Virtuoso Music for Chorus, Brass, and Organ
Saturday, January 27, 1996
First Church Congregational, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Paul Hindemith: Morgenmusik (1932); Six Chansons (1939); Apparebit Repentina Dies (1947)
Andrea Gabrieli: Ricercare á 6 (post-1576?); O Sacrum Convivium (ca. 1565 - ed. JWE)
Giovanni Gabrieli: Intonazione Sesti Tono (pub. 1593); Canzoni for Organ and Antiphonal Brass; Deus, Qui Beatum Marcum
Heinrich Schütz: Psalm 150: Alleluia Lobet den Herren, SWV 38
Texts and translations
Program Notes
Musical tastes and favorites can be capricious. Not so long ago the music of Paul Hindemith was regularly encountered in concert. Today, for whatever reason, this is not so. So, in the spirit of The Spectrum Singers' mission of presenting worthy works not often heard, herewith a sampling of Hindemith's best work for chorus and brass.
Even if Hindemith's popularity were at its prior elevated level, these works would not likely be very often encountered. That being said, it is true that Morgenmusik has been a favorite of brass players, and the Six Chansons have been popular with chamber choruses. As for Apparebit Repentina Dies, its considerable technical demands plus the conundrum of what other music to program with so powerful a work have likely conspired to keep its performances few and far between. More's the pity, for this is surely one of the composer's strongest works, full of brilliant color, soaring melodies and virtuoso challenges for all the performers.
Morgenmusik is the first and best-known part of a collection of works collectively named Plöner Musiktag -- literally, A Day of Music for Plön, a set of pieces for a day-long music festival in the town of that name. Using a four-part ensemble of brass in three movements, the composer has left the choice of instrumentation somewhat free, suggesting various groupings be adopted by the performing forces at hand. Trumpets will be heard tonight playing the top two parts, horns the third, trombones and tuba the fourth. The composer has also asked that the work be sounded from the top of a tower, recalling music written for winds during the Renaissance called, appropriately, Turmmusik. As a convenient tower is lacking, our players will sound forth tonight from a height more comfortably attained.
The massed sonorities of these instruments reveal an important resonance with similar sounds to be heard later in this evening's presentation of Gabrieli and Heinrich Schütz. In fact, Hindemith appreciated more than most of his generation the debt he owed as a composer to the works of his forebears. As far back as the 1930s he was an avid champion of early music and persisted in giving some of the very first concerts of what was then very unusual repertoire. His university students in Europe and the United States still recall his zealous proselytizing for Schütz, Gabrieli, Monteverdi, and Schein. So we should not be surprised at all that Hindemith pays frequent though not always obvious homage to earlier music in his work.
Homage to the early French chanson is very much evident in the Six Chansons, settings of verse by Rainer Maria Rilke. Here is Hindemith's unmistakable harmonic language and syntax adapted to the most gracefully inflected and text-sensitive vocal declamation that can be found in his work for chorus. The unique liquid and soft sound of the French language, the pastoral subject matter, the very French-like curve of the melodic line, the seductive harmony -- all are conscious, carefully considered components of a reflection of a French style of song. Janequin and even Fauré are possible inspirations for these gentle, lovely works.
Remarkable contrast to this a cappella calm is the enormous sound of Apparebit Repentina Dies! Ten brass announce its arrival with a bold fortissimo flourish and then embark on a jazzy asymmetric romp to launch the chorus, equally fortissimo, from within a brilliant, pealing A-flat major chord -- what a riveting way to begin! The text is a medieval precursor to the later and more familiar Dies Irae, a vivid picture of and Christ as avenger of sin and wrongdoing. Taking much of its substance from a paraphrase of Matthew XXV:31-46, it was probably written between 400 and 700 A.D., and appears in the Oxford Book of Mediæval Verse. Also an ingenious acrostic, it is written in couplets beginning with successive letters of the 23-character Latin alphabet.
Apparebit Repentina Dies is set in four movements. The first ominously warns of the dire consequences of the Day of Judgment. The second in recitative style frames a dialogue in which the great Judge separates the righteous from the unrighteous. The beginning of the third movement tells of the unjust being swept back into hellfire, and the baying of Cerberus at Hell's gates is clearly limned by the four French horns. And at the only moment so far when possible redemption for the faithful is suggested, Hindemith employs one of his most memorable melodies in an arching passacaglia which radiates from the brass through the chorus, leading ultimately to a jubilant E-flat major conclusion. The brief final movement owes its form to the chorale so favored by J. S. Bach. With this ingeniously harmonized finale, once again Hindemith pays homage to his past.
The music of Andrea Gabrieli languishes virtually unperformed in the shade of his nephew's better-known and flashier compositions. This is unfortunate because Andrea's importance in the development of the Venetian school of music was significant. He was the first musician of importance in Venice to show a style of his own, separate from the then dominant Netherlands style, and his teaching extended this new style into Germany and also profoundly influenced Giovanni Gabrieli and ultimately Monteverdi. His output was prodigious, but it was only after Giovanni's efforts to publish his uncle's works that many of Andrea's compositions became known outside of Venice. Indeed, much of each Gabrieli's music was mistakenly attributed to the other for several years due to the simultaneous publication of both composers' works.
Both the Ricercare and the communion motet O Sacrum Convivium demonstrate a style that hearkens more to its past than the future. But the craftsmanship is expert, the style appropriately reverent and chaste, yet the varied textures of both works underline the exceptional versatility for which Andrea is admired.
It has been traditional for brass to play the Canzonas and Sonatas of Giovanni Gabrieli, though recent scholarship has revealed that other winds, even strings, were also employed in the performance of these works in the composer's time. There is no denying the brilliant festivity of the sound of modern brass in these works, though when played by early instruments the overall volume and timbre are wholly different. Our performances tonight employ contemporary instruments, though all the players are well-versed in appropriate technique and have agreed to play in a light, agile style to more accurately echo a sound the composer might recognize.
Canzon in 16th Century Italy indicated a short instrumental work with dancelike components, often with swings from triple to duple meter. This is indeed what we have in the two works offered from the 1608 publication in Venice of a collection of works by Giovanni Gabrieli and others. Exuberant, joyful, spiky -- these short works clearly illustrate the stylistic difference between Andrea and Giovanni, the latter much more extrovert and daring. The famous Sonata Pian' e Forte is best known for its dialogue between two choirs of instruments and its clear indication of contrasting dynamics for each group. Though not the first work to mark volume of sound in this fashion, this specific composition is often rightly singled out as evidence of Giovanni's pathbreaking role.
But it is his exploitation of antiphonal cori spezzati for voices as well as instruments for which he is best known. Deus Qui Beatum Marcum, set for ten independent voices divided equally five and five, is a particularly felicitous example. Each choir echoes and often further develops the music just sung by its counterpart. This technique was especially effective in the generous acoustics of San Marco in Venice, where the choir lofts are elevated and spaced widely left to right. The text of this motet is the Collect for St. Mark's, and acts tonight as our homage to the two Gabrielis who in succession held the post of Maestro di Cappella at that venerable church where music played so important a role for so long.
It's also fitting that the last work we perform this evening was directly inspired by Giovanni Gabrieli. The festive Psalm 150 -- Alleluia, Lobet den Herren by Heinrich Schütz is one of his several Psalmen Davids, a 1619 collection of multiple choir works which clearly show the extraordinary influence of his revered teacher. A wonderful exploration of the cori spezzati technique, Psalm 150 also demonstrates just how much further the greatly talented young Schütz could take what he learned in Venice, adding vivid word painting and thrilling harmonic excursions such as heard when the text summons "Alles" that have breath to praise the Lord.
Here, in the substance of a young and supremely talented German musician, is one of the finest flowerings of the Venetian school. And it is here where Paul Hindemith looked and found in a fellow countryman much of his inspiration 300 years later.
Copyright (c) 1996, John W. Ehrlich
