December 28, 2015. Still in the Christmas mood. So much great music has been written for Christmas that we decided to continue our celebration for a little longer. Last week, when we wrote about Giovanni Gabrieli, we mentioned one of his students, Heinrich Schütz. Schütz was 24 when he went to Venice. Half a century later, in 1660, at the advanced age of 75 he composed Weihnachtshistorie, The Christmas Story. By then he was an eminent composer, the “chief Kapellmeister” at the court of the Elector of Saxony. The Christmas Story is set to the text from the Gospels of Luke and Matthew as translated by Martin Luther. You can hear it in the performance by the Westfalische Kantorei under the direction of Wilhelm Ehmann.
About 30 years later, around 1690, Arcangelo Corelli composed Twelve Concerti Grossi, his opus 6 (it wasn’t published till 1714). The set was commissioned by Corelli’s then new patron, Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni. Concerto number 8 had an inscription, Fatto per la notte di Natale (Made for the night of Christmas) and became known as the “Christmas Concerto.” It’s performed here, in a somewhat old-fashioned manner, by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan conducting. Corelli had many pupils, one of them – Pietro Locatelli, composer and violinist. In 1721 Locatelli, then 26, also composed a set of 12 Concerti Grossi, and called the eighth “Christmas Concerto.” The last section of Corelli’s concert is marked as Largo. Pastorale ad libitum (that is, “at one’s pleasure”); the last section of Locatelli’s – Pastorale (Largo Andante). Not terribly original but lovely, it’s performed here by I Musici.
Let’s return to Germany. Here’s a wonderful hymn, Es ist ein' Ros' entsprungen, which Michael Praetorius included in his first published work, Musae Sioniae (The Muses of Zion) in 1609. The traditional translation of the hymn is “Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming.” Even though Luther was strongly against the Catholic Marian cult, many of the older Catholic songs made it into the Lutheran liturgy, and Es ist ein' Ros' entsprungen is one of them: the text makes clear that the rosebud is “Mary, the pure.” The crystalline Monteverdi Choir is the performer. 125 years later, Johann Sebastian Bach wrote (and, to some extent, compiled) the great Christmas Oratorio. Consisting of six parts, the music was to be performed on Christmas and two following days, and also on New Year’s Day (the day of the circumcision of Jesus) and on the first Sunday of the new year. Here’s Sinfonia, the introductory part to the Second day service. John Elliot Gardiner conducts the English Baroque Soloists. The Adoration of the Magi, above, is by Domenico Ghirlandaio. It was painted around 1485.
Christmas 2015
December 28, 2015. Still in the Christmas mood. So much great music has been written for Christmas that we decided to continue our celebration for a little longer. Last week, when we wrote about Giovanni Gabrieli, we mentioned one of his students, Heinrich Schütz. Schütz was 24 when he went to Venice. Half a century later, in 1660, at the advanced age of 75 he composed Weihnachtshistorie, The
Christmas Story. By then he was an eminent composer, the “chief Kapellmeister” at the court of the Elector of Saxony. The Christmas Story is set to the text from the Gospels of Luke and Matthew as translated by Martin Luther. You can hear it in the performance by the Westfalische Kantorei under the direction of Wilhelm Ehmann.
About 30 years later, around 1690, Arcangelo Corelli composed Twelve Concerti Grossi, his opus 6 (it wasn’t published till 1714). The set was commissioned by Corelli’s then new patron, Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni. Concerto number 8 had an inscription, Fatto per la notte di Natale (Made for the night of Christmas) and became known as the “Christmas Concerto.” It’s performed here, in a somewhat old-fashioned manner, by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan conducting. Corelli had many pupils, one of them – Pietro Locatelli, composer and violinist. In 1721 Locatelli, then 26, also composed a set of 12 Concerti Grossi, and called the eighth “Christmas Concerto.” The last section of Corelli’s concert is marked as Largo. Pastorale ad libitum (that is, “at one’s pleasure”); the last section of Locatelli’s – Pastorale (Largo Andante). Not terribly original but lovely, it’s performed here by I Musici.
Let’s return to Germany. Here’s a wonderful hymn, Es ist ein' Ros' entsprungen, which Michael Praetorius included in his first published work, Musae Sioniae (The Muses of Zion) in 1609. The traditional translation of the hymn is “Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming.” Even though Luther was strongly against the Catholic Marian cult, many of the older Catholic songs made it into the Lutheran liturgy, and Es ist ein' Ros' entsprungen is one of them: the text makes clear that the rosebud is “Mary, the pure.” The crystalline Monteverdi Choir is the performer. 125 years later, Johann Sebastian Bach wrote (and, to some extent, compiled) the great Christmas Oratorio. Consisting of six parts, the music was to be performed on Christmas and two following days, and also on New Year’s Day (the day of the circumcision of Jesus) and on the first Sunday of the new year. Here’s Sinfonia, the introductory part to the Second day service. John Elliot Gardiner conducts the English Baroque Soloists. The Adoration of the Magi, above, is by Domenico Ghirlandaio. It was painted around 1485.