Welcome to Harmonia…I’m Angela Mariani. ‘Tis the season in which many of us roll out the sugar cookies, decorate the tree, and wrap the gifts. For those who celebrate Christmas, it is usually a time for family, celebration, and worship. This year will be a bit different for many of us. Some of us have suffered loss, and some of us struggle with seeking a balance between the desire to spend time with our loved ones and doing whatever needs to be done to keep each other safe. Either way, we often turn to music, which can wrap us up in its comforting warmth. This hour, baroque music composed for the Christmas season, stitched together into a kind of pastiche oratorio quilt... Plus, medieval Christmas music performed by Gothic Voices.
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MUSIC TRACK
J.S. Bach Christmas Oratorio
Symphony of Harmony and Invention / The Sixteen / Harry Christophers, cond.
Coro, Sixteen Productions 2003 / B000QZUSBK
Johann Sebastian Bach
DISC 1, Tr. 10: Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248, Part II: Sinfonia (4:52)
The Pastorale from J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. We’ll hear more of Bach’s version of the Christmas story in the second half of the program.
Christmastime is normally a season full of celebration, family, and festivities—and for Christians, it marks the birth of Christ. For centuries, the story of the birth of baby Jesus has been told through music—and in the seventeenth century, that often meant cantatas, motets, and oratorios. We find the first “square” of this hour’s musical holiday quilt in Italy with a cantata for Christmas eve by Alessandro Stradella. An interesting note -- in his day, Stradella may have been as well known for his bad behavior as he was for his good compositions. He attempted to embezzle money from the Catholic church, and when he was caught, Stradella fled to Venice where he soon had an affair with his boss’ mistress. In earlier days, while still in Rome--and more or less behaving himself--he composed one of the earliest of his 174 surviving cantatas: per il Santissimo Natale.
MUSIC TRACK
Cantata per il Santissimo Natale
La Magnifica Comunità ; Enrico Casazza, dir.
Brilliant Classics 2011
Alessandro Stradella
Tr. 7 Cantata per il Santissimo Natale (Christmas Cantata): Con insoliti e chiari splendori (2:29)
Tr. 8 Cantata per il Santissimo Natale (Christmas Cantata): Se la grega mansueta (1:01)
Tr. 9 Cantata per il Santissimo Natale (Christmas Cantata): Temer più non lice (2:54)
Music from Alessandro Stradella’s Christmas Cantata. Enrico Casazza led La Magnifica Comunità and singers Christina Miatello, Caterina Calvi, and Roberto Abbondanza. Moving north to France, Marc-Antoine Charpentier tells the nativity story with elegant airs and recitatives. Here, in Salve, puerile, 6-part choir, strings, and organ welcome the baby Jesus.
MUSIC TRACK
Pastorale de Noël
Les Arts Florissants (Orchestra and Choir) / dir. William Christie
Harmonia Mundi 2011 / B01FPB2TXO
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Tr. 18. In nativitatem Domini nostri Jesu Christi canticum, H. 414: Salve, puerile (6:24)
Salve, puerile from Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Christmas motet Canticum in nativitatem Domini. William Christie led Les Arts Florissants Orchestra and Choir in this music composed for Christmas eve.
You can hear highlights from recent and archival concert recordings of early music on Harmonia Uncut -- our biweekly podcast, curated and hosted by Wendy Gillespie. Listen online at harmonia early music dot org and through iTunes.
You’re listening to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani.
Mid Break:
MUSIC TRACK
Cantata per il Santissimo Natale
La Magnifica Comunità ; Enrico Casazza, dir.
Brilliant Classics 2011
Alessandro Stradella
Excerpt of Tr. 18 Sinfonia in F Major (1:00)
Welcome back! This hour we’re creating a musical patchwork quilt by stitching together excerpts from various baroque works composed for the Christmas season. For some, it can be tempting to take down the lights and put away the tree ornaments on December 26, but Christmas is a twelve-day holiday. We’ll hear music for the third day of Christmas. Here is Gottfried Heinrich Stözel’s cantata “Great indeed is the Godly mystery,” written for the Thuringian court.
MUSIC TRACK
Homilius, Stölzel & Rolle: Christmas Cantatas
Kölner Akademie Orchestra and Choir / cond. Michael Alexander Willens
Naxos 2016 / B01MT4GN7X
Gottfried Heinrich Stözel
Tr. 5 Kündlich groß ist das gottselige Geheimnis: Kündlich groß ist das gottselige Geheimnis (Choir) (1:38)
Tr. 6 Kündlich groß ist das gottselige Geheimnis: Aria: Geheimnisvolle Worte (Soprano) (1:57)
Tr. 7 Kündlich groß ist das gottselige Geheimnis: Chorale: Der Sohn des Vaters (0:46)
Tr. 8 Kündlich groß ist das gottselige Geheimnis: Aria: Dies Geheimnis führt und treibt uns (Alto) (0:57)
Tr. 9 Kündlich groß ist das gottselige Geheimnis: Chorale: Gib uns, o Jes (0:51)
Gottfried Heinrich Stözel’s Christmas cantata “Great indeed is the Godly mystery.” Michael Alexander Willens conducted the Kölner Akademie Orchestra and Choir. Johann Sebastian Bach’s well-loved Christmas Oratorio—really six separate cantatas—was designed to be heard on Christmas feast days as part of services at Leipzig’s St. Thomas Lutheran Church. With its fanfare of flutes, oboes, trumpets, drums, and strings, the opening chorus of the first cantata is especially celebratory. It begins “Rejoice, exult, praise these days!”, closely followed by the alto aria “Prepare yourself, Zion.”
MUSIC TRACK
J.S. Bach Christmas Oratorio
Mainz Bach Orchestra / Ralf Otto, cond.
Naxos 2018 / B07GWSQJL8
Johann Sebastian Bach
DISC 1, Tr. 1: Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248, Part I: Jauchzet, frohlocket (Chorus) (7:30)
DISC 1, Tr. 4: Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248, Part I: Aria: Bereite dich, Zion (Alto) (5:25)
The Alto aria “Prepare yourself, Zion” and the opening chorus from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, “Rejoice, exult, praise these days!” The Mainz Bach Orchestra and soloists were led by Ralf Otto.
The snow outside blankets city streets with quiet. As you sip eggnog in front of the fireplace, a sound in the distance gets closer—it’s carolers! They’re singing “Come, oh wise one,” or in Latin, “O veni, sapientia,” a version of the more familiar “Oh come, Emmanuel.” In this case, our carolers are the ensemble Gothic voices, and the music is from our featured release, Nowell synge we bothe all and som.
MUSIC TRACK
Nowell synge we bothe al and som
Gothic Voices
Linn Records 2019 / B07XW5VD38
Anonymous
Tr. 1 Veni, O sapientia (2:48)
“Veni, sapientia,” a tune many also know as “O Come Emmanuel,” performed by singers Catherine King, Steven Harrold, Julian Podger, and Stephen Carlsworth. Like “Oh come Emmanuel,” many carols for the Christmas season have been sung for hundreds of years. On their 2019 album Nowell synge we bothe al and som, vocal ensemble Gothic Voices bring to life Christmas music from Medieval England. The recording includes both well-loved and little-known tunes sung both in Latin and Middle English. In “Marvel not Joseph,” the Virgin Mary’s husband Joseph wonders in amazement at his wife’s pregnancy. He is enlightened by an angel who tells him that mild Mary is both “mother and maid,” and is carrying the Christ child.
MUSIC TRACK
Nowell synge we bothe al and som
Gothic Voices
Linn Records 2019 / B07XW5VD38
Anonymous
Tr. 9 Mervele not, Joseph (4:10)
Gothic Voices performed the medieval carol, “Marvel not, Joseph.” Many carols tell the Christmas story, but still others involve biblical figures such as the angel Gabriel, Joseph, and Mary Magdalene, in addition to extolling the virtues of the Virgin Mary. Our carolers walk away into the snowy night singing, “There is no rose of such virtue” and “Angelus ad Virginem,” and if the latter sounds familiar, you might check your volume of Chaucer before you return to decorating your gingerbread house.
MUSIC TRACK
Nowell synge we bothe al and som
Gothic Voices
Linn Records 2019 / B07XW5VD38
Anonymous
Tr. 17 Ther is no rose of swych virtu (3:03)
Tr. 2 Angelus ad virginem (3:04)
“There is no rose of such virtue” and “Angelus ad virginem,” performed by Gothic Voices, from their 2019 album of Medieval Christmas Carols: Nowell synge we bothe al and som.
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Harmonia is a production of WFIU. Support comes from Early Music America: a national organization that advocates and supports the historical performance of music of the past, the community of artists who create it, and the listeners whose lives are enriched by it...on the web at EarlyMusicAmerica-DOT-org.
Additional resources come from the William and Gayle Cook Music Library at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
We welcome your thoughts about any part of this program, or about early music in general. Contact us at harmonia early music dot org. And, you can follow our Facebook page and our updates on Twitter by searching for Harmonia Early Music.
The writer for this edition of Harmonia was Sarah Huebsch Schilling. Thanks to our studio engineer Michael Paskash, and our production team: Aaron Cain, Wendy Gillespie, LuAnn Johnson, and John Bailey. I’m Angela Mariani, inviting you to join us again for the next edition of Harmonia.
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