Monthly Archives: December 2011

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Advent Calendar Day 4 – Herzlich lieb hab ich dich o Herr (Schütz)

One disadvantage in putting together this advent calendar is the undoubted fact that I know nothing about liturgy and the lectionary. Other than my general Advent policy of all Mary, all the time, and a vague notion that penitential texts are called for, I don’t actually know which texts are appropriate, so I constantly have my ears pricked for hints.

Anyway, someone on my friendslist helpfully mentioned in passing that Psalm 18 is commonly read for the second Sunday in Advent. Score! Except that I don’t actually know any settings of Psalm 18 off the top of my head.  Not such a score… Fortunately, I am entirely shameless in my pursuit of Advent music, and have absolutely no hesitation in getting on Google and searching ‘Psalm 18 Bach’ ‘Psalm 18 Mendelssohn’ ‘Psalm 18 Handel’ ‘Psalm 18 Schutz’ until something comes up…

I hit the jackpot on ‘Schutz’, with more entries than I could poke a stick at. On closer inspection, this turned out to be because the word ‘schutz’ actually means refuge in German, and this particular psalm is all about the Lord being one’s help and refuge, so ‘schutz’ comes up pretty often. Still, if my name meant something interesting, I’d be composing music with that word in it all the time. On this principal, I tried ‘Psalm 18 Heinrich Schütz’ (yes, with umlaut this time), and voilà! Not just Psalm 18, but Psalm 18 as an alto solo!

I always suspected Schütz was on my side.

On the other hand… I just don’t know what to make of this piece of music. I feel as though I should like it more than I do. I mean, it’s an alto solo! And it’s Schütz – the man who perpetrated that fabulous Rorate Coeli! How can it be bad? I suspect that if I spoke German better, I’d love it – it feels as though it’s doing the awesome Gibbons thing of following vocal inflections and speech rhythms, and is reminding me of a verse anthem, only without the anthem bits (this would be awesome with some choral sections).

But there is something about it, nonetheless. I can tell, because I’ve just listened to it twice in a row, and I’m fascinated enough that I’d probably listen to it a couple more times if Andrew weren’t sitting next to me, trying to not be driven insane by my musical choices.

I think I’d like to sing this sometime. But I think I will have to improve my German first.

Edited in December 17: And can I find this recording, or indeed any other with a female alto now?  Indeed I cannot!  So here is Matteo Messori singing it, and sounding very lovely and not deserving any of my resentment that he is a male alto!  (It’s actually a very lovely interpretation, I’m just sulking.)

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWJgkZb8Y0U&w=560&h=315]

 

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Advent Calendar Day 3 – Angelus ad Virginem, Trad.

We’re still going with the whole Annunciation theme around here, and there’s more where that came from, I assure you…

Today’s piece is a traditional medieval carol, performed by the King’s Singers, of whom I am very fond, due to their habit of singing the most preposterous pieces of music absolutely sweetly and perfectly.  This carol feels like a dance to me – it’s the hollowness of the drum and the 6/8 time signature, I think.  I’d dance to it, anyway.

Medieval people had not studied Grade 4 music theory, and therefore they didn’t know you aren’t supposed to put parallel fourths and fifths anywhere (they probably also didn’t know that the tenor and alto lines are supposed to be boring.  No, I still haven’t forgiven my theory textbook for stating this so blithely).  So this piece has open fourths and fifths (these are the ones that sound like a chord with the middle missing out of it – you can’t tell if its major or minor) all over the place, which sounds funky and bare and, as it happens, very quintessentially medieval to the modern ear.

I love it – I love its liveliness, and those bare, unfinished-sounding fifths and disconcerting harmonies, and I love the voices singing it.  You can read the lyrics here, if you’re interested.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0IMMd7jiyY&w=560&h=315]

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Advent Calendar Day 2 – Magnificat (Purcell)

I was trying to find a version of Purcell’s ‘Thy Word is a Lantern’ for today, but given a choice of excessively mannered male alto * or pleasing but very quiet female alto with lots of background rustling, I was less than inspired (I’m not sure why this particular search string also brought me up the Alto’s Lament, but that is a question for another day).

Fortunately, it also brought up this gorgeous verse anthem by Purcell, which is ever so much more appropriate for Advent anyway, being as it is a Magnificat. This is Mary’s song early in the book of Luke, after the Angel tells her that she will conceive and bear a son and all that. I believe I’ve expressed the opinion before that Advent is All About Mary, and we might as well start early on this one. You’ll be seeing a lot more Magnificats around here before Advent is over.

I’ve never actually heard this piece before, but already I want to sing it – I have a weakness for verse anthems (anthems which alternate between a soloist or group of soloists and the full choir) and particularly love the way Purcell alternates between full choir and trios composed of lower and then upper voices. I strongly suspect that this is an all-male choir, and I do wish it wasn’t, but it is a very good one for all that.

And you really can’t ever go wrong with Purcell (despite the evidence beside the asterisk below).

No embedding for this video – hie thee to YouTube and watch it there!

Magnificat, composed by Henry Purcell, and sung by the choir of Christ College, Oxford

* seriously, I was waiting for him to start singing the No Kissing At All song. That’s how mannered he was. And yes, he was really that camp.

Edited to add: In fact, I did get to sing this at Christ Church Brunswick, a few years later, and I couldn’t figure out why it seemed so familiar – now I know.

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Advent Calendar Day 1 – Matin Responsory (Palestrina)

Apparently, I really am insane enough to do a musical Advent Calendar again. Because helping organise eight separate work Christmas events this year isn’t enough for me…

This year will shamelessly overlap with some of my favourites from last year, quite simply because Advent isn’t advent for me without the Record of John and Every Valley. And there were other things I found last year that I love too much to forego just because we’ve heard them before. They bear repeating.

I thought I’d start this Advent with Palestrina’s Matin Responsory, a piece we do at our annual Advent Service at Wesley. This recording is from King’s College in 1961, and I’m loving the crackle of the vinyl, which sounds like flames to me and seems very Christmassy. Also, I love how far away it sounds, both in distance and time. This sort of music, which is a bit of a cross between Gregorian and Anglican Chant, feels very ancient to me, and very appealing. One of the things I love about a lot of church music – especially the kind based on chant or really early Church lyrics – is the sense you have of reaching back hundreds or thousands of years and somehow being connected to the people who lived then by the same words and sometimes the same notes.

This recording, for me, speaks very well for the first day of Advent. Christmas is still a long way away, though we can see it in the distance now, and the music reflects that. The lyrics are apt, too (they are also hidden below the cut, along with the recording).

 

V: I look from afar:
R: And lo, I see the power of God coming, and a cloud covering the whole earth.

V: Go ye out to meet him and say:
R: Tell us, art thou he that should come to reign over thy people Israel?

V: High and low, rich and poor, One with another,
R: Go ye out to meet him and say:

V: Hear, O thou shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep.
R: Tell us, art thou he that should come?

V: Stir up thy strength, O Lord, and come
R: To reign over thy people Israel.

V: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
R: I look from afar: and lo, I see the power of God coming, and a cloud covering the whole earth.

V: Go ye out to meet him and say:
R: Tell us, art thou he that should come to reign over thy people Israel.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ofXER9YIJo&w=560&h=315]

Also, if you’d like to hear some live Advent music, we have our Advent Service at Wesley (148 Lonsdale St, Melbourne) this Sunday evening from 7pm. ou know you want to hear The Record of John again…