Christmas | Saturday Chorale

Posts Tagged ‘ Christmas ’

Feature: Libera: Coventry Carol

December 28, 2012

Massacre of the innocents Cogniet 600x581

I remember very clearly the first time I saw Cogniet's "Massacre of the innocents". Cogniet's paintings can be a bit mannerly but there's nothing polite or bland about terror and Cogniet's depiction of a terrified mother desperately trying to keep her child quiet lest they be discovered by Herod's soldiers as they massacre all the male children under the age of two in Bethlehem captures some of the essence of terror. Who can doubt looking at that poor woman's face that she is out of options and out of luck and that she knows in her heart of hearts that she and her son are next. In all the years since I first saw it Cogniet's painting has stayed with me as a referent for the words "terror" and "atrocity". Luther famously remarked that Christmas takes place 'in the shadow of the Cross' what he was getting at was that while the story of the Nativity celebrates the joy of Jesus' birth it also tells of terror, flight, and the horror of infanticide.

Click here to listen to the music and read the rest of the posting ...

Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690): O mirandum mysterium

By markfromireland

December 27, 2012

During the 1620s Gabrielli's polychoral style was supplanted by a completely different form of sacred music. Composers wrote more and more for solo voices and laid considerably more emphasis on virtuosity. At the same time there was a move away from large groups of accompanying instruments consisting at the very least of cornetts, violins and trombones to smaller groups typically consisting just of strings. The musical style was intimate and very much based on secular music's idioms. The best known exponent of this new style was of course Monteverdi who as maestro di capella at St Mark's in Venice from 1613, did much to promote this new concerted style of church music. Monteverdi pioneered and popularised the new style.

Monteverdi's followers and colleagues such as Alessandro Grandi, Giovanni Antonio Rigatti and Giovanni Rovetta took this new style and developed it further so that by the 1630s and 40s there was a rich repertory. Music in this style was still very popular in the 1680s, when Giovanni Legrenzi was working at St Mark's. His Christmas motet "O mirandum mysterium" is characterised throughout by an orderly clarity and sweetness of tone, its second section is very much in the lament idiom of contemporary operas.

markfromireland

Click here to listen to the music and read the rest of the posting ...

Palestrina: Christmas Motet Hodie Christus natus est & Christmas Mass Missa Hodie Christus natus est – YouTube

By markfromireland

December 25, 2012

Picture: Domenico Ghirlandaio
Adoration of the Shepherds
Start Date 1482 Completion Date: 1485
Technique: Oil on canvas
Location: Sassetti Chapel, Santa Trinita, Florence

For this year's Christmas' music I've picked one of Palestrina's Christmas motets 'Hodie Christus natus est' (This day was Christ born) the Mass setting he based upon it. They're both beautiful pieces of music and both as you might expect from Christmas music by Palestrica are full of sparkle, excitement, and warmth combined with a sense of the grandeur of the occasion and musical depth. The motet, 'Hodie Christus natus est' is a double choir (SSAB+ATTB) motet that Palestrina published in Venice in 1575. He was plainly in top form when he wrote it – it's a brilliant piece of music.

Click here to listen to the music and read the rest of the posting ...