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Cantate Domino by Has Leo Hasseler
Today's message is about two bookends: Two very different settings of the first verses of Psalm 26.
I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about 'Cantate Domino', a Hans Leo Hassler motet which I sang in 10th grade at El Cerrito High School. I loved it! Not only was the piece really fun to sing in choir, but I sang it many times over the summer (along with 'Mon coeur se recommande a vous', a famous chanson erroneously attributed to Orlande de Lassus, and other choir pieces) with choir-mate Anne May. She was an older woman (probably 17 at the time) and we hung out a lot (no romance, just friends) over the summer of 1968. I remember sitting in a tree at her parents' house singing soprano-bass duets and having deep conversations about the meaning of life and so forth.

About a dozen years later, when I was starting out as a choir director, I sought out that 'Cantate' and did it a few times over the ensuing years. It always brought a smile to my  face--still does, actually. (Yes, I was smiling while lying awake in bed.)  I'll bet quite a few of you have good memories of it too. Here's a good performance of the piece to remind you.

I was interested to learn this morning while I was looking up the piece that Hassler wrote two other settings of verses from the same psalm--they're well worth checking out--much more involved:

Hassler: Cantate Domino à5

Hassler: Cantate Domino à12

Now fast-forward about 20 years. My beloved colleague (and former professor) Will Johnson took me aside and bent my ear about a composer called Hugo Distler. He thought I might want to check out Distler because he had early-music interests and ties. I did not follow up on Will's suggestion at the time; but about five years ago I sure did.

Will was right. As I've written earlier, when I sent out Distler's remarkable setting of 'Singet frisch und wohlgemut', the composer was deeply steeped in old music, and incorporated old tunes and texts and textures into his otherwise very modern music. As many of you know, we have woven Distler's music with early music in several of our concerts, including our 2018 Early Music Christmas and 2019's 'An Affirming Flame'.

But Distler didn't always rely on earlier music. Some of his pieces were not thus anchored, and the early music connection which got me interested in Distler led me also to many of his other works--including our second bookend: 'Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied'. It's a setting of some of the same verses as the Hassler, but in a thoroughly modern idiom unique to Distler. When I first heard the piece, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I replayed the amazingly vigorous opening section multiple times, and I remember driving across the Golden Gate Bridge grooving to the piece as I discovered the quieter middle section and (on the other side of the Robin Williams Tunnel) the build-up to the final section, with its distinctive Distlerian soprano excitations.

You must check the piece out. The first link is to the version I first heard; the second to a somewhat smoother (but slightly less exciting) performance They're both great:

Distler: Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied-version1

Distler: Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied--version2

Scores for all the above are attached. Here's a link to texts and translations for Psalm 96.

By the way, Lassus did actually compose a setting of Clemént Marot's poem 'Mon coeur se recommande a vous'. It's just not the song which many of us sang back in the day. That one is by an unknown composer; an article about the confusion, called 'Who really wrote Lassus' most famous piece?' is attached herewith. Here's the song Lassus actually did write. He thought enough of it that he wrote a parody mass based upon the chanson--here's the Kyrie.

Have a good weekend--As my mom used to say, 'Be good to your dear self'--
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