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Concerts of our 59^th Season
 

Text for this page is borrowed liberally from the referenced Web sites; visit the sites noted for more detailed information.

January 20, 2008    3:00 pm    Pasquerilla Spiritual Center                                 

Dettingen Te Deum   Handel
Gloria   Vivaldi
Te Deum   Mozart

Georg Frideric Händel (1685-1759), the son of a barber-surgeon, was appointed at 17 organist of the Calvinist Cathedral, but soon moved to Hamburg, where he played violin and harpsichord in the opera house. He spent more than three years in Florence, Rome, Naples and Venice where he had operas or other dramatic works performed and perfected his technique in setting Italian words for the human voice. In Rome he also composed Latin church music.

     In 1710, Handel was appointed Kapellmeister to the elector in Hanover, Germany, but immediately took leave to London, where his opera Rinaldo was produced in 1711. During this period, he wrote operas and music for church and court and was awarded a royal pension. It was probably in 1717 that he wrote the Water Music to serenade George I at a river party on the Thames.

     The following year he was appointed musical director for an Italian opera company organized in London under royal patronage. His Radamisto was the second opera presented and while it inaugurated a noble series over the ensuing years, public support and finances were variable and in 1728 the venture collapsed. In 1723, Handel became a naturalized British citizen. Opera remained his central interest, and he embarked on a five-year series of seasons starting in late 1729 with mixed success. This period drew from Handel, however, such operas as Orlando and two with ballet, Ariodante and Alcina, among his finest scores.

     During the rest of the 1730s Handel moved between Italian opera and the English forms, oratorio, ode and the like, unsure of his future commercially and artistically. After a journey to Dublin in 1741-2, where Messiah had its premiere (in aid of charities), he put opera behind him and for most of the remainder of his life gave oratorio performances.

     Handel died in 1759 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, recognized in England and by many in Germany as the greatest composer of his day. The wide range of expression at his command is shown not only in the operas, with their rich and varied arias, but also in the form he created, the English oratorio. He had a vivid sense of drama, but above all he had a resource and originality of invention. He and J.S. Bach are regarded as the supreme masters of the Baroque era in music.

     In 1743, the British army and its allies won a victory at Dettingen in Bavaria and Handel, at that time “Composer of the Musick to the Chapel Royal,” was commissioned to write a Te Deum for a day of thanksgiving upon the King’s return.
     The Dettingen Te Deum is not a Te Deum in the strict sense, but a grand martial panegyric. It contains eighteen short solos and choruses, mostly of a brilliant, martial character. After a brief instrumental prelude, the work opens with the triumphant, jubilant chorus with trumpets and drums written for the five parts, with a short alto solo leading to a closing fugue. “All the earth doth worship Thee” is is of the same general character and is followed by a semi-chorus in three parts, plaintive in style. The full chorus, “To Thee, Cherubin and Seraphim” is majestic in its movement and rich in harmony. The seventh number is a stirring bass solo with trumpets, and a fanfare of trumpets introduces the next four numbers, all choruses. In this group the art of fugue and counterpoint is splendidly illustrated, but never to the sacrifice of brilliant effect, which is also heightened by the trumpets in the accompaniments. An impressive bass solo, “Vouchsafe, O Lord,” intervenes, and then the trumpets sound the stately symphony to the final chorus, which begins with a long alto solo with delicate oboe accompaniment that makes an impressive effect when voices and instruments take up the phrase in a magnificent outburst of power and rich harmony, and carry it to the close.

Retrieved from the World Wide Web August 3, 2007:

Music with Ease: http://www.musicwithease.com/handel-dettingen-te-deum.html

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handel

Classical music pages: http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/handel.html. Extracted with permission from The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music edited by Stanley Sadie © Macmillan Press Ltd., London.

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678-1741), the son of a professional violinist, trained for the priesthood and was ordained in 1703 but did not continue in this profession. He was appointed maestro di violino at the Ospedale della Pietà, a Venetian girls' orphanage, a connection he maintained throughout his life, holding various positions, directing performances and supplying music.
     Vivaldi's reputation grew with his first publications: trio sonatas, violin sonatas, and especially his 12 concertos L'estro armonico. Other musicians sought him out, and in some cases, commissioned works from him. Bach transcribed five of his concertos for keyboard, and many German composers imitated his style. It is in the concerto that his chief importance lies. He was the first composer to use ritornello form regularly in fast movements, and his use of it became a model; the same is true of his three-movement plan (fast-slow-fast). His methods of securing greater thematic unity were widely copied, especially the integration of solo and ritornello material; his vigorous rhythmic patterns, his violinistic figuration and his use of sequence were also much imitated.
     Vivaldi was an enterprising orchestrator, writing several concertos for unusual combinations like viola d'amore and lute, or for ensembles including chalumeaux, clarinets, horns and other rarities. There are also many solo concertos for bassoon, cello, oboe and flute. He was also much engaged in vocal music. He wrote a quantity of sacred works, chiefly for the Pietà girls, using a vigorous style in which the influence of the concerto is often marked. He was also involved in opera and spent much time traveling to promote his works.
     By most accounts a difficult man, Vivaldi, in 1738, was forbidden entry to Ferrara ostensibly because of his refusal to say Mass and his relationship with the singer Anna Giraud, a pupil of his with whom he traveled. He died a pauper in 1741.
     The Gloria, along with the Four Seasons are the best known of Vivaldi’s work. Composed during Vivaldi's employment at the Pieta, the Gloria employs a Late Baroque style, which was common practice at the time. 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 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.
     "Gratias agimus tibi" is a broad and entirely homophonic prelude to a fugal allegro on propter magnam gloriam. The "Largo Domine Deus, Rex coelestis," a duet between solo soprano and solo violin, is followed by the joyful F major "Domine Fili unigenite" chorus in what Vivaldi and his contemporaries would have regarded as the "French style." The bold harmonies of the "Qui tollis" provide a refreshing change of tone color, 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.

Retrieved from the World Wide Web August 3, 2007:
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Vivaldi and  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_%28Vivaldi%29
Classical Music Pages http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/vivaldi.html; Extracted with permission from The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music edited by Stanley Sadie © Macmillan Press Ltd., London
Peter Carey, Royal Free Singers:  http://www.choirs.org.uk/prognotes/Vivaldi%20Gloria%20(Royal%20Free).htm

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) showed musical gifts at a very early age, composing when he was five and playing for the Bavarian elector and the Austrian empress when he was six. His father, Leopold, his first teacher, took him on numerous concert tours in Europe. A prolific composer, even in his early years Mozart wrote operas, string quartets, symphonies, masses, violin concertos, piano sonatas, and more. By the mid-1770s, he was Konzertmeister at the Prince-Archbishop's court in Salzburg.

     In 1781, Mozart moved to Vienna where he earned a living by teaching, publishing his music, playing at patrons’ houses or in public, and composing to commission. He obtained a minor court post as Kammermusicus in 1787, and the following year married Constanze Weber.
     In his early years in Vienna, Mozart built up his reputation by publishing, by playing the piano and, in 1782, by having an opera performed, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, He embarked on the composition of piano concertos so that he could appear both as composer and soloist. Later in that decade and into the next, he composed the comic operas Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte, and Die Zauberflöte.

     Mozart lived in Vienna for most of his life. Instrumental works of these years include piano sonatas, string quartets and quintets, and his last four symphonies. His final works include the Clarinet Concerto. At his death from a feverish illness whose precise nature has given rise to much speculation, he left unfinished the Requiem.
     Written in 1769, the Te Deum is one of Mozart’s last "boyhood" works, one which pays tribute to the musical traditions of Salzburg in its homophonic declamation of text, with all choristers singing the text as one, and the double fugue in the final movement, with choral sections in imitation of each other. Anchoring the first section of the piece is a distinctive opening melodic figure, heard most clearly in the sopranos and duplicated with embellishment by the violins. The bass vocal line is typically doubled throughout by the bass instrumental lines. From the section marked "Adagio," and beginning with the words "Tu ergo quae sumus," the piece adopts a more subdued tone which is maintained to the end, even through the dance-like "Allegro" which follows. The final section, beginning with the words "In te, Domine, speravi," offers a double fugue, with pairs of voices--basses and tenors, sopranos and altos--in imitation of each other. The pairs of voices then "trade" melodies while maintaining the fugal treatment. Following the fugue, a declamatory style returns and the Te Deum ends with the familiar subdominant-to-tonic (IV-I) harmonic progression so often heard on the word "Amen."

Retrieved from the World Wide Web August 2, 2007:
Classical Music Pages: http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/mozart.html. Extracted with permission from The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music edited by Stanley Sadie © Macmillan Press Ltd., London.
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart.
Dekalb Choral Guild http://dcguild.home.mindspring.com/Programs/20020420.html.

May 4, 2008    3:00 pm    Pasquerilla Spiritual Center                                 

Requiem in C Minor   Cherubini
In collaboration with the Pennsylvania Centre Orchestra

Luigi Cherubini (September 14, 1760–March 15, 1842) was an Italian composer who spent most of his working life in France. Although his music is not well known today, it was greatly admired in his time. The most significant of Cherubini's works are his operas and sacred music.

     Born in Florence, Cherubini began to learn music from his father at six years of age. By thirteen, he had composed several religious works. He studied in Bologna and Milan, and in 1784, was appointed composer to the Court. As his music began to show more originality and daring, he settled in Paris, and had major success there with his operas.

     After the turn of the century, Cherubini's popularity declined. In 1805, he was invited to write an opera in Vienna and to direct it in person. Faniska was produced the following year and was enthusiastically received, in particular, by Haydn and Beethoven. Operas written during this period brought the composer critical praise but few performances. The dedication of a church in the village of Chimay was the circumstance which changed his career. He was requested to write a mass for this occasion, and the great Mass in F was the result.

     Cherubini turned increasingly to church music, writing seven masses, two requiems, and many shorter pieces. He was appointed surintendant de la musique du roi under the restored monarchy. In 1815, the London Philharmonic Society commissioned him to write a symphony, an overture, and a composition for chorus and orchestra, the performance of which he went especially to London to conduct, and this increased his international fame.

     Cherubini's Requiem in C Minor (1816), commemorating the anniversary of the execution of King Louis XVI of France, was a huge success. The work was greatly admired by Beethoven, Schumann, and Brahms. In 1836, Cherubini wrote a Requiem in D Minor to be performed at his own funeral. It is for male choir only, as the religious authorities had criticized his use of female voices in the earlier work.

     In 1822, Cherubini became director of the Conservatoire; he completed his textbook, Cours de contrepoint et de fugue, in 1835. He came into conflict with the young Hector Berlioz and some critics maintain that Berlioz's depiction has distorted Cherubini's image with posterity--yet it must be remembered that Berlioz himself was a great admirer of much of Cherubini's music.

     The sublimity of conception, vividness, and sustained power displayed in the Mass in F, Mass in A, and his two requiems place these works among the greatest in all musical literature. Cherubini died in Paris at age 81.

Retrieved from the World Wide Web July 30, 2007:

Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Cherubini

New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia; http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03648a.htm