This Week in Classical Music: December 23, 2019.Christmas music of the Late Renaissance.Last year we celebrated Christmas with the music of three giants of the High Renaissance: Orlando di Lasso, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Tomás Luis de Victoria. This year we’re doing something similar but focusing on the composers that worked at the end of the period, with some of them forming the early phases of the Baroque.The great city of Venice is another theme that is common to our composers.
Giovanni Gabrieli, the oldest of the four, was born either in 1554 or in 1557 and lived most of his life in Venice.He only left the city to study with Orlando di Lasso who at that time was employed at the court of Duke Albrecht V in Munich.Soon after returning to Venice, Gabrieli became the chief organist at St. Mark’s basilica.Gabrieli brilliantly used the architectural and acoustical peculiarities of the basilica, writing polychoral compositions, in which two choruses, placed across the nave from each other, sing sequentially while the echo creates additional musical effects.Here’s Gabrieli’s O magnum mysterium (O great mystery) celebrating the newborn Lord.It’s performed by The Philip Jones Brass Ensemble and the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, Stephen Cleobury conducting.
One of Gabrieli’s students was a German composer Heinrich Schütz, born on October 18th of 1585 in Köstritz, Thuringia.He lived in Venice for three years, from 1609 to 1612, being sent there by Landgrave Moritz of Marburg specifically to study with Giovanni Gabrieli, since “a widely famed but rather old musician and composer, was still alive, I should not miss the chance to hear him and learn something from him.”Some years later, in 1628, when Schütz was already established in Dresden as a court composer to the Elector of Saxony, he went to Venice again.On that trip he met and studied with another of our composers, Claudio Monteverdi.In 1660 Schütz wrote Christmas Vespers for the Court chapel in Dresden.Here’s the O bone Jesu, fili Mariae section of the Vespers.It’s performed by the Gabrieli Consort, Paul McCreesh conducting.
We just mentioned Claudio Monteverdi.The great Italian is famous as a “father of the opera,” but during his long life (he was born in May of 1567 and died in 1643) he wrote many sacred pieces.One of the most important of these works was his Vespro Della Beata Vergine (Vespers for the Blessed Virgin), written around 1610, when Monteverdi was in Mantua working for the Dukes of Gonzaga.Vespers is a multi-part composition, containing several psalms and motets and ending with in a Magnificat.Here’s the psalm Dixit Dominus, it’s performed in St. Mark’s basilica by the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloistsunder the direction of John Eliot Gardiner.
And finally, another German, Michael Praetorius, who was born in Eisenach (also Johann Sebastian Bach’s birthplace), probably on February 15th of 1571.Praetorius had never been to Italy, but was influenced by Italian musicians while at the court of Johann Georg I, the Elector of Saxony.It was also in Dresden that Praetorius met Heinrich Schütz.Here, from his Mass For ChristmasMorning is the motet Jesaja dem Propheten das geschah.Paul McCreesh conducts the Gabrieli Consort.
Christmas music of the Late Renaissance, 2019
This Week in Classical Music: December 23, 2019. Christmas music of the Late Renaissance. Last year we celebrated Christmas with the music of three giants of the High
Renaissance: Orlando di Lasso, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Tomás Luis de Victoria. This year we’re doing something similar but focusing on the composers that worked at the end of the period, with some of them forming the early phases of the Baroque. The great city of Venice is another theme that is common to our composers.
Giovanni Gabrieli, the oldest of the four, was born either in 1554 or in 1557 and lived most of his life in Venice. He only left the city to study with Orlando di Lasso who at that time was employed at the court of Duke Albrecht V in Munich. Soon after returning to Venice, Gabrieli became the chief organist at St. Mark’s basilica. Gabrieli brilliantly used the architectural and acoustical peculiarities of the basilica, writing polychoral compositions, in which two choruses, placed across the nave from each other, sing sequentially while the echo creates additional musical effects. Here’s Gabrieli’s O magnum mysterium (O great mystery) celebrating the newborn Lord. It’s performed by The Philip Jones Brass Ensemble and the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, Stephen Cleobury conducting.
One of Gabrieli’s students was a German composer Heinrich Schütz, born on October 18th of 1585 in Köstritz, Thuringia. He lived in Venice for three years, from 1609 to 1612, being sent there by Landgrave Moritz of Marburg specifically to study with Giovanni Gabrieli, since “a widely famed but rather old musician and composer, was still alive, I should not miss the chance to hear him and learn something from him.” Some years later, in 1628, when Schütz was already established in Dresden as a court composer to the Elector of Saxony, he went to Venice again. On that trip he met and studied with another of our composers, Claudio Monteverdi. In 1660 Schütz wrote Christmas Vespers for the Court chapel in Dresden. Here’s the O bone Jesu, fili Mariae section of the Vespers. It’s performed by the Gabrieli Consort, Paul McCreesh conducting.
We just mentioned Claudio Monteverdi. The great Italian is famous as a “father of the opera,” but during his long life (he was born in May of 1567 and died in 1643) he wrote many sacred pieces. One of the most important of these works was his Vespro Della Beata Vergine (Vespers for the Blessed Virgin), written around 1610, when Monteverdi was in Mantua working for the Dukes of Gonzaga. Vespers is a multi-part composition, containing several psalms and motets and ending with in a Magnificat. Here’s the psalm Dixit Dominus, it’s performed in St. Mark’s basilica by the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists under the direction of John Eliot Gardiner.
And finally, another German, Michael Praetorius, who was born in Eisenach (also Johann Sebastian Bach’s birthplace), probably on February 15th of 1571. Praetorius had never been to Italy, but was influenced by Italian musicians while at the court of Johann Georg I, the Elector of Saxony. It was also in Dresden that Praetorius met Heinrich Schütz. Here, from his Mass For Christmas Morning is the motet Jesaja dem Propheten das geschah. Paul McCreesh conducts the Gabrieli Consort.