I'm not quite keeping up with my program of 12 Christmas songs over the 12 days of Christmas (this is the eighth day of Christmas). And this one could keep you busy for a while, depending on how far you go with it.
It is Johann Sebastian Bach's Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248, performed by the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner. It's nice to have the lyrics translated on the video.
Bach had a little bit the same problem bloggers do...his composing was episodic and occasional, tied to specific church services and sermons. Scholars generally agree that he intended the parts of the Christmas Oratorio to go together as a coherent larger single work, but they're not quite agreed at to how he went about it. He pulled it off, though. It's one of Bach's most genial and appealing choral pieces.
The Christmas Oratorio is not the most famous classical Christmas composition. That (dubious) honor probably has to go to Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, which I did not like even when I was ten years old. (Mine isn't the majority opinion. Wikipedia informs us that "major American ballet companies generate around 40 percent of their annual ticket revenues from performances of The Nutcracker." Yikes.) I also have to admit I've never cared for Handel's Messiah either. I just don't like that piece of music*. It's popular despite being overtly religious; it's a curious fact that all of the top 15 Christmas songs overplayed on the radio at Christmastime are secular songs. None are religious.
(That fact comes from a wonderful history and deconstruction of the science of Christmas music sent to us by reader Speed [Jim E.], for which many thanks. I really enjoyed that. Written by Walt Hickey of FiveThirtyEight.)
But you can't go wrong with Bach. Each time I start this string of videos I can't turn it off again. I've listened to the whole piece about three times now.
Mike
(Thanks to Speed)
P.S. Set aside fear, banish lamentation.
*For me I'm sure it's partly due to that huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh vocal flourish that Handel uses ad nauseam; what's it called? I know it was standard fare in the Baroque but I think it's ugly.
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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:
Mike Chisholm: "Re Handel, I think the word you want may be 'melisma.' It's the same idea as that mannered, arpeggiated style that Whitney Houston et al. pour all over songs like syrup, as a substitute for 'expression'... Stevie Wonder does it best. Happy New Year!"
Tim Auger: "Whenever I feel that the world has gone insane, I find a solid slice of Bach very reassuring. It's so sensible, like very good fruitcake. One never tires of it, I think because there is a lot for the brain to follow, with all that counterpoint. As I was listening to some of this earlier today, it seemed remarkable to be able to connect so directly with the mind of Bach some three hundred years ago.
"Maria Carey Syndrome, a form of melisma (see earlier comments), is an easily spread condition that must be rigorously controlled, and ideally eliminated."
If you listen to a lot of the Bach Church music the vocal style is rather similar to Handel, complete with the repeated single syllables that go on forever. You might not notice as much because it's in German.
Posted by: psu | Thursday, 01 January 2015 at 11:05 PM
I am not a singer (I play Shakuhachi, a classical Japanese flute) nor am I particularly religious, but I thoroughly enjoy the Messiah sing along that is performed every December in Boulder Colorado. It's a community orchestra (audition required) and choir (no audition), professional soloists, plus a church full of people off the street.
I sit in the Bass section, because the only chance I have is if I'm surrounded by people singing the same part. Last month put me in the front row directly facing the Soprano soloist.
Some parts of the libretto are read, rather than sung to keep the entire performance down to about 2.5 hours. There is always one violinist who has a slightly different opinion of intonation from the rest. But it's great fun to get together with two or three hundred members of the community and do something together. It's fun to participate!
Posted by: mike rosenlof | Friday, 02 January 2015 at 10:08 AM
The nice thing about "church music" in a foreign language is that if you don't know the language, you can enjoy to the music without the text intruding. They could be singing about women and drink (e.g. Orff's Carmina Burana), and it doesn't disturb the listening.
Posted by: Richard Newman | Friday, 02 January 2015 at 11:47 AM
Thank you.
That IS superb!
Posted by: Stephen Almond | Friday, 02 January 2015 at 05:31 PM
Ah, melisma. It's the vocal HDR of pop music.
Posted by: JK | Saturday, 03 January 2015 at 08:24 AM
The same conductor, choir and players - but with different (exemplary) soloists - made a CD for DG Archiv of this same work, which is firmly recommended: for non-seasonal listening also.
1987: John Eliot Gardiner, Anthony Rolfe Johnson (tenor, Evangelist), Anne Sofie von Otter (alto), Olaf Bär (bass), Hans Peter Blochwitz (tenor), Nancy Argenta (soprano), Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists. Archiv Produktion.
Posted by: richardplondon | Tuesday, 06 January 2015 at 03:32 PM