Erschienen ist der heilige Tag
Most of you know what Dorian is--it's one of the liturgical modes, the 'Re mode'. Sing a major scale from Do up to Do and back down. Then do the same thing, but start on Re instead. Et voilà! You've just sung a scale in the Dorian mode.
Relative to the parallel major mode, the Dorian mode has two differences: A lowered third (this accounts for the minor character) and a lowered seventh (this accounts for the archaic feel). Relative to the parallel natural minor or Aeolian mode, the Dorian mode has one difference: A raised sixth, accounting for the (to modern ears) peculiar character of the mode.
Eventually the Dorian and Aeolian modes coalesced into something we call minor, with a fixed bottom half and a mutable top half (the 6th and 7th tones can be raised or lowered, depending upon harmonic and melodic contexts).
By Bach's time, this coalescence had pretty well taken place. But there are plenty of vestiges of Dorian remaining in Bach's music, including Dorian key signatures (G minor pieces with one flat rather than two in the key signature) and archaic chorales, of which today's chorale is a fine example.
Now as for hemiolae: First of all, modern English allows for the plural to be 'hemiolas'; but that's just not as much fun. A hemiola is simply the temporary overlay of one meter or grouping of notes over another. It sometimes results in a feeling of alternating meters, as in the song 'I like to be in America' from West Side Story. Here we have a steady alternation of 6/8 and 3/4.
But usually hemiolae are more freely deployed, providing a temporary sort of glide or elision to the rhythmic feel. Many of the old chorales include these--Martin Luther loved them--but they were often smoothed out in later iterations, including in Bach's chorale settings.
But not always.
Take a look at the attached melody sheet for today's chorale, 'Erschienen ist der heilige Tag', by Nikolaus Hermann. Notice that it's scored in Dorian mode (key signature of C major, but beginning and ending on 'D'); and notice also the hemiolae in 6-7, 14-15 and 16-17. (These will pop out at you even more if you sing (without words) or play the tune quickly--notice the 'long-short-short-long) pattern.)
In his three settings of this chorale, Bach retained both the strong Dorian flavor of the original melody and its snappy hemiolae. All three of the scores are attached.
Cantata 67, 4th movement: Transposed to F# Dorian, the melody is almost exactly the same as older versions. Here's a good recording.
Cantata 145, 5th movement: Weirdly, Bach scored the chorale in F# Phrygian (key of D Major); but all the G's and D's are sharp, so we're right back in F# Dorian. Check out the recording here.
BWV 629, one of the chorale preludes from the 'Orgelbüchlein': Here the chorale appears once again in its original mode (here in D Dorian) and rhythms, featured in a canon between soprano and pedal. The inner voices provide a perpetual motion accompaniment, the peanut-butter and jelly between the canon's two slices of bread. Here's a good recording. And here's a video which includes a nice illumination of the piece before the performance.
Most of you know what Dorian is--it's one of the liturgical modes, the 'Re mode'. Sing a major scale from Do up to Do and back down. Then do the same thing, but start on Re instead. Et voilà! You've just sung a scale in the Dorian mode.
Relative to the parallel major mode, the Dorian mode has two differences: A lowered third (this accounts for the minor character) and a lowered seventh (this accounts for the archaic feel). Relative to the parallel natural minor or Aeolian mode, the Dorian mode has one difference: A raised sixth, accounting for the (to modern ears) peculiar character of the mode.
Eventually the Dorian and Aeolian modes coalesced into something we call minor, with a fixed bottom half and a mutable top half (the 6th and 7th tones can be raised or lowered, depending upon harmonic and melodic contexts).
By Bach's time, this coalescence had pretty well taken place. But there are plenty of vestiges of Dorian remaining in Bach's music, including Dorian key signatures (G minor pieces with one flat rather than two in the key signature) and archaic chorales, of which today's chorale is a fine example.
Now as for hemiolae: First of all, modern English allows for the plural to be 'hemiolas'; but that's just not as much fun. A hemiola is simply the temporary overlay of one meter or grouping of notes over another. It sometimes results in a feeling of alternating meters, as in the song 'I like to be in America' from West Side Story. Here we have a steady alternation of 6/8 and 3/4.
But usually hemiolae are more freely deployed, providing a temporary sort of glide or elision to the rhythmic feel. Many of the old chorales include these--Martin Luther loved them--but they were often smoothed out in later iterations, including in Bach's chorale settings.
But not always.
Take a look at the attached melody sheet for today's chorale, 'Erschienen ist der heilige Tag', by Nikolaus Hermann. Notice that it's scored in Dorian mode (key signature of C major, but beginning and ending on 'D'); and notice also the hemiolae in 6-7, 14-15 and 16-17. (These will pop out at you even more if you sing (without words) or play the tune quickly--notice the 'long-short-short-long) pattern.)
In his three settings of this chorale, Bach retained both the strong Dorian flavor of the original melody and its snappy hemiolae. All three of the scores are attached.
Cantata 67, 4th movement: Transposed to F# Dorian, the melody is almost exactly the same as older versions. Here's a good recording.
Cantata 145, 5th movement: Weirdly, Bach scored the chorale in F# Phrygian (key of D Major); but all the G's and D's are sharp, so we're right back in F# Dorian. Check out the recording here.
BWV 629, one of the chorale preludes from the 'Orgelbüchlein': Here the chorale appears once again in its original mode (here in D Dorian) and rhythms, featured in a canon between soprano and pedal. The inner voices provide a perpetual motion accompaniment, the peanut-butter and jelly between the canon's two slices of bread. Here's a good recording. And here's a video which includes a nice illumination of the piece before the performance.