Welcome to Harmonia…I’m Angela Mariani.
Our musical journey this week leads us to Dresden: known as the “Jewel of Saxony” for its Baroque and Rococo architecture. Through many long ages, the city of Dresden remained one of the cultural centers of Germany, enduring through a long history that also included calamities like the Black Death and the extensive destruction that resulted from the Allied bombing of the city during World War 2. Dresden was especially famous for its music scene—in fact, part of Bach’s famous B minor mass was written essentially as a job application for a prestigious gig at the court of the Elector of Saxony. For our purposes this hour, though, we’ll explore music a bit earlier than Bach, performed by the city’s Renaissance wind bands, and two generations of Dresden Kapellmeisters—Hassler, Praetorius, and Schütz. Plus, our featured release is Mare Balticum, volume two: Medieval Finland and Sweden, by Ensemble Peregrina.
[Theme music fades]
MUSIC TRACK
Widmann: Musicalischer Tugendtspiegel / Praetorius: Terpsichore
Accademia del Ricercare / cond. Pietro Busca
CPO 2016 / B01FEGXGNC
Michael Praetorius
Tr. 16 Terpsichore: Ballet – Ballet des Amazones (2:33)
Tr. 21 Terpsichore: Volte (2:12)
Two Renaissance-era dances: Ballet des Amazones and Volte by Michael Praetorius, from his famous 1612 collection of dance music called Terpsichore. We’ll hear more music from Terpsichore later on.
After the Black plague ravaged Dresden in the mid-fourteenth century, a rich wind instrument music tradition emerged. Stadpfeifers, town bands, gathered to help the city keep time, to raise the alarm, and for special events. By the time Johann Walter started work for the Duke of Saxony in 1548, Dresden employed wind bands for civic and religious occasions. Johann Walter wrote for these wind ensembles and voice. You may also have heard of Walter if you’re a fan of astronomy—there’s an asteroid named after him, discovered at the Tautenburg Observatory in Thuringia, Germany in 1992. Let’s hear Walter’s German Credo.
MUSIC TRACK
Luther's Wedding Day
Capella de la Torre / Katharina Bäuml
Challenge Classics 2013 / B00GYKTT0C
Johann Walter
Tr. 7. Das Patrem deutsch Wir glauben all an einen Gott (4:57)
Katarina Bäuml led Capella de la Torre in Johann Walter’s German Credo setting.
Over a generation after Walter, Dresden’s electors and churches were still hiring top organists and composers. Hans Leo Hassler’s time in Dresden was shorter than he hoped—he died of tuberculous after only four years as Kapellmeister. Hassler’s lieder for a new “German Pleasure Garden” bring together solo voice with rich instrumental accompaniment. We’ll hear the sweet song “My mind is confused” -- and if the tune sounds familiar, it is the melody of the chorale O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden. That’s followed by the lively balleto “Dance and jump,” whose melody--so similar to Thomas Morley’s “Sing We and Chant it,” gives away the strong influence madrigalists like Morley and his contemporaries.
MUSIC TRACK
Hans Leo Hassler: Sacred and Secular Music
Currende Vocal Ensemble / Currende Instrumental Ensemble / Erik van Nevel, cond.
Etcetera 2010 / B004H4MNX2
Hans Leo Hassler
CD 2 Tr. 17 Lustgarten neuer teutscher: Gesang, Balletti, Galliarden, und Intraden (excerpts): Mein Gmuth ist mir verwirret (4:42)
CD 2 Tr. 18 Lustgarten neuer teutscher: Gesang, Balletti, Galliarden, und Intraden (excerpts): Tanzen und springen (2:13)
Two pieces whose titles can be translated as “Dance and jump,” and before that, “My mind is confused”— from the 1601 lieder collection “Lustgarten neuer teutscher, “A Pleasure Garden of New German Song,” by Dresden composer Hans Leo Hassler. Erik van Nevel led Currende Vocal and Instrumental Ensembles.
When Hassler passed away, Heinrich Schütz and Michael Praetorius took over the Dresden music director position. Schütz spent much of his professional life in Dresden, although he did take a couple of sabbaticals in Venice to brush up his compositional skill in the popular Italian style, studying with Giovanni Gabrieli and Claudio Monteverdi. Schütz wrote his Symphoniae Sacrae during his second stay in Venice. We’ll hear “I will bless the lord at all times,” and “My son, Absalon,” sacred music by Heinrich Schütz.
MUSIC TRACK
Symphoniae sacrae
Capella Augustana / Matteo Messori, cond.
Brilliant Classics 2013 / B00H94FTRO
Heinrich Schütz
Tr. 1 Symphoniae sacrae (SWV 257-276): Benedicam Dominum in omni tempore, SWV 267 (3:37)
Tr. 2 Symphoniae sacrae (SWV 257-276): Fili mi, Absalon, SWV 269 (6:14)
“I will bless the lord at all times,” and “My son, Absalon,” by Heinrich Schütz. Matteo Messori conducted Capella Augustana. After the break, we’ll hear music from Schütz’s contemporary, Michael Praetorius.
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.
Theme Music Bed: Ensemble Alcatraz, Danse Royale, Elektra Nonesuch 79240-2 / B000005J0B, T.12: La Prime Estampie Royal
:59 Midpoint Break Music Bed:
Luther's Wedding Day
Capella de la Torre / Katharina Bäuml
Challenge Classics 2013 / B00GYKTT0C
Anonymous
Tr. 10. Saltarello: Torza (0:59)
Welcome back. We’re listening to 16th and 17th century music from Dresden, Germany, from a time when Michael Praetorius worked alongside Heinrich Schütz as Kapellmeister there. Praetorius’s academic writing, Syntagma Musicum, is important—and fun—for its many drawings of late Renaissance instruments. He also gave us a substantial compilation of dance music called Terpsichore, named after the Music of Dance in Greek mythology. Here are a set of Courantes and Bransles, dances from Terpsichore by Michael Praetorius.
MUSIC TRACK
Widmann: Musicalischer Tugendtspiegel / Praetorius: Terpsichore
Accademia del Ricercare / cond. Pietro Busca
CPO 2016 / B01FEGXGNC
Michael Praetorius
Tr. 14 Terpsichore: Courante I-II (4:26)
Tr. 15 Terpsichore: Bransle de Villages I-V (3:58)
Courante one and two, and Bransle de Village, from Michael Praetorius’s famous dance collection, Terpsichore. Pietro Busca led Accademia del Ricercare.
While probably best known for his collection of dance music, Praetorius was one of the more versatile composers of his age. He also made important strides in developing music based on Lutheran hymns. And, as was also the case with his colleague Heinrich Schütz, the sacred and secular music of Italy played no small role in this growing tradition. It’s easy to hear some of that flash and fire from south of the Alps, even in his sacred music for organ, like this setting of a nativity hymn, Summo parenti gloria.
MUSIC TRACK
Michael Praetorius: Pro Organico
Jean-Charles Ablitzer
Alpha 2008 / B01KAR26YK
Michael Praetorius
Tr. 3 Hymnus in festo nativitatis Christi: Summo parenti gloria (4:30)
The nativity hymn, Summo parenti gloria, by Michael Praetorius. The organist was Jean-Charles Ablitzer.
We’ll depart Germany now and head north for our featured release, from Ensemble Peregrina. This second volume of their project Mare Balticum explores the musical heritage of Medieval Finland and Sweden. The recording includes chants from the influential visionary nun, Birgitta of Sweden. Birgitta founded the Birgittine Order in the middle of the 14th Century. She became widely renowned for her works of charity, and she even conducted pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela and Rome. We’ll hear one of the Birgittine responsories for the offices in honor of the Virgin Mary, Perenniter sit benedicta tua.
MUSIC TRACK
Mare Balticum Vol. 2 – Medieval Finland and Sweden
Ensemble Peregrina
Tacet 2019 / B07X37SQPH
Anonymous
Tr. 8 Responsorium – Perenniter sit benedicta tua V-O vere dilectionis (2:58)
“May your wholly innocent soul be blessed forever, o Mother of everlasting joy.” A responsory honoring the Virgin Mary, sung by Ensemble Peregrina, from Volume 2 of Mare Balticum, their recording project featuring medieval music of the Baltic region.
Even though the chant we just heard was Swedish in origin, you might have noticed that it was sung in the traditional Latin of the European catholic tradition. But there are a few examples of sacred medieval song from Scandinavia that do survive in native languages. One such hymn is devoted to Henry, Bishop of Finland, who is said to have been an English-born bishop of Uppsala in Sweden in the 12th Century. But he came to called Bishop of Finland after baptizing so many of that country’s populace into the Catholic faith. The Finnish text of this hymn recounts some of the tale of Noah’s ark, combines it with the legend of Saint Henry, and includes a bit of conversion rhetoric in the refrain: “Therefore, People of Finland, rejoice over this gift, because you have been made Catholic by the sound of the word of God.”
MUSIC TRACK
Mare Balticum Vol. 2 – Medieval Finland and Sweden
Ensemble Peregrina
Tacet 2019 / B07X37SQPH
Anonymous
Tr. 14 Finnish Hymn – Ramus virens olivarum (6:43)
Ramus virens olivarum, a hymn in honor of St. Henry of Finland, performed by Ensemble Peregrina, from this week’s featured release, Mare Balticum, Volume two: Medieval Finland and Sweden.
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Harmonia is a production of WFIU. Support comes from Early Music America which strengthens and celebrates early music by supporting the people and organizations that perform, study, and find joy in 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 Schilling (or 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.
