Count backwards from 100, Mr. Sacred Oratorio, you're about to go under the knife....
I have often seen reference to "the Christmas and Advent portions of Messiah”. This is not a particularly clear delineation, however, since the three parts of Messiah do not divide neatly into 1) Advent & Christmas, 2) Lent, and 3) Easter or any other grouping of liturgical seasons. The common practice, of course, when not performing the complete Messiah at Christmas, is to do Part One, plus the Hallelujah Chorus. Sometimes the final "Amen" chorus is added, too.
I am programming all of Part 1 in the month of December, starting with a sizeable chunk on the Second Sunday of Advent while leaving the movements that celebrate Christmas for Christmas Eve. The question is: where shall I divide Part One? The answer is not as obvious as I expected, since I’m finding that some of that Old Testament prophecy sounds as celebratory as the New Testament’s joyful narrative. For example, “Unto us a child IS born,” and “Arise, shine, for thy Light IS come!” would both be texts appropriate for a congregation to hear during a Christmas celebration.
The solution I’m running with is to use the Old Testament texts for the Advent portion, and the New Testament for the Christmas, which places the division after "For Unto Us a Child is Born." The Pastoral Symphony and everything that follows it would be offered on Christmas Eve, everything before it during Advent.
A practical consideration: this leaves only two choruses for my choir to sing on Christmas Eve (along with two arias, four recits, and the symphony.) What if I left "For Unto Us”, with its present tense Messianic birth proclamations for Christmas Eve? If so, the Advent portion ends with the vaguely grim bass aria "The People that Walked in Darkness."
So, I think I will transplant a chorus from Part Two into “my” Advent portion: "Lift Up Your Heads." This trio with chorus is fittingly uplifting for the end of the lengthy Advent portion we’ll be extracting (in fact, the longest single chunk we will sing this year), and allows my choir to sing the closing movement. The text is also one we often hear in Advent: "Lift Up Your Heads, O ye Gates... and the King of Glory shall come in." From the Psalms, and a hymn text by Georg Weissel (1642).
This solves a practical consideration AND helps me find a home for a movement of Part Two, which (I am quickly discovering) is the hardest to plan liturgically. Finally, the crafty teacher in me is a little pleased that the congregation will hear something they are not expecting on Advent II.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
which year?
My original idea was to begin this project with the start of the new liturgical year in Advent 2008. However, there are a few choruses which I think will go on World Communion Sunday or other fall dates. I don't know if I have the patience to wait until October 2009 to do those (and thus complete the cycle.)
Liturgical Year means we will start with the first movement of Messiah, and the choir will have more rehearsal time. Using the School Year means we start sooner, with a movement other than the Overture. votes?
Liturgical Year means we will start with the first movement of Messiah, and the choir will have more rehearsal time. Using the School Year means we start sooner, with a movement other than the Overture. votes?
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
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Monday, August 18, 2008
Cast of characters
My choir is a church choir in a liberal Protestant denomination. The church is relatively small (100-150 per Sunday) and quite old (nearing 300 years.) It is located in a rather affluent suburb of a major American city. The choir is ambitious, well-supported financially, and generally pretty dedicated to its music ministry. It is facing the same issues as many church choirs; the most dedicated members, for example, are growing older. (Really, I suppose we all are growing older.) In my time here, we have picked up a few new members- but lost an equal number to "retirement" or moving away.
I am starting my fifth year as Director of Music at this church, which I do in addition to my public school teaching in another town in the area.
Our organist is an unusual figure. She has served as a church organist much of her life, and we have been pleased to have her on board for about four years. However, her primary vocation is professor of liturgy at a major university. What an asset, to have an organist who is a fount of knowledge on church history, theology, hymnody, psalmody, etc. etc. While I have worked with many professionals who have held their own in these areas, it is great fun to have an international authority on the bench.
My wife is a musician with a degree in theology. (It’s nice to know I can’t go too far wrong with two theologians looking over my shoulder.) She directs our Junior Choir and also holds down the alto and/or tenor sections in the Senior Choir when needed. She is my blog editor and co-conspirator in this project. As with much of what I conduct, this project is taking shape through extended, rambling discussion between the two of us.
Our church has been in a long interim period that will, we hope, be coming to an end this fall. This church and the denomination in general are very free of liturgical convention to begin with, so our worship has been suffering a bit without the liturgical leadership a settled pastor can help provide. My hope is that our project may be a thread of constancy in our worship while everything else is changing.
I wonder what the newly-appointed minister’s opinion will be of my Handel-heavy worship planning for the year?
I am starting my fifth year as Director of Music at this church, which I do in addition to my public school teaching in another town in the area.
Our organist is an unusual figure. She has served as a church organist much of her life, and we have been pleased to have her on board for about four years. However, her primary vocation is professor of liturgy at a major university. What an asset, to have an organist who is a fount of knowledge on church history, theology, hymnody, psalmody, etc. etc. While I have worked with many professionals who have held their own in these areas, it is great fun to have an international authority on the bench.
My wife is a musician with a degree in theology. (It’s nice to know I can’t go too far wrong with two theologians looking over my shoulder.) She directs our Junior Choir and also holds down the alto and/or tenor sections in the Senior Choir when needed. She is my blog editor and co-conspirator in this project. As with much of what I conduct, this project is taking shape through extended, rambling discussion between the two of us.
Our church has been in a long interim period that will, we hope, be coming to an end this fall. This church and the denomination in general are very free of liturgical convention to begin with, so our worship has been suffering a bit without the liturgical leadership a settled pastor can help provide. My hope is that our project may be a thread of constancy in our worship while everything else is changing.
I wonder what the newly-appointed minister’s opinion will be of my Handel-heavy worship planning for the year?
Shaw (not that one) on Messiah
George Bernard Shaw:
"Handel is a sacred institution. When his Messiah is performed, the audience stands up, as if in church, while the Hallelujah chorus is being sung. It is the nearest sensation to the elevation of the Host known to English Protestants.
... Yet in England his music is murdered by the tradition of the big chorus! People think that four thousand singers must be four thousand times as impressive as one. This is a mistake: they are not even louder.
...You can get a tremendously powerful fortissimo from twenty good singers, because you can get twenty people into what is for practical purposes the same spot... but all the efforts of the conductors to get a fortissimo from the four thousand Handel Festival choristers are in vain... the sound takes an appreciable time to travel along a battle front four thousand strong; and in rapid passages the semiquaver of the singer farthest from you does not reach you until that of the signer nearest you has passed you by."
Note that he said "conductors"- plural. Most of these huge festival performances has auxiliary conductors. Shaw also proposes making a capital offense out of performing Messiah with more than 80 musicians in total. (Quoted in The Messiah Book: The Life and Times of Handel's Greatest Hit. Peter Jacobi, St. Martin's Press, 1982)
After considering this sage advice, I have canceled the additional 3,000 voices and will stick with my hearty church choir of 16.
"Handel is a sacred institution. When his Messiah is performed, the audience stands up, as if in church, while the Hallelujah chorus is being sung. It is the nearest sensation to the elevation of the Host known to English Protestants.
... Yet in England his music is murdered by the tradition of the big chorus! People think that four thousand singers must be four thousand times as impressive as one. This is a mistake: they are not even louder.
...You can get a tremendously powerful fortissimo from twenty good singers, because you can get twenty people into what is for practical purposes the same spot... but all the efforts of the conductors to get a fortissimo from the four thousand Handel Festival choristers are in vain... the sound takes an appreciable time to travel along a battle front four thousand strong; and in rapid passages the semiquaver of the singer farthest from you does not reach you until that of the signer nearest you has passed you by."
Note that he said "conductors"- plural. Most of these huge festival performances has auxiliary conductors. Shaw also proposes making a capital offense out of performing Messiah with more than 80 musicians in total. (Quoted in The Messiah Book: The Life and Times of Handel's Greatest Hit. Peter Jacobi, St. Martin's Press, 1982)
After considering this sage advice, I have canceled the additional 3,000 voices and will stick with my hearty church choir of 16.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Buying a new recording
So, the two recordings I own having their own charms and faults, I have decided to get another performance. I do hope to hear recommendations from others- I will probably end up buying several new performances.
I decided to seek out a John Eliot Gardiner recording. While I am not a purist, I became a huge fan of JEG and the Monteverdi Choir when I obtained their recordings of the six late Haydn Masses. Robust, colorful singing with tempi that seemed just right at every turn made these Masses (previously unfamiliar to me) jump off of the page. (Someday, I hope to conduct those, too. Difficult orchestral writing, though- better not even dream of it at the high school.)
Clearly Handel and Haydn are not the same composer, but I imagine the same spirit suffuses the late post-Creation Haydn that typified his colleague from 60 years earlier.
Imagine my surprise when I saw the album artwork and realized: this is the CD Mom played in the car when I was a kid! So, that settles that: JEG gets a little more of my money.
What other recordings should I hear? Which do you admire-or, if the mood strikes you, which do you detestt?
I decided to seek out a John Eliot Gardiner recording. While I am not a purist, I became a huge fan of JEG and the Monteverdi Choir when I obtained their recordings of the six late Haydn Masses. Robust, colorful singing with tempi that seemed just right at every turn made these Masses (previously unfamiliar to me) jump off of the page. (Someday, I hope to conduct those, too. Difficult orchestral writing, though- better not even dream of it at the high school.)
Clearly Handel and Haydn are not the same composer, but I imagine the same spirit suffuses the late post-Creation Haydn that typified his colleague from 60 years earlier.
Imagine my surprise when I saw the album artwork and realized: this is the CD Mom played in the car when I was a kid! So, that settles that: JEG gets a little more of my money.
What other recordings should I hear? Which do you admire-or, if the mood strikes you, which do you detestt?
The recordings I own
As familiar with Messiah as I feel, there are only 2 recordings in my house and I don't listen to either of them with regularity. As I mentioned, I hear plenty of Messiah performed live in this area as it is. About these 'old' recordings:
The first is billed as "Handel, arr. Mozart: Messiah” Huddersfield Choral Society, BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Harry Christophers. 1997. I received this recording from BBC Music Magazine several years ago. If you are not familiar with the Mozart "edition", the trombones make quite an impression! This is particularly startling at the start of the bass aria "The People That Walked in Darkness." Hearing music so familiar but with this unexpected burst of sound reminds me of the first time I heard Robert Levin’s completion of Mozart's Requiem.
One notable performance detail in this English recording: some of the most complex choral writing is turned over to the soloists. For example, in "For Unto Us a Child is Born", the soloists begin the vocal lines, joined by the full chorus at "Wonderful... ." I had never heard such a thing before nor have I come across it anywhere else. It does add an element of structure to a chorus that may be slogged through laboriously by unpolished singers. Hearing this, I am tempted to show mercy to my own singers and spare them from those florid lines by assigning them to our soloists. I will have to do more research into this practice- is this just a Harry Christophers quirk? Or a Huddersfield tradition?
The second recording, which I gained by marriage, is by "Vienna Boys Choir, Chorus Viennensis, and the Academy of London, conducted by Peter Marschik." 1999. Yes, the world famous boys covering the treble voices, a recording my wife saw on a clearance rack and bought as a novelty. This performance has a few quite Romantic tempo changes near the end of choruses... sometimes thoughtfully reflecting the text, but often too abrupt for me.
Our favorite feature of the performance, though, is the round, resonant but slightly accented English the native German-speaking boys sing with. I use this as reinforcement when teaching my own singers about foreign languages and the subtleties of their vowels. When the brilliant-toned soprano sings "Shout! O Daughter of Jerusalem,” the first vowel in the first word is altered just enough to cause gales of laughter among high schoolers and gain a PG-13 rating. What must our Bach cantatas sound like to them?
The first is billed as "Handel, arr. Mozart: Messiah” Huddersfield Choral Society, BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Harry Christophers. 1997. I received this recording from BBC Music Magazine several years ago. If you are not familiar with the Mozart "edition", the trombones make quite an impression! This is particularly startling at the start of the bass aria "The People That Walked in Darkness." Hearing music so familiar but with this unexpected burst of sound reminds me of the first time I heard Robert Levin’s completion of Mozart's Requiem.
One notable performance detail in this English recording: some of the most complex choral writing is turned over to the soloists. For example, in "For Unto Us a Child is Born", the soloists begin the vocal lines, joined by the full chorus at "Wonderful... ." I had never heard such a thing before nor have I come across it anywhere else. It does add an element of structure to a chorus that may be slogged through laboriously by unpolished singers. Hearing this, I am tempted to show mercy to my own singers and spare them from those florid lines by assigning them to our soloists. I will have to do more research into this practice- is this just a Harry Christophers quirk? Or a Huddersfield tradition?
The second recording, which I gained by marriage, is by "Vienna Boys Choir, Chorus Viennensis, and the Academy of London, conducted by Peter Marschik." 1999. Yes, the world famous boys covering the treble voices, a recording my wife saw on a clearance rack and bought as a novelty. This performance has a few quite Romantic tempo changes near the end of choruses... sometimes thoughtfully reflecting the text, but often too abrupt for me.
Our favorite feature of the performance, though, is the round, resonant but slightly accented English the native German-speaking boys sing with. I use this as reinforcement when teaching my own singers about foreign languages and the subtleties of their vowels. When the brilliant-toned soprano sings "Shout! O Daughter of Jerusalem,” the first vowel in the first word is altered just enough to cause gales of laughter among high schoolers and gain a PG-13 rating. What must our Bach cantatas sound like to them?
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
An International Experience
I am very lucky to have entered the same profession as my mother, and to have lived abroad thanks to my father.
When I was a third grader, my family moved to Germany. (My father was in the Air Force.) We were stationed at a NATO air base- not an American air base, but an international detachment where my father flew with Germans, Norwegians, Turks, Italians, etc. etc. Soon my mom was directing music for the little Base chapel, leading the "Protestant" services. (Perhaps later I can take a detour to tell some stories about that unusual congregation: Baptists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Pentecostals, Quakers, and other Protestant Christians sharing worship together!)
Ever the ambitious programmer, mom decided one year it was time to perform the Advent/Christmas portions of Messiah. This became an annual event, and by our last December in Germany- 1989- the chorus numbered over 100 members of nearly a dozen nationalities. We performed with a Dutch orchestra from the area, and the performances were held in the large church in Geilenkirchen, Germany. That 1989 performance was recorded and broadcast by the BBC.
I unwittingly internalized most of that score while Mom listened to it in the car every day. The first time I got to sing in the performance, I was an alto, then a tenor, eventually a bass. I am grateful for that, too, as I have a greater appreciation for the inner voices, having experienced Messiah as everything except a soprano.
This was a profound musical experience, but a profound international one as well. Music as the "international language" is a terrible cliche, but this was one experience where I, even as a grade-schooler, could appreciate our common bond around Handel.
When I was a third grader, my family moved to Germany. (My father was in the Air Force.) We were stationed at a NATO air base- not an American air base, but an international detachment where my father flew with Germans, Norwegians, Turks, Italians, etc. etc. Soon my mom was directing music for the little Base chapel, leading the "Protestant" services. (Perhaps later I can take a detour to tell some stories about that unusual congregation: Baptists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Pentecostals, Quakers, and other Protestant Christians sharing worship together!)
Ever the ambitious programmer, mom decided one year it was time to perform the Advent/Christmas portions of Messiah. This became an annual event, and by our last December in Germany- 1989- the chorus numbered over 100 members of nearly a dozen nationalities. We performed with a Dutch orchestra from the area, and the performances were held in the large church in Geilenkirchen, Germany. That 1989 performance was recorded and broadcast by the BBC.
I unwittingly internalized most of that score while Mom listened to it in the car every day. The first time I got to sing in the performance, I was an alto, then a tenor, eventually a bass. I am grateful for that, too, as I have a greater appreciation for the inner voices, having experienced Messiah as everything except a soprano.
This was a profound musical experience, but a profound international one as well. Music as the "international language" is a terrible cliche, but this was one experience where I, even as a grade-schooler, could appreciate our common bond around Handel.
Which edition to use? Please weigh in...
A predictable question, with some familiar concerns.
It’s time to buy myself a score (I love this part!) Because this is Messiah, I imagine I may be using this score twenty times over the next fifty years, and I want it to be the 'best' one. That has been (maybe still is) the Watkins Shaw edition (that worn vocal score is sitting on my shelf), though I’ve heard of several others gaining favor recently. And complicating matters, the church owns the G. Schirmer vocal scores. No orchestra parts, though, which I will have to buy or borrow.
So there are many variables to consider:
Of course, our friends at choralnet.org have discussed this before:
http://choralnet.org/resources/viewResource.phtml?id=2543&category=1
If you have anything to add or declare, please do so!
It’s time to buy myself a score (I love this part!) Because this is Messiah, I imagine I may be using this score twenty times over the next fifty years, and I want it to be the 'best' one. That has been (maybe still is) the Watkins Shaw edition (that worn vocal score is sitting on my shelf), though I’ve heard of several others gaining favor recently. And complicating matters, the church owns the G. Schirmer vocal scores. No orchestra parts, though, which I will have to buy or borrow.
So there are many variables to consider:
- Any edition I buy will have to be compatible with the Schirmer vocal score.
- The style of the continuo writing is a factor- I have been warned away from Schirmer for that reason, and we will use continuo for at least some of the performances. Others, though, will require a playable reduction for organ alone.
- Of course, there are the varying orchestrations (i.e. Mozart's addition of trombones, etc.)
- Above all, is my desire to prepare and mark my score for use in the far future. I don’t want to choose an overall inferior score though it may be useful for the particular circumstances of this year’s project.
Of course, our friends at choralnet.org have discussed this before:
http://choralnet.org/resources/viewResource.phtml?id=2543&category=1
If you have anything to add or declare, please do so!
Saturday, August 9, 2008
I suppose it started when I didn't get that other job.
There was a community chorus music director opening- which I would have taken in addition to my school and church choirs- which included an annual Messiah concert. As I sent in the application, the idea of Messiah loomed large in my head. I know it well, as do most choral musicians, but have yet to conduct more than an occasional single movement, and I started to do some serious thinking about how I might approach the complete work.
When "that other job" didn't pan out, I wondered if I could program Messiah at school or at church. Not likely. We live in a Messiah-rich city, where many groups (some of them world-renowned) present the complete Messiah every December. In addition to the market saturation drawback, preparing and presenting the entire oratorio on a single occasion would be a great strain on my amateur choirs.
This project doesn't seem particularly bold or brilliant, although we've never heard of Messiah being done this way before.
Here is the plan: to present all the music from Messiah this year. Not in a concert, but in worship, and spread thematically throughout the liturgical year.
Not necessarily in a sequential way, either- we are not simply singing the three parts on three different Sundays. There will be large excerpts, of course, in Advent, on Christmas Eve, Holy Week, Easter Sunday... but there is a LOT of Messiah. 53 movements, to be exact and many liturgically unique Sundays to program. What might we sing for Pentecost? Ascension? Good Shepherd Sunday?
Neither will the orchestrations be uniform. Some will be choir with organ in reduction. Some will involve orchestral players or hired soloists- but also our resident soloists, volunteer brass, and perhaps the professional brass quintet that we are lucky to have on Christmas Eve.
Messiah- not as a concerted work, but as a yearlong journey. After all, the work is unique in this style. It is an oratorio about faith- while the movements tell a story, they aren't really driven by action. Imagine trying to make sense of this project with a work like Elijah. Or the Passions which are bound to two specific weeks of the Christian calendar.
Why blog? Well, it seems like a convenient way to document this project. And as I go through this first time of preparing, teaching, and conducting Messiah, I imagine the community of conductors may have a lot to add, or suggest, or challenge. Some of you may have brilliant ideas for linking movements to the liturgical calendar. There may be some warnings about pitfalls inherent in the score. Or recommendations of your favorite performances.
Because it is perhaps the most famous piece of choral music in the world the potential audience for this blog is very large- who doesn't know and love Messiah and want to talk about it?
When "that other job" didn't pan out, I wondered if I could program Messiah at school or at church. Not likely. We live in a Messiah-rich city, where many groups (some of them world-renowned) present the complete Messiah every December. In addition to the market saturation drawback, preparing and presenting the entire oratorio on a single occasion would be a great strain on my amateur choirs.
This project doesn't seem particularly bold or brilliant, although we've never heard of Messiah being done this way before.
Here is the plan: to present all the music from Messiah this year. Not in a concert, but in worship, and spread thematically throughout the liturgical year.
Not necessarily in a sequential way, either- we are not simply singing the three parts on three different Sundays. There will be large excerpts, of course, in Advent, on Christmas Eve, Holy Week, Easter Sunday... but there is a LOT of Messiah. 53 movements, to be exact and many liturgically unique Sundays to program. What might we sing for Pentecost? Ascension? Good Shepherd Sunday?
Neither will the orchestrations be uniform. Some will be choir with organ in reduction. Some will involve orchestral players or hired soloists- but also our resident soloists, volunteer brass, and perhaps the professional brass quintet that we are lucky to have on Christmas Eve.
Messiah- not as a concerted work, but as a yearlong journey. After all, the work is unique in this style. It is an oratorio about faith- while the movements tell a story, they aren't really driven by action. Imagine trying to make sense of this project with a work like Elijah. Or the Passions which are bound to two specific weeks of the Christian calendar.
Why blog? Well, it seems like a convenient way to document this project. And as I go through this first time of preparing, teaching, and conducting Messiah, I imagine the community of conductors may have a lot to add, or suggest, or challenge. Some of you may have brilliant ideas for linking movements to the liturgical calendar. There may be some warnings about pitfalls inherent in the score. Or recommendations of your favorite performances.
Because it is perhaps the most famous piece of choral music in the world the potential audience for this blog is very large- who doesn't know and love Messiah and want to talk about it?
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