Follow the stars
Happy New Year! By now, most organists have had enough of dinging dongs, heralding angels, and wish adequate time had been made to practise In Dir Ist Freude when January 1 falls on Sunday. Whilst the build up to Christmas via many carol services can be very enjoyable, my personal preference would be for Christmas Carols to be sung only a few days before December 25. It seemed strange to have conducted and played for two Christmas Carol services in the first week of December before our own chapel Advent Carol Service on December 11, 2016. Such is the influence of the charity money raisers, school music departments whose terms often end mid Advent with Christmas themes, and of course, commercialism.
Choir carols for our Advent service were chosen in August 2016. One by Holst, sung in previous years, received such favourable comments from attendees whose interest in music seemed to lie in different areas that I chose it again. A short chorus from Messiah was selected for its reference to the Fall of Man. A Latin motet by the little known Venetian Ludovico Balbi was sung, and the final choice was Pettman’s beautiful Carol of Adoration. The choir liked them all, particularly the Pettman and the Balbi, both of which were new to the singers. My surprise came from the response from members of the congregation; several said that the one they liked the best was Benedixisti Domine by Balbi. The style is that of Palestrina. Phrases are short, well within the vocal range of modern day choral singers and it is not too long. One such comment was from a young student who had not heard the Latin polyphonic style before, and another from a much older person who spoke about it with one of the clergy at the end of the service. Its spiritual style was the recurrent theme of such comments, and I hadn’t expected this response. My choice of such music is partly to satisfy the musical interests of the choir, akin to those who play in string quartets. The text is specifically for the 3rd Sunday in Advent. One wondered about the reasons which led to this choice in August, was I following a hunch, was I guided by something I was not aware of, or was it based on strategic reasons to do with planning? Probably a subtle combination of all of them.
The Epiphany story tells of the Three Wise Men following the star that led them to Bethlehem. Expert astronomers and astrologers, they too, followed a mixture of knowledge and probable hunches when setting off across the sands on their camels.
In my ongoing studies of the music of Buxtehude, I have encountered the published academic writings of Kerala J Snyder and Dr Geoffrey Webber, learning much about the differences in manuscripts of the same piece. Another writer has related the Ciacona in E minor BuxWV 160 to the Rosary, and the construction of the Passacaglia in D minor BuxWV 161 is well known for its apparent relationship to the four phases of the moon, as displayed in the astronomical clock in St Mary’s Lübeck.
Recitals of the complete organ works of Buxtehude took place last year in St Peter’s Berkhamsted. The Christmas and Epiphany recital began with the Praeludium in F# minor BuxWV 146 and I wondered why this one was chosen for the opening. Messiaen’s Dieu Parmi Nous from La Nativité opens with the famous descending chord sequence, illustrating the idea of God coming down to earth. The opening of Buxtehude’s F# minor praeludium opens with a four note semiquaver figure that soon becomes a descending scale leading to a sustained pedal F#, followed quickly by another scale cascading down. I have no evidence for the four note figure representing a star, and the descending scales reflecting God coming down to earth, but once the idea clicked, it has been difficult to see this music in any other way. As the opening can be played in an improvisatory way, this might be interpreted as the wise men realising what they had to do, following God coming down to earth. The two fugues that follow could represent the serious conversation between them and the start of the journey; the second fugue dissipates into something of a rush to go somewhere. The ethereal, expressive, Italianate section two thirds of the way through can be thought of as what and whom they saw at the end of the journey, and the final section could represent the excited gallop back home. There will be some who disagree with this view, and this is respected, but the images do help the practice.
We do not know what was in Buxtehude’s mind as he wrote this piece. Writers comment that it should be played in G minor, as the temperaments of contemporary organs would have made F # sound much less acceptable than our chapel’s fifth comma modified mean tone. One thought is that Buxtehude was possibly pushing the boundaries of expression within the limits of mean tone tunings, possibly urging organ builders to develop systems to allow such expressions to be heard. We don’t know. However, we do know that by Bach’s time, the concept of equal temperament was known about, and eventually came about as composers demanded the means of being able to write music in all major and minor keys equally. My journey goes on, and I invite you to the next chapel recital on January 8 2017 where the F# minor opens the programme.
Follow your star………
Marilyn Harper
