Lecture:Songs of Anguish, Songs of Hope

Several weeks ago, when we were in the middle of rehearsing this program, our music director Mitchell Covington said something like "Okay everybody, take out your Bach motet " and a member of the chorus asked "What's a motet?"

That question just stopped Mitchell - and the rest of us - in our tracks. It was a genuine, not a rhetorcal, question - and it couldn't be answered in ten-words-or-less. But more importantly for us, it pointed out just how much we take for granted when we use all these musical terms without really knowing what they mean.

So the first thing I'm going to do in this lecture is tell you what a motet is ... because tonight we are singing "motets" by three different composers - and even though they were all written in the Western European tradition, by "dead white guys" - they are all pretty different.

Okay, so the one-sentence answer to "What's a motet?" could be: a sacred piece that is not an element of a liturgical service. But that's just the dry, concise, dictionary definition. As Star Trek Voyager's Seven-of-Nine would say "Insufficient."

The term "motet" first arose early in the 13th century. Its root is mot, m-o-t, which means "word" in French. In earlier centuries, sung music was basically chant. Everybody can chant. [Intone: Ohmmmmmm ... A-men ] Chants got fancier, to include more than one note [Sing: A-men ] and was embellished further by adding a line of harmony.

The "motet" was a new form that had lines of music sung with the chant line, but these additional lines had their own separate WORDS. The earliest motets had two lines sung, besides the chant line. For example: [Sing three lines of FLOS FILIUS, from bottom up.] These earliers motets - up until about 1450 - could be secular or sacred or celebratory, written to mark some notable occasion such as a wedding, an anniversary, a victory.

From about 1450 to 1600, the renaissance "motet" denoted a setting for unaccompanied voices of sacred Latin text, all the parts having the same words. So the motets that we are singing tonight, by Tomas Luis de Victoria, are settings of biblical passages. O vos omnes is from the book of Lamentations and Vere languores is from Isaiah. All four voice parts - soprano, alto, tenor, bass - sing the same words. Yet Victoria has colored these words with his uniquely haunting harmonies and his very Spanish flavored syncopations.

Ah - syncopation: Here's a phrase from O vos omnes. Victoria could have ended his phrase [Clap and sing squared alto notes: QUI TRANSITIS PER VIAM.] The main notes [*Clap] *fall *on the *beat. Instead, what he did was [Clap and sing same phrase but as Victoria composed.] The main notes do not fall * on * the beat *. Syncopation.

After 1600 the motet became a setting of sacred music that was in the prevailing style of the period - for solo, for choir, with accompaniment or without accompaniment. So the Bach Motet 5 that we do is very baroque. There is imitation, one group sings something, the other echoes. There is fugue, one voice part sings a phrase and before it finishes another enters singing the same phrase, and another on top of that. [Sing first four entrances: DER SAURE WEG.] The word "fugue" comes from "to flee, to run away" - in Italian fugire, Spanish fugarse, fuga.

In Bach's motet the text is German, and it's not biblical at all but rather excerpted from a little-known chorale-aria by a Paul Thymich, which Bach found in a hymn book. This motet is written for double chorus, and accompanied by just continuo - organ-cello-bass. "Continuo" is the shortcut for "basso continuo" or "continued bass" because those low instruments play throughout the whole piece.

The motet that we sing from the early 20th century, by Englishman Charles Villiers Stanford sort of hearkens back to earlier periods. Like renaissance motets, this one is written for unaccompanied voices. It has Latin text from Psalm 119, and all parts are singing the same words. But this piece written for six lines - soprano 1, soprano 2, alto, tenor, baritone, and bass - and often the voices are divided into two groups - women's voices and men's voices. These subgroups sing in trios that are much like the earliest form of the motet - a chant line with two other more florid lines woven around it.

Over this eclectic structure Stanford has cast his unique genius of setting a mood. The text of Psalm 119 reads "Blessed are the undefiled, who walk in the way of the Lord." Religions can depict a God of fear (Blessed are the UNDEFILED who walk in the WAY OF THE LORD) or a God of love (BLESSED are the undefiled who walk in the way of the Lord). Stanford clearly has chosen the kindler, gentler option. He stresses the word "beati" ("blessed") and the light, flowing treatment of the word "ambulant" suggests that walking in the way of the Lord isn't that hard, in fact, it's sort of nice.

Besides motets, we are also doing a cantata. So how is a cantata different from a motet? The word "cantata" just means "sung" (Cantare, cantar = to sing) - as opposed to played. The cantata appeared in the 17th century, as an extended secular work for one or two voices with accompaniment. It had different, contrasting sections of recitatives and arias - sort of like opera, except it wasn't staged.

The cantata then developed to include settings of religions texts. The cantata is most often associated with J.S. Bach, because he wrote hundreds of them, that are still being performed and recorded. In Germany the Lutheran chorale was introduced into the cantata so the "audience," who knew these popular hymns, could actually sing along.

The Bach Cantata 131 that we sing tonight, Aus der tiefen is based on text from Psalm 130: "Out of the depths I have cried unto thee." It's a little different from the typical Bach cantata, which usually starts off with a fairly long, elaborate opening chorus followed by several sections for soloists - sometimes aria, sometimes recitative, sometimes duets - and ends with a 4-part chorale. Great music but not much work for the chorus. We choristers like this Cantata 131 because it has three big choruses, separated by two shorter duets. A lot more fun for us - our feet don't hurt so much when we're singing.

What else are we doing? Well, while we are not singing a whole passion tonight, we will perform the second movement of an obscure work, Carl Heinrich Graun's passion Ein Laemmlein geht (A little lamb passes on).

What is a passion? In the 12th century, passions started out as plainsong accounts of the suffering and death of Christ, as written in the gospels - the Easter story, before the happy ending. It was performed by three singers who recited the parts of Christ, the Evangelist, and the crowd.

By the 15th century you had a "crowd" that was actually sung by a crowd, a whole chorus, in several-part harmony. And by Bach's time, early 18th century, not only were Lutheran chorales included, contemplative poems in the form of chorales and arias were introduced - so that the listener could take a step back from the story and just think about what it all meant.

Bach's St. John and St. Matthew Passions (written in 1723 and 1729, respectively) are considered the final flowering of this development. By the way - plug plug plug - BCG will be performing the St. Matthew Passion on June 9 & 10 next year.

I've talked about the pieces on the program that come under the category motet, cantata, and passion. That leaves three works yet unclassified. All of these remaining pieces come under the broad category of "liturgical works." Liturgy is a church service that has a fixed format, with prescribed prayers and readings. Since the greatest opportunity for musicians in those days was a church job, writing music for church services was a composer's bread-and-butter. That's why there are so many different "Masses," for instance Mozart's Grand Mass, Bach's B minor Mass, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, Haydn's Mass in Time of War ...

The liturgical works we perform tonight are: