Lehre uns bedenken - Johann Hermann Schein
Schein is yet another non-household name who should be. Born in 1586, he served as Thomascantor (director of liturgical music) in Leipzig, the same position held by J. S. Bach from 1723 till his death in 1750.
Like Bach, Schein loved both sacred and secular music, and even while holding down a demanding job in the church, managed to vigorously pursue and develop the worldly side of his art. In Schein's case, this took the form of a steady alternation of publications between sacred and secular; and also manifested itself in the many 'jam sessions' which the composer loved to host in his own home, bringing together students and other local musicians to play and sing and eat and drink together in an atmosphere of musical cheer and conviviality.
Both the secular and sacred sides of Schein's musical talents and interests are displayed in his 1623 publication 'Israelsbrünnlein', also labeled in Italian as 'Fontana d'Israel'. The title can be translated as 'Fountain of Israel', and most of its texts are drawn from biblical passages, especially from the Old Testament.
But the pieces are not motets; they are actually closer to sacred madrigals in their overt passion, their sometimes extreme expressiveness, and their many examples of vivid word-painting. Through the use of these means, the publication demonstrates the advent in Germany of the Italian style known as the seconda prattica, or stile moderno.
Our example today from the 'Israelsbrünnlein' is entitled 'Herr, lehre uns bedenken', on three verses from Psalm 90:
Teach us to consider that we must die,
So that we might become wise.
Lord, turn yourself again to us,
And be merciful with your servants!
Fill us soon with your grace,
That we may praise you and be joyful all our lives long.
The passage is ripe for musical development and exegesis. The psalmist first implores God to make us truly aware of our own evanescence; next, he invites the Lord to be present merciful to us; and finally he urges that we be bestowed such grace as will prompt us to praise and be joyful.
In typical fashion, Schein makes gorgeous hay of all this while the sun shines. He opens with a slow passage setting the sad opening line, complete with a little 16th-note fillip designed to grab our attention, followed by an ineffably languid passage on the words 'that we must die'. But immediately life returns with the more optimistic line 'so that we might become wise', with rapid-fire entrances leading to a full cadence.
At the second verse, 'Lord, turn yourself again to us', the music changes again, adopting an urgent syncopated motif, followed by a forceful three-bar demand that the Lord 'be merciful'.
The third verse is vastly extended, and divided into two parts according to its lines. The first line is expressed in two motifs, which intermix as they are taken up by the various vocal lines: 'Fill us soon' is an urgent, almost peremptory rising line; while the Lord's grace showers down in manifold repetitions and transpositions of a falling line.
Schein sets the first part of the final line, 'That we may praise you and be joyful' as a sort of march, pushing inexorably through its iterations from the lower voices through the higher to an irrepressible tutti; and then we are treated to one of the composer's patented closing passages, setting only the three words 'all our lives long', a thrilling and moving evocation of our joy as we live out our lives in accordance with a deep acceptance of the way things are.
It's really something. You must check it out. I have attached a score, a recording, and a text-translation sheet to this message. Here's the same recording in a YouTube link. And finally, here's a link to a very different--but wonderful--recording you might enjoy, featuring the soprano Dorothee Mields and an outstanding instrumental ensemble.
Schein is yet another non-household name who should be. Born in 1586, he served as Thomascantor (director of liturgical music) in Leipzig, the same position held by J. S. Bach from 1723 till his death in 1750.
Like Bach, Schein loved both sacred and secular music, and even while holding down a demanding job in the church, managed to vigorously pursue and develop the worldly side of his art. In Schein's case, this took the form of a steady alternation of publications between sacred and secular; and also manifested itself in the many 'jam sessions' which the composer loved to host in his own home, bringing together students and other local musicians to play and sing and eat and drink together in an atmosphere of musical cheer and conviviality.
Both the secular and sacred sides of Schein's musical talents and interests are displayed in his 1623 publication 'Israelsbrünnlein', also labeled in Italian as 'Fontana d'Israel'. The title can be translated as 'Fountain of Israel', and most of its texts are drawn from biblical passages, especially from the Old Testament.
But the pieces are not motets; they are actually closer to sacred madrigals in their overt passion, their sometimes extreme expressiveness, and their many examples of vivid word-painting. Through the use of these means, the publication demonstrates the advent in Germany of the Italian style known as the seconda prattica, or stile moderno.
Our example today from the 'Israelsbrünnlein' is entitled 'Herr, lehre uns bedenken', on three verses from Psalm 90:
Teach us to consider that we must die,
So that we might become wise.
Lord, turn yourself again to us,
And be merciful with your servants!
Fill us soon with your grace,
That we may praise you and be joyful all our lives long.
The passage is ripe for musical development and exegesis. The psalmist first implores God to make us truly aware of our own evanescence; next, he invites the Lord to be present merciful to us; and finally he urges that we be bestowed such grace as will prompt us to praise and be joyful.
In typical fashion, Schein makes gorgeous hay of all this while the sun shines. He opens with a slow passage setting the sad opening line, complete with a little 16th-note fillip designed to grab our attention, followed by an ineffably languid passage on the words 'that we must die'. But immediately life returns with the more optimistic line 'so that we might become wise', with rapid-fire entrances leading to a full cadence.
At the second verse, 'Lord, turn yourself again to us', the music changes again, adopting an urgent syncopated motif, followed by a forceful three-bar demand that the Lord 'be merciful'.
The third verse is vastly extended, and divided into two parts according to its lines. The first line is expressed in two motifs, which intermix as they are taken up by the various vocal lines: 'Fill us soon' is an urgent, almost peremptory rising line; while the Lord's grace showers down in manifold repetitions and transpositions of a falling line.
Schein sets the first part of the final line, 'That we may praise you and be joyful' as a sort of march, pushing inexorably through its iterations from the lower voices through the higher to an irrepressible tutti; and then we are treated to one of the composer's patented closing passages, setting only the three words 'all our lives long', a thrilling and moving evocation of our joy as we live out our lives in accordance with a deep acceptance of the way things are.
It's really something. You must check it out. I have attached a score, a recording, and a text-translation sheet to this message. Here's the same recording in a YouTube link. And finally, here's a link to a very different--but wonderful--recording you might enjoy, featuring the soprano Dorothee Mields and an outstanding instrumental ensemble.