In his time Johann Sebastian Bach was considered an outstanding harpsichordist and organist, but now he is remembered as one of the great composers of the Baroque era. His work as a church musician was a primary motivator for the tremendous amount of musical material he created. GroßerHerris taken from part one of his 6-part Christmas Oratorio BWV 248 Originally written for the Christmas of 1734, this oratorio was intended to be performed on the six feast days of the Christmas season. Part I was intended to be performed on Christmas day, with the subsequent parts being performed on the following days. The voice interacts in dialogue with a piccolo trumpet which colors the delicate majesty of the event.
Großer Herr, o starker König, Liebster Heiland, o wie wenig Achtest du der Erden Pracht! Der die ganze Welt erhält, Ihre Pracht und Zier erschaffen, Muss in harten Krippen schlafen.
Great Lord, O mighty king, dearest saviour, O how little you regard earthly splendour He who maintains the whole world and created its glory and adornment must sleep in a hard crib.
(Translation by Francis Browne)
Gabriel Fauré is lauded as one of the great composers of the French melodie with more than 100 songs. His “refined and gentle” approach to music had a significant impact on modern French music. The cycle, L'HORIZON CHIMÉRIQUEwas Fauré’s final composition which he penned in 1922. He chose the text written by Jean de la ville de Mirmont, a young poet who was killed in the First World War. The role of the piano in this cycle is used to depict the mood of each distinctive piece. In all but the third piece, the accompaniment is set using rolling chordal patterns to depict flowing water, and at times, the rocking of a boat. In the third piece the texture succumbs to a simple chordal structure which paints the starkness of the moonlit night. Through the entire set the voice floats across the top of the accompaniment conveying a sense of endlessness.
La mer est infinie et mes rêves sont fous.
La mer chante au soleil en battant les falaises
Et mes rêves légers ne se sentent plus d'aise
De danser sur la mer comme des oiseaux soûls.
Le vaste mouvement des vagues les emporte,
La brise les agite et les roule en ses plis ;
Jouant dans le sillage, ils feront une escorte
Aux vaisseaux que mon cœur dans leur fuite a suivis.
Ivres d'air et de sel et brûlés par l'écume
De la mer qui console et qui lave des pleurs
Ils connaîtront le large et sa bonne amertume ;
Les goélands perdus les prendront pour des leurs.
The sea is endless and my dreams are mad.
The sea sings to the sun, lashing the cliffs,
And my flighty dreams taste only of the pleasure
Of dancing over the sea like drunken birds.
The vast motion of the waves carries them,
The breeze shakes and tumbles them in the folds; Playing in the wake, they form an escort
To the ships my heart has followed in their flight.
Wild with air and salt and scalded by the foam
Of a sea that consoles and washes tears away, They will know the ocean and its good bitterness;
Stray gulls will take them for their own.
(Translated by Shawn Thuris)
Je me suis embarqué sur un vaisseau qui danse
Et roule bord sur bord et tangue et se balance.
Mes pieds ont oublié la terre et ses chemins ; Les vagues souples m'ont appris d'autres cadences
Plus belles que le rythme las des chants humains.
À vivre parmi vous, hèlas ! avais-je une âme ?
Mes frères, j'ai souffert sur tous vos continents.
Je ne veux que la mer, je ne veux que le vent
Pour me bercer, comme un enfant, au creux des lames.
Hors du port qui n'est plus qu'une image effacée,
Les larmes du départ ne brûlent plus mes yeux.
Je ne me souviens pas de mes derniers adieux...
Ô ma peine, ma peine, où vous ai-je laissée ?
Diane, Séléné, lune de beau métal,
Qui reflète vers nous, par ta face déserte,
Dans l'immortel ennui du calme sidéral,
Le regret d'un soleil dont nous pleurons la perte.
Ô lune, je t'en veux de ta limpidité
Injurieuse au trouble vain des pauvres âmes, Et mon cœur, toujours las et toujours agité, Aspire vers la paix de ta nocturne flamme.
Vaisseaux, nous vous aurons aimés en pure perte ;
Le dernier de vous tous est parti sur la mer.
Le couchant emporta tant de voiles ouvertes
Que ce port et mon cœur sont à jamais déserts.
La mer vous a rendus à votre destinée,
Au-delà du rivage où s'arrêtent nos pas.
Nous ne pouvions garder vos âmes enchaînées ; Il vous faut des lointains que je ne connais pas
Je suis de ceux dont les désirs sont sur la terre. Le souffle qui vous grise emplit mon cœur d'effroi, Mais votre appel, au fond des soirs, me désespère, Car j'ai de grands départs inassouvis en moi.
I am embarked on a ship that dances And rolls from side to side, and pitches and sways. My feet have forgotten the land and its ways; The supple waves have taught me other cadences Lovelier than the weary rhythm of human songs.
Living among you, ah! have I a soul?
My brothers, I have suffered on all your continents. I want nothing but the sea, nothing but the wind, To rock me like a baby in the trough of the waves.
Out of port, which is no more than a faded image, The tears of leaving burn my eyes no longer. I do not remember anything of my last goodbyes... O my sadness, my sadness, where have I left you?
(Translated by Shawn Thuris)
Diana, Selena, moon of lovely metal, You reflect to us upon your desert face, In the eternal boredom of the stars' quietude, The regret of a sun whose loss we mourn.
O moon, I covet your clarity, Insult to the vain turmoil of poor souls, And my heart, ever weary and ever restless, Aspires toward the peace of your nocturnal flame.
(Translated by Shawn Thuris)
Tall ships, we loved you, never counting Gain or loss. Against the evening sky You loom into the sunset, canvas mounting. Empty we stand, forlorn, the port and I.
The sea has sped you onward to your own fate. Our feet are rooted here upon the sand. Your souls with chains we never dared to weight. You yearn for places where I'll never stand.
A landsman, I, and my desires are here. Your call at midnight leads me to despair. You thrive on winds that fill my heart with cold fear. I long for foreign shores I'll never dare.
(Translation by Faith J. Cormier)
A native of West Chester, Samuel Barber was a composer, singer, and pianist. After his graduation from Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, he dedicated his time to composing. Barber wrote this opus 45 set when he was in Italy, during a period of restlessness and personal uncertainty. This set was originally premiered by the German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. The first and last song both set reflective moods which may be a result from Barber’ s state of mind when writing the set. The second song is, to quote Barber’s words, “a funny one”. It sets the text of a Polish poet which uses metaphor to juxtapose cows and pianos. The lightheartedness of the text provides a welcome reprieve from the heavy introspection of the first and last piece.
Now have I fed and eaten up the rose
Which then she laid within my stiffcold hand. That I should ever feed upon a rose I never had believed in liveman’s land.
Only I wonder was it white or red
The flower that in the darkness my food has been. Give us, and if Thou give, thy daily bread, Deliver us from evil, Lord, Amen.
(James Joyce from the German of Gottfried Keller)
A Green Lowland of Pianos
In the evening as far as the eye can see herds of black pianos up to their knees in the mire they listen to the frogs
They gurgle in water with chords of rapture they are entranced by froggish, moonish spontaneity
After the vacation they cause scandals in a concert hall during the artistic milking suddenly they lie down like cows
Looking with indifference at the white flowers of the audience at the gesticulating of the ushers black pianos
O boundless, boundless evening. Soon the glow Of long hills on the skyline will be gone, Like clear dream country now, rich-hued by sun.
O boundless evening where the cornfields throw The scattered daylight back in an aureole. Swallows high up are singing, very small.
On every meadow glitters their swift flight, In woods of rushes and where tall masts stand In brilliant bays. Yet in ravines beyond Between the hills already nests the night.
(Christopher Middleton from the German of George Heym)
Ralph Vaughan Williams was an English composer in the first half of the 20th century. His writing was heavily influenced by his study of English folk music. One can readily sense this in his harmonic language and intuitive vocal lines. The first four songs in FiveMysticalSongsset a meditative text on the resurrection of Christ. The soloist is prominently featured throughout with the choir playing an accompaniment/dialogue role. The choir is notably absent from the 4th piece where the soloist is allowed a final meditative call. The set is concluded with the choir finally taking the primary role as the energy of the previous 4 pieces explode in a choral antiphon. The meditation of the solo songs gives way to the herald from the choir which concludes with a brilliant energetic hope.
I. Easter
Rise heart; thy Lord is risen. Sing his praise Without delays, Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise With him may'st rise; That, as his death calcined thee to dust, His life may make thee gold, and much more, Just.
Awake, my lute, and struggle for thy part With all thy art.
The cross taught all wood to resound his name Who bore the same.
His stretched sinews taught all strings, what key Is best to celebrate this most high day.
Consort both heart and lute, and twist a song
Pleasant and long:
Or since all music is but three parts vied, And multiplied; O let thy blessed Spirit bear a part, And make up our defects with his sweet art.
(George Herbert)
II. I got me flowers
I got me flowers to strew thy way; I got me boughs off many a tree: But thou wast up by break of day, And brought'st thy sweets along with thee.
The Sun arising in the East, Though he give light, and the East perfume; If they should offer to contest With thy arising, they presume.
Can there be any day but this, Though many suns to shine endeavour?
We count three hundred, but we miss: There is but one, and that one ever.
(George Herbert)
III. Love bade me welcome
Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back, Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack From my first entrance in, Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning, If I lack'd anything.
A guest, I answer'd, worthy to be here: Love said, You shall be he. I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear, I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply, Who made the eyes but I?
Truth, Lord, but I have marr'd them: let my shame Go where it doth deserve. And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame? My dear, then I will serve. You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat: So I did sit and eat.
(George Herbert)
IV. The Call
Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life: Such a Way, as gives us breath: Such a Truth, as ends all strife: Such a Life, as killeth death.
Come, My Light, my Feast, my Strength: Such a Light, as shows a feast: Such a Feast, as mends in length: Such a Strength, as makes his guest.
Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart: Such a Joy, as none can move: Such a Love, as none can part: Such a Heart, as joys in love.
(George Herbert)
V. Antiphon
Let all the world in every corner sing, My God and King!
The heavens are not too high, His praise may thither fly: My God and King!
The church with Psalms must shout. No door can keep them out: But above all, the heart Must bear the longest part.
Let all the world in every corner sing, My God and King! The earth is not too low, His praises there may grow.
Let all the world in every corner sing, My God and King!