coda proclaiming that “Christ the Lord is born.”

The communion is a setting of an ancient Latin text that has captivated composers for centuries.  O Magnum Mysterium is a chant for Matins at Christmas. This setting by Tomas Luis Victoria (c.1548-1611) is a standard of the choral cannon that occupies a prominent place in the repertoire of most school, college, and church choirs. The opening contrapuntal section captures the mystery of that the text describes. The counterpoint stops as the text celebrating the virgin is set in quiet homophonic chords. This moves ahead to an exuberant triple meter “alleluia” that then breaks into cascading “alleluias” back in duple meter with an ebb and flow of consonance and dissonance against the soprano’s sustained tonic.

December 21, 2014 - Advent 4

Magnificat - Heinrich Scheidemann

Magnificat - John Rutter

Ave Maria - Robert Parsons

Magnificat - Scott M. Hyslop

Hymns: #56 Veni, Veni Emmanuel, 

              #265 Gabriel's Message, #66 Stuttgart

The music this week is all based on Mary. With the exception of the communion anthem they pieces are settings of Canticle 15 which is taken from Luke 1:46-55. Throughout history composers have taken inspiration from the “Magnificat.” It is one of the most frequently set liturgical texts and continues to inspire today. This hymn is one of the eight most ancient hymns and perhaps one of the oldest Marian hymns. It typically finds a place in evening liturgies.

The prelude is a setting of the Magnificat by Heinrich Scheidemann (1595-1663) an important predecessor of Dietrich Buxtehude and a student of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. Scheidemann developed a composition style that brought the variation techniques of Sweelinck to the massive North German organs that would come to shape the music of Buxtehude and later Bach. He served as organist of the Catharinenkirche in Hamburg until his death during a plague outbreak. The piece is composed to alternate with sung verses, a practice more commonly used in the French Romantic period.

The postlude is also a set of variations on the Magnificat by Scott M. Hyslop (b. 1961). Hyslop has studied with Marilyn Mason and Alice Parker. In 2007 Dr. Hyslop wrote a biography on the American composer Paul Manz. He continues an active career as a church musician and composer.  This piece shows off many of the interesting small ensemble sounds available on the organ as well as various techniques that organists have at their disposal to shake up service playing. The piece alternates sung verses with instrumental verses. The organ verses follow traditional forms including chorale, canon, pastorale, moto perpetua, scherzo, and toccata.

John Rutter (b. 1945) is perhaps one of the biggest names in church music now. He was educated at Clare College and taught there from 1975-1979. He left this post to devote more time to composition. He formed the Cambridge Singers, a professional choir which he still conducts. Many critics have mixed feelings regarding Rutter’s compositions finding it sentimental and superficial. His large works and carols have become standard repertoire. Many of his compositions make up the “greatest hits” of modern choral music. The Magnificat was written in 1990 and received its first performance at Carnegie Hall on May 26, 1990 under the direction of the composer. The piece is heavily influenced by the celebrations of Marian feasts in Hispanic culture. In addition to the traditional text of the canticle Rutter added the English poem Of a Rose and the prayer Sancta Maria. This piece has a great deal of rhythmic interest in it with many hemiolas and meter changes. The melody is very Rutter. It’s very catchy but also very repetitive. The piece certainly captures the joy and pent up energy of the coming celebration of Christmas.

The communion anthem is Robert Parson’s (1535-1570-2?) Ave Maria. Little is written or known about this 16^th century master and much of the music that has survived is incomplete. This may be because after his untimely death his music stopped being performed. Parsons “fell” into the swollen Trent River. The suspicions surrounding this was so upsetting to his colleagues that they stopped performing his compositions. He was succeeded by William Byrd. 

December 14, 2014 - Advent 3

Freu dich sehr o meine Seele - Georg Bohm

There Shall Come Forth - Kevin Wood

Thou Shalt Know Him - Mark Sirett

Hymns: #724 Besancon Carol, #72 Richmond, 

              #723 Samanthra

This week the music is filled with subtle beauty and gentle musicality. The two a cappella anthems are both settings by American composers and the prelude and postlude are variations on Freu dich sehr o meine Seele which we know more commonly as the hymn tune Psalm 42 which has been our song of praise through Advent. These pieces seem small and simple initially but upon further examination the pieces are all very intricate with lots of beautiful detail and intricate lines.

There Shall Come Forth is an anthem for a cappella choir that was commissioned for the West Side Madrigalists. The piece was written by Kevin Wood and is a setting of Isaiah 11. The piece opens with the men echoing the women in descending sixths moving toward a stark cadence in open fifths and fourths. The tenor takes the lead as while the ladies sail above. The next section is a series of fifths that move in contrary motion. This breaks into a short fugue which goes back to the opening of the piece.  The beauty of it comes from the subtlety of the dynamics and the rise and fall of the line. The setting captures the mystery of the season as well as the starkness of life at that time.

The communion anthem is Thou Shalt Know Him by Mark Sirett (b. 1952). Sirett is the founding Artistic Director of Cantabile Choirs of Kingston, Ontario. He was educated at the University of Iowa and taught at the Universities of Alberta, Western Ontario, and Queen’s University. In addition to this he has received two international conducting awards. This piece opens with only the sopranos and then repeats with the choir in four parts. This setting of a 15^th century text of Anonymous composition illustrates both extremes of the story, the ridiculousness and the reality of the Christmas story are exemplified not just in the text but in the setting of this piece.

The pre/postlude are taken from Georg Böhm’s setting of Freu dich sehr o meine Seele which is more commonly known as Psalm 42 and often set to “Comfort, Comfort Ye my People.” This set of twelve variations by one of J.S. Bach’s teacher’s showcases the various contrapuntal techniques that Böhm learned during his time as a student. The Italian influence can clearly be seen in the emphasis on manual technique as well as the florid lines. This influence was transferred to many of the compositions for J.S. Bach keyboard. It was the influence of Böhm’s partitas that can most clearly be seen by historians.

These pieces are part of what makes Advent so beautiful. The music is so mysterious and meaningful when viewed through the lens of today’s Christmas offerings because we can see the expectancy and the anticipation that previous generations knew how to capitalize on. We have the opportunity to remember this as well if we will allow ourselves. 

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.