Tag Archives: advent calendar

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Advent Calendar Day 11 – Wachet Auf! (J.S. Bach)

My friend Anna tells me that Wachet Auf is to German Advent music what Handel’s Messiah is to Advent music in the English speaking world – namely, ubiquitous! Bach just loved this particular melody, and used it as often as he could – at least three times that I know of. Our music director, Geoff, did the organ solo version of it a few weeks ago, and there’s a straightforward choral hymn version of it, and then there’s this one, which is a slow day for the sopranos and a mad fugal party for everyone else. We did this one year, and if I recall correctly, not only did Geoff end the service with the organ version, the minister also put Zion Hears The Watchmen’s Voices as one of the congregational hymns, just in case anyone in the congregation hadn’t got the point yet.

I actually included a version of the chorale in last year’s Advent Calendar, but unfortunately could only find a beautifully sung but painfully slow version of the piece. Fortunately, in the intervening months, the JS Bach foundation has put up another recording, and it’s brilliant – lively and vigorous and that orchestra is phenomenal. And it’s shown me something I didn’t know about this piece of music, too, which is always a bonus. You see, I always thought of it as the sopranos singing the melody (very sloooowly) while the rest of the parts did the interesting stuff below. And from an alto perspective (I am sadly not very good at looking outside such a perspective), that’s exactly what’s going on.

Hearing the piece with full orchestra, and particularly hearing this recording, however, gives me a different perspective. My first thought was that the altos weren’t loud enough (a thought I have often when listening to choral music, see aforementioned remarks about the alto perspective). But actually, what is going on is that the piece is a great big soprano solo, and the altos, tenors and basses are part of the orchestral accompaniment. They aren’t supposed to be in the foreground, really, any more than the violins are – which is to say, they all have their moments of standing out (the alto line in the alleluia, for example), but basically, they are the accompaniment. Which is still having more fun than the sopranos, but hey, that’s how it goes sometimes…

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

Ad hoc translation from my dimly recalled German is as follows:

The watchers high on the roof call us “Wake up! Wake up, city of Jerusalem, for this is midnight!” They call us with bright voices “Where are the wise virgins? The bridegroom is coming, get up and take your lamps, Halleluja! Prepare for the wedding feast – you must go to him.

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Advent Calendar Day 10 – Christus Factus Est Pro Nobis (Bruckner)

Having sung Bruckner for the first time this year, I knew that I had to find some way to shoehorn him into my Advent Calendar! He’s another of the romantic composers, and his harmonies are so deliciously lush, and every line gets the most beautiful melodies. Also, I’ve decided that he is great-great-uncle Bruckner, because my great grandmother was a Brukner and from Vienna and a singer, and really, how many professional-level musician Bru(c)kners could really have been wandering around Vienna in the late 19th – early 20th century anyway? He must be some kind of relative.

(of course, I wouldn’t be saying that if my great-grandmother’s surname had been Rutter)

Anyway, the tricky part here was finding something Advent appropriate. I did find Virga Jesse Floruit, which is pretty much a Christmas anthem (and I certainly recommend it to your attention if you listen to this one and need more Bruckner afterward), and quite appropriate, but it didn’t quite speak to me. But then YouTube led me to this one, and it turns out that I *had* in fact sung Bruckner before and had inexplicably failed to notice that he was my cousin. This anthem is really intended for Lent (being about how Christ was obedient even unto death on the cross for us, and for this reason his name is above all other names), but I have it on excellent authority that Lenten texts can be appropriate for Advent, this being a season of fasting and reflection too.

And to be honest, having heard this anthem again, there was no way I wasn’t going to include it, because it is Cousin Anton (I’m sure he wouldn’t mind me calling him that) at his best. It’s dramatic and lyrical and exciting to sing and has some absolutely heart-stopping moments (and in the alto line, too!) – I love that bit right at the end after the huge climactic chords when the parts come back in one by one on the ‘qui est super…’ – it sends shivers down my spine.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6fAT3iGRWc&w=560&h=315]

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Advent Calendar Day 9 – The Angelus

After yesterday’s rather insane Handel, I thought we needed a palate-cleanser. So this is a very simple, quiet piece of music – a choir of religious sisters singing the Angelus. The woman leading the chant has a truly lovely voice – very clear and pure and sweet, and very appropriate for this style of music. This style of music is much earlier than the other things I’ve posted here – Wikipedia (which is, of course, infallible) tells me that plainsong dates back to the 4th century AD, and started getting written down in the 6th and 7th century, under Pope Gregory (hence Gregorian chant). It doesn’t have a discernable beat or barlines, but the phrasing doesn’t entirely follow speech rhythms (as in Anglican chant) either. It just flows onward in its own time until it’s done.

I’m not sure if this particular piece of chant dates back that far, or whether it’s a modern piece that leans on the old style (i suspect the latter, because most of the Gregorian chant I’ve heard is a lot more complex than this), but it’s very pretty and peaceful either way.

While the text is generally sung as one of the monastic Hours, I think it is also appropriate for Advent, being another text about the angel Gabriel and Mary. But mostly I’ve chosen it for its peacefulness.

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

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Advent Calendar Day 7 – Let all mortal flesh keep silence (Bairstow)

There’s just something about these particular lyrics that bring out the best in composers. I’ve sung, I think, three versions of them (including the hymn), and they are all gorgeous. This one, by Bairstow, is very lush and an absolute joy to sing. It sits in all the very best parts of the voice, and the lyrics are set beautifully, though in a very different way to the way Gibbons does it. Bairstow doesn’t follow the inflections of speech, but he captures mood very effectively and gives you just the sort of notes and tempo you want to sing for those particular words. This is the Romantic style of classical music, which I don’t always care for (early music is much more fun for the alto, and I am very biased in that direction – though having said that, Bairstow does seem to appreciate us too). It’s all about emotion and mood and lots and lots of hairpins (or sausages, as another choir director I worked with liked to call them) – that is to say, phrases which crescendo and then decrescendo (get louder and then softer).

Also, who wouldn’t love a piece where you get to sing about ‘the cherubim with many eyes’. This always reminds me of Madeleine L’Engle, which is definitely a bonus.

I don’t remember if we’ve ever sung this piece in Advent, but to me the text seems to capture the mood of the season very well – let all mortal flesh keep silent… for the King of King and Lord of Lords cometh forth… with lots and lots of cherubim, WITH MANY EYES, hooray!

(why yes, that was a paraphrase)

(not the bit about the many eyes, though.  That’s right there in the lyrics.)

But really, this sort of music needs no excuse.

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Advent Calendar Day 6 – Lullay My Liking (Trad.)

Today’s piece is what happens when I go looking for the version of ‘I saw a maiden’ that we sing in my work Christmas choir and find every other setting of that carol, ever, but not the one I’m looking for.

I haven’t heard this one before, but it’s staying in my head. The recording is from 1948, and the singers are Isobel Baillie, Gladys Ripley, John McHugh and Harold Williams. The style of singing is one I think of as slightly old-fashioned (I think they teach singers to use less vibrato these days? There is certainly something characteristic about the vocal style that sounds to me like an older generation.

My great-grandmother was a singer of this generation (I have a photo of her dressed as Cherubino – the one in the header of this blog, in fact – which suggests that her vocal range was similar to mine), and sang on the radio in Austria in, I think, the 1930s. I don’t think I ever heard her sing, but I’m constantly fascinated by the idea of another semi-professional singer in the family. I can’t help wondering if she sounded a bit like Isobel Baillie…

Perhaps it’s the elusive family history aspect, but this is another piece that appeals to me for the sense of history and continuity over time. I love the feel of these old recordings, and of course the words themselves are far older, and date to the middle ages.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUpPWGIdBf4&w=560&h=315]

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Advent Calendar Day 5 – The Record of John (Gibbons)

In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. We have to have The Record of John now.

Sorry, sudden attack of Pride and Prejudice there.  Put it down to severe lack of sleep and far, far, too much time spent making confectionery this weekend.

But the other thing I did this weekend was attend (and of course sing in) our Advent Service, which was this evening.  Every year, we do a service of readings and carols.  We always do some new pieces – this year, we did some lovely, medieval-sounding polyphony by Heinrich Isaacs and some truly demented Palestrina, as well as Es Ist Ein Rös Entsprungen – but there are some we do every year.  The Matin Responsory.  Adam Lay Y Bounden.  The Record of John, by Orlando Gibbons (also known as my big Elizabethan crush).

(Incidentally, the other highlight of the Advent service is sitting there during the readings and mentally singing along with the reader.  “For unto us a son is born,” says Isaiah, and I’m in Handel-land.  “Make straight in the desert a highway,” and there’s John’s tenor solo.  Actually, currently it all seems to be Handel, but I know there were other composers in my head too.)

I posted this in the Advent Calendar last year, but I feel no hesitation in posting it again now, because for me, Advent starts on a Thursday in late November when Geoff starts playing the accompaniment, generally without warning, and I come in on the alto solo: This is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites to Jerusalem, to Jerusalem, to ask him, “Who art thou?” And he confessed and denied not, and said plainly, I am not the Christ.

The specific part where Advent begins is on “And he confessed and denied not’.  There’s something about the way the accompaniment and the voice combine there that affects me on a visceral level.  Suddenly, everything is just right (until we get into the chorus and I screw up my section because I’ve forgotten what the other alto part is doing).  And then there’s the part: And he said, I am the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness “Make straight the way of the Lord,” which just sends shivers down my spine whenever I sing it.  It’s something in the writing, I think, because it’s on the same bar every time, and for just a few moments right there I can’t help believing absolutely in what I’m singing. Belief of this kind (of any kind, really) doesn’t come easily to me.

I do think this is down to Gibbons’ writing, and his exceptional way with setting lyrics.  I’ve mentioned before his habit of setting the lyrics so that they follow the inflections of speech, and this does something – I don’t know what, exactly – to enhance the emotion in the music.

Basically, it’s a perfect, perfect piece of music.  It’s in my head now, and will be all the way until Christmas.

It might as well be in yours, too.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9pE5vrgBHQ&w=560&h=315]

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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…