His Voice - Volume 5, Number 2

HIS

Volume 5 - Number 2

September 2010

VOICE From Co-Director

Richard C. Resch

e have four news items to report from The Good Shepherd Institute in this issue. First is the truly wonderful announcement that the Rev. Kantor Roger M. Goetz of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Topeka, Kansas has established an endowment that will eventually fund a Kantor Chair at Concordia Theological Seminary. Kantor Goetz has given a substantial amount to start this fund and will continue to contribute every year until the amount for the chair has been reached. Anyone wishing to contribute toward the Kantor Chair is welcome to do so at any time. You may send contributions to The Rev. Kantor Roger M. Goetz Endowment at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana.

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Goetz

Kantor Goetz has stipulated that the annual interest be used to sponsor lectures, recitals, hymn festivals, and even the purchase of large choral works. Soon you will see lectures and recitals sponsored by The Rev. Kantor Roger M. Goetz Endowment at musical events throughout the year.

The Good Shepherd Institute could not be happier about this significant, wonderfully generous gift that supports the heart of what the Institute is about. Kantor Hildebrand and I are especially heartened by this extraordinary support for the ongoing work of the Office of Kantor to which we have been called.

There will be a full article concerning this donation and the endowment, together with an interview with Kantor Goetz, in an upcoming issue of For the Life of the World.

That is when it will be announced to all, but I wanted those of you who look to The Good Shepherd Institute for support and assistance in your pastoral and musical work to have a preview here. continued on next page

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Second, it is good to report a great summer of training organists on our campus. A total of forty-four organists from all over the country attended three different levels of church music and theology instruction. We were honored to host Dr. Donald Rotermund for our new improvisation week, and he was, of course, extremely well received.

An Organist Workshop Grant has been established by the Rev. Walter and Ruth Otten. Ten of this year’s students received partial or full tuition grants from this fund. Such financial aid made all the difference for some churches and their organists, who simply could not afford the whole package. We are happy to report that the grants will be available again next summer. Contact Yohko Masaki, masakiy@ctsfw.edu, for more information. Contributions to this fund are also welcome.

Third, we wanted to let you know that the journal for our 2001 conference, “Christ’s Gifts in Liturgy: The Theology and Music of the Divine Service,” has sold out, and we have decided to make this resource available on The Good Shepherd Institute website free of charge.

Fourth, everyone attending our November conference, Sing with All the Saints in Glory: The Theology of the Christian’s Death in Rite and Song, will receive at registration a copy of a new resource that has been produced by St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne, together with The Good Shepherd Institute. This resource will be a laminated trifold filled with resources (readings, hymns, collects) for families to read, pray, and sing together in the last days and hours with their loved one. It is meant to be given by a pastor to a family together with a copy of the CD, Hymns of Comfort and Peace: Hearing God’s Promises in Times of Need. This hot-off-the-press resource is just one of many that will be made available from our presenters and our bookstore in November as we gather around this timeless topic, one that touches all of us at some point. We look forward to seeing you in November.

HIS Voice • September 2010

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Recommended

PASTORAL RESOURCES

by JOHN PLESS

Hughes Oliphant Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Church, Volume 7: Our Own Time

Urbanus Rhegius, Preaching the Reformation: The Homiletical Handbook of Urbanus Rhegius,

With this volume, Hughes Oliphant Old, the noted Presbyterian scholar of theology and worship, brings his monumental history of preaching to a conclusion. Dealing with still living or recently deceased preachers, Old chronicles the work of mainline denominational preachers such as William Sloane Coffin Jr., Fred Craddock, and William Willimon. Notably absent are Eugene Peterson, Thomas Long, and David Buttrick. Chapters are included on African and Asian preaching. Billy Graham is appropriately allotted a chapter of his own. The “New Breed” Presbyterian preachers (Calvin Thielman, Earl Palmer, John Huffman, etc.) get a chapter. Lacking is a treatment of significant contemporary American Lutheran preachers such as Richard Lischer, Gerhard Forde, Herman Stuempfle, or Oswald Hoffmann. Chapters are devoted to the preachers of liberation theology, American Catholic preaching since Vatican II, Black preaching, charismatic preaching, megachurch preaching, and contemporary British preaching. Absent is a consideration of continental European preaching such as that of Ernst Käsemann or the homiletics of Rudolf Bohren. While his history is selective, Old has listened to, read, and thoughtfully and sympathetically commented on a great array of sermons and preachers. _______________________________________

Urbanus Rhegius (1489–1541) was a Lutheran pastor first in Augsburg and then superintendent in Lüneburg, where he wrote this handbook on preaching for young pastors so that they might “learn to speak carefully” about various articles of the Christian faith. Rhegius is a model for coherent and precise evangelical speaking. _______________________________________

(Eerdmans, 2010), 714 pp. ISBN 978-0-8028-1771-6. [$45.00]

HIS Voice • September 2010

trans. and ed. Scott Hendrix (Marquette University Press, 2003), 120 pp. ISBN 0-87462-707-9. [$15.00]

Johann Spangenberg, A Booklet of Comfort for the Sick, & On the Christian Knight,

trans. and ed. Robert Kolb (Marquette University Press, 2007), 149 pp. ISBN 978-0-87462-710-7. [$20.00]

Published in the late 1540s by Luther’s friend and coworker Johann Spangenberg, this popular devotional piece portrays the believer as a “Christian knight” struggling against the devil, human desires, and the world. In this work the consolation of the forgiveness of sins in Christ is front and center. Here we see how the Wittenberg theology was lived out in life and death. This is an excellent example of Reformation pastoral care for the sick and the dying. _______________________________________

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Recommended

PASTORAL RESOURCES William W. Schumacher, Who Do I Say That You Are? Anthropology and the Theology of Theosis in the Finnish School of Tuomo Mannermaa

(Wipf and Stock, 2010), 203 pp.

ISBN 978-1-60608-320-8. [$24.00]

William W. Schumacher examines key writings produced by Tuomo Mannermaa and his colleagues at the University of Helsinki, who propose that traditional interpretations of Luther’s teaching of justification as a forensic declaration are inadequate.

Instead the Finns argue that Luther taught that the Christ who is present in faith dwells in the believer joining him/her to the essential righteousness of God. Thus, Luther is said to express an understanding of salvation that parallels Eastern Orthodoxy’s concept of theosis. Schumacher provides a careful description of the basic tenets of the approach along with insightful and balanced critique. The major aim of Schumacher’s work is to examine and assess the place of anthropology in this school of Luther research. Given the foundational character of anthropology to pastoral care, Who Do I Say That You Are? will be helpful for pastors in thinking about how the biblical/Lutheran teaching of the doctrine of man shapes our approach to preaching, liturgy, and the care of souls. _______________________________________

continued

Thomas M. Winger, “The Mandated Element of Wine,”

Lutheran Theological Review 21 (2008–2009): 9–14.

This is an article I will be using in my Pastoral Theology course, as the practice of substituting grape juice for dominically mandated wine has become all too common among some Lutherans.

Written at the request of the East District Pastoral Conference of the Lutheran Church-Canada, this short essay provides an exegetical confessional rationale for not altering the institution of Christ and thus losing the certainty of His promise. _______________________________________

John T. Pless, “Can We Participate Liturgically in the Atonement?”

Logia 19 (Eastertide 2010): 39–47.

Presented in June 2008 at a conference on the theology of Christian worship at Luther Seminary, Saint Paul, this article assesses the language of participation and representation in contemporary liturgical and ecumenical theology, concluding that this conceptuality does not do justice to Luther’s rich exposition of the Lord’s Supper as testament. _______________________________________

Oliver K. Olson, “Adiaphora, Mandata, Damnabilia,”

Lutheran Forum 44 (Spring 2010): 22–25.

Tracing the history of the slippery term adiaphora, Oliver K. Olson demonstrates that a discussion of adiaphora cannot be divorced from mandata and damnabilia, that which the Lord mandates or institutes and that which is condemned. Mandated is receiving the Lord’s forgiveness in the way that He gives it. Condemned is turning His testament into a work that we do. Olson points to ways in which contemporary Lutherans have neglected this distinction. _______________________________________

HIS Voice • September 2010

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Recommended

PASTORAL RESOURCES

continued

Hermann Sasse, “Mary and the Pope: Remarks on the Dogma of the Assumption of Mary,”

Austra Reinis, Reforming the Art of Dying: The ars moriendi in the German Reformation (1519–1528)

Originally written as one of his “letters to Lutheran pastors” in February 1951, Hermann Sasse rehearses the dogmatic and liturgical history that led to the papal decision of 1 November 1950 to assert the bodily assumption of Mary. Along the way, Sasse has much to say about a proper evangelical understanding of Mary. _______________________________________

If modern North American Christianity has its books with titles like The Purpose Driven Life, then medieval Christians had a genre of literature that might be entitled “the purpose driven death.” Austra Reinis, a professor of religious studies at Missouri State University, shows how the Reformation also reformed the image of death and practices of preparation for dying. The ars moriendi literature is replaced by preaching and handbooks of Christian consolation. The uncertainty of salvation in the face of death is replaced with a confident Christian hope grounded in the Gospel. _______________________________________

trans. Matthew Harrison, Logia 19 (Holy Trinity, 2010): 5–13.

Reinhard Slenczka, Ziel und Ende: Einweisung in die christliche Endzeiterwartung: “Der Herr ist nahe!”

(Freimund-Verlag, 2008), 520 pp. ISBN 978-386540-054-3.

[EUR 39,80]

This is a carefully executed presentation of eschatology drawing together exegetical investigations, historical sensitivity, systematic presentation, and profound insights for pastoral care of the dying and grieving. Receiving Holy Scripture as the Word of the Triune God, Reinhard Slenczka presents the biblical teaching of the last things— death, judgment, heaven and hell, demonstrating a wide-ranging familiarity with other theologians ancient and modern. Philosophical theories of time, history, death, and eternity are engaged. Substantial space is given to sermons from Luther on death.

Liturgical and doxological treatments of eschatology are included. A chapter is devoted to the examination and critique of significant contemporary theologians who have contributed to the discussion of eschatology: Ulrich Asendorf, Peter Brunner, Paul Althaus, Jürgen Moltmann, Hans Schwarz, and Gerhard Sauter, to name a few.

Alternative approaches to eschatology such as occultism, reincarnation, and spiritualism are treated. Slenczka demonstrates how the Christian hope of the resurrection of the body gives form and content to the care of souls. This is a systematic theology that doubles as a handbook for pastoral care. It should be translated into English. _______________________________________ HIS Voice • September 2010

(Ashgate, 2007), 290 pp. ISBN 978-0-7546-5439-1. [$114.95]

Martin Lohrman, “Bugenhagen’s Pastoral Care of Martin Luther,”

Lutheran Quarterly 24 (Summer 2010): 125–36.

Johannes Bugenhagen, also called Dr. Pomeranus, was Luther’s pastor at Wittenberg. He used the evangelical theology he had learned from Luther to admonish and comfort the reformer himself.

Bugenhagen was with Luther when he died in 1546, but he was also at his bedside in the summer of 1527 when Luther experienced severe illness coupled with spiritual affliction. It appeared that Luther would soon die, leaving behind a pregnant wife and an unfinished Reformation. This article rehearses the pastoral care given by Pastor Bugenhagen, drawing on his letters from the summer and autumn of 1527, which also recount Luther’s personal confession and prayers. _______________________________________

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PASTORAL RESOURCES Oswald Bayer, “Theology as Askesis: On Struggling Faith,” in Gudstankens aktualitet,

ed. Else Marie Wiberg Pedersen, Bo Kristian Holm, and Anders-Christian Jacobsen (Forlaget ANIS, 2010), 35–44.

Askesis means “exercise.” Oswald Bayer uses the word to denote the exercise of faith that happens in theology taken as “a first order of language.”

Askesis then has to do with what Luther identified as “the right way to study theology,” based on Psalm 119 as oratio, meditatio, tentatio. In contrast to Friedrich Schleiermacher, who viewed prayer as pure submission and resignation, Luther sees the prayer of the true theologian as the voice of faith that is evoked when the work of God is suffered in one’s life. Along the way, Bayer points out how some contemporary forms of Protestant spirituality (i.e., Taizé) have embraced the basic pattern abandoned by Luther. For Bayer, the radical passivity of faith does not stand in contradiction to the fact that faith is to be exercised, trained, and practiced. Unlike Schleiermacher, who conceived of the Bible as “a mausoleum of religion,” Bayer sees the Holy Scripture as the “breathing space” of the Holy Spirit. “The exegesis of the Holy Scripture cannot want to contradict their inspiration” (49). Hence Bayer is critical of attempts to pit the living Word of preaching against the written Word of Holy Scripture. This chapter is an excellent supplement to Bayer’s Theology the Lutheran Way, a book read by our first-year seminarians. I will use this chapter as a substantial introduction to the pastor’s devotional life. _______________________________________

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Ashgate www.ashgate.com

Eerdmans www.eerdmans.com Forlaget ANIS www.anis.dk

Freimund-Verlag www.freimund-verlag.de

Marquette University Press www.marquette.edu/mupress/ Wipf and Stock www.wipfandstock.com

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Recommended

ORGAN MUSIC

by KEVIN HILDEBRAND

Partita on “Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart”

Awake, My Heart, with Gladness: Three Variants for Organ and Trumpet

This is a welcome—and needed—collection of settings for a hymn that should be known and sung by every congregation. The appropriately titled “Reflection” and the “Trio” movements are appropriate for organists of at least moderate ability.

The more active “Toccata” is idiomatic, with broken chords in the manuals accompanying the broad cantus firmus in the pedal. The accompaniment fits well within most players’ hands, although some listeners may wish for more harmonic variety in the “Toccata.” Most organists could work up at least one movement for this fall’s observance of All Saints’ Day, and then continue to use this collection for funerals as well. _______________________________________

This collection includes three different treatments of this Johann Crüger tune: a stately, joyful introduction, a reflective meditation, and a graceful conclusion (with ample dotted rhythms and triplets).

Both organ and trumpet parts are distinct and wellcrafted. The musical texture is mostly a trio style rather than a chordal accompaniment. A solid trumpeter is a must, although the range is accessible, with few notes above the staff. _______________________________________

J. Wayne Kerr CPH 97-7373, $12.00

Hymn Inventions: 9 Chorale Preludes for the Church Year, Volume 3

Sam Eatherton CPH 97-7365, $17.00

Sam Eatherton, minister of music at Zion Lutheran, Dallas, also includes a setting of HERZLICH LIEB in his third volume of Hymn Inventions. Eatherton’s writing includes a good deal of harmonic and rhythmic interest, often with useful and engaging chord progressions and meter changes. His setting of “Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart” places the hymn tune in the tenor range, with a rhythmic countermelody above and a walking pedal line beneath. Each setting in the collection is unique and well-crafted, especially “Sing with All the Saints in Glory,” which is given a refreshingly tender treatment. _______________________________________

Raymond H. Haan CPH 97-7357, $9.00

Treasures of the Singing Church: Organ Literature for the Liturgical Year, Volumes 1 and 2

Edited by Henry V. Gerike CPH 97-7338 and 97-7395, $40.00 each volume

This two-volume set is a compendium of twenty-one Lutheran chorales, in a variety of compositional styles, similar to the classic collection 80 Chorale Preludes: German Masters of the 17th and 18th Centuries, edited by Hermann Keller and published

by C. F. Peters. Some are historic settings from the eighteenth century (Johann Michael Bach, Georg Friedrich Kauffmann, Johann Pachelbel, Georg Philipp Telemann, Johann Gottfried Walther), nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Max Reger), and some are newly composed settings by twenty-first-century composers, written expressly for this collection: Jeffrey Blersch, Kevin Hildebrand, Stephen P. Johnson, Christopher Loemker, Matthew Machemer, Donald Rotermund, Ralph Schultz, and Dennis Zimmer. Even if you have some of these settings in other volumes, it is useful to have a wide variety of well-written compositions under one cover (or in this case, two covers). _______________________________________

Be Still My Soul: HIS Voice • September 2010

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Recommended

ORGAN MUSIC Jonathan Kohrs CPH 97-7362, $18.00

11 Hymn Tune Preludes

Jonathan Kohrs, assistant professor of music at Concordia University, Chicago, provides interesting and accessible writing in his collection Be Still My Soul. A couple of notable items about this collection: First, most of the settings are for manuals only, or with very limited pedal, making this collection ideal for novice organists. Second, many of the tunes represented in this collection have few—if any—settings in print (e.g., FINLANDIA, MOVILLE, MÜDE BIN ICH, WEIL ICH JESU SCHÄFLEIN BIN). Kohrs shows that simple writing need not be simplistic. The setting of MÜDE BIN ICH is illustrative: an exceedingly simple tune is placed in the alto voice, with an interesting counterpoint above it, and rich harmony supporting it. Note to organ instructors: consider this volume for your beginning students. _______________________________________

Six Hymn Preludes for Lent and Holy Week Philip Gehring CPH 97-7359, $13.00

A wealth of variety is found in Philip Gehring’s Six Hymn Preludes for Lent and Holy Week. From the masterful combination of CHRISTE, DU LAMM GOTTES set on top of the motive from the “Agnus Dei” of Bach’s Mass in B Minor, to the wonderfully dissonant “Jesus, I Will Ponder Now,” to the four variations on NEW MALDEN (a new tune to many, found at Lutheran Service Book 446 and 511), this collection is expertly crafted and eminently practical. _______________________________________

HIS Voice • September 2010

continued Notes of Praise for Organ and Optional Instrument Benjamin Culli CPH 97-7356, $17.00

Benjamin Culli’s Notes of Praise serves a dual purpose: these festive hymn settings can be played by organ only (with a solo trumpet stop), or with organ accompanying a solo instrument (parts for C and B-flat instruments are included). Well-known tunes, such as ENGELBERG (with a sparkling trio movement), LOBE DEN HERREN, NUN DANKET ALLE GOTT, OLD HUNDREDTH, and THE ASH GROVE are included. Organ parts are of moderate difficulty, and instrumental parts are ideal for a skilled student. _______________________________________ Lynn Trapp MorningStar Music MSM-10-641, $11.00

Five Liturgical Pieces for Organ This collection sets historic plainsong melodies to useful and interesting harmonizations. Of particular interest are the settings of DIVINUM MYSTERIUM (“Of the Father’s Love Begotten”) and O FILII ET FILLIAE (“O Sons and Daughters of the King”). Both of these settings place the chant melody primarily in the pedal. However, most of the writing has the hands holding a chord or chord cluster above the busier pedal line, making the work easier for the player. Organists can prepare “Of the Father’s Love” for Christmas, and then return to the book for the Second Sunday of Easter, when “O Sons and Daughters” is the hymn of the day. Of course, other plainsong tunes are also included and would be useful as seasonal service music. _______________________________________

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Recommended

ORGAN MUSIC Marilyn Mason Music Library, Volume 5

MorningStar Music MSM-10-994, $26.00

This ongoing series of pieces commissioned by the renowned University of Michigan organ teacher includes the Triptych on Sine Nomine by Alfred V. Fedak and a set of Canonic Variations on Slane by Larry Visser, both of which would be useful for most organists. The setting of SINE NOMINE includes an elegiac “Prelude,” a solemn “Cortege,” and a delightful “Finale” (set in the style of a jig fugue).

Fair warning: the variations on SLANE are best suited to organists of moderate ability or better.

Some aggressive and active settings, and adventurous keys (E-flat minor!) are included. The closing “Toccata” is a tour de force with a brilliant conclusion. _______________________________________

continued Light on Your Feet, Volume 3: A Collection for Organ with Minimal Pedal

Wayne L. Wold Augsburg Fortress 9780806698021, $25.00

A recurring inquiry at our beginning organist workshops at Concordia Theological Seminary is for accessible repertoire, especially for organists who are just starting to use pedals. Light on Your Feet, Volume 3, by Wayne L. Wold, is a good example of such repertoire. This collection includes tunes from throughout the church year, so organists will find it useful in any season. _______________________________________

Augsburg Fortress www.augsburgfortress.org

Concordia Publishing House www.cph.org

MorningStar Music Publishers www.morningstarmusic.com

HIS Voice • September 2010

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Recommended

READING AND LISTENING READING

Paul Westermeyer, “Paul Manz and the Promised Life,” Lutheran Forum 44 (Spring 2010): 27–28.

As Paul Westermeyer reflects on the life and work of Paul Manz (May 10, 1919–October 28, 2009), he provides much food for thought concerning the vocation of the Lutheran Kantor. Borrowing a phrase from the pastor who preached at Manz’s funeral, Westermeyer reminds us that the Kantor is to be about “helping us see [the] promised life in Christ.” He expands on this point in the following way: “Manz challenges us to use our talents, whatever they may be. If we are about the promised life in Christ, there is no place for shoddy craft and ill-prepared trivia. There is no reason that any church, small or large, should put up with it. The promise will not allow it. Our talents everywhere are ample enough to do what they can do. Manz’s life does not suggest we do what he did. It beckons to us to do what we are called to do, with our own talents and abilities in the places where we live and work” (28). Don’t miss this succinct reflection on what it means for the Lutheran Kantor to pursue his or her vocation. _______________________________________

HIS Voice • September 2010

by DANIEL ZAGER

William Weedon, “The Forgotten Church Liturgy of 1881,” Lutheran Forum 44 (Summer 2010): 20–21.

William Weedon, Pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church (LCMS) in Hamel, Illinois, explores an 1881 volume entitled: Church Liturgy for Evangelical Lutheran Congregations of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession, Published by the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States. Translated from the German. This volume “was the work of August Crull (1845–1923), whom C. F. W. Walther had charged to bring the core German hymns and liturgical treasures of the Lutheran church into the English language” (20). Walther served as president of the LCMS from 1847–1850 and from 1864–1878. Still today we sometimes read the mistaken notion that Walther had no use for the English language in Lutheran worship of his time.

Pointing to this 1881 published English-language liturgy, Weedon observes: “This explodes the myth that the early Synod had no interest in work among English speakers. Quite the contrary!” (20).

Moreover, Weedon points out that “The pedigree of Church Liturgy is largely that of the Herzog Heinrich Agenda of Ducal Saxony (1539).” Thus, not only did the LCMS provide for English speakers, it did so by returning to the roots of the rich Lutheran liturgical heritage, thereby retaining a distinctly Lutheran identity even when reaching out to those who might have been unfamiliar with Lutheran worship—surely a pattern worth emulating today as the church continues its work of preaching the Gospel in various languages, to people in varied circumstances. _______________________________________

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Recommended

READING AND LISTENING Kate Hope Kennedy, “The Angelic Hymn as Prophetic Vision in Luther’s German Sanctus,” Lutheran Forum 44 (Summer 2010): 22–24.

Kate Hope Kennedy, a doctoral candidate in musicology at Princeton University, provides insightful commentary on Luther’s German Sanctus, the hymn we sing as “Isaiah, Mighty Seer, in Days of Old” (LSB 960). Published in the Deutsche Messe of 1526, Luther’s German Sanctus was written not for a choir but for congregational singing. Kennedy points out how very innovative was Luther’s setting of the Sanctus, being syllabic, metrical, and rhymed. Read this brief article and recall again the enormous skill of Luther as he provided well-crafted poetry and music for the earliest congregational hymns of the young Lutheran church. _______________________________________

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LISTENING

Heinrich Schütz, Musikalische Exequien; Buβpsalmen

(Weser-Renaissance Bremen, Manfred Cordes) [2010, cpo 777 410-2]

In a fortuitous connection with the theme of this year’s GSI conference, this recent recording, by the Bremen-based early music ensemble WeserRenaissance, presents one of the great monuments of Lutheran funeral music, Heinrich Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien (1636). The word “Exequien” refers to funeral rites (“exequies”; exsequi = “to accompany out”). This work was composed by Schütz for the funeral of Heinrich Posthumus von Reuβ, a Thuringian ruler who had carefully chosen biblical verses and chorale texts that he stipulated were to be set to music for his funeral (these verses were also engraved on his casket). His widow commissioned Schütz to compose the music. From the standpoint of orthodox Lutheran theology, the text is a rich repository of Christian hope. The challenge for the composer was to transform what could be a miscellany of brief scriptural passages and selected chorale verses into a coherent whole. That Schütz succeeded brilliantly is no surprise; indeed, he thrived on such textual challenges.

The Musikalische Exequien is a lengthy work (about thirty minutes long in performance) in three sections.

The first, and by far the longest, consists in this alternation of biblical passages and chorale verses.

The second section is an eight-part setting of the text “Herr, wenn ich nur dich habe” (Ps 73:25–26). The concluding section is particularly fascinating—a setting of the German Nunc dimittis sung by one choir, overlaid by a second choir (SSB trio) “placed at a distance” and singing the text “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord” (Rv 14:13).

This music is Schütz at his best, gloriously performed by Manfred Cordes and his Bremen musicians. But mostly it is a superb example of Lutheran music at its best—preaching and proclaiming the Gospel. If you don’t know the music of this Lutheran Kantor, there is no better place to start than with his Musikalische Exequien. _______________________________________ HIS Voice • September 2010

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Recommended

READING AND LISTENING Johann Sebastian Bach, Mass in B Minor

(Dunedin Consort and Players, John Butt) [2010, Linn Records CKD 354]

Yet another recording of the monumental Mass in B Minor, this one is distinguished not only by the sheer musicality and skill of the performers, but also by the fact that they are the first to record this work from Joshua Rifkin’s 2006 edition (published by Breitkopf und Härtel). Rifkin rocked the musical establishment in 1981 by his hypothesis that the choruses in this work would have been performed with only the principal singer (“concertist”) on each part. Vocal doubling by additional singers (“ripienists”) is occasionally specified by Bach in surviving parts or demanded by the scoring, and vocal doubling certainly might have been more widely employed based on individual performance circumstances. But Rifkin’s revolutionary hypothesis, supported by a thorough study of existing sources, pointed to the very real historical possibility of one-singer-to-a-part for some of Bach’s choruses.

Butt’s performance of the Mass dispels any preconceived notions that a performance with diminished vocal resources will somehow sound anemic. This is a superb performance with plenty of vocal sound, with enormous vitality and energy. It has become my favorite of the currently available recorded performances of the B-Minor Mass. (The best explication of Rifkin’s one-singer-to-a-part theory is to be found in Andrew Parrott, The Essential Bach Choir [Boydell Press, 2000]. For a brief, more recent assessment, see Robert L. Marshall, “Belated Thoughts on Bach’s Chorus,” Early Music America 15 [Winter 2009]: 24–28). _______________________________________

HIS Voice • September 2010

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(Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki) [2009, BIS SACD-1841]

Johann Sebastian Bach, Motets Masaaki Suzuki and his Bach Collegium Japan provide engaging performances of Bach’s motets (BWV 225–229), plus three additional works, only one of which (BWV 118) is securely attributed to Bach. While the term “motet” is normally used to designate a polyphonic vocal work without independent instrumental parts, i.e., a work that can be performed by a choir a cappella, during the eighteenth century motets were often performed with instruments and voices, and that is the approach taken by Suzuki in this recorded performance. _______________________________________ BIS www.bis.se

cpo www.cpo.de

Linn Records www.linnrecords.com

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