Enjoy these images from last night's rehearsal for the Beauty of Baroque concert on Friday evening. The rehearsal went very well, although it is always initially difficult to get used to the different space and acoustics, when we first rehearse in the concert venue. The start of the rehearsal was accompanied by frowns, but by the end of the evening there were smiles all round and David declared the sound to be quite astounding - this is going to be a good concert!
Beauty of Baroque
Friday 30 March, 7:30pm at Knox Church
The City of Dunedin Choir presents the grandeur and exuberance of the pearls of Baroque music.
Programme:
Bach: Magnificat (BWV 243)
Handel: Utrecht Te Deum and Organ Concerto Op. 4 no. 2 in B Flat
Charpentier: Laetatus sum
The programme includes the breathtaking Magnificat composed by J.S. Bach
in 1723. The impact of this great choral work derives essentially from
Bach’s remarkable ability to balance, yet at the same time to exploit
to the full, the spiritual and dramatic elements of the concise text of
the Magnificat. It is a sublime pearl from an era rich in choral glory.
Stephen Chambers (tenor), recently described as having a “beautiful
lyrical tenor voice”, is in Dunedin on a rare visit home. This is an
opportunity to witness his progress on the international stage.
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and
clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance,
and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music. The
style started around 1600 in Rome, Italy and spread to most of Europe.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word baroque is derived
from the Portuguese word "barroco", Spanish "barroco", or French
"baroque", all of which refer to a "rough or imperfect pearl".
Handel wrote the Utrecht Te Deum in early 1713, and it was performed together with
his Utrecht Jubilate at the Thanksgiving service for the Peace of Utrecht in St Paul’s
Cathedral, London, on 7 July. It was his first composition for a state celebration, and
helped to establish his reputation as a composer in London.
Handel's Utrecht Te Deum is the opening work in City of Dunedin Choir's concert "Beauty of Baroque" on Friday 30 March, 7:30 pm in Knox Church, George Street, Dunedin
The Bach Magnificat, which the City of Dunedin Choir will sing on March 30, is at the centre of an 800-year tradition of music at St Thomas Church, Leipzig, where Bach spent almost the last 30 years of his life and where his body lies to this day.
The Magnificat was one of the pieces he wrote in his first year as cantor of the school attached to the church – St Thomas School, one of the oldest schools in the world (founded 1212).
Among his teaching and performance responsibilities – including choirmaster and teaching Latin at St Thomas School – his duties also included composition: cantatas for church services every Sunday and other holy days in the church calendar, as well as masses and motets for special occasions.
The Latin Magnificat was required to be sung at least three times a year, on Christmas Day, Easter Sunday and Whitsunday.
He wrote a version of the Magnificat (BWV243) – the only one which still exists – in 1723, his first year in his new Leipzig post.
Considering the complexity of this music – and that he wrote the St John Passion shortly afterwards – we can only wonder at the musical skill of the choir, and particularly the nine-year-old boys who sang the high (treble) parts singing such difficult music with little rehearsal time.
Bach and his family lived in an upstairs apartment at the boarding school. After playing and conducting at church on Sunday (with services often three to four hours), Johann Sebastian would start work on the music for the following week, often finishing within a few days. The music copyists would come to his apartment on the Wednesday afternoon and then he would start rehearsals for the next Sunday.
The choir boys were chosen from throughout the region by scholarship exams. The successful few would receive food, board and education in Leipzig, a large university town in eastern Germany (in Bach’s time, about 30,000 population and a major centre of music) until, aged 20, they left the school with a small sum of money to help pay for their further education.
The school, church and choir continues the musical tradition today, 800 years after its founding, having survived the Reformation (Martin Luther nailed his theses to the church door at Wittenberg, less than 70km north of Leipzig, in 1516), the unification of Germany in 1871, wars, Nazism, Communism and the re-unification of Germany after 1990. The Nazi and subsequent Communist regimes put great value on singing and used the church choir as a showpiece, touring the choir through Eastern and Western Europe.
The school’s musical tradition was maintained and practice continued through revolution and war. Even during World War 2, when the boys were boarded outside the town, they continued to sing every Sunday in the church, where Bach’s remains are buried.
He originally wrote the Magnificat in E flat (BWV243a) for Christmas 1723 and reworked it in D major for Easter 10 years later, the form we sing today.
The Magnificat is notable for its brevity – at slightly less than 600 bars, it is considerably shorter than the Credo from Bach’s Mass in B Minor, which the City of Dunedin Choir sang last year. With the exception of the words “omnes generationes” (every generation), which receive particular treatment, each of the 12 movements represents a stanza of St Luke’s narrative of the conversation between Jesus’ mother-to-be Mary and her cousin Elizabeth. Both are pregnant – Elizabeth with the future John the Baptist and Mary somewhat surprisingly.
Elizabeth praises Mary for maintaining her faith and Mary responds: “My soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit doth rejoice in God my saviour… for behold from henceforth, all generations shall call me blessed”. The Magnificat is based on these words.
By Scott Blackwell
Don't miss City of Dunedin Choir's concert "Beauty of Baroque" where Bach's Magnificat will be the featured work. Friday 30 March, 7:30 pm in Knox Church, George Street, Dunedin
Visitation at Ein Kerem in Israel, on the site where the
meeting between Mary and Elizabeth is said to have taken
place, with Mary singing her song of praise.
Johann Sebastian Bach had risen to the high point of
his musical career when he was appointed Cantor of
the Thomasschule at St Thomas Church in Leipzig in
1723, aged 38 – the position he held for 27 years, until
his death.
Among his myriad teaching and performance responsibilities
– including choirmaster and teaching Latin at St
Thomas School, one of the oldest schools in the world
(founded 1212) – his duties also included composition:
cantatas for church services every Sunday and other
holy days in the church calendar, as well as masses and
motets for special occasions.
The Latin Magnificat was required to be sung at least
three times a year, at Christmas Day, Easter Sunday and
Whitsunday. Considering he was required to produce
these pieces at least three times a year for almost 30
years, it’s surprising then that only one Magnificat still
exists – the BWV243 in D major completed in 1733.
He originally wrote the Magnificat in E flat (BWV243a)
for Christmas 1723 and reworked it in D major
10 years later, the form we sing today, but this time for
use at Easter.
The Magnificat is notable for its brevity – at slightly
less than 600 bars, it is considerably shorter than the
Credo from Bach’s Mass in B Minor.
With the exception of the words “omnes generationes”
From the Archives (every generation), which receive particular treatment,
each of the 12 movements represents a stanza
of St Luke’s narrative of the conversation between Jesus’
mother Mary and her cousin Elizabeth. Both are
pregnant – Elizabeth with the future John the Baptist
and Mary somewhat surprisingly.
Elizabeth praises Mary for her faith and Mary sings
the Magnificat in response: “My soul doth magnify the
Lord and my spirit doth rejoice in God my saviour…
for behold from henceforth, all generations shall call
me blessed”. What a remarkable statement from a girl
in her position, pregnant, vulnerable and liable to be
punished or even stoned.
Half of the 12 movements in the Magnificat are
choruses and the others for solo voices, including a rare
alto-tenor duet.
We’ve all been intrigued during practice by the
possibility of hidden numerological significance in the
“omnes generationes” (No. 4 p. 17), perhaps relating
to the numerological value of Bach’s name, or the 41
entries of that phrase coinciding with the generations of
Jesus’ ancestry. Others postulate this is nonsense as the
phrase (“all generations shall call me blessed”) clearly
refers to future generations, not past.
Bach often included clever numerical conundrums so
we can’t rule it out.
By Scott Blackwell
Don't miss City of Dunedin Choir's concert "Beauty of Baroque" where Bach's Magnificat will be the featured work. Friday 30 March, 7:30 pm in Knox Church, George Street, Dunedin
Coming soon in the 2012 Dunedin Fringe Festival: a Dunedin Medieval and Renaissance Society production SEX *DEATH*MAGIC: Renaissance Poetry Unbound
Before reality TV, there was poetry: illicit sex and thwarted desire, queer romance and crossdressing, witchcraft, suicide, and bloody murder; Renaissance poets saw it all. Celebrate International Poetry Day with the verse of Spenser, Wyatt, Marlowe, and Shakespeare as you’ve never quite heard it before.
Mistress Hilary Norris presides over a motley but talented troupe of actors, dancers, and musicians.
Also in the 2012 Fringe Festival, featuring medieval musicians and a poetic narrative in blank verse: The Fire of Life: A Journey to the Underworld and Back
FireBugs present a spectacular theatre production using fire, dance and music in a show for all ages. The show explores the birth, theft and epic recapturing of the Fire of Life. Come with us on a quest to the Underworld to return the flame to its rightful place.
Thursday 22 March, 8.00pm Friday 23 March, 8.00pm Saturday 24 March, 8.00pm
Chingford Park, North Rd, NEV
$10/$5
Dunedin Medieval and Renaissance Society
Office 3, Lower Ground Floor, Carnegie Centre, 110 Moray Place
Email: ignatius@dunedinblog.co.nz
Phone: 021 453 191
Our Beauty of Baroque concert on March 30 includes some of the most sublime pearls from an era rich in choral glory.
Baroque music was written from about 1600 to approximately 1750, and coincided with a great growth of wealth and trade in Europe. The growth of trade led to an unprecedented sharing of ideas in science and the arts. As a result, music flourished, particularly in the great cathedrals and with a new wealthy audience of traders and tradesmen.
This era saw the birth of the industrial revolution and the chaotic growth of city states. Perhaps in reaction to the grime, ugliness and poverty of life in the burgeoning cities, the art and music of the Baroque era is of exaggerated beauty compared with the stark beauty of early Renaissance music.
The term Baroque is thought to have originated from a Portuguese word meaning an irregular shaped pearl. The new music forms were certainly radically different from earlier forms – with so much more artifice and decoration, each phrase perfumed with ornate turns and curlicues.
The term Baroque initially implied strangeness and extravagance in art. It was only applied to music of that era in the 20th century.
Opera and the orchestra were both creations of the era as were many musical forms which shaped all the European music which followed – particularly polyphonic (many voiced) forms such as the fugue and canon. Baroque music was considered as much an intellectual challenge as it was an artistic and spiritual feat.
Bach’s Magnificat (BWV 243), written in 1733, is an intellectual masterpiece, for sure, but it also a musical gem of breathtaking beauty. Handel’s Utrecht Te Deum (1713) was his first major choral work in English, and his first commission for the English Royal family, which established his career in London. And Charpentier was a prolific French composer of the late 1600s, often associated with the author Moliere, but now less well known outside France than Bach and Handel.
To raise funds for the Choir's 150th anniversary celebrations in 2013, a group of Choir members visited Larnach Castle and environs on Sunday 4 March, accompanied by professional guides Jane Edwards and Lyndsey Garden. On the itinerary for the afternoon were:
Larnach Castle grounds, a ‘Garden of International Significance’ (one of only four in NZ)
Extensive tour of castle and grounds
BYO lunch in the historic stables
Other points of interest on Otago Peninsula linked with William Larnach.
The Choir members reported they had a most enjoyable time and learned interesting facts about the life and times of William Larnach, who came to Dunedin in 1866 as manager of the Bank of Otago. He soon became quite prosperous, gathering large amounts of money
through land speculation, farming investments, and a timber business.
Between 1873 and 1887, Larnach constructed a large mansion on the ridge
of Otago Peninsula, now known as "Larnach Castle". Larnach himself took up residence in 1874.
The photos in the slide show are by Deborah Dons.
Here is what Deborah had to say about the outing:
On a very cool, sunless Dunedin morning, a good number of keen Choir members, some with family and friends, met to take the Larnach Links Tour with Larnach Castle tour guides, Jane Edwards and Lyndsey Garden. We were taken on an informative, interesting and colourful journey on Dunedin’s attractive peninsula following the life and interests of William Larnach.
The bus drove along the inner peninsula road at sea level stopping at various locations where we learnt of William’s early years in Dunedin, his attraction of the peninsula, and the challenges he endured – or at least his builders and staff – in his choice of building site and construction of the property we know as Larnach Castle. We strolled through the gardens admiring the plantings and spectacular views and toured the castle learning more of Larnach himself, his family, life in the 19th century and earlier times of the settlement of Dunedin; and of the present owners and their love for and development of the property as an historical attraction for locals and tourists alike.
We called into the charming and historic Pukehiki Church before returning to the car park at Anderson’s Bay. Altogether, we were treated to a wonderful day and the sun finally shone on us to end a great tour. I would recommend the day to everyone should the tour be offered again. Thank you Jane and Lyndsey.
If singing at choir once a week isn't enough for you, David Burchell now runs three other vocal groups which you might be interested in:
The Choir of St Joseph's Cathedral (Roman Catholic)
Rehearses 7-8:15 pm on Thursdays, and for most of the year sings twice a month at the Sunday 10am Mass (2nd and 4th Sundays); four services during Holy Week. Non-Roman Catholics are welcome; Altos, Tenors and Basses especially so! All ages 7 to 70+. A small group of Junior Choristers rehearse Thursdays 6:30-7:30pm; we're looking for new recruits!
All Saints' Church Parish Choir (Anglican)
Rehearses 6:15 - 7:30pm on selected Wednesdays, and sings roughly twice a month, at the 10:30 Mass (3rd Sunday) and at occasional weekday evening services for feast days. All voices welcome (of any religious conviction!). All ages 7 to 70+. The Choristers (children) also lead the singing at the Family Mass on the first Sunday of the month; new recruits wanted!
Saturday Morning Music: Adults' singing class
Saturdays 10:05 - 10:55am at George St School during school terms. This small group is a mixture of teenagers and adults, and we focus both on the basics of singing through unison group singing, and try our hand at some two- and three-part music too, and endeavour to have fun in the process. We would welcome more singers - complete novices welcome!
Please talk to David Burchell if you are interested in singing in any of these choirs, or contact him via info@cityofdunedinchoir.org.nz.
