Program
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), Die deutsche Liturgie
Kyrie
Ehre sei Gott
Heilig
Giovanni Gabrieli (1553-1612), O Domine Jesu Christe
from Symphoniae sacrae I
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), Credidi
from Selva morale e spirituale
Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672), Psalm 6: Ach, Herr, straf mich nicht
from Psalmen Davids
Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612), Missa octo vocum
Kyrie
Gloria
Agnus Dei
Heinrich Schütz, Psalm 100: Jauchzet dem Herrn
from Psalmen Davids
Claudio Monteverdi, Memento
from Selva morale e spirituale
Giovanni Gabrieli, Angelus descendit
from Symphoniae sacrae I
J. S. Bach (1685-1750), Komm, Jesu, komm, BWV 229
The Artists
Scott Reimer, Guest Conductor
SOPRANO
Merina Dobson-Perry, Marni Enns, Deanna Smith, Sarah Sommer
ALTO
Kim Brown, Karla Ferguson, Dan Rochegood, Kirsten Schellenberg
TENOR
Josiah Brubacher, Aaron Hutton, Nolan Kehler, Doug Pankratz
BASS
John Anderson, Scott Braun, Kris Kornelsen, Jereme Wall
Film by Tyler Funk
Lighting by Ben Stouffer
Audio recording by Dan Donahue
Produced by Kathleen Allan
Cary Denby, rehearsal accompanist
All relevant public health protocols were followed in the making of this film.
Program Notes
St. Mark's Basilica has long been the musical, cultural, and ceremonial centre of Venice. Nicknamed the Chiesa d'oro (Church of Gold), St. Mark's continues to awe visitors with its gold mosaics, glittering domes and soaring spires. If you were attending St. Mark's on a high feast day around the turn of the seventeenth century, however, architecture might not be first thing in your mind. You might, rather, be focused on the waves of sound reverberating from balconies on either side of the altar—the harmonious efforts of separate ensembles of singers and instruments, each group accompanied by its own organ. The carefully coordinated sounds of these choirs, surrounding you on every side, would more than match the visual splendour of the basilica itself.
Venice—and St. Mark's in particular—was at this time the hot spot for a technique of composition and performance called cori spezzati, meaning broken or divided choirs. The term refers to how composers were exploring ways of playing separate groups of musicians against each other, achieving novel effects of contrast and dialogue, building up musical textures of incredible richness. We can imagine the performance of this music as being at times something of an acoustic experiment, comparable to modern techniques of “surround sound” and “stereo” recording.
The principle of call and response that underlies this music, however, was nothing new. It is an ancient feature of many musical traditions, present from the earliest days of Jewish and Christian worship. During the Middle Ages, the idea of antiphony (exchange or alternation between two bodies of musicians) was especially important in the singing of psalms, poetic texts from the Bible that have historically played a large role in Christian ritual. It is no coincidence that psalm settings account for about half of the pieces in this programme, although the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century composers represented here expanded immensely on the complexity and dramatic force of traditional psalmody.
One of the most famous practitioners of cori spezzati (or “polychoral”) technique in Venice was Giovanni Gabrieli (1553-1612). An organist at St. Mark's, Gabrieli took full advantage of the basilica's renowned musical establishment, and his influence helped to spread aspects of the Venetian style across the continent. Gabrieli's first book of Sacrae symphoniae, for instance, was published both at home in Venice (1597) and across the Alps in Nuremberg (1598). Two pieces from this collection, “O Domine Jesu Christe” and “Angelus Domine descendit,” display all the colourful sense of contrast and the rich sonority that made Gabrieli's music exciting and innovative as it swept across Europe. “O Domine Jesu Christe” juxtaposes a low and a high choir in a dialogue of extended passages and short phrases; the two choirs merge, especially at phrase endings, in lush eight-voice counterpoint. “Angelus Domine descendit,” a joyful announcement of the Resurrection, abounds in echo effects and ends with a lively series of “alleluias.”
The popularity of polychoral composition spread not only through music publication but also through music education. Gabrieli's Venice was an alluring destination in a time when apprentice musicians from all over Europe flocked to Italy to study. One such student was Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612), a native of Nuremberg. After his early training among many musical relatives, Hassler traveled to Venice in his twenties to study with Andrea Gabrieli (1533-1585), Giovanni's uncle and collaborator. Hassler continued to correspond with the younger Gabrieli upon his return to Germany; like Giovanni, he was an expert organist and a talented composer. During Hassler's illustrious career in Bavaria and Saxony, his vocal music circulated in several influential anthologies. His settings of the Catholic Mass Ordinary (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei) participate in one of the oldest genres of polyphonic music in Europe, drawing a new freshness from the tools Hassler developed during his Venetian apprenticeship. The Missa octo vocum proclaims its identity as an eight-voice polychoral work, scored for two equal choirs. Throughout, Hassler strikes a skillful balance between chordal declamation and intricate imitation between independent voices.
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) and Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) were arguably the greatest composers of their day, and they both had a close relationship with Venice's music scene. Schütz earned his spurs studying with Giovanni Gabrieli before eventually taking a post at the Saxon court in Dresden, whose extensive musical establishment he would come to direct. By the time Schütz returned to Venice in 1629, Monteverdi had become maestro di capella at St. Mark’s; the two seem to have met to discuss the latest compositional techniques.
Monteverdi's Selva morale e spirituale, a collection of spiritual music from the composer's years in Venice, was published in 1641. In the double-choir psalm settings “Memento” and “Credidi,” we see the Venetian polychoral idiom transformed into something more supple and expressive—Monteverdi, a master of the passionate madrigal and an early experimenter in opera, brings every psalm verse to life with subtle changes in texture. For all his musical ingenuity, Monteverdi rarely obscures his sacred texts, which dramatize the joyful and sustaining relationship between God and his faithful.
Selva morale e spirituale was the last of Monteverdi’s published collections to appear during his life. By contrast, the Psalmen Davids (1619) was Schütz's first major publication of sacred music. Its lavish, large-scale psalm settings are scored for up to four choirs of voices and instruments, no doubt reflecting the splendour of the Dresden court and chapel. Unlike Monteverdi's Latin-texted psalms, Schütz's settings use vernacular translations, a legacy of the last century's Reformation. Schütz is a great expert in the rhythms and accents of the German language, which he translates into music with unmatched sensitivity. The two choirs reinforce each other and enliven the texture with a sense of dialogue. The exuberant “Jauchzet dem Herren” takes this idea to an extreme; its second choir is designated “Coro riposta”—or “Eccho” chorus—and it repeats almost literally every note the first choir sings.
In their works for double chorus that bookend this program, Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) and Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) both harken back, from their own eras, to the golden age of cori spezzati. Mendelssohn was (as well as an extraordinary keyboard prodigy) a very historically conscious composer; he played a leading role, for instance, in the “Bach Revival” that saw some of Bach's works performed for the first time in decades. In the early 1840s, Mendelssohn left Leipzig (in the Bach heartland) for Berlin, the capital of newly acceded Prussian king Frederick William IV. Like his ancestor, Frederick the Great, Frederick William wanted to make Berlin a great centre for the arts. He eagerly sought out Mendelssohn's services and commissioned his Deutsche Liturgie for the Berlin Cathedral's Sunday celebrations. Mendelssohn’s music for the reformed Prussian liturgy, written for double choir a capella, is both powerful and intimate. Using clear chordal writing, expressive melodies, and touches of Baroque-style counterpoint to great effect, Mendelssohn marries a seventeenth-century sound-world with the lush harmonies and deep feeling of his own era.
The tradition that Mendelssohn evokes from a distance was for Bach still a living one. “Komm, Jesu, komm” is a double-choir motet from Bach's years in Leipzig. In Bach's day, the motet was a centuries-old but gradually evolving genre; although its popularity had waned, the motet continued to flourish in the hands of Bach's central German countrymen, especially for the accompaniment of special occasions such as weddings and funerals. “Komm, Jesu, komm” sets newly written poetry rather than biblical text, but its plea for God's helping presence is strongly biblical in character. Bach's music takes us on a dramatic journey—through different time signatures and choral textures—from desperate longing to expected fulfillment. In the final, chorale-like “Aria,” the divided choirs rejoin each other to sing in unison, a fitting conclusion to music that expresses both the poignancy of separation and the joy of reunion.
Program notes by Connor Page.
Translations
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), Die deutsche Liturgie
Kyrie
Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Ehre sei Gott
Glory to God in the highest, and, peace to his people on earth.
Lord God, heavenly King, almighty God and Father,
we worship you, we give you thanks, we praise you for your glory.
Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father, Lord God, Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world: have mercy on us;
you are seated at the right hand of the Father: receive our prayer.
For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord,
you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit,
in the glory of God the Father. Amen.
Heilig
Holy, holy, holy is God, the Lord Sabaoth!
Ev’ry nation proclaims his glorious praise.
Sing Hosanna in the heights.
O blest is he that comes in God’s holy name.
Sing Hosanna in the heights.
Giovanni Gabrieli (1553-1612), O Domine Jesu Christe
from Symphoniae sacrae I
Lord Jesus Christ,
I worship you, who was wounded on the cross
and given gall and vinegar to drink:
I pray that your wounds
may be a remedy for my soul.
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), Credidi
from Selva morale e spirituale
I am well pleased: that the Lord hath heard the voice of my prayer;
That he hath inclined his ear unto me: therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.
The snares of death compassed me round about: and the pains of hell gat hold upon me.
I shall find trouble and heaviness, and I will call upon the Name of the Lord: O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.
Gracious is the Lord, and righteous: yea, our God is merciful.
The Lord preserveth the simple: I was in misery, and he helped me.
Turn again then unto thy rest, O my soul: for the Lord hath rewarded thee.
And why? thou hast delivered my soul from death: mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
I will walk before the Lord: in the land of the living.
I believed, and therefore will I speak; but I was sore troubled: I said in my haste, All men are liars.
What reward shall I give unto the Lord: for all the benefits that he hath done unto me?
I will receive the cup of salvation: and call upon the Name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows now in the presence of all his people: right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
Behold, O Lord, how that I am thy servant: I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid;
thou hast broken my bonds in sunder.
I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving: and will call upon the Name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows unto the Lord, in the sight of all his people: in the courts of the Lord’s house, even in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord.
— Psalm 116
Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672), Psalm 6: Ach, Herr, straf mich nicht
from Psalmen Davids
O Lord, rebuke me not in thy indignation, nor chastise me in thy wrath.
Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak: heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.
And my soul is troubled exceedingly: but thou, O Lord, how long?
Turn to me, O Lord, and deliver my soul: O save me for thy mercy' s sake.
For there is no one in death, that is mindful of thee: and who shall confess to thee in hell?
I have laboured in my groanings, every night I will wash my bed:
I will water my couch with my tears.
My eye is troubled through indignation: I have grown old amongst all my enemies.
Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity:
for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping.
The Lord hath heard my supplication: the Lord hath received my prayer.
Let all my enemies be ashamed, and be very much troubled:
let them be turned back, and be ashamed very speedily.
— Psalm 6
Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612), Missa octo vocum
Kyrie
Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Gloria
Glory to God in the highest, and, peace to his people on earth.
Lord God, heavenly King, almighty God and Father,
we worship you, we give you thanks, we praise you for your glory.
Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father, Lord God, Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world: have mercy on us;
you are seated at the right hand of the Father: receive our prayer.
For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord,
you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit,
in the glory of God the Father. Amen.
Agnus Dei
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.
Heinrich Schütz, Psalm 100: Jauchzet dem Herrn
from Psalmen Davids
O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands:
serve the Lord with gladness, and come before his presence with a song.
Be ye sure that the Lord he is God; it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
O go your way into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise;
be thankful unto him, and speak good of his Name.
For the Lord is gracious, his mercy is everlasting;
and his truth endureth from generation to generation.
— Psalm 100
Claudio Monteverdi, Memento
from Selva morale e spirituale
Lord, remember David: and all his trouble;
How he sware unto the Lord: and vowed a vow unto the Almighty God of Jacob;
I will not come within the tabernacle of mine house: nor climb up into my bed;
I will not suffer mine eyes to sleep, nor mine eye-lids to slumber:
neither the temples of my head to take any rest;
Until I find out a place for the temple of the Lord: an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.
Lo, we heard of the same at Ephrata: and found it in the wood.
We will go into his tabernacle: and fall low on our knees before his footstool.
Arise, O Lord, into thy resting-place: thou, and the ark of thy strength.
Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness: and let thy saints sing with joyfulness.
For thy servant David's sake: turn not away the presence of thine Anointed.
The Lord hath made a faithful oath unto David: and he shall not shrink from it;
Of the fruit of thy body: shall I set upon thy seat.
If thy children will keep my covenant, and my testimonies that I shall learn them:
their children also shall sit upon thy seat for evermore.
For the Lord hath chosen Sion to be an habitation for himself: he hath longed for her.
This shall be my rest for ever: here will I dwell, for I have a delight therein.
I will bless her victuals with increase: and will satisfy her poor with bread.
I will deck her priests with health: and her saints shall rejoice and sing.
There shall I make the horn of David to flourish: I have ordained a lantern for mine Anointed.
As for his enemies, I shall clothe them with shame: but upon himself shall his crown flourish.
— Psalm 132
Giovanni Gabrieli, Angelus descendit
from Symphoniae sacrae I
An angel of the Lord came down from heaven, and rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. And said to the women: do not be afraid, for I know that you seek the crucified: He has risen: come and see the place where the Lord was lain. Alleluia
J. S. Bach (1685-1750), Komm, Jesu, komm, BWV 229
Come, Jesus, come
My body is weary,
My strength fails me more and more,
I am longing
For your peace ;
The bitter way is becoming too difficult for me!
Come,I shall give myself to you;
You are the right way, the truth and the life.
Therefore I put myself in your hands
And bid goodnight to the world!
If my life's course hastens onto the end,
My soul is then well-prepared.
It will rise up to be with its creator
For Jesus is and remains
The true way to life.
— Paul Thymich 1684/1697
Thank you!
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts
