Choral

Bach’s “Osanna in Excelsis”: Celebrating a Milestone at The Listeners’ Club

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We begin the year by celebrating a milestone at The Listeners’ Club. This is our 2,000th post. I have enjoyed exploring all of this music with you during these years, and I look forward to continuing the journey. For today, I have selected the brief and festive Osanna in excelsis (“Hosanna in the highest”) which opens the fourth section of Bach’s Mass in B minor, BWV 232. Set in 3/8 time, its lively forward …

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John Adams’ “El Niño”: “A Palm Tree”

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By coincidence, a recent post exploring John Adams’ El Niño was published on the 25th anniversary of the work’s premiere in Paris on December 15, 2000. Now, let’s return to El Niño to hear the nativity oratorio’s surreal final moments. In the drama, Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus are on the road to Egypt. They flee the persecution of King Herod, who has decreed that the child be killed. A setting of a poem …

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Arnold Bax’ “I Sing of a Maiden that is Makeless”: The Choir of Westminster Abbey

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Anonymously penned, the 15th century poem, I syng of a mayden, is a mystical meditation on the Annunciation and Nativity of Christ. Elements of Elizabethan polyphony blend with dreamy chromaticism in English composer Arnold Bax’ 1923 five-part a cappella setting of the text. As the five verses unfold, the majestic melody gives way to variation, only to return in the triumphant final moments. This 2017 recording features The Choir of Westminster Abbey, …

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Vivaldi’s “Gloria”: A Celebratory Drama

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Antonio Vivaldi was 24 years old when, in September of 1703, he was first employed as maestro di violino at Venice’s Ospedale della Pietà. Located near the Piazza San Marco, the Ospedale della Pietà was a generously endowed orphanage for girls, the most talented of whom received an exceptional music education. Describing the calibre of the performances, French scholar Charles de Brosses wrote in 1739, “The girls sing like angels, and play …

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John Adams’ “El Niño”: Five Excerpts from the Nativity Oratorio

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Composed in 1999, John Adams’ nativity oratorio, El Niño (“the child”), is a meditation on the nature of miracles. Based on the New Testament gospels, which Adams celebrates as “little more than long sequences of miracles,” the narrative structure is similar to that of Handel’s Messiah. Adams writes, Narrative passages alternate with arias and choruses that meditate or reflect on the principal themes. Among those could be mentioned the mystery of the Conception and …

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Eric Whitacre’s “I Thank You God For Most This Amazing Day”: A Joyous Setting of E. E. Cummings

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“i thank You God for most this amazing day is such a beautiful and joyous poem that the music was at times almost effortless,” writes American composer Eric Whitacre (b. 1970). The shimmering a cappella choral setting of e.e. cummings’ poetic prayer concludes Whitacre’s Three Songs of Faith, composed in 1999. In this work, the vibrant sound of the human voice becomes an expression of ecstasy. Celestial aspiring lines and bright, sensuous …

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Barber’s “To Be Sung on the Water”: Conspirare

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Themes of loneliness, isolation, and loss emerge in the late works of Samuel Barber. One of the most poignant examples can be heard in To Be Sung on the Water, Op. 42, an a cappella setting of a poem by Louise Bogan (1897-1970). Composed in December of 1968, the music unfolds over an ostinato which suggests the gentle, hypnotic motion of a rowboat through the night. We become aware of the persistent flow …

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