Music Teacher May 20151

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Hugh Benham has written extensively on John Taverner (d1545) and other Latin church music in England from c1460 to 1575, on Baroque music, Ralph Vaughan Williams and topics connected with A level music. He is an organist, choir director, senior examiner and composer.

AQA: GCE Music Unit 1, AoS 2a – Choral Music in the Baroque Period

by Hugh Benham

IntrodUCtIon

AQA’s Choral Music in the Baroque Period area of study requires study of ‘settings for choir and soloists’ as

follows:

� the cantata

� the oratorio

� anthems and masses

Composers ‘might include: JS Bach, Charpentier, Handel, Vivaldi’.

The following survey deals with the three categories above, with reference to the composers named above and

occasionally a few others. When specific works are referred to, this does not imply that these must be taught:

others might well be more appropriate in individual cases.

Listening to any music selected for study is vital. Performances of many works are available on YouTube, or

easily accessed elsewhere online (eg from iTunes), as well as from CDs, BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM. It is

also worth keeping an eye on the listings for Sky Arts 2 and BBC Four.

CAntAtA

The term cantata is Italian for ‘sung’, and all cantatas involve voices (with instrumental participation). Cantatas

in 17th- and 18th-century Italy were usually secular (non-sacred) and often for one or two solo voices. For AoS

2a the obvious choices are the multi-movement German cantatas by JS Bach (1685–1750), the great majority

of which are sacred, although not all involve a choir as well as soloists.

Bach’s cantatas normally include at least one chorale-based movement (more on this below) and sometimes

texts from the Bible. Alongside this affirmation of the sacred, secular influence is apparent in the frequent use

of recitative–aria/duet pairs (borrowed, as it were, from opera). However, the poetic texts used in each cantata

are relevant to the occasion in the church’s year for which the work was intended.

The poet and pastor Erdmann Neumeister (1671–1756) was partly responsible for this modernisation of German

church music. Taruskin and Gibbs (in The Oxford History of Western Music, College edition (OHWM, CE for

short), pages 364–365) note that Bach (despite writing no operas) still ‘became a sort of opera composer’.

However, he was able to make the genres that he borrowed from opera accord perfectly with the religious and

essentially reflective ethos of the church cantata, which served almost as an additional sermon in musical form.

See the AQA GCE Music Specification, pages 6-8.

For a brief introduction to the cantata, see Baroque Music in Focus by Hugh Benham (Rhinegold Education 2/2010), pages 78-87.

Music Teacher May 2015 2

JS Bach

JS Bach probably composed five sets of cantatas, each covering the various Sundays and feast days of the

church’s year. About 200 (out of a likely 300 or more) are still in existence. The great majority were composed in

the early years of Bach’s time at St Thomas’s, Leipzig (from 1723), but some date from his time at Mühlhausen

(1707–08) and Weimar (1708–17).

Most cantatas were sung, after the Gospel reading in the Sunday morning service.

A few cantatas, including Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (No. 147, ‘Heart and mouth and deed and life’)

and Die Elenden sollen essen (No. 75, ‘The wretched shall eat (that they become satisfied)’), were in two parts,

the second being sung after the sermon. In each case, both parts end with the same chorus (although in No.

147 there are different words). On the other hand, the parts of Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis (Cantata No. 21,

‘I had so much distress’) end with different choruses.

Bach’s cantatas were intended as serious reinforcements of the Christian message, not in any sense as

entertainment. The less attractive aspects of the message and of the human condition were not evaded: the

musical idiom that was at times remarkably dissonant and challenging.

The chorale and the cantata

A chorale is ‘a type of hymn that was traditionally sung in the Lutheran (Protestant) churches of Germany’.

Very many cantatas end with a four-part harmonisation of a chorale melody in the soprano (with instrumental

doubling). Such movements have been familiar to generations of music students from ‘Riemenschneider’, ie

371 Harmonized Chorales and 69 Chorale Melodies with Figured Bass, ed. Albert Riemenschneider (Schirmer,

1941).

Recommended sources of background reading and information:

� The Bach Cantatas website has scores of all the cantatas (click the box labelled ‘Scores’). The ‘vocal & piano’ scores are more user-friendly than the old ‘BGA’ scores which have C-clefs for some voices.

� Johann Sebastian Bach, the Culmination of an Era by Karl Geiringer, pages 141–190 (including a few pages on the secular cantatas).

� Grove (2001) (The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie, (Macmillan, 2/2001), or Grove Music Online) is more challenging – see ‘Bach, §III: (7) Johann Sebastian Bach, §13: Cantatas’ and ‘Cantata, §II, 5’

� Likewise Analysing Bach Cantatas by Eric Chafe (OUP, 2000) – as reviewed here.

The service was similar in outline to some Anglican and Roman Catholic eucharists – but much longer. See for example the details here (in particular the contributions by Rodrigo Campelo (2005) and Boyd Pherson).

For information on Cantata No. 21, see here.

See for example the discussion and examples in OHWM, CE, pages 369–373.

A2 Music Harmony Workbook by Hugh Benham (Rhinegold Education, 2009), page 5.

3 Music Teacher May 2015

Example 1 shows the beginning of the vocal parts from the final movement of Ein feste Burg (Cantata No.

80, ‘A mighty fortress (is our God)’), in open score to show the character of each voice to best advantage.

Riemenschneider No. 273 has the same music in short score.

Example 1: Cantata No. 80, movement 8

Each lower part in Example 1 (as generally in such chorale harmonisations) is more melodically independent

and adventurous than is customary in a traditional English hymn tune. In fact, in his writing for voices Bach

often works the singers very hard, with limited regard for their comfort.

S.

A.

T.

B.

Das

Er

Wort

ist

sie

bei uns

sol len

wohl

-

auf

las - sen

dem

stahn

Plan

und

mit

kein

sei

Dank

nem-

da

Geist

zu

und

- ha

Ga

ben.

ben.

-

-

Das

Er

Wort

ist

sie

bei

sol

uns

len

wohl

- las

auf

sen

dem

- stahn

Plan

und

mit

kein

sei nem

Dank

-

da

Geist

zu

und

- ha

Ga

ben.

ben.

-

-

Das

Er

Wort

ist

sie

bei

sol

uns

len

wohl

- las

auf

sen

dem

- stahn

Plan

und

mit

kein

sei

Dank

nem-

da

Geist

zu

und

- ha

Ga

ben.

ben.

-

-

Das

Er

Wort

ist

sie

bei

sol

uns

len

wohl

- las

auf

sen

dem

- stahn

Plan

und

mit

kein

sei nem

Dank

-

da

Geist

zu

und

- ha

Ga

ben.

ben.

-

-

For a translation of the text, see here.

Some examples from verse 5 of Cantata No. 4 are referred to in OHWM, CE, page 366. But the final ‘Hallelujah’, spanning two octaves in the course of five notes and including a drop of a perfect 12th, is in some ways even more extraordinary. (For more on Cantata No. 4, see below: ‘A Chorale Cantata’.)

Some cantatas also have more elaborate treatment(s) of chorales – in fact, the two-part cantatas Nos 147 and 75 end with such settings. The concluding movement of Cantata No. 147 is the very well-known piece often known in English-speaking countries as ‘Jesu, joy of man’s desiring’. The chorale is harmonised rather in the manner of Example 1 (although it is in 3/4 rather than 4/4; chorale harmonisations in 3/4 tend to be less ornate than those in 4/4), but the first phrase is preceded by an instrumental introduction with continuous triplets (apparently representing the believer’s joy in Jesus). Interludes separate subsequent chorale phrases, the triplets continuing almost throughout the movement.

There is a fine performance by The Sixteen under Harry Christophers here. See the article here concerning issues of tempo and character in this much-loved chorus.

4Music Teacher May 2015

Cantata No. 80, from whose final movement Example 1 is taken, begins with a massive chorus in which the

chorale melody (with Martin Luther’s words) is heard, phrase by phrase, in the oboes from bars 23, 48, etc.

The chorale is presented predominantly in minims but with some rhythmic elaboration – partly to add interest

but perhaps also to make it easier to fit elaborate vocal parts against it. The voices anticipate each phrase of

the chorale with imitative treatment of an elaborated version, a common Baroque technique in chorale-based

vocal and organ pieces. Compare the chorale in Example 1 with the version presented by the oboes and with

the tenors’ anticipation and extension of this (Example 2).

Example 2: Chorale treatment in Cantata no. 80, movement 1

The second movement is a duet for soprano and bass, with oboe, upper strings in unison, and continuo. The

soprano presents a more highly elaborated version of the chorale than anything in movement one. The oboe

doubles the soprano, but sometimes with additional elaboration.

The unison melody for upper strings, with its continuous semiquavers and rising arpeggio patterns, underlines

the liberation and victory of which the bass sings. His poetic text (by Salomo Franck) is heard simultaneously

with Luther’s words in the soprano (verse two of the chorale).

Movement five of Cantata No. 80 is in 6/8 time, and the chorale is more lively in character, with occasional

use of crotchet–quaver pairs. The melody is sung by the choir in unison against a busy accompaniment, each

phrase being separated by continuing orchestral activity. Such choral unison writing was exceptional in the

Baroque period. Here it helps enunciate with great strength words predicting the future defeat of the ‘prince

of this world’ (the Devil).

23

29

Oboes

Ein fe ste- - - - Burg ist un ser- Gott, ein

1

gu te- Wehr und Waf fen,- - - - - ein

7

Tenor

The technical term for such simultaneous presentation of two versions of the same melody is heterophony.

There is another example of two simultaneous texts (again, one is from a chorale) in Cantata No. 131 (Aus der Tiefe – ‘Out of the depths’), second movement.

What is the thematic connection between the orchestral writing and the vocal writing?

The trumpet and timpani parts were added by Bach’s eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann. On the complicated history of this cantata, see, for example, here.

5 Music Teacher May 2015

A ‘cHorAlE cAnTATA’

Christ lag in Todesbanden (Cantata No. 4, ‘Christ lay in death’s bonds’) for Easter Sunday is unique in Bach’s

output (and old-fashioned) in that all seven vocal movements are chorale-based.

Each movement sets one verse from Luther’s hymn ‘Christ lag in Todesbanden’ and the associated chorale

melody occurs in each. The opening of this melody (Example 3) poses a special challenge for the composer –

it appears closer to B minor than to the E minor of most other phrases. Bach sometimes begins by transposing

the opening of the melody to E minor (as in verse five) or by preceding the ‘B minor’ version with introductory

music that is firmly in E minor (verse two).

Example 3: Beginning of Chorale melody ‘Christ lag in Todesbanden’

The final verse is of the common ‘chorale harmonisation’ type.

In most of verse one, on the other hand, the chorale is sung by the sopranos in equal long notes (minims) in

traditional cantus firmus fashion. Each phrase is preceded by imitative entries in the other voices, with shorter

mixed-note values. The method is thus similar to that employed in some movements of Cantata No. 80, except

that the melody appears without any melodic or rhythmic elaboration.

The melody is presented in crotchets shortly after letter E, at ‘und singen Hallelujah’ (‘and sing Hallelujah’) with

anticipatory entries also in crotchets – which livens up the music to accord with the brighter text.

In the remaining verses, the chorale melody is treated with greater freedom, both rhythmically and melodically,

although Bach’s singers and congregation would have had no difficulty in identifying it (even when it appears

in triple time in the fifth movement).

cAnTATA no. 140

Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Cantata No. 140: ‘Wake, arise, the voices call us’) is a well-known, and

exceptionally fine, example of a cantata in which some movements are chorale-based and others are freely

composed.

The chorale appears in the opening and closing movements and centrally (movement four).

Movement one, on the grandest scale, has the melody as cantus firmus in the sopranos as in Cantata No. 4,

movement one (but in dotted minims in 3/4 time). The choral sections are effectively punctuated by orchestral

ritornelli (reminiscent of a concerto).

The number of a cantata is rarely a good guide to its date, but No. 4 is apparently one of Bach’s earliest – probably composed at Mühlhausen, but revised at Leipzig in 1724. There is an excellent performance online here.

Regarding the history of this ancient ‘modal’ melody, see here.

Compare Riemenschneider, No. 184 (but in D minor).

The opening music (including the instrumental sinfonia before the first verse) may seem grim for Easter Sunday – but this is because the text begins with Christ still lying ‘in death’s bonds’.

How is the final phrase of the chorale treated in the Alla breve section? Compare treatment of the chorale in verse three, and in verse four, with its treatment in verse one.

6Music Teacher May 2015

Movement four (‘Zion hört die Wächter singen’ – ‘Zion hears the watchmen singing’) (Example 4) is for

tenor, with an obbligato countermelody for unison upper strings, and continuo. The chorale moves chiefly in

crotchets, but with some elaboration.

Example 4: From JS Bach’s Cantata No. 40, fourth movement

Movement seven is the usual concluding harmonisation (see Riemenschneider, No. 179).

The chorale-based movements are settings of verses from a hymn by Philipp Nicolai (1599). The other

movements have anonymous poetic texts relevant to the occasion (the 27th Sunday after Trinity). Movements

two and five of Cantata No. 140 are recitatives, each preceding a duet.

Bach arranged this movement for organ solo – Wachet auf, BWV 645.

Vlns I,IIVla (unison)

Tenor

Continuo

piano piano

12

Zi on- hört die Wäch ter- sin gen,-

piano

16

das Herz tut ihr vor Freu den- sprin gen,-

CHORALE

What was the gospel reading set for the 27th Sunday after trinity? How do the texts of movements 2–3 and/or 5–6 relate to this reading? How do Bach’s musical settings reflect the meaning of the words being set? this may aid discussion.

7 Music Teacher May 2015

orAtorIo

Many Baroque oratorios, like many cantatas, are multi-movement works for soloists, choir and orchestra,

with religious texts – but, especially in the late Baroque, oratorios are usually substantially longer. JS Bach’s

Christmas Oratorio is in fact essentially a group of church cantatas to be performed on successive days.

The first significant composer of oratorios was Giacomo Carissimi (1605–1674) (one of whose works is referred

to below in connection with Handel’s Jephtha). Carissimi’s work influenced Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643–

1704), the earliest French composer of oratorios.

Charpentier’s Judith sive Bethulia Liberata (‘Judith, or Bethulia Liberated’, 1675) is based on the story of one

of the great scriptural heroines, as told in the book of Judith from the Biblical Apocrypha.

The only surviving oratorio by Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) features the same central character. The subject

was well chosen, for in Juditha triumphans (published 1716) all the soloists and choir (including tenors and

basses) were female, the work having been composed for the girls of Ospedale della Pietà in Venice.

For a brief overview of Baroque oratorio, see Baroque Music in Focus, pages 70–77.

See, for example, Johann Sebastian Bach by Geiringer, pages 191–193.

See ‘Judith in Baroque Oratorio’ by David Marsh, pages 385–396 from The Sword of Judith by Kevin R Brine and others (Open Book Publishers, 2010). The article cited is available online here.

There is a recording online here. For an English translation of the original Latin, see the link under ‘References’ here. A ‘reduction for voice and piano’ has been published by Ricordi. There are useful notes by Lynne Murray and Alan Maddox here.

See ‘The Latin Oratorios of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’ by H Wiley Hitchcock (from The Musical Quarterly, xli, 1955, pages 41–65). This can be accessed from www.jstor.org via a subscribing institution.

8Music Teacher May 2015

As an introduction to this attractive but little-known work, listen to the da capo aria ‘Agitata infido flatu’

(Example 5) in which Judith sings of a swallow struggling against a ferocious wind. The vain movements of

the bird’s wings are depicted by groups of fast semiquavers (repeated and therefore not getting very far?),

while the power of the storm is represented by descending chromatic movement and dotted rhythms (dotted

quaver plus semiquaver). There is much sequential writing, as often in Vivaldi’s music, allied to the descending

chromatic movement and circles of 5ths made up of successive secondary dominants.

Example 5: ‘Agitata infido flatu’ from Juditha triumphans (Vivaldi)

Vlns

Vla

Juditha

Continuo

5

7

This aria, complete with score, can be heard here. As customary in the early 18th century, the singer embellishes the da capo (ie the repeat of the first section).

9 Music Teacher May 2015

Handel

By far the best-known Baroque oratorios are by George Frideric Handel (1685–1759). Handel essentially

turned to oratorio when he turned away from opera – but this change of direction did not involve any significant

change of style: the recitatives and arias in his oratorios are musically similar to those in his operas. Handel’s

oratorios were often performed in the theatre, although they were not normally staged; any performances in

churches did not take place within services (as performances of cantatas by Bach did).

Messiah

Messiah has had a very special place in British musical life for over 250 years. It is a good starting point for

study of Handel’s oratorios at AS level, provided that students realise that it is untypical in having text taken

directly from the Bible (rather than specially composed text based on Biblical episodes). Singing scriptural

words in a theatre scandalised some people in early 18th-century Britain, and Handel’s way of defusing such

objections was to perform the work for charity.

The work is in three parts, corresponding to some extent with the three acts of an opera by Handel. The use of

some recitative-and-aria pairs is a link with opera as well, but the large number of choruses is a distinguishing

feature. Essentially, as we have noted, Handel’s style is the same in oratorio as in secular genres such as

opera. If in doubt, compare, for example, the chorus ‘For unto us a child is born’ from Part 1 of Messiah and

the beginning of the secular duet ‘No, di voi non vuo fidarmi’ (HWV 189).

rEciTATivEs And AriAs

In Messiah there are fairly few examples of secco recitative (for solo voice with continuo), and these are

normally brief and introductory: see, for example, ‘There were shepherds abiding in the fields’ and ‘And

the angel said unto them’ from Part 1. Each of the above is followed by an accompagnato (or stromentato)

recitative with strings (‘And lo, the angel of the Lord’ and ‘And suddenly there was with the angel’) because

these texts suggest a heightened treatment (‘the glory of the Lord shone’ and ‘a multitude of the heav’nly host’).

The four recitatives just mentioned make up a continuous sequence that leads, not to an aria as might have

been expected, but to a chorus (‘Glory to God’).

The arias ‘He was despised’ (Part 2) and ‘The trumpet shall sound’ (Part 3) are in da capo form (the preferred

ternary structure in much contemporary opera), but generally Handel preferred a freer approach, although this

may be loosely based on da capo.

Sources of information on Handel’s oratorios include:

� Handel’s Dramatic Oratorios and Masques by Winton Dean (OUP, 1959)

� Handel’s Oratorios and Eighteenth-Century Thought by Ruth Smith (Cambridge University Press, 2005)

� OHWM (CE), pages 357–364

� Grove (2001) – see ‘Handel, George Frideric, §§9–11 (‘From opera to oratorio’, ‘Oratorios and musical dramas’, ‘The later oratorios’)

For more information, see here.

Handel was a great self-borrower (and sometimes a borrower from other composers). Regarding borrowings in Messiah, see, for example, here, here and here.

How does Handel reflect the meaning of the words in these recitatives (in addition to using strings)?

10Music Teacher May 2015

For example, in ‘I know that my redeemer liveth’ (Part 3) there is some sense of a middle section at ‘And though

worms’ (although this is still in the tonic key). Later, instead of a full-scale return to the opening vocal section,

the soloist has ritornello-like reprises in the dominant and subdominant of her first melodic phrase, before an

abbreviated repeat of the opening instrumental ritornello completes the aria.

‘I know that my Redeemer liveth’ demonstrates well Handel’s sensitivity to textual imagery. Example 6 (i) has

the bold rising dominant-tonic 4th that usually accompanies the assertion ‘I know’. Example 6 (ii) shows a

characteristic ascending response to Christ’s having risen from the dead.

Example 6 (i), (ii): Handel, ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth’ (bars 18–22 and 141–147)

cHorusEs

The 20 choruses in Messiah are very varied in character and choral texture.

‘And with his stripes’ (Part 2) (Example 7) is a spacious choral fugue. The striking opening subject is forbiddingly

minor, thanks largely to the descending diminished 7th at ‘his stripes’ (the scourging that preceded Christ’s

crucifixion).

It is the pain of the ‘stripes’ that is depicted, not the benefits that they brought to humankind (‘with his stripes

we are healed’). Many Baroque pieces concentrated in this way on one aspect from a text with two or more

emphases.

Example 7: Handel, Messiah, ‘And with His stripes’

The texture of ‘Since by man came death’ (Part 3) is homophonic, and here Handel exploits the contrast

between the opening words (slow and minor) and the following triumphant declaration of the Resurrection (fast

and major). The second half of the text has a similar antithesis, and here the slow-fast contrast is repeated, but

everything this time (even ‘all be[ing] made alive’) is minor.

Many choruses make considerable demands on a choir. A feature of several is the melismatic treatment of

important syllables in continuous semiquaver movement (sometimes termed ‘coloratura’) – see, for instance,

I know that my Re deem- er- liv eth,-

18

(i)

for now is Christ ris en,- for now is Christ ris en- from the dead,

141

(ii)

What idea is represented, do you think, by the dotted-rhythm figure first heard in bars 10–11?

See Baroque Music in Focus, pages 20–22, on this tendency to keep to a single ‘affection’ or Affekt.

And with His stripes we are heal ed,-

Alla breve. Moderato

• Identify two choruses not mentioned above that contrast strongly in character, and explain the differences.

• What accounts for the enduring popularity of the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus at the end of Part 2?

11 Music Teacher May 2015

the treatment of ‘born’ in ‘For unto us a child is born’. However, Handel’s vocal writing is not as challenging

(and almost anti-vocal) as Bach’s can be.

Jephtha

Jephtha, Handel’s final oratorio (1751), is based on an affecting Old Testament story as elaborated by the

librettist, Rev Thomas Morell (1703–1784).

The same subject had been chosen more than 100 years earlier by Carissimi, whose oratorio Jephte (pre-

1648) is very brief by comparison (less than 30 minutes).

Jephtha is more ‘operatic’ than Messiah in that there is a narrative (which is present only briefly in the Christmas

section of Messiah, Part 1) and considerably fewer choruses. It is also common in Jephtha to speak of the

three parts as Acts 1, 2 and 3.

There are numerous fine recitative-aria pairs. However it has not been uncommon for Jephtha’s long and

moving accompagnato recitative from Act 2, ‘Deeper and deeper still’, to be coupled with the short da capo

aria ‘Waft her, angels, through the skies’ (Act 3) (see Example 8) (for example by Stuart Burrows here). The

moving chorus ‘How dark, O Lord, are thy decrees’ actually follows ‘Deeper, deeper still’ in the oratorio: for

Handel himself these words were cruelly relevant, as he was currently suffering increasing problems with his

eyesight.

Example 8: ‘Waft her, angels, through the skies’ from Handel’s Jephtha

See the book of Judges, particularly chapter 11, verses 29–40. A vocal score of Jephtha can be viewed here.

A recording of Carissimi’s work can be heard online here. There is a score here. Jephtha is not musically indebted to Jephte, but clearly Handel knew Carissimi’s work because he based

a movement in Samson on one of its choruses.

Tenor

Waft her, an gels,- through the

5

skies, waft her, an gels,- through the skies,

8

[Andante larghetto]

[Andante larghetto]

12Music Teacher May 2015

AntHEMS And MASSES

Anthems and masses must be dealt with separately, as anthems have English texts and belong to Church

of England services, while masses have Latin texts and were only composed outside England (although not

always for Roman Catholic use).

Anthems

Full anthems, for choir without solo writing, fall outside the scope of AoS 2a. Verse anthems, on the other hand,

do include passages or sections for soloists.

Purcell

Henry Purcell (1659–1695) generally preferred the verse anthem. Most such works by him include, as well as

passages for soloists and for choir, ‘symphonies’ (ie introductory and intermediate passages for strings, often

of a cheerful, dance-like character), in accordance with the desire of King Charles II (reigned 1660–1685) for

church music that avoided the ‘grave and solemn way’.

‘Rejoice in the Lord alway’, with text from the New Testament Epistle to the Philippians (chapter 4, verses

4–7), is sometimes known as ‘The Bell Anthem’ because the opening symphony is largely founded on bell-like

descending major scales (usually C to C). Initially there is a ground bass, which is two and a half bars long and

thus cuts across the basic quadruple metre (see Example 9). Increasingly the scales invade the other parts.

Example 9: Purcell, ‘Rejoice in the Lord alway’

The opening vocal section is in a jaunty minuet-like 3/4 time. A 12-bar homophonic ‘verse’ for alto, tenor and

bass is repeated by the strings, with some light melodic decoration, and extended before a repeat of the 12-

bar verse. The remainder of the piece alternates short chorus passages, verses and symphonies, with a good

deal of repetition, making a tuneful and attractive piece that must have appealed to Charles II.

‘My heart is inditing of a good matter’ was composed in 1685 for the coronation of James II, Charles II’s

successor, specifically to follow the crowning of the queen consort, Mary of Modena. Purcell’s anthem is on

a grand scale, with eight-part (rather than four-part) choral writing and eight soloists. Although some of the

music is light and dance-like, there is greater variety and substance than in ‘Rejoice in the Lord alway’, with

Handel’s celebrated Zadok the Priest is the best-known example of a full anthem from the Baroque period.

Relevant sources of information include:

� Grove (2001), ‘Anthem, §I, 4: England, c1660-c1770

� Purcell by JA Westrup (Dent, Master Musicians Series, R/1960), pages 206–218

� The Anthems of Henry Purcell by Franklin B Zimmerman (The American Choral Foundation, 1971)

As reported by the minor composer Thomas Tudway (c1650–1726).

3

Ground bass statement 1

Ground bass statement 2

The widely used Novello ‘Octave Anthems’ edition is abridged, with string symphonies omitted or abbreviated. For study purposes, there is, for example, the edition by Wains Shaw in The New Church Anthem Book (OUP, 1992).

13 Music Teacher May 2015

some moments of pathos, for example in the section ‘Hearken, O daughter.’ The final choral Alleluias bring

the work to an impressive end – a reminder that Handel’s ‘Hallelujah’ chorus, although the greatest, was by no

means the first.

Handel

Handel’s ‘Chandos’ anthems (1717–1718) were composed for the Duke of Chandos, one of Handel’s patrons,

and performed in the church of St Lawrence, Whitchurch, which the Duke used as his private chapel.

The Chandos anthems are on a larger scale than Purcellian verse anthems, with separate movements for

soloists. To some extent they are like cantatas, but without being related to the German cantata tradition (there

are no chorales, for example).

‘O come, let us sing unto the Lord’ (No. 8, HWV 253), like other Chandos anthems, has a string section without

violas (but with oboes, bassoons and recorders – none of which Purcell used) and a choir with two sets of

tenors and no altos. Presumably this unusual scoring arose from particular local circumstances. The text is

made up of verses from several psalms.

The anthem begins with an instrumental ‘sonata’ (essentially a French overture with a slow section that features

dotted rhythms plus a quick fugal section). The first chorus, ‘O come, let us sing unto the Lord. Let us heartily

rejoice’, is suitably joyful, with a variety of homophonic and contrapuntal textures. The opening words have

a special cantus firmus-like theme in long notes that returns from time to time, against which more lively

counterpoints are heard. A rather severe homophonic passage in the tonic minor (A minor) brings the chorus

to end, emphasising the majesty of God after the preceding invitations to praise him joyfully.

The ‘Foundling Hospital Anthem’ (‘Blessed are they that consider the poor and needy’), was performed in 1749

in a charity concert (not liturgically) at the chapel of the London hospital after which the work was named. It

incorporates music that Handel had composed previously, including, at the end, the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus from

Messiah.

Masses

A mass (in the musical sense) is a setting of certain texts that occur regularly in the order of the liturgical Mass.

These texts are ‘Kyrie eleison’, ‘Gloria in excelsis’, ‘Credo in unum Deum’, ‘Sanctus’ and ‘Benedictus’, and

‘Agnus Dei’.

See for example the quotation in Westrup’s Purcell, pages 211–212, where shifts of tonality, occasional chromaticism, short almost breathless phrases and antiphonal exchanges all contribute to a striking effect.

Both tenor parts are pitched high. In the first chorus, the two tenors occasionally sing in unison.For the text, see here.

This is just one example of Handel’s desire and ability to please his audiences. It is difficult to imagine Bach employing a similar approach.

For full Latin texts, and English translations, see, for example, here.

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JS Bach

Although it was Roman Catholic composers who wrote the great majority of masses in the Baroque period, the

most significant contribution was made by JS Bach, a Lutheran.

‘Short’ masses consisting of just ‘Kyrie’ and ‘Gloria’ were sometimes used in Lutheran churches – but such

works could last longer than some ‘complete’ Renaissance masses!

Bach composed four such short masses (BWV 233–236), including the Missa brevis (Latin for ‘short mass’) in

A, BWV 234.

The ‘Kyrie’ is in three contrasting sections for choir and orchestra, corresponding to the three sections of the

text. The ‘Gloria’ begins and ends with choruses, and has three arias in between (for bass, soprano and alto).

The ‘Kyrie’ and the bass aria (‘Domine Deus, rex coelestis’) were newly composed (perhaps c.1740), but the

other movements were borrowed from Cantatas Nos 67, 179, 79 and 136 (with different text substituted).

Bach’s great B minor (complete) Mass consists of music composed over several decades. The ‘Crucifixus’

from the ‘Credo’ is based on a cantata movement dating from 1714. The ‘Sanctus’ was composed in 1724,

while the ‘Kyrie’ and ‘Gloria’ (forming another long ‘short’ mass) were complete by 1733. Composition of the

‘Credo’ belongs to the 1740s: the ‘Et incarnatus’ section was one of Bach’s final works.

The mass was a less important genre in the Baroque than it had been in the Renaissance. For a survey of Baroque masses, see the relevant parts of Grove (2001), Mass, §III.

There is a full score online here. For an excellent recording, see here.

Such cantata movements were originally designed for specific Sundays or feast days, and would have been difficult to perform on other occasions unless the text was changed. If included in a mass setting, on the other hand, the music could be heard many times.

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The B minor Mass as a whole was not intended for liturgical performance, but rather as a special demonstration

by Bach of his sacred music in all its stylistic and structural diversity and excellence. There were several

substantial self-borrowings (from cantatas), sometimes with significant alterations. Particularly striking was the

addition to the E minor ‘Crucifixus’ of an ending in the relative major (G), to lead into the D major that Bach

required for the resurrection section with its triumphant trumpets (‘Et resurrexit’) (Example 10).

Example 10: Bach, B minor Mass, end of ‘Crucifixus’

See Johann Sebastian Bach by Geiringer, pages 207–209.

pas sus- - - - - - et se pul- tus-

to, pas sus- et se pul- tus- se pul- tus-

no bis,- pas sus- et se pul- tus-

bis, pas sus- et se pul- tus-

est, se

pul- tus- est, se pul- tus- est.

5

est, pas

sus- - et se pul- tus- est.

est, se

pul- tus,- - - se pul- tus- est.

est, se

pul- tus- est, et se pul- tus- est.

[]

16Music Teacher May 2015

Vivaldi

No complete mass by Vivaldi survives.

There are several isolated movements, which do not appear to be survivals from larger works. The Gloria

in D (RV 589) is an attractive work that is very widely sung – usually with a mixed chorus, although Vivaldi

composed the work (including tenor and bass chorus parts) for the girls of the Venice Ospedale in Venice,

perhaps c1715.

The writing is less demanding on both soloists and choir than most music by Bach and Handel, with, for

example, simple homophony in the opening chorus ‘Gloria in excelsis Deo’, the related chorus ‘Quoniam tu

solus sanctus’, and the lovely ‘Qui tollis’ (in which the alto soloist alternates with the choir). The contrapuntal

movements are still relatively easy, including the final ‘Cum Sancto Spiritu’, which is based on two or three

easily memorable motifs.

The soprano solo ‘Domine Deus’ (with oboe obbligato) is an attractive siciliano, although at times the harmony

seems excessively static. The duet ‘Laudamus te’ for two sopranos relies heavily on sequences, as does much

of Vivaldi’s music – in the opening and closing ritornelli the excursion from G major to E flat and back again is

adroitly managed.

Grove (2001) regards the Sacrum (RV 586) as ‘spurious’.

Performances by women only may be heard online here. See also here and the associated BBC Four documentary here.

This concluding chorus is adapted from a Gloria by Giovanni Maria Ruggieri who was active in Venice c.1690–1720. Vivaldi used other music by Ruggieri in another setting of the Gloria (RV 588).

A siciliano is a type of gentle, pastoral instrumental movement or aria in 6/8 or 12/8 popular in the late Baroque period. (Compare, for example, the ‘Pifa’ or ‘Pastoral Symphony’ from Part 1 of Handel’s Messiah.) Vivaldi’s opening rhythm (dotted quaver, semiquaver, quaver) is characteristic.

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Charpentier

Charpentier composed 11 masses, in some of which the influence of Italian composers (notably Carissimi) is

apparent. The Messe de minuit pour Noël (‘Midnight Mass for Christmas’, probably from the 1690s) is his best

known setting by far. It ‘is purely French in its adaptation of popular noëls [a French type of Christmas carol],

with square rhythms and alternations of orchestral, choral and solo sonorities after the manner of operatic and

ballet music’ (Grove (2001), ‘Mass, §III, 2: 17th century outside Italy’. There was a fashion in Paris for masses

based on noëls).

Example 11 shows part of an arrangement by Pierre Dandrieu (1664–1733) of the noël ‘Or nous dites Marie’

and Charpentier’s treatment of the beginning of the ‘Christe eleison’ section from the Kyrie.

Example 11 (a) and (b): Dandrieu, ‘Or nous dites Marie’ (for organ) and Charpentier, ‘Christe eleison’

A comparison might also be drawn with the ‘organ mass’, much cultivated in France in Charpentier’s time

(see Grove (2001), ‘Organ mass’) in which ‘versets’ for organ replaced some parts of the text. In rather similar

fashion Charpentier has some organ or orchestral passages in the Messe de minuit.

Melody 'Or nous dites Marie' Dandrieu

Chri ste- e le- i- son,- e lei- - - - -

Chri -

son,

5

ste e le- i- son,- e le- i- son,- e lei- son,- - -

Chri ste- e le- i- son,- e lei- son,- - -

Three solo voices and continuo Charpentier

18Music Teacher May 2015

In the ‘Sanctus’, for example, the ‘Premier [first] Sanctus’ is instrumental (based on ‘O dieu que n’etois je en

vie’), the ‘Second Sanctus’ (on the same tune) is choral, and the ‘Troisième Sanctus’ is instrumental again. The

choir sings from ‘Pleni sunt coeli’ to ‘Hosanna in excelsis’. The ‘Benedictus qui venit’ is for soloists, after which

the earlier ‘Hosanna’ is repeated. In the ‘Agnus Dei’ (based on ‘A minuit fut fait un resveil’) there is vocal writing

and text (for soloists, then choir) only in the second of the three sections, a pattern well established in organ

masses from the 16th century onwards.