Monthly Archives: December 2010

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Advent Calendar Day 6 – There is no Rose of Swych Vertu (Mediaeval Baebes)

Here’s one that I’m not quite sure counts as an Advent Carol – is it still an Advent Carol if it is not sung with any religious intent? – but is nonetheless too pretty to miss. The text is medieval, but the tune is modern, and it’s sung by the Mediaeval Baebes, who actually do quite a lot of Advent stuff, largely because they do a lot of Mary stuff. And let’s face it, we all like Mary stuff.

I’m afraid I don’t have much else to say about this one on this hot, sticky morning other than “Here it is. It’s pretty. Listen to it…”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTu6N8Dhi0c&w=560&h=315]

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Advent Calendar Day 5 – Comfort Ye & Ev’ry Valley (G.F. Handel)

Today’s choice was easy and hard. It’s a piece that John L normally sings at our Advent Service, but tonight he is in country Victoria singing it for others. Which we can’t blame him for, since it’s a full performance of the Messiah, and who wouldn’t jump at the opportunity of all those lovely tenor solos?

Still, to me Advent isn’t Advent without The Record of John and Comfort Ye / Every Valley. It’s a requirement. I’ll be singing The Record of John tonight, so today is clearly the day for some Handel.

The hard part of this was that there were so many recordings on YouTube. Some were very good. Some were dreadful. Some were good, but not quite to my taste. None of them sounded at all like John L, who is the only person I’ve ever heard actually sing this piece of music. And most of them, to be frank, weren’t as good. I hadn’t appreciated how hard a piece it is to sing well until now.

In the end, I couldn’t find a recording I loved, but I did manage to find a classic. Jon Vickers is a heldentenor, which I think means heroic tenor of a Wagnerian type. It isn’t a type of voice I normally like, or one I would associate with Handel. On first listening I found it too heavy, and didn’t listen through to the end of the recitative. This was a mistake – the end is where it catches fire, and, my god, he can actually do all those runs in ‘Every Valley’ in a single breath! Fortunately, after listening to a dozen different recordings, and reading all over the internet about how awesomely well Vickers sings this piece, I decided I’d better listen all the way through and give it a proper try. I listened to the end of the recititative and the beginning of the aria and realised that it really was the only possible version I could use, at least in the absence of John L. I don’t think he would be insulted by this*. Vicker’s voice is full of energy and excitement and life, and it’s more subtle than I would have expected from the start of the recititative, and of course he doesn’t miss a note. The technique, as far as I can judge it (not far, alas) is perfect. It really is a beautiful piece of music and of singing.

Oh, who am I kidding? I didn’t love it at first hearing, but I have fallen for it since. Apparently my secondary theme (after awesome alto lines) in this Advent Calendar is going to be wonderful tenor soloists.

But why am I talking about this music when you could be listening to it? This video comes in two parts, one for the recititative and one for the aria.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CURliKoAdQM&w=560&h=315]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uGCyCQ4760&w=560&h=315]

* He was.  John does not approve of Vickers at all.

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Advent Calendar Day 4 – The Lord at first did Adam make (Trad.)

Here’s a carol I’ve never sung, but have often wanted to. Mostly, this is because it was the one we always skipped in the carol book when I was carolling professionally ‘because it sounds like a dirge’, but it did always sound like it had an interesting arrangement, and I like the harmonics you get in these older carols. And, of course, the un-Christmassy lyrics.

This is one of those medieval carols that harks back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It’s a bit of a theme in Advent; the reminder of the first sin and disobedience in the Garden which makes the birth of Jesus necessary in the first place. You don’t get to rejoice in that until you’ve thought about why it happened and why it is important, or at least you don’t if you are a medieval Catholic person. At least, that’s my interpretation – I could be missing the point. (There are some other carols I find rather amusing because they manage to get all the way from the Annunciation to the Ascension in nine short verses, but I’m not sure if they count as Advent Carols, exactly. I’ll have to decide later whether they apply…

This version of the carol is sung by King’s College Choir, and it has different words in the chorus to the ones I know, and I can’t make them out. But once again, I can forgive them their lack of female voices (and their imperfect enunciation) for the sake of the tenor soloist, who has a lovely, light tenor voice that I could listen to for hours, even if he does look like a particularly annoying doctor from my old Division.

The Lord at first did Adam make out of the dust and clay (arranged by Cleobury, I think).
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uznRbrtrqb0&w=560&h=315]
I’m learning that I actually have quite a few opinions about how this sort of music should be sung, and apparently very few recordings meet my standards. The result of this is that I keep going back to the King’s College Choir, because their recordings and voices are good and they do all the obscure medieval carols that I like. But despite all this, I wish I could find some other recordings, because it turns out that I much prefer female (adult) soprano voices to boy sopranos – they just don’t have the same depth, at least to my ear.
Edited December 2017: Well, I can no longer go back to King’s College Choir, because the recording isn’t there anymore.  This version is still an all-male choir, I believe, so my point stands…  Also, I’m now desperately curious about the tenor who reminded me of the particularly annoying doctor.  (And, with seven years having past since I wrote the initial post, I’m trying to remember which particularly annoying doctor it was, because I can imagine several possible candidates…)

 

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Advent Calendar Day 3 – Ave Generosa (Hildegard of Bingen)

After all that heavy, fugal Bach, one needs something simple as a palate cleanser. At least, I do. And what could be simpler than plainchant?

Hildegard of Bingen has been a favourite of mine for quite some years, just because she was so interested and involved in everything – music, poetry, art, politics, and more – and so fearless and certain in her faith and her visions. She had absolutely no problem writing to Dukes, Kings and even Popes to tell them where they were going wrong. Irresistible, at least to me.

Hildegard’s monastery at Eibingen is, if I recall correctly, a reconstruction of the original building. It doesn’t have the soaring architecture of the gothic cathedrals and churches, being more Roman in character, and it is relatively dark and small, though the walls are painted with images from the bible. It would have, I think, a wonderful acoustic for female voices.

This is the first of many Maryish pieces that will be heard in my musical Advent Calendar. My knowledge of Advent theology and texts is shaky, but this, to me, is Mary’s season – if Advent is about expecting the birth of Jesus, surely his mother is the most expectant of all?

And this piece of music, like most of Hildegard’s work, is wonderfully serene, and beautifully sung.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fRN7Czrs8Q&w=560&h=315]

Lyrics in English are:

I behold you,
noble, glorious and whole woman,
the pupil of purity.
You are the sacred matrix
in which God takes great pleasure.
The essences of Heaven flooded into you,
and the Great Word of God dressed itself in flesh.

You appeared as a shining white lily,
as God looked upon you before all of Creation.

O lovely and tender one,
how greatly has God delighted in you.
For He has placed His passionate embrace within you,
so that His Son might nurse at your breast.

Your womb held joy,
with all the celestial symphony sounding through you,
Virgin, who bore the Son of God,
when your purity became luminous in God.

Your flesh held joy,
like grass upon which dew falls,
pouring its life-green into it,
and so it is true in you also,
o Mother of all delight.

Now let all Ecclesia shine in joy
and sound in symphony
praising the most tender woman,
Mary, the bequeather/seed-source of God.
Amen.

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Advent Calendar Day 2 – Wachet Auf (J.S. Bach)

For December 2, then, here is Bach’s Wachet Auf. Actually, this version is so very slow that it should probably be called “Schlafet Mehr”, but of all the recordings available online, this one had the best choir. So it’s slow, but worth waiting for.

This is not the organ prelude you (and most of YouTube) are thinking of when you hear Wachet Auf and Bach in the same sentence, but the choral version with the awesome alto alleluia in the middle (there will be a theme of excellent alto lines in this advent calendar, at least until I run out of pieces I personally remember singing in Advent. This is what happens when you let the alto control the programming). It is more fun when it goes faster, but this can’t be helped.

If you’re not a Bach afficionado, the way this piece works is that the sopranos sing the melody line of Wachet Auf (Zion hears the watchmen’s voices) very, very slowly (very, very, very slowly in this recording), while the altos, tenors and basses sing something completely different and polyphonic underneath. The effect is gorgeous, if a bit boring for the sopranos (see note above about what happens when you put the alto in charge of choosing music).

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j8BJ21yLoA&w=560&h=315]
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Advent Calendar Day 1 – The Record of John (Orlando Gibbons)

All the cool kids are doing Advent Calendars, and since I’ve been raving to everyone in sight about how wonderful Advent music is, perhaps I should demonstrate.

So, for December 1 (a mere two days late), we will start with my absolute favourite piece of Advent music, which is of course The Record of John, by Orlando Gibbons. I absolutely love Gibbons’ work – he has an absolute gift for writing musical lines that mimic the intonations of speech, and this is part of what makes him such a joy to sing. He makes it so easy to convey meaning, because his inflections are so natural, and he is one of those composers who makes you believe the words when you sing them.

When he writes for duets or trios or even quartets in his verse anthems, he is unparalleled. I am hoping to find a recording of ‘Behold, I bring you glad tidings’, which is his other Advent piece, but haven’t had any luck so far. Gibbons also has the charming habit of giving the altos all the best solos, which would make me feel kindly towards him even if he wasn’t such a magnificent writer – really, I have sung any number of his works, and every one has been glorious.

This is the best recording of The Record of John I could find on YouTube. The countertenor is so beautiful I can even forgive him for not being an alto…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9pE5vrgBHQ]