The Bach Elgar Choir, one of Canada’s longest-running performing arts organizations, will round out their 119th season with a concert that brings together Brahms, Frank Martin, and Josef Rheinberger. Alongside Brahms’ Zigeunerlieder and Rheinberger s Drei Geistliche Gesänge, it will be the first time that the Choir will perform Martin’s a cappella Mass for Double Choir.
Coincidentally, the works by Brahms and Martin share the fact that the composers were somewhat unhappy about their first public performances.
The Program
Johannes Brahms: Zigeunerlieder (Roma songs), Op. 103
Brahms composed the first set of 11 pieces now known as his Zigeunerlieder (Op. 103) during 1887 and 1888. Originally written for four singers or an SATB choir, he also developed his own arrangement for solo voice and piano. In them, Brahms brought together elements of two of his most successful works, the Hungarian Dances, and his Liebeslieder Walzer, creating dance songs for vocal quartet and piano.
The texts are drawn from Hungarian folk songs that were translated and adapted into German by Hugo Conrat, a friend of Brahms’ in Vienna who was a composer, poet, and businessman. He adapted them into vernacular German based on an initial translation by the Conrat family nurse, who happened to be Hungarian.
Op. 103 premiered in October 1888 in Berlin, and despite its public success, Brahms was somewhat unhappy that the music, which he had conceived of for home use only with a quartet of soloists, had been performed in a concert hall.
Frank Martin: Mass for Double Choir
“The Mass is a work of profound beauty and difficult to master,” said Alexander Cann, musical director in a statement. “But with the choir’s experience, skill and dedication, we are confident that our performance will resonate deeply with our audience.”
While it’s not well known to the general public, largely due to an unusual history as a composition, Martin’s Mass is considered to be one of the most significant choral works to emerge from the modern era of Western music.
Frank Martin composed his Mass for Double Choir between 1922 and 1926, but it was not intended for public performance. It was meant as his private tribute to God.
However, the composer mentioned the manuscript publicly on a few occasions, including during a lecture in Switzerland in 1946, where he stated, “Through a sort of instinctive modesty I have done nothing to have these pieces performed. It sufficed me entirely to have written them (…)”.
In 1963, Hamburg based choral conductor Franz Brunnert asked for a copy of the manuscript, saying it was “for study purposes”. Brunnert, however, wasn’t entirely forthright with the composer, and he performed in with his Bugenhagen Choir. Other performances followed, and it was sung by the NCRV Vocal Ensemble in 1970. The Vocal Ensemble was based near Martin’s home in the Netherlands, and at that point, he agreed to have it published.
Part of his initial reluctance was due to humility, and fear that his personal approach wouldn’t go over in a public setting, along with ambiguities about his own religious feelings.
As an uncommissioned work, he had the freedom to approach it as he liked. The work combines both traditional and modern elements, with Early Music influences. He was inspired by J.S. Bach, and polyphonic Renaissance traditions, and by modern experimentation with harmonies.
In the composer’s own notes, he writes,
“This mass, composed in 1922 (except for the Agnus Dei which dates from 1926), was a work of my own free will, without commission or remuneration. Indeed at that time I knew of no choral conductor who could be interested in it. […]
“… even though I wrote the mass for a large number of voices, it is music of an inward nature.”
Josef Rheinberger: Drei Geistliche Gesänge, Op.69
Josef Gabriel Rheinberger (1839 –1901) is best known for his organ music, and his other compositions are rarely performed. His Drei Geistliche Gesänge (Three Sacred Songs), opus 69, are melodic and lyrical. The Morgenlied (Die Sterne sind erblichen) — or Morning Song (the Stars Have Faded) — is pastoral in mood, using text form a poem by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, (who also wrote the German national anthem).
Hymne (Dein sind die Himmel) — or Yours are the Heavens — was written as an offertory for the Christmas Mass. The third song, Abendlied (Bleib bei uns) — or Evening Song, Stay With Us — was composed in the form of a motet for six-part mixed choir.
The first of the Gesänge premiered on March 9, 1855, about two weeks before Rheinberger’s 16th birthday.
- Fid more details and tickets to the May 31 performance at Hamilton’s Melrose United Church [HERE].
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