today. The music is healing to the soul. The bells did an amazing "Comfort, Comfort" (based on the chorale), but in the middle it switched to the "Comfort, Comfort" from Messiah and then back to the chorale. This right after that very reading from Isaiah 40. And the bells weren't the only Handel. Cindi and Carlo gave us "Then shall the eyes" and "He shall feed His flock" during Distribution and that was an exact match to the message of the homily. It truly was Gaudete from start to finish today. As a bonus I got to hear the quartet practicing between services with "Es ist ein Ros" - I commented to Pr. Gleason that you just can't beat Praetorius, and he quipped back with: Unless it is with Schütz. How true!
Fr. Weedon, I got more than my fill of Praetorius at last night's concert:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.apollosfire.org/concerts/praetorius0910.html
As well as "Es ist ein Ros", they performed several selections that are on the McCreesh recording (Wir glauben all an einen Gott, Christum wir sollen loben schon, Wie schoen leuchtet, Nun lob mein seele, etc.). There was a pre-concert lecture, where the principal cornettist explained the history of the cornetto, and then gave a bit of background on Praetorius. His comments were that, like most Germans, he was in love with Italian music (really the Venetian style). While in Italy the artists were expected to improvise their ornamentation, Praetorius (in typical Teutonic regimentation) explicitly wrote down all of the musical ornaments. (We Germans love our order...) Apparently at that time trumpets were mostly used on the battlefield and the players were pretty brash, so Praetorius told them to stand outside the church and play...
The concert concluded with "In Dulci Jubilo", with singers along the side aisles and a boy soprano singing the solo lines.
The only sad part was that out of the four churches that hosted the five concerts, none were Lutheran.
Ah, the Praetorius Vespers! I'm jealous!!!
ReplyDeleteYou can always buy the album on amazon.com...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/Praetorius-Christmas-Vespers-Apollos-Fire/dp/B000HRMEDC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1260734042&sr=8-1
One more amusing thing: the program said that Praetorius was "one of the two most important Lutheran composers along with J.S. Bach". Apparently he leapfrogged Schuetz and Handel... And not even the second most important after Bach, but "one of the two"...
I've got it on the iPod already! :)
ReplyDeleteThat's REALLY funny. One of the two most important Lutheran composers!!!
It's funny that whenver Lutheran church music is brought up, you will always hear about Bach (no-brainer), occasionally snipets on Schuetz and Praetorius, and then and again, Handel is brought into the mix.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the forgotten Lutheran composers and I'm not talking about hymnwriters like Cruger or Neander but grand composers? In the early Baroque, both Hassler and Schein are overlooked and in the late baroque, Buxtehude, but more importantly, Georg Philip Telemann is never, never given his due. Sure he's not as popular today as Bach is, but in his own day, he got every job Bach wanted; and I don't think it was because people back then had no taste or appreciation of talent. Telemann was maybe not as proficient or as adventurous as Bach, but I still shudder when I hear his Magnificat in C.
Chris, I am so with you on Telemann and am most surprised at how he is overlooked.
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