Music for Aboriginal Prayer Sunday — June 25, 2023

Praeludium in D major (BuxWV 139) – Dieterich Buxtehude (1637-1707)

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Born in Oldesloe, Holstein, the Danish or German organist and composer Dieterich Buxtehude (1637-1707) was one of the most esteemed and influential composers of his time. Buxtehude settled at Lübeck in 1688 as organist of St. Mary’s Church. There he gained such fame as a composer that the city became a mecca for musicians of northern Germany. The young Handel visited him in 1703, and in 1705 young Bach walked more than 320 kilometres to see him. Both young men hoped to succeed the master at Lübeck, but marriage to one of his daughters was a condition and each found this unacceptable.

Buxtehude’s Praeludium in D major (BuxWV139), this morning’s organ postlude, opens with a twenty-bar introduction whose extemporary style might suggest an organist exploring an unfamiliar instrument before settling to their task. There follows a four-voice fugue on a subject in which a repeated note prominently features; a sustained passage in which Buxtehude demonstrates a knowledge of complex harmony; and the lively, toccata-like section (interrupted by another sustained passage) with which the piece concludes.

Gerald Harder

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Music for the Third Sunday After Pentecost — June 18, 2023

Ave verum corpus – William Byrd (c. 1540 – 1623)

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This short eucharistic hymn is said to have been written by either Pope Innocent III (1198-1215) or Pope Innocent IV (1243-1254). It is often used liturgically during Benediction and during the Offertory of the Mass, and has long been associated with the feast of Corpus Christi.

16th-century England, under the charge of Elizabeth I, was officially Protestant; and although William Byrd was famous in his day, he constantly lived in fear of losing commissions because of his Catholic faith. Because of this, many of Byrd’s earlier sacred works were smaller in scope, and included phrases and musical suspensions meant to secretly signify the desire for equal protection for Catholics in England. By 1605, under the rule of James I, Byrd felt comfortable enough to compose his most overtly Catholic book of songs, Gradualia. From this song set comes this beautiful setting of Ave verum corpus, our communion motet in church this Sunday, and one of the most familiar and treasured examples of Byrd’s church music.

     Ave, verum corpus,
     natum de Maria Virgine:
     vere passum,
     immolatum in cruce pro homine:
     cuius latus perforatum
     unda fluxit sanguine:
     esto nobis praegustatum
     in mortis examine.
     O Jesu dulcis, O Jesu pie,
     O Jesu Fili Mariae,
     miserere mei. Amen.

     Hail the true body,
     born of the Virgin Mary:
     You who truly suffered
     and were sacrificed on the cross for the sake of man.
     From whose pierced side
     flowed water and blood:
     Be for us a foretaste (of heaven)
     in the trial of death.
     O sweet, O merciful,
     O Jesus, Son of Mary.
     Have mercy on me. Amen.

Gerald Harder

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