Music for Advent 1 — Sunday November 27

Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (BWV 645) – J S Bach (1685-1750)

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From the Netherlands Bach Society website:

Bach’s organ version of the chorale ‘Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme’, this Sunday’s organ postlude in church, is possibly his best-known organ work, after the Toccata and fugue in D minor (BWV 565). The title translates roughly as ‘Awake, calls the voice to us’; the tune and associated text may be found in our Common Praise hymnal at 110.

This chorale arrangement is more or less a literal copy of ‘Zion hört die Wächter singen’, the fourth movement of Bach’s masterly cantata Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (BWV 140). The viola and violin parts are played in unison in the right hand and the bass parts in the pedal, while the chorale ends up in the tenor. The arrangement is simple, with a couple of surprising tricks. The lack of harmony above the now stark bass, for instance, is barely discernible due to extra suspensions and other ornaments. This is the essence of Bach’s genius. Even when there is no elaborate continuo part, his melodies still hold their own.

Gerald Harder

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Music for Reign of Christ the King – Sunday November 20 2022

And I saw a new heaven – Edgar Bainton (1880-1956)

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Edgar Bainton was a pupil of Stanford at the Royal College of Music. He spent much of his life in Newcastle-upon-Tyne as a teacher and principal at the Conservatoire. At the outbreak of World War I, Bainton was abroad, and subsequently was interned in Ruhleben. After the war he returned to Newcastle and once again became an active force in music-making in the north-east. In recognition of his work and influence, and prior to his leaving England to take up the appointment as director of the New South Wales State Conservatorium in Sydney, the University of Durham awarded him the degree of DMus honoris causa and he was also elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Music. Although not a prolific composer—and somewhat ignored as a composer in England—he did have some success with his operas in Australia.

The anthem And I saw a new heaven, with a text taken from Revelation 21, is typical of Bainton’s work in that he was attracted to late-romantic harmony without indulging in the folksong-influenced modal harmonies which characterize much of the music of his English contemporaries such as Vaughan Williams.

And I saw a new Heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea.

And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying: “Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God.

“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.”

 

Gerald Harder

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