Anguish and Hope

Antonio Lotti (1667-1740) began studies in Venice with Legrenzi and by 1689 was a regular alto in the chorus of San Marco. He advanced through the musical ranks and was named primo maestro di cappella in 1736, a position he held until his death. Lotti composed choral works, solo motets, oratorios, and operas. He was able to skillfully bridge the Late Baroque to the Early Classical periods, and his work was highly regarded by music critics during his time and even a century beyond. In his "Crucifixus," Lotti uses overlapping vocal lines, repetitions, and expanding intervals to convey lamentation and inexorable grief.

Tomas Luis de Victoria's (1548-1611) great stature as a composer is remarkable considering the small size of his output. Unlike other composers of his period, Victoria wrote no secular music known to us today and set only Latin texts. He was critical of the music he did write, as evidenced by his countless revisions; hence the small number of works and the consistent quality of inspiration and craftsmanship that they demonstrate. Victoria could imbue music with a quality of mystical intensity as in the tragic settings of his motets "O vos omnes" with its chains of dissonant suspensions and "Vere languores nostros" with its subtle harmonies and syncopations.

Carl Heinrich Graun (1703-1759) served as principal composer for the Berlin Opera under King Frederick the Great. As the king's favorite, Graun gave up a measure of independence, and the composer's compliance to his patron's musical tastes earned him much criticism from his peers. He exhibited more freedom of expression in his church music. His passion Der Tod Jesu was so popular that for a century it was regarded much as Handel's Messiah is today. "Führwahr er trug unsre Krankheit" is a chorus from Ein Lämmlein geht, an earlier, unpublished passion written around 1735. Suspended notes in the vocal lines and throbbing orchestral accompaniment give this work its sense of anguish.

Johann Sebastian Bach's (1685-1750) career is traced through his principal appointments. During his Weimar period (1708-1717), Bach wrote most of his important organ works; and he spent the happiest period of his career (1718-1723) in Cšthen, composing works almost exclusively for the court - concertos, inventions, sonatas, and suites, including the Brandenburg Concertos and the Well-Tempered Clavier. In Leipzig from 1723 until his death 27 years later, Bach composed oratorios, hundreds of cantatas, and those three exemplars of Baroque style, the Goldberg Variations the Musical Offering, and the Art of the Fugue.
Cantata 131, "Aus der Tiefen," written just before Bach moved to Weimar, has Psalm 130 as its primary text. The opening chorus begins like a dirge but, not wallowing in despair, quickly moves to an energetic plea for attention. Two duet arias express conflicting emotions with the lower voice singing in agitated impatience while the upper voice intones a chorale of steady reassurance. The final chorus is a firm statement of faith.

Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) received his early musical education in his native Ireland, continued his studies in England at Queens' College, Cambridge, and became a professor of composition and orchestral conducting both there and at the Royal College of Music. Prolific as a composer in many musical forms, Stanford influenced English music substantially, revitalizing English church music and setting new standards for choral music. The third of his Three Motets (1905), "Beati quorum via" exhibits the composer's melodic inventiveness and genius for capturing the mood of a text, and his word painting in pure, gently floating lines clearly suggests those "who walk in the law of the Lord."

Gregoria Allegri (1582-1652) was an Italian priest who began his musical career as a boy chorister and then from 1600 to 1607 studied composition with Nanino, a follower of Palestrina. Allegri worked as a singer and composer at several cathedrals before becoming a singer in the Papal Choir under Pope Urban VIII in 1629. One of his few surviving works is the celebrated Miserere, a setting of Psalm 51, which the Papal Choir has sung during Holy Week ever since it was written. In it, Allegri has transformed the basic form of a five-part chant by interpolating ornamental passages for a second four-voice choir, whose first soprano soars up to a high C. These passages were for centuries a closely guarded secret of the Papal Choir.

J.S. Bach wrote Motet 4, "Komm, Jesu, komm," during his first decade in Leipzig. The only one of his six motets that uses no passages from the Bible, it sets two stanzas of a chorale-like aria by Paul Thymich. The opening section is a poignant entreaty expressing a longing for death. However, instead of despair, the work moves the listener to peaceful resignation as it closes in an aria that glows with warmth and hope.

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) is identified with the city of Venice, where he was appointed maestro di cappella at San Marco (1613) and enjoyed a long and prosperous career. Beatus vir, Psalm 112, is an example of his seconda prattica, a term he used to describe his new style exploiting solo instruments and voices. This work exhibits all the Venetian contrasts of rhythm, texture, and dynamics. It alternates among tutti sections with all six voice parts and full orchestra, duets for equal voices including particularly virtuosic duets for the violins, quartets contrasting two high voices and two low voices, and various other groupings.