SFCV Review: When the Audience is the Congregation

by Anna Carol Dudley

This review appeared in the February 10, 2009 edition of San Francisco Classical Voice.

Heinrich Schütz suggested that his Musikalische Exequien could be a substitute for a German mass. Warren Stewart has taken him at his word, incorporating the work into a full-length church service. Stewart’s Magnificat, complete with two organs, a continuo group, and eight singers (including a preacher and a deacon), performed the mass Saturday night at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Berkeley. The so-called audience served as congregation, joining in on some verses of the chorales.

Nowadays, chorales are called hymns, and in American churches are usually sung in English. The congregation was invited to applaud at the end, but that increasingly happens routinely in American church services. And lo, nobody was turned away for not singing or not knowing German or not caring much for sermons. In fact, the congregation seemed to enjoy singing chorale verses and listening to the more elaborate verse settings. Preacher Hummel chanted the Epistle and spoke the sermon in German, risking encouragement of the traditional practice of sleeping through the sermon.

Schütz, born a hundred years before J.S. Bach, was a prolific composer. Greatly esteemed in his own time, he retained a sort of connoisseurs’ fame long after musical tastes had changed, and now his music — all available in good modern editions — is as highly regarded as it ever has been.

A Splendid Team, Artfully Deployed

The Musikalische Exequien is a masterwork, and Magnificat gave it superb voice. Every singer rose magnificently to the occasion: tenor Martin Hummel (the preacher) and bass Hugh Davies (the deacon), tenor Paul Elliott and bass Peter Becker, altos Daniel Hutchings and Kristen Dubenion Smith, and sopranos Ruth Escher and Jennifer Paulino.

The work (whose opening was preceded by unison chanting of an introit from the Psalms) began with the extraordinary “Nakket bin ich von Mutterleibe kommen” (Naked I came out of my mother’s womb). The tenor preacher began with a solo line, to be joined by the other male voices, followed by the full sextet, then by a two-soprano duet. And so the music continued, weaving from the eight distinctive voices a tapestry of small ensembles, flashes of solo singing, and full choral sound, and ending on a text by Martin Luther with all eight singers.

“Exequien” (obsequies) are burial masses, but this mass was commissioned by the widow of Prince Heinrich Reuss Posthumus, and the text was not the usual mass, but rather a collection of scriptural verses from both Old and New Testaments, plus quotations from several Protestant leaders, Luther prominent among them. One of my personal favorite moments in the great feast of sound was a duet by the two basses, who sang of life’s labor and sorrow but “delighted therein.” And the Messiah-singing soprano in me was charmed by a tenor rendition of the German text that translates as “I know that my Redeemer liveth.”

Schütz included two motets in the Musicalische Exequien. The singers moved into two quartets to sing the polychoral “Herr, wenn ich nur dich habe” (Lord, if I only have you). The second motet was a setting of two separate texts. From the front of the church a quintet (altos, tenors and one bass) sang “Lord, now let Thy servant depart in peace,” and at the back, two sopranos and a bass sang “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord” — a lovely antiphonal moment.

The continuo players were Katherine Heater on organ, John Dornenburg on violone, and David Tayler on mandora (a kind of lute). Davitt Moroney, at the back of the sanctuary, played the splendid St. Mark’s Flentrop organ. He provided elaborate chorale introductions by Scheidt, Schein and Praetorius, and began and ended the service with a ricercar prelude and a toccata postlude, both by Johann Jacob Froberger.

Davitt Moroney to Perform with Magnificat

For our performances in February, Magnificat will be joined by organist Davitt Moroney who will perform works by Froberger, Scheidt, and others. Magnificat worked with Davitt last summer in two memorable performances at the Berkeley Early Music Festival.

Davitt was born in England in 1950. He studied organ, clavichord, and harpsichord with Susi Jeans, Kenneth Gilbert and Gustav Leonhardt. For over twenty years he was based in Paris, working primarily as a freelance recitalist in many countries. In 2001 he moved to California as a faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is Professor of Music, University Organist, and Director of the University Baroque Ensemble.

His scholarly career started with a study of the vocal music of Thomas Tallis and William Byrd for his doctoral thesis (UC Berkeley, 1980), and has ranged widely over repertoires from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, with particular attention to the music of Byrd, Bach, and various members of the Couperin family. His many scholarly editions include Bach’s The Art of Fugue with his own completion of the final unfinished fugue (Henle, 1989), the complete harpsichord works of Louis Couperin (1985) and of Louis Marchand (1987), as well as the collection of harpsichord pieces by Purcell discovered in 1994, now known as the “Purcell Manuscript” (1999). His monograph Bach, An Extraordinary Life—a short introduction to the composer’s life and works—was published by ABRSM Publishing in 2000 and has since been translated into French, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Romanian, and Dutch. In 2005 he rediscovered Alessandro Striggio’s long-lost Mass in 40 and 60 Parts, dating from 1565-66; he conducted the first modern performance of this massive work at London’s Royal Albert Hall in July 2007 and conducted two further performances at the Berkeley Early Music Festival in June 2008. His recent published articles have been studies of the music of François Couperin and Alessandro Striggio. This year he is also visiting director of a research seminar in Paris at the Sorbonne’s École pratique des hautes études.

His international performing career has lead him in recent years to give organ and harpsichord masterclasses at the Paris Conservatoire, the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire, the Juilliard School in New York, and Oberlin Conservatory, as well as in South Korea, Finland, Belgium, and Switzerland. Other recent concerts have included recitals in Germany, Holland, Italy, England, and Scotland. He is regularly invited as a jury member for international organ and harpsichord competitions.

He has made nearly sixty commercial CDs, especially of music by Bach, Byrd, and various members of the Couperin family. Many of these recordings feature historic organs and harpsichords dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. His recordings include several devoted to Henry Purcell, including the first recording of the “Purcell Manuscript” (Virgin). He has also recorded Bach’s French Suites (two CDs; Virgin), The Well tempered Clavier (four CDs; Harmonia Mundi), the Musical Offering (with Janet See and John Holloway; Harmonia Mundi), the complete Bach sonatas for flute and harpsichord (with Janet See; Harmonia Mundi) and for violin and harpsichord (with John Holloway; Virgin), as well as The Art of Fugue (a work he has recorded twice). Among his most substantial recordings are William Byrd’s complete keyboard works (127 pieces, on seven CDs, using six instruments; Hyperion), as well as the complete harpsichord and organ music of Louis Couperin (over 200 pieces, on seven CDs, using four historic instruments). His recent recordings include: the complete harpsichord works of Louis Marchand and Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (Plectra, 2007), a CD that includes Nicolas Lebègue’s Les Cloches; a two-CD album of pieces from “The Borel Manuscript” (Plectra, 2008), comprising pieces from a recently discovered manuscript of French harpsichord music acquired in 2004 by UC Berkeley’s Hargrove Music Library; and the first of a 10-CD series devoted to the complete harpsichord works of François Couperin (234 pieces).

His recordings have been awarded the French Grand Prix du Disque (1996), the German Preis der Deutschen Schallplatenkritik (2000), and three British Gramophone Awards (1986, 1991, 2000). In 1987 he was named Chevalier dans l’Ordre du mérite culturel by Prince Rainier of Monaco and, in 2000, Officier des arts et des lettres by the French government.

Martin Hummel Returns for Magnificat Concerts

It is always a pleasure to welcome German baritone Martin Hummel back for another Magnificat set. I first met Martin in 1980, when he was still a teenager. I had met his brother Cornelius (a very fine cellist) at the Aspen Music Festival, and ended up staying with his family in Würzburg over the Christmas vacation. I had gone to Germany to work with composer Karlheinz Stockhausen on a cello transcription of his work In Freundschaft (this was before my conversion to baroque cello!) I remember being charmed by Martin's voice as he sang christmas carols and folk song, accompanying himself on guitar. 

Many years later I saw his name on a recording on Schütz's Weihnachtshistorie (the definitive recording of that work, by the way) and set about finding him. Martin sang the Evangelist role of the Weihnachtshistorie in Magnificat's first season in December of 1992. Two years later he returned for Schütz's Auferstehungshistorie. He has been back three times since, and it is always a pleasure.

Martin was born into a musical family and had his training in Würzburg and at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Kurt Widmer and René Jacobs. He further continued his music study with Margaret Hönig, Peter Schreier, Julia Hamari, Hans Hotter, and others. After his studies, Martin Hummel embarked on a career of song recitals and concerts that has taken him to a number of European countries, to the USA, and to Asia. He has taken part in first performances under leading conductors, and has undertaken broadcasts and television engagements, in addition to his recordings for major record companies. He teaches at the Würzburg and Bayreuth Musikhochschule.

Welcome back Martin!

Heinrich Schütz's "Slight Work"

"This slight work consists of only three pieces... anyone liking this work of mine may find that it can be used to good effect as a substitute for a German Missa, and possibly for the Feast of the Purification..."

Thus did Heinrich Schütz hope to give the three pieces he composed for the funeral of Prince Heinrich Reuss Posthumus a life beyond their specific commission. Our intention in this program is to realize Schütz's suggestion, and incorporate the three pieces known collectively as the Musikalische Exequien, along with music by Schütz’s musical colleagues, into a Lutheran Mass for the Feast of the Purification, following the liturgical practice of the Dresden Court Chapel of the mid-1630s.

Shortly after the death of the prince in December 1635, Schütz received a commission from the widow to set the nearly two dozen scriptural verses and chorale strophes that the prince had ordered engraved on the copper coffin in which he was interred. Not only the choice of texts but also their order was prescribed, presenting Schütz with the formidable task of devising a coherent musical structure from an disparate array of texts. His ingenious solution to the architectural and musical problems was to manipulate the texts into "the form of a German Burial Mass", parsing them so as to paraphrase the Kyrie and Gloria. Thus resulted one of his finest masterpieces, the vocal concerto for six voices and continuo Nakket bin ich von Mutterleibe kommen (SWV 279). Schütz also provided two motets for the funeral service, one a setting of the verses from Psalm 73 which served as the sermon text, Herr, wenn ich nur dich habe (SWV 280), the other a setting of the Canticle of Simeon, Herr, nun leßestu deinen Deiner in Friede fahren (SWV 281), which the prince wished to have sung during the interment of his coffin. The three works were later published together in an elegant edition as the Musikalische Exequien.

Fulfillment and farewell are the themes of the Feast of the Purification, also called the Presentation in the Temple, which commemorates the presentation of the Christ child by Mary, in fulfillment of Jewish law. The central figure in the event is the old man Simeon, who after a long life of waiting has the joy of taking in his arms the child whom he recognizes as the promised one. The Canticle of Simeon, as recorded in Luke, "Lord, now let your servant depart in peace...” expresses the old man's joyful acceptance of death and welcome to a new life. This feast, with its intersection of welcome and farewell, union and separation, was a traditional day for funerals for German nobility in the 17th century and, in fact, was the date that marked the beginning of the funeral observances that included the first performance of the Musikalische Exequien. Thus, Schütz's suggestion of Purification as an appropriate feast on which to use his "slight work" is not surprising.

Our reconstruction follows the order of service for the Feast of the Purification described in the Ordung der Christlichen deutschen Gesänge so auf alle Fest- und Soontagsevangelia gerichtet und in der SchloßKirchen zu Dreßden gesungen werden... 1581, which was the basis for liturgical practice in Saxony throughout the first half of the seventeenth century We have also used this document as a source for the prayers and readings, and to determine which chorales were sung. The chorale melodies are drawn from the Dresden hymnal published by Gimel Bergen in 1625 and 1632, while their harmonizations are adapted from publications by Samuel Scheidt, Michael Praetorius, and Johann Hermann Schein. In common with all Reformation chapel orders, the Dresden liturgy allowed for considerable flexibility in many details of the service, reflecting Luther's desire to create a liturgy that remained responsive to local tradition and developing interpretation. The resulting structures form a beautiful setting for a wide variety of music, from the simple folk-song derived chorales to the latest Italian concerted style.

Mass begins with an organ prelude and an introit, sung to accompany the entry of the clergy. The Kyrie and Gloria followed immediately, paraphrased in our program by the first part of the Musikalische Exequien. The pair of readings, proper to the feast day, which followed were retained essentially unchanged from the pre-Reformation church, and established the themes for the entire service. The Gradual, sung between the two readings in the pre-Reformation church, was replaced in Lutheran practice by congregational hymns that varied according to the season. Purification was the last day on which the Christmas Gradual-Lied Gelobet seistu Jesus Christ was sung.

Luther encouraged the continued use of Latin alongside the vernacular and so the Dresden chapel order calls for either the Latin and the German Credo, and typically Luther's metrical paraphrase "Wir gläuben all in einen Gott" was sung by the congregation in unison. The first and third strophes of Luther’s chorale will be sung by the congregation in our program, while the second strophe is drawn from Schütz’s second collection of Kleine Geistliche Konzerte, published in 1639. After the German Credo a motet was often sung, and it is here that we have placed the second part of Schütz's Musikalische Exequien.

A chorale verse, the Our Father, and a recitation of the text on which the sermon was based, most often, the gospel of the day, introduced the sermon. We will perform the recitation of the Sermon text in a setting by Schein that employs a technique known as falso bordone, a type of harmonized chant. A polyphonic setting of that same text often followed the sermon, and the third part of the Musikalische Exequien serves perfectly in this role. A chorale, benedictory prayer, and blessing follow. Luther's chorale Mit Fried und Freud, a paraphrase of the Canticle of Simeon, was universally associated with Purification, and served as the basis for Michael Prætorius's motet that will conclude our program. The three musical jewels that are the Musikalische Exequien fit gracefully into this noble setting so beloved by Schütz, enriching the liturgy even as the liturgy reveals their most profound beauty.