Monthly Archives: December 2013

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Advent Calendar Day 16: Gaudete!

Sometimes, I like to be a really evil choirmistress, and last Wednesday was one of those times.  With our first performance on Thursday, I grinned evilly at my little work choir and suggested we give Gaudete – a piece we had never previously looked at – a try.  It was, predictably, a disaster, mostly because the Latin goes by terribly fast, so that even if you get the hang of the tune (which my choristers did, quite fast), the verses are a shambles.  So I laughed at them and said maybe we’d give that one a try next year, and then we went back to singing stuff we had actually rehearsed.  And singing it very well, too.

(I don’t know why they put up with me, really I don’t.)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KSxg9Ij5r8&w=560&h=315]

Anyway.  This little carol is one I first encountered in an Adelaide pub back in my university choir days.  It lends itself very nicely to pub singing, because it has a pleasingly bouncy chorus, and the verses – generally sung by a soloist – are a nice little rhyming iambic heptameter, which means that anyone can jump in for a verse and sing just about any humorous or scurrilis couplet they can make up.  “Mary had a little lamb, the doctors were surprised / When Old MacDonald had a farm they couldn’t believe their eyes!” was one of the cleaner verses we liked to sing.  Some of the less clean verses were known to get us kicked out of the pub.

If, however, one chooses to sing the actual lyrics as written – which really doesn’t come naturally to me, even twenty years later – one finds that actually, they are a Christmas carol.  Fancy that.  The chorus, in fact, translates as ‘Rejoice, Christ is born of the Virgin Mary, Rejoice’, which perhaps explains why the Mary had a little lamb verses were such a popular variant.

The King’s Singers version is, of course, on an entirely different plane from that of the pub version.  For one thing, they vary the keys and harmonies in different verses.  For another, they sing the lyrics as written.  And for a third thing, they sing so beautifully that they probably wouldn’t get kicked out of the pub even if they were singing the dirty words.

(That’s how things work when you are that beautiful.)

And – did you notice? – we also get to continue the theme of Rejoicing for the third Sunday of Advent.  See, I do pay attention sometimes…

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Advent Calendar Day 15: Rejoice in the Lord Alway (Henry Purcell)

The third Sunday of Advent is also called ‘Gaudete Sunday’ (Gaudete meaning ‘rejoice’ in Latin).  After having candles, altar cloths and vestments of purple for weeks on end, suddenly we break out the pink – tastefully, via a single candle in the case of the more protestant churches, or with rose-coloured exuberance in the case of your more Catholic churches.  One of the churches I sing at used to drape their life-sized cross with purple satin throughout Advent, and then fling a bright swathe of fuchsia cloth of gold across the satin for what, it must be confessed, was our absolutely favourite time of the year to sing there.  The monks wear embroidered pink vestments, too.  Very fetching.

But I digress.

This being the Sunday for rejoicing, I naturally turn to Purcell, because there is nothing more joyous than singing one of his anthems, unless it is singing one of his arias.  He is truly a joy to sing.  And this anthem – also called the Bell Anthem, because of the bell-like accompaniment – is one which is frequently chosen for Gaudete Sunday, for reasons which are probably obvious.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_-1lp0RgZQ]

There is so much to love in this piece of music.  I love the bell-like strings at the start and in between the choral sections, the dance-like rhythm of the main melody, and that absolutely thrilling part when the whole choir comes in like a heavenly host for the chorus.  And then the beautiful stillness of ‘the peace of God which passes all understanding’.  Such beautiful writing, and such a perfect piece of music, combining rejoicing and reflection – exactly right for this Sunday in Advent.

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Advent Calendar Day 14: Remember, O Thou Man (Ravenscroft)

This carol holds a special place in my carol-infested heart, because it’s one of the first carols I sang at Wesley, and also because learning to sing this was, I think, the first time I ever heard the term ‘Advent carol’.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDN5gUgF_OQ&w=560&h=315]

Also, I am just silly enough to enjoy the rather brilliant line ‘Remember how thou art dead I gone, and I did what I can…’, which in my head is always followed immediately by ‘but you wouldn’t listen, would you? No, you just had to know better, and now you come crying to me…’

This is probably not quite what Thomas Ravenscroft had in mind.

Musically, I love this piece for its haunting melody and the harmonies which change from minor to major at the end of each verse.  And the voices in this particular rendition are just lovely. I’ll have to keep an eye out for The Sixteen in future.

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Advent Calendar Day 13: The Crown of Roses (Tchaikovsky)

From one rose to another, and this is a very suitable rose for a Friday, since this carol for Advent has a bit of a Good Fridayish tinge to it.

I first sang this in a school choir in Grade 6 or so, which means that it is embedded in my memory for life.    Though I always thought it was for Easter until I kept on finding it in Christmas Carol anthologies.  Then again, Lent and Advent have a similar (purple!) tinge, to my mind.  (I also can’t help thinking whenever I hear this at Christmas that *of course* it’s a Russian composer who thinks about Christmas and goes straight to the crown of thorns imagery.)

I particularly want to mention the choir in this recording, because their sound is really fantastic – very rich, and perfect for the lushness of Tchaikovsky’s harmonies. The choir of King’s College Cambridge is always excellent, but I think this particular recording is outstanding even for them. And the tenor section is in particularly beautiful voice.

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Advent Calendar Day 12: Det är en ros utsprungen (Sandström)

I was looking for a good recording of the beautiful old German carol, Es ist ein Ros entsprungen, when I found this.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF0vJDN1ek8&w=560&h=315]

It’s sort of the same carol, if you slowed it right down and made it strange and reflective and echoey and much more haunting and wistful.

Looking at Jan Sandström’s biography, he is apparently a contemporary composer – born in 1954, in fact – from Sweden, and his compositions include the Motorbike Concerto for trombone and orchestra.  Already, that sounds promising.  In fact, that sounds so promising, I had to go and find a recording of it, and because I love you, I am going to share it.  Here you go.  Don’t you feel better for listening to it?  It really does sound very motorbikish.  I’m not sure how much it sounds like a concerto, but I am 100% sure that Andrew, at least, is going to love this.

Anyway, it’s pretty clear that Sandström’s specialty is writing music that sounds like a picture of what he is writing.  (I keep on wanting to call it music that is like a soundtrack, or sound effect, because to me that’s what it reminds me of, but this sounds as though I’m being dismissive, which really isn’t my intention)

Back to the carol, what you probably really want to know is that this composition was based on the version by Praetorius, written in the late 16th or early 17th century.  If you want to know how the carol usually sounds, here’s a rather lovely recording by the Cambridge Singers, directed by John Rutter, no less, which should give you the idea…

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Advent Calendar Day 11: Wachet Auf, ruft uns di Stimme (J.S. Bach)

I know, I know, we had Bach just a few days ago, but this week’s schedule of Advent music is full of dreamy 19th and 20th century music, and I thought a bit of up-beat Baroque was just what we needed for contrast.

Besides, this is a seriously cool piece of music, and this choir and orchestra perform it just impeccably (and I love the way the violinists are, without exception bobbing on the first beat of each bar. It’s like a little minuet for violinists!).  Also, hearken to the alto joy at 4:01!  We sang this maybe seven years ago in choir, and I can still do that bit from memory – it’s the only way one can possibly get one’s voice around the notes, because nobody can sight read that fast.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz0FmmNrTck&w=560&h=315]

What to else say about this?  Well, it’s one of the classic Advent texts – I’m pretty sure I heard it at the service last Sunday, though it must be confessed that all my Advent services are beginning to blur together.  I’ve certainly sung the hymnified version in the last week, and also heard the organ solo version.  After a while, one starts suspecting that Bach spent a large portion of his career writing variations on Wachet Auf, actually.  But I digress.

The text is generally translated ‘Zion hears the watchmen’s voices’, but it’s closer to ‘Wake up, the voices call us – it is the watchmen on the roofs’, and it is all about the Bridegroom coming (with digressions about Wise Virgins, who presumably have lamps, but Bach figured we knew all about that, and left the lamps out).  It tends to be played a lot especially in early Advent, because it is all about preparing for the arrival of Christ.  Though I think the implication is more Second Coming than mangers and oxen and Bethlehem.

I do love this rendition of it – it’s lively and strongly sung and definitely wakes one up of a morning.

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Advent Calendar Day 10: Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence (Bairstow)

Have you recovered from yesterday’s post yet?  I’m still giggling about it, to be honest.  But moving along, here’s a somewhat more conventional setting of the same text.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C0I3YgMHiI&w=420&h=315]

Edward Bairstow was one of the great composers of English (Anglican) church music in the late 19th to early 20th century, and his work does feel very English – and Edwardian – to me.  There is a sense of old-world restraint to it, though this certainly doesn’t stop it from being both lush in its harmonies and evocative in sound.  That bass and tenor line at the very start (and end) of the piece sends shivers down the spine, and when the choir starts singing about the choirs of angels it’s one of the most beautiful vocal lines out there.  And the Alleluia is – as it should be – like a shout of joy.

(I use the word shout advisedly.  That is not what you are supposed to do with Bairstow… but most choirs can’t resist it in the forte sections.  I’m not entirely sure, for instance, that this one did.)

It occurs to me that I’ve used this text twice in two days without actually saying why I think of it as an Advent piece, but I’ve sort of figured that the whole ‘Jesus Christ to earth descending’ is a bit of a hint.

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Advent Calendar Day 9: Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence (Leah)

Good morning!  Are you ready for your Monday Morning Symphonic Metal Advent Music Wake Up Call?

Did you even know you could have one?

And aren’t you glad you now do?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckoRTTJy5v0&w=420&h=315]

 

I’ve always thought that this was one of those texts that just inspires people – every setting I’ve ever heard of it has been truly gorgeous. The traditional melody, which Leah is having an absolute *party* with in this recording (and I cannot express just how gleeful her version makes me), is usually sung rather more like this, and it’s one of those hymns that always makes me happy when I see it come up in the pewsheet.  It has a lovely grandeur to it, and is beautifully set for the voice.  Singing it feels really, really good.

As for this version… well, I honestly don’t know enough about the genre to judge it in an educated fashion, but it does make me happy.  Perhaps not for the right reasons, and perhaps not in the way Leah intended, but I do think that’s a truly fascinating thing to do to such a stately piece of music.  And the guitar solo is just *perfect*.

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Advent Calendar Day 8: There is No Rose (Benjamin Britten)

Who would ever have thought that I’d be sitting here recommending Britten to anyone?  He usually leaves me feeling rather puzzled and frustrated, because he always seems to have the most interesting ideas for texts, and then his music just does nothing for me,

And then there’s this setting of the medieval carol ‘There is no rose of swych vertu‘, and it is lush and gorgeous and altogether breathtakingly beautiful and it was written by Britten?  Astonishing.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M94QmA5GzSw&w=560&h=315]

I have to say, too, that this choir has a wonderful sound – there’s a lot of depth to it, and the ending is impeccable.  I find this particularly interesting, because it was originally written for treble choir, and I keep finding reviews of other performances which point out that a boys’ choir or a children’s choir is the only proper way to sing this and the way Britten intended it and so forth, and the children’s choirs are certainly very good, but it’s a shallower sound, and to my ear it lacks something.  (Possibly triplets.  Everyone seems to have a lot of trouble with the triplets, and some of the children’s choirs have given up entirely.) They also have a tendency to go much faster than the adult choirs, which doesn’t seem quite right for this piece.

Here’s a version by the New London Children’s Choir, so you can compare for yourself.  Their top notes are thrilling, but I think I still prefer the sound of the women’s chorus.

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Advent Calendar Day 7: Alma redemptoris Mater (Dufay)

Did I mention that everyone and their best friend had done a version of Alma Redemptoris Mater? I could almost fill a calendar with just this text.

I found this version, by Guillaume Dufay, when I was looking for the one by Hildegarde of Bingen, and I think it’s just gorgeous.  It has that sound that we tend to associate with medieval music, which seems to be about open fifths, and lots of minor second intervals in the melody.  This is really a late medieval /early renaissance sound – Hildegarde is more contemporary with the Crusades and other really bad medieval ideas.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZcN7GoN_Gc&w=420&h=315]

I’d never heard of Dufay before this, so I went and did a little internet research and discovered that Dufay was a Netherlandish composer of the fifteenth century.  This instantly makes me happy, because I am a bit of a Ricardian, and I know that Richard III spent a bit of time in the Netherlands when he was Richard of Gloucester, and this might have been the music he heard when he went to church there.  So maybe I’m sharing a musical experience with my favourite Plantagenet monarch here.

But even if I’m not, this is wonderful music, and I will have to seek out more of Dufay’s work.  I love the stillness in the solo sections and the clean, spare sound that somehow prevails even in the sections with the countermelody.  Very gorgeous stuff.