Program Notes
Three Selections from The Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248
J. S. Bach
(1685 – 1750)
Music lovers are well aware of Bach’s primary employment as a composer and musician in a number of Lutheran churches. This was his primary employment, with the exception of the period in Anhalt – Cöthen, where the state church was Reformed and the sacred music he wrote was banned on theological grounds. There, his output was strictly secular. In his other, employment, he was always connected with one or more churches; being responsible for the composition of music for the Lutheran church year, as well as playing the organ and teaching. Each church service (the Lutheran Mass) had a cantata written for performance just before the sermon and the subject matter was dictated by the particular Sunday ion the church calendar. In all, Bach wrote three complete cycles of cantatas: one for each Sunday and one for each of the special festival days of the church year. This would come to over three hundred works. Today, two hundred sacred cantatas survive.
The Christmas Oratorio is not a work “created“ by the composer. Rather, it is a compilation of the six cantatas written for the season of Christmas. The individual cantatas were intended for Christmas Day, December 26 (Annunciation Day), December 27 (Adoration of the Shepherds), New Years Day (The Naming of Christ), the first Sunday of the New Year (The Journey of the Magi) and Epiphany (The Adoration of the Magi). All this is in addition to the regular cantatas performed, where the festival days did not fall on a Sunday. Christmas was a very busy time for worshipers and musicians, alike.
The text, with a Scriptural narrative taken from St. Luke and added devotional texts for arias and chorales reflects on the birth of Christ and also on the reality of His coming death. Non-Scriptural words were likely written by Bach’s collaborator Christian Friedrich Henrici (pen name Picander). Some of Henrici’s texts reveal a certain mysticism loosely associated with the Pietistic movement in the Lutheran (Evangelical) Church toward which the composer had ambivalent feelings. Nevertheless, composer and librettist worked closely and created masterpieces of devotional music that are quite coherent, even though they were never intended to be presented in a collective performance. Each selection we present begins a cantata – in this case the cantatas for Christmas Day (Jauchzet, frohlocket…/Shout and rejoice…), Annunciation Day (Und es waren Hirten…/And there were shepherds…), and Adoration Day (Herrscher des Himmels…/Ruler of Heaven). The outer works are joy-filled choruses reflecting the thankfulness of the faithful for the birth of their Savior. The Sinfonia brings to mind the Pastoral Symphony of Handel’s Messiah, but in a far richer orchestration (two flutes, two oboes d’ amore and two English Horns). Its gently rocking motion brings to mind images of the infant Jesus being rocked by His mother Mary and the miraculous peach of that special time.
Go Tell It on the Mountain
arr. John Rutter
(1945 - )
The wonderful Christmas spiritual “Go Tell It on the Mountain” is a well-known and loved musical number in holiday choral repertoire. Drawn from the rich vocal tradition of the Southern Appalachians, it is a simple and yet touching reflection on the meaning of Christmas and the joy associated with celebrations of Christ’s birth. John Rutter, a gifted composer in his own right, is also a master arranger and has created an entire collection of Christmas carols under the title “The Rutter Carols.” Each is quite individualistic in its setting and the group includes carols from many lands and cultures. In his setting of our work for this concert, he created an atmosphere that has touches of Southern folk music, the beautiful tradition of African American choral singing and the gentle simplicity of the individual reflections of the original folk melody. Moving from a simple choral setting with sparse instrumental accompaniment, he adds touches almost reminiscent of Nashville’s musical scene and then builds to a fine climax, before tapering off to a subtle, soft ending that leaves one with the feeling of being alone under a star filled sky on Christmas.
Russian Christmas Music
Alfred Reed
(1921 – 2005)
Alfred Reed was one of American more prolific composers, with a catalogue of over two hundred compositions for band, orchestra, chorus and various solo instruments. After service in an Army band during World War II, he attended Juilliard and then went to work as a staff arranger for NBC in New York. In 1953, he became director of the orchestra at Baylor University, as well as taking classes toward two degrees in music. Reed then gravitated back to the commercial world as an executive with Hansen Publications, before finally re-entering academia on the faculty of the University of Miami, where he created the first Music Business curriculum and degree program.
Originally written for band in 1944, Russian Christmas Music received its premiere in Denver, by a group of selected musicians from leading Service Bands in the area. The Juilliard Band first performed a revised version in 1948. Writing of the work in its final form, Reed says “An ancient Russian …carol (“Carol of the little Russian Children”), together with a good deal of original material and some motivic elements from the liturgical music of the Eastern Orthodox Church, forms the basis for this musical impression of Old Russia during the jubilant Christmas season….Four distinct sections may easily be recognized, originally sub-titled: children’s Carol, Antiphonal Chant, Village Song, and the closing Cathedral Chorus.”
Set for orchestra in 1995 by Dr. Clark McAlister, the arranger notes that the liturgical music of the Eastern Orthodox Church is vocal in its origin, with no instruments of any kind permitted in the Orthodox Service. So, there is a great emphasis on broad, singing musical lines. One other feature of this time is the great tradition of bell ringing in Russian churches for festal occasions. That is richly portrayed by the melodic instruments of the percussion section. Both the original score for band and this orchestration present a remarkably fine and colorful picture of Christmas as celebrated in Russia before the Revolution and a musical tradition that is sadly not very familiar to us in this country.
This composition also represents one of the few works originally written for band that has been transcribed for orchestra. The reverse is in the overwhelming majority – orchestral works transcribed for band. In the recent past, we have performed another of these “backwards” transcriptions, Suite of Old American Dances by Robert Russell Bennett.
|
