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This space usually hosts a classical selection of music that I find appealing in one way another. But the genesis of today’s video lies in the dark sorcery better known as the CD wallet the resides in my car. As I was driving to my voice lesson I was perturbed at the distinct lack of musical profundity playing on CBC radio 2 Drive and at a red light I grabbed my trusty musical dark-side and flipped over to a CD labelled the Best of NIN.
“Hmm”, I thought to myself, “I haven’t listened to NIN like in FOREVER. Thus, in went NIN and out came the lovely baroque trio that I had been listening to ( La Gamme Et Autre Morceaux De Symphonie ). Anyhow…
I got to the second last track and boom, the rock-out started. Steering wheel tapping, head nodding, singing-along goodness that made the wait in traffic come quickly to end, saddening me slightly as there was more raw tuneage to listen to.
More about the song now, “Only”, like many NIN tunes has a distinct anti-religious message along with being able to easily rock out to, and that makes me happy.
Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s Day. Just finished singing this in choir, great piece and as usual, the tenor part is the hardest.. :)
Love it it or hate it, Bolero is a fine piece of music. I try and post work that make me stop what I’m doing and just listen. This performance by Hong Kong’s Orchestra did just that. Enjoy :)
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.
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