One of the first things I learned about Baroque vocal music is that a recitative is ‘always’ followed by an aria for the same singer. (The older me, as a teacher, spent several decades preaching that the words ‘always’ and ‘never’ are hardly ever true in this kind of context!) So I was rather baffled when, on encountering Messiah for the first time during my A-level years, I noticed that early in the work the recitative for bass ‘Thus saith the Lord’ was followed by an aria for alto ‘But who may abide’.
Something old, something new, something borrowed and some completely original strokes of genius
Actually, before any of that the first thing I need to say is that if you want to come to our 70th birthday Messiah performance you really do need to get your tickets now. This is proving our fastest-selling concert ever and quite soon we will be down to ‘restricted view’ (fewer than half the performers) seats only.
Now, a few Messiah-related musings. Much is made of Handel’s having composed his most famous oratorio in only three weeks. Continue reading
Looking ahead
Well, if you missed our June 25th Taverner/Byrd/Stravinsky/Duruflé programme you missed a treat, even if we do say so ourselves. It was a programme of strong contrasts – ebullient counterpoint on the one hand and reflective chords on the other. Delivering these effectively was no mean feat, and someone was even kind enough to say that the conducting was ‘brilliant’! (Actually, when a choir is singing that well the trick is to keep out of their way by barely conducting at all.) Continue reading
Dodgy Territory
In his later life William Byrd (c1540-1623) was as involved in litigation (relating to his religious beliefs as a Catholic in an aggressively Protestant environment) as he was in music. He was also quite famous for being unusually old.
In my view Byrd was the outstanding musician of his time – a brilliant composer of keyboard music, chamber music for viol consort, solo songs, madrigals and sacred music in English and Latin. Continue reading
Mass blows in from the west
Composing a mass is a daunting task. I’ve tried. Kyrie, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei – all quite manageable, but what about all the words in the Gloria and, especially, the Credo? No wonder many contemporary composers have acknowledged the modern custom of saying these words during Christian worship and not offered a musical setting, simply describing their works (consisting of K, G, S, B & AD) as Missa Brevis.
This option, however, was not available to their Renaissance forbears Continue reading