On May 22, 1723 Bach moved to Leipzig to take up his position as the newly-elected Kantor at the Thomasschule and although he wasn't formally installed until June 1st he apparently started work immediately, for on Sunday May 30th the first performance of one of his large-scale Cantatas took place to great applause. The Cantata in question which is in two parts was 'Die Elenden sollen essen' (The miserable shall eat) BWV 75 the anonymous text to which is based on Luke 16:19-31 – the parable of the rich man and Lazarus . It's one of my favourite Cantatas, Bach was determined to start his tenure at Leipzig with a display of musical fireworks and he certainly succeeded. It's huge (if you count up 'Die Elenden sollen essen's' sections – or movements if you prefer to call them that, you'll find no less than fourteen separate movements). Not only is it huge but Bach filled it choc-a-bloc with musical inventiveness, some wonderful arias, ditto recitatives, and that's before I mention the simply superb orchestral writing. The cumulative effect of all of this is a thrilling and dramatic piece of music.
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Purcell's setting of Philippians 4: 4-7 (Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say rejoice …) is one of the most popular of his anthems. It acquired it's title of 'The bell anthem' very early on and dates from sometime between 1682 and 1685. I love its signature pealing of bells which is everywhere in its stunning opening Prelude. You can hear the bells pealing both in the bass part and in the intertwined upper parts where Purcell juxtaposes their joy to bittersweet effect with some typically Purcellian harmonies. This Prelude also has some wonderful writing for strings which is given further depth by the descending scales of the theorbos.
Clergyman, diplomat, musician, composer, 
Jacobus Vaet is yet another one of those renaissance composers whose early demise cut short a very promising career. He was probably born in 1529 either in Kortrijk or Harelbeke and was enrolled as a choirboy at Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk in Kortrijk aged thirteen. When his voice broke in 1546 the church gave him a scholarship to attend the University of Leuven which he entered in 1547. By 1550 he was serving the Emperor Charles V in 1550 as a tenor. He must have stood out because by January 1st 1554 he had become Kapellmeister to Archduke Maximilian of Austria – the future Emperor Maximilian II. He remained as Maximilian's Kapellmeister until his death aged 37 on Jan 8th 1567. Maximilian was generous to Vaet His death was mourned by Maximillian who wrote of it in his diary and by his fellow musicians many of whom composed elegies mourning his passing. His influence persisted after his death with many of his motets being used as the basis for Mass settings by a constellation of composers including his pupil Jacob Regnart, and such luminaries as Jacob Handl, Antonius Galli, and Johannes de Cleve. His Missa quodlibetica seems to have been the first of the genre and was used as a model by Regnart, Losio and Luython among others.
1688 was a good year for Purcell fans such as myself for it was in 1688 that the finest of his devotional songs were written, collected, and published in Harmonia Sacra. Purcell's setting of William Fuller's poem incorporates so many changes made by Purcell that fully half of the words in the setting are by not by the author of record but rather by Purcell himself acting as composer-turned-poet the result is a far more moving and poignant text than Fuller's original, more poignant, more contemplative, and far less optimistic than Fuller's original. Something within Purcell responded to darker texts and moods and spurred to produce some of his most beautiful music. Beautiful and very difficult to sing music, Purcell plainly had an excellent treble soloist in mind when he was composing this and we're fortunate that in the recording below the singer is the excellent Nicholas Witcomb whose singing abilities were more than equal to the occasion.
The death of his wife in April 1920 devastated Elgar, this shattering blow combined with his difficulties in adjusting to the changes in British society wrought by World War I meant that he entered a bleak and fallow period in his life. It wasn't until 1923 that he started to compose again the impetus for this was the suggestion by his friend the critic 