Rehearsal Aids - Spring Term 2020
Please Note: Rehearsals have now been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and government guidance. The concert has been postponed, but we are planning to re-schedule when the situation improves. These rehearsal aids will remain online until that time.
If you wish to purchase the music for yourself, the editions you will need are:
Haydn Little Organ Mass - Bärenreiter, which can be found at
https://www.prestomusic.com/sheet-music/products/7082943--haydn-fj-missa-brevis-st-joannis-de-deo-little-organ-mass-hob-xxii-7-urtext-l
and
Vivaldi Gloria - (OUP, Classic Choral Works Series), which can be found at
www.prestomusic.com/sheet-music/products/7080811--vivaldi-gloria-in-d
Haydn Little Organ Mass - Bärenreiter, which can be found at
https://www.prestomusic.com/sheet-music/products/7082943--haydn-fj-missa-brevis-st-joannis-de-deo-little-organ-mass-hob-xxii-7-urtext-l
and
Vivaldi Gloria - (OUP, Classic Choral Works Series), which can be found at
www.prestomusic.com/sheet-music/products/7080811--vivaldi-gloria-in-d
Monteverdi (1567-1643) – Cantate Domino
Performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9yoaQWDshA
Rehearsal Tracks:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2r4xjfd28g98r8m/AACTD9CCQf4yER5pUy9CJ96-a?dl=0
Claudio Monteverdi’s long musical life encompassed both the Renaissance and the Baroque periods. He is primarily known as a prolific composer of madrigals and is credited with inventing opera as we know it today. His sacred compositions are written in an equally lively and jubilant style, in contrast to the norms of the day.
Cantate Domino appears in a collection of motets published in 1620 by one of Monteverdi’s pupils. The words are taken from Psalms 96 and 98, exhorting the listener to sing praises to God ‘with exultation’ and ‘on the merry harp’. It is typically bouncy and cheerful, punctuated with slower passages of dissonance and satisfying resolution.
O sing unto the Lord a new song, sing and praise his name: for he hath done marvellous things. Sing, rejoice, and give thanks. Sing to the harp with a psalm.
Telemann (1681-1767) – Laudate Jehovam
Performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwQOT-lqxKk
Rehearsal Tracks:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zyq4loe2h6otfcr/AAAIsq08eOzXTHY_JREghZCRa?dl=0
German Baroque composer Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) was known throughout Europe as the leading German composer and musician during his lifetime. A contemporary of J.S. Bach, Antonio Vivaldi and G.F. Handel, Telemann was a self-taught musician, composing his first opera by age twelve. Telemann wrote in many forms during his career, including cantatas, passions, oratorios, operas, chamber music, and instrumental music. He also served in several prominent music positions, including music director of the five largest churches in Hamburg for more than four decades. Psalm 117 was composed during Telemann’s last creative period in 1758.
O Praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people.
For his merciful kindness is great toward us:
and the truth of the LORD endureth for ever.
Praise ye the LORD. Alleluia!
Haydn (1732-1809) – Little Organ Mass
Performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4dP-HWlW4U
Rehearsal Tracks:
http://www.learnchoralmusic.co.uk/Haydn/Kleine-Orgelmesse/k-orgel.html
Haydn was a friend to, and inspiration for, the younger Mozart. He was responsible for the rise of the symphony and the string quartet as important musical forms, but choral music always remained central to his work.
The Missa Brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo is known as the Little Organ Mass because of the organ solo in the Benedictus movement. The eponymous John of God was a fifteenth-century Portuguese saint who founded a religious order dedicated to the care of the sick: he was patron saint of a Catholic hospital in Austria, which commissioned the work in 1775. It is a Missa Brevis because the voice parts sing different lines of the mass simultaneously, condensing it into a shorter piece.
(Translation of Mass text: http://www.kitbraz.com/tchr/hist/med/mass_ordinary_text.html)
Vivaldi (1678-1741) – Gloria
Performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu6yiS1Q3dA
Rehearsal Tracks:
http://www.cyberbass.com/Major_Works/Vivaldi_A/vivaldi_gloria.htm
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi composed this Gloria in Venice, probably in 1715, for the choir of the Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage for girls (or more probably a home, generously endowed by the girls' "anonymous" fathers, for the illegitimate daughters of Venetian noblemen and their mistresses). The Ospedale prided itself on the quality of its musical education and the excellence of its choir and orchestra. Vivaldi, a priest, music teacher and virtuoso violinist, composed many sacred works for the Ospedale, where he spent most of his career, as well as hundreds of instrumental concertos to be played by the girls’ orchestra. This, his most famous choral piece, presents the traditional Gloria from the Latin Mass in twelve varied cantata-like sections.
The wonderfully sunny nature of the Gloria, with its distinctive melodies and rhythms, is characteristic of all of Vivaldi’s music, giving it an immediate and universal appeal. The opening movement is a joyous chorus, with trumpet and oboe obligato. The extensive orchestral introduction establishes two simple motives, one of octave leaps, the orher a quicker, quaver - semiquaver figure, that function as the ritornello. The choir enters in chorale-like fashion, syllabically declaiming the text in regular rhythms, contrasting with the orchestral ritornello, which contains most of the melodic interest of the movement.
The B minor Et in terra pax is in nearly every way a contrast to the first. It is in triple rather than duple time, in a minor key, and rather slower. Its imitative and expressive chromatic texture evokes the motets of the Renaissance era, the so-called "stile antico". Laudamus te, a passionate duet for soprano and mezzo-soprano, gives us some hint of the skill of Vivaldi’s young singers.
Gratias agimus tibi is a very broad and entirely homophonic prelude to a fugal allegro on propter magnam gloriam. The Largo Domine Deus, Rex coelestis is in the form of duet between the solo soprano and the solo violin, followed by the joyful F major Domine Fili unigenite chorus in what Vivaldi and his contemporaries would have regarded as the 'French style'. It is dominated by the dotted rhythms characteristic of a French overture. Domine Deus, Agnus Dei features the alto soloist, with the chorus providing an antiphonal response, qui tollis peccata mundi, to each intercession. The bold harmonies of the following section, Qui tollis, provide a refreshing change of tone colour, and complement the intercessional alto aria, Qui sedes ad dextera Patris. The string accompaniment contains recollections of the opening movement, and prepares for the following movement, Quoniam tu solus sanctus, which takes the shape of a brief reprise of the opening movement’s broken octaves.
The powerful stile antico double fugue on Cum Sancto Spiritu that ends the work is an arrangement by Vivaldi of the ending of a Gloria per due chori composed in 1708 by an older contemporary, the now forgotten Veronese composer Giovanni Maria Ruggieri, whom Vivaldi seems to have held in high esteem, as he used a second adaptation of this piece in another, lesser-known D Major Gloria setting, RV 588.
Today Vivaldi is one of the most popular of all composers, who during his lifetime enjoyed considerable success and fortune, which he squandered through extravagance, and when he died in Vienna he was buried in a pauper’s grave. For two centuries after his death, the Gloria lay undiscovered until the late 1920s, when it was found buried among a pile of forgotten Vivaldi manuscripts. However, it was not performed until September 1939 in Siena in an edition by the composer Alfredo Casella. This was by no means an authentic edition (he described it as an "elaborazione”), as he embellished the original orchestration of trumpet, oboe, strings, and continuo, while reducing the role of the continuo, and cut sections from three movements. It was not until 1957 that the now familiar original version was published and given its first performance at the First Festival of Baroque Choral Music at Brooklyn College, NY. (Peter Carey, Royal Free Singers)
1. Gloria in excelsis Deo. (Glory to God in the highest.)
2. Et in terra pax (And on earth peace) hominibus bonae voluntatis. (to men of good will.)
3. Laudamus te, benedicimus te, (We praise thee, we bless thee,) adoramus te, glorificamus te. (we adore thee, we glorify thee.)
4. Gratias agimus tibi. (We give thanks to thee)
5. Propter magnam gloriam tuam. (for thy great glory.)
6. Domine Deus, Rex caelestis, (O Lord God, heavenly King,) Deus Pater omnipotens, (God the Father almighty.)
7. Domine Fili unigenite, (O Lord, the only-begotten Son,) Jesu Christe. (Jesus Christ.)
8. Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, (O Lord God, Lamb of God,) Filius Patris, Rex caelestis, (Son of the
Father, heavenly King,) Domine Fili unigenite, (only-begotten Son,) qui tollis peccata mundi, (who takest away the sins of the world,) miserere nobis. (have mercy upon us.)
9. Qui tollis peccata mundi, (Who takest away the sins of the world,) suscipe deprecationem nostram. (receive our prayer.)
10. Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, (Who sittest at the right hand of the Father,) miserere nobis. (have mercy upon us.)
11. Quoniam tu solus Sanctus, (For thou only art holy,) tu solus Dominus, (thou only art Lord,) tu solus Altissimus, (thou only art most high,) Jesu Christe. (Jesus Christ.)
12. Cum Sancto Spiritu, (With the Holy Spirit) in gloria Dei Patris. (in the glory of God the Father.) Amen.
Performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9yoaQWDshA
Rehearsal Tracks:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2r4xjfd28g98r8m/AACTD9CCQf4yER5pUy9CJ96-a?dl=0
Claudio Monteverdi’s long musical life encompassed both the Renaissance and the Baroque periods. He is primarily known as a prolific composer of madrigals and is credited with inventing opera as we know it today. His sacred compositions are written in an equally lively and jubilant style, in contrast to the norms of the day.
Cantate Domino appears in a collection of motets published in 1620 by one of Monteverdi’s pupils. The words are taken from Psalms 96 and 98, exhorting the listener to sing praises to God ‘with exultation’ and ‘on the merry harp’. It is typically bouncy and cheerful, punctuated with slower passages of dissonance and satisfying resolution.
O sing unto the Lord a new song, sing and praise his name: for he hath done marvellous things. Sing, rejoice, and give thanks. Sing to the harp with a psalm.
Telemann (1681-1767) – Laudate Jehovam
Performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwQOT-lqxKk
Rehearsal Tracks:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zyq4loe2h6otfcr/AAAIsq08eOzXTHY_JREghZCRa?dl=0
German Baroque composer Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) was known throughout Europe as the leading German composer and musician during his lifetime. A contemporary of J.S. Bach, Antonio Vivaldi and G.F. Handel, Telemann was a self-taught musician, composing his first opera by age twelve. Telemann wrote in many forms during his career, including cantatas, passions, oratorios, operas, chamber music, and instrumental music. He also served in several prominent music positions, including music director of the five largest churches in Hamburg for more than four decades. Psalm 117 was composed during Telemann’s last creative period in 1758.
O Praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people.
For his merciful kindness is great toward us:
and the truth of the LORD endureth for ever.
Praise ye the LORD. Alleluia!
Haydn (1732-1809) – Little Organ Mass
Performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4dP-HWlW4U
Rehearsal Tracks:
http://www.learnchoralmusic.co.uk/Haydn/Kleine-Orgelmesse/k-orgel.html
Haydn was a friend to, and inspiration for, the younger Mozart. He was responsible for the rise of the symphony and the string quartet as important musical forms, but choral music always remained central to his work.
The Missa Brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo is known as the Little Organ Mass because of the organ solo in the Benedictus movement. The eponymous John of God was a fifteenth-century Portuguese saint who founded a religious order dedicated to the care of the sick: he was patron saint of a Catholic hospital in Austria, which commissioned the work in 1775. It is a Missa Brevis because the voice parts sing different lines of the mass simultaneously, condensing it into a shorter piece.
(Translation of Mass text: http://www.kitbraz.com/tchr/hist/med/mass_ordinary_text.html)
Vivaldi (1678-1741) – Gloria
Performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu6yiS1Q3dA
Rehearsal Tracks:
http://www.cyberbass.com/Major_Works/Vivaldi_A/vivaldi_gloria.htm
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi composed this Gloria in Venice, probably in 1715, for the choir of the Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage for girls (or more probably a home, generously endowed by the girls' "anonymous" fathers, for the illegitimate daughters of Venetian noblemen and their mistresses). The Ospedale prided itself on the quality of its musical education and the excellence of its choir and orchestra. Vivaldi, a priest, music teacher and virtuoso violinist, composed many sacred works for the Ospedale, where he spent most of his career, as well as hundreds of instrumental concertos to be played by the girls’ orchestra. This, his most famous choral piece, presents the traditional Gloria from the Latin Mass in twelve varied cantata-like sections.
The wonderfully sunny nature of the Gloria, with its distinctive melodies and rhythms, is characteristic of all of Vivaldi’s music, giving it an immediate and universal appeal. The opening movement is a joyous chorus, with trumpet and oboe obligato. The extensive orchestral introduction establishes two simple motives, one of octave leaps, the orher a quicker, quaver - semiquaver figure, that function as the ritornello. The choir enters in chorale-like fashion, syllabically declaiming the text in regular rhythms, contrasting with the orchestral ritornello, which contains most of the melodic interest of the movement.
The B minor Et in terra pax is in nearly every way a contrast to the first. It is in triple rather than duple time, in a minor key, and rather slower. Its imitative and expressive chromatic texture evokes the motets of the Renaissance era, the so-called "stile antico". Laudamus te, a passionate duet for soprano and mezzo-soprano, gives us some hint of the skill of Vivaldi’s young singers.
Gratias agimus tibi is a very broad and entirely homophonic prelude to a fugal allegro on propter magnam gloriam. The Largo Domine Deus, Rex coelestis is in the form of duet between the solo soprano and the solo violin, followed by the joyful F major Domine Fili unigenite chorus in what Vivaldi and his contemporaries would have regarded as the 'French style'. It is dominated by the dotted rhythms characteristic of a French overture. Domine Deus, Agnus Dei features the alto soloist, with the chorus providing an antiphonal response, qui tollis peccata mundi, to each intercession. The bold harmonies of the following section, Qui tollis, provide a refreshing change of tone colour, and complement the intercessional alto aria, Qui sedes ad dextera Patris. The string accompaniment contains recollections of the opening movement, and prepares for the following movement, Quoniam tu solus sanctus, which takes the shape of a brief reprise of the opening movement’s broken octaves.
The powerful stile antico double fugue on Cum Sancto Spiritu that ends the work is an arrangement by Vivaldi of the ending of a Gloria per due chori composed in 1708 by an older contemporary, the now forgotten Veronese composer Giovanni Maria Ruggieri, whom Vivaldi seems to have held in high esteem, as he used a second adaptation of this piece in another, lesser-known D Major Gloria setting, RV 588.
Today Vivaldi is one of the most popular of all composers, who during his lifetime enjoyed considerable success and fortune, which he squandered through extravagance, and when he died in Vienna he was buried in a pauper’s grave. For two centuries after his death, the Gloria lay undiscovered until the late 1920s, when it was found buried among a pile of forgotten Vivaldi manuscripts. However, it was not performed until September 1939 in Siena in an edition by the composer Alfredo Casella. This was by no means an authentic edition (he described it as an "elaborazione”), as he embellished the original orchestration of trumpet, oboe, strings, and continuo, while reducing the role of the continuo, and cut sections from three movements. It was not until 1957 that the now familiar original version was published and given its first performance at the First Festival of Baroque Choral Music at Brooklyn College, NY. (Peter Carey, Royal Free Singers)
1. Gloria in excelsis Deo. (Glory to God in the highest.)
2. Et in terra pax (And on earth peace) hominibus bonae voluntatis. (to men of good will.)
3. Laudamus te, benedicimus te, (We praise thee, we bless thee,) adoramus te, glorificamus te. (we adore thee, we glorify thee.)
4. Gratias agimus tibi. (We give thanks to thee)
5. Propter magnam gloriam tuam. (for thy great glory.)
6. Domine Deus, Rex caelestis, (O Lord God, heavenly King,) Deus Pater omnipotens, (God the Father almighty.)
7. Domine Fili unigenite, (O Lord, the only-begotten Son,) Jesu Christe. (Jesus Christ.)
8. Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, (O Lord God, Lamb of God,) Filius Patris, Rex caelestis, (Son of the
Father, heavenly King,) Domine Fili unigenite, (only-begotten Son,) qui tollis peccata mundi, (who takest away the sins of the world,) miserere nobis. (have mercy upon us.)
9. Qui tollis peccata mundi, (Who takest away the sins of the world,) suscipe deprecationem nostram. (receive our prayer.)
10. Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, (Who sittest at the right hand of the Father,) miserere nobis. (have mercy upon us.)
11. Quoniam tu solus Sanctus, (For thou only art holy,) tu solus Dominus, (thou only art Lord,) tu solus Altissimus, (thou only art most high,) Jesu Christe. (Jesus Christ.)
12. Cum Sancto Spiritu, (With the Holy Spirit) in gloria Dei Patris. (in the glory of God the Father.) Amen.
