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A big thank-you to Steven Malinowski for producing the graphical score you see below.
The Trio No. 1 in B-flat major for piano, violin, and cello, D. 898, was written by Franz Schubert in 1827. The composer finished the work in 1828, in the last year of his life.[1][2] It was published in 1836 as Opus 99, eight years after the composer’s death.
This is from the Hobbit an Unexpected Journey when the dwarves invade poor Bilblo’s house and then, after awhile, sing melancholic songs about their lost home. I’m scouring the net looking for arrangements of this song so I can put together a singable piece for my choir.
Lyrics:
Far over the misty mountains cold.
To dungeons deep, and caverns old.
We must away,’ere break of day.
To find our long forgotten gold.
The pines were roaring on the height.
The winds were moaning in the night.
The fire was red, it flaming spread.
The trees like torches blazed with light.
Jesu, meine Freude is a motet composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. The work, which takes its title from the chorale by Johann Franck on which it is based, is also known as Motet No. 3 in E minor, BWV 227. The stanzas of the chorale are interspersed with passages from the Epistle to the Romans.
Bach’s organ piece, chorale prelude BWV 610, bears the same title. This work, which is earlier and shorter than the motet, is based on the same chorale melody by Johann Crüger.
There are six authenticated funeral motets (BWV 225–230) written for St Thomas’s Church, Leipzig, between 1723 and 1727. A seventh has only recently been subjected to some scholarly doubt as to its authorship. This third is the earliest, longest, most musically complex and justifiably the most popular of the six, and was written in Leipzig in 1723 for the funeral (on 18 July 1723) of Johanna Maria Käsin, the wife of that city’s postmaster. The 5th voice of the chorus is a second soprano part of harmonic richness, adding considerably to the tonal palette of the work as a whole.
The chorale melody on which it is based was by Johann Crüger (1653), and it first appeared in his Praxis pietatis melica. The German text is by Johann Franck, and dates from c. 1650. The words of the movement nos. 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 are based on the Epistle to the Romans 8:1–2, 9–11. The scriptures here speak of Jesus Christ freeing man from sin and death. The chorale text is from the believer’s point of view and praises the gifts of Jesus Christ as well as longing for his comforting spirit. It also abounds with stark contrasts between images of heaven and hell, often within a single section. Bach’s vivid setting of the words heightens these dramatic contrasts resulting in a motet with an uncommonly wide dramatic range.
Movements
- Jesu, meine Freude (1st stanza)
- Es ist nun nichts Verdammliches (based on Romans 8:1,4)
- Unter deinem Schirmen (2nd stanza)
- Denn das Gesetz (à 3, based on Romans 8:2)
- Trotz dem alten Drachen (3rd stanza)
- Ihr aber seid nicht fleischlich (fugue, based on Romans 8:9)
- Weg mit allen Schätzen (4th stanza)
- So aber Christus in euch ist (à 3, based on Romans 8:10)
- Gute Nacht, o Wesen (à 4, 5th stanza)
- So nun der Geist (based on Romans 8:11)
- Weicht, ihr Trauergeister (6th stanza)
A brief guide to the eleven movements follows:
- Chorale setting, four-part
- Five-part dramatic chorus, florid variations on the chorale, in the manner of an instrumental ripieno
- Chorale, with flourishes
- Setting in the manner of a trio sonata (soprano, soprano, alto).
- Five-part dramatic chorus, florid variations on the chorale, in the manner of an instrumental ripieno.
- Five-part double fugue
- Chorale, with florid variations.
- Setting in the manner of a trio sonata (alto, tenor, bass)
- Chorale prelude (soprano, soprano, alto, tenor. The cantus firmus is in the alto).
- Five-part dramatic chorus (repeats much of #2 with different text)
- Chorale setting (repeats #1 with different text)
An analysis would reveal a balanced musical symmetry around the 6th movement double fugue, with both #3–5 and #7–9 containing a chorale, a trio and a quasi-aria movement, and the work beginning and ending with the identical chorale, albeit to different words.
Elvira Madigan is the nickname of Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major,” which he wrote in 1785 within a space of 4 weeks. It is one of Mozart’s most popular piano concertos, and has three movements.
The concerto was penned for a series of Lenten subscription concerts given by Mozart in 1785. However, it was actually premiered at Mozart’s benefit concert at the National Court Theater on March 10 of that year. A handbill for the concert announced that it would include “a new, just finished Forte piano Concerto.”
The slow second movement is the best known part of this piece thanks to its use in Elvira Madigan, a 1967 Swedish film about a tragic tightrope walker, which gave the concerto its name.
The second movement’s title is “Andante in F major.” “Andante” refers to the tempo marking, which in this instance means to be performed at a moderately slow speed. “Andante” is Italian for “a walking pace.”
Back when the internet was just starting, there were many, how can we put this politely, ‘optimistic’ predictions in the vein of bringing the world together, unbounded communication, openness, a giant leap forward for mankind – blah blah blah.
Unfortunately, what we got was a commercialized, sectarian echo chamber that, more often than not, served to augment the insular tendencies humanity is famous for. Rather than being exposed to ideas from all the cultures with access to the web, we limit our exposure and often work very hard to keep what we watch and read within our small cultural frameworks. Ignorance still rules the day as like minded communities spin their self-referential webs of their preferred reality, creating closed online cultures that desperately maintain the status-quo. It’s a shitty feature of meat-space replicated to “Nth” time here on the web.
Eric Whitacre’s projects reach across these boundaries, across the sectarian divides and foist people out of their enclaves so they can join and share a common goal; the production of beautiful music. I have reservations about some of the technical aspects of what Whitacre is doing with the Virtual Choirs, but I am in full agreement with the spirit of what the VC’s accomplish. Bringing people together to work toward a common goal despite all the cultural baggage and all the prejudice and insular nonsense that routinely bollocks-up human interactions.
The Virtual Choirs hint at what the internet should be for, as opposed what it is at the moment.
The Well-Tempered Clavier (German: Das Wohltemperierte Klavier),[2] BWV 846–893, is a collection of solo keyboard music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. He first gave the title to a book of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys, dated 1722, composed “for the profit and use of musical youth desirous of learning, and especially for the pastime of those already skilled in this study.” Bach later compiled a second book of the same kind, dated 1742, but titled it only “Twenty-four Preludes and Fugues.” The two works are now usually considered to make up a single work, The Well-Tempered Clavier, or “the 48,” and are referred to respectively as Books I and II.[3] The Well-Tempered Clavier is generally regarded as one of the most influential works in the history of Western classical music.[3]
There are many iterations of this song all over youtube. I find this one poignant because of the juxtaposition of the military band so prominently in the foreground while the children tucked almost completely out of sight intoning the hopeful hymn – “Give us peace”. Draw your ironic comparisons as you wish. I’d stop at 1:45 as the rest is seems a little out of place, so don’t say you haven’t been warned. :)
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
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