Magnificat
Yes, while you were nestled all snug in your beds, with visions of sugar plums (or perhaps world peace) dancing in your heads, Santa was hard at work dropping off all those presents, including this one: A Christmas Motet!
Actually, it's much more than that: It's a Parody Magnificat wrapped around some of the coolest carols you've ever heard. It's like a Doberge cake: Many thin layers of cake (that's the Magnificat), joined together with layers of delicious creamy chocolate frosting (those are the carols).
What's a Parody Magnificat? (Actually, the official term doesn't do it justice because of that word's modern connotations.) What happens (more commonly with a Mass than with a Magnificat) is that a composer bases a new piece upon an old. The preëxisting piece can be by the composer him/herself, or by another composer, in which case I like to call it a Tribute Mass (or Magnificat, as in the present case).
Once the model piece is selected (and, no doubt, carefully studied and analyzed), a new piece is created using segments of the old, put together in new ways and intermixed with brand-new music created specifically for the purpose. It's a wonderful example of creative borrowing, as it intermixes old and new music in service of creating a new work of art, anchored in the past (as is all art) but very much of the present.
Here we have a special exemplar of this already special genre: Praetorius has based his Magnificat upon not one but two motets by the redoubtable Orlande de Lassus. We know that this is a Christmas Magnificat because both of the model motets tell of the birth of Jesus and of the celebrations and acclamations thereunto pertaining.
The music of course has been repurposed to the Magnificat (also Christmas-related); but to the listener who already knew the motets (and certainly to Michael Praetorius), echoes of the original context of the musical passages would surely remain. More new age-y (take it as you will): One could say that even for listeners unfamiliar with the original context, the borrowed Christmas music would somehow seem peculiarly appropriate to the Magnificat text.
So we have the Magnificat--in which Mary shares with her cousin Elizabeth her thanks and praise at the coming birth of Jesus--now richly imbued with this earlier music created for its Christmas texts. But that's not all. Praetorius has chosen to provide this Magnificat with a set of interpolated Christmas carols.
This interpolation was actually a thing. Praetorius (in his inimitable, engaging and generous style) writes of the tradition and of how to carry it out. In the Megalynodia (1611), he gives us sixteen settings of the Magnificat, several for Christmas and Easter with interpolated carols. Today's project is one of these. But in his introduction to the volume, he invites us to put together our own creations, either by tossing out his carols and using others, or by baking (back to the Doberge cake metaphor) our own from any of his Magnificats (or those of other composers), adding any of his countless carol settings (or, again, those of others).
We did exactly these things last Fall. In the Bach Choir's 'Sing Glorious Praetorius' concerts, we used one of Praetorius' own Magnificats and built around it with Easter chorales. We also added chant for the missing verses. (Most Magnificat set only odd- or even-numbered verses. in Circa 1600's 'Nordic Climes' concerts, we did much the same thing with a Magnificat by Nicolaus Zangius, embellished with Christmas carols by Michael Praetorius.
And, going back a bit, six years ago, in our 'Song of the Morning Star' concerts, the Bach Choir performed today's very 'Magnificat-super Ecce Maria et Sidus ex Clara' in Schroeder with The Whole Noyse.
Going a little further afield (in time if not in geography): Some of you will recall performing the E-flat version of Bach's Magnificat many years ago with the Santa Rosa Symphony. Aside from some variants in orchestration (and the key), the main difference between this version and the later, better-known Magnificat in D Major is the presence of four carols interspersed with the verses of the Magnificat. This represents a survival in Leipzig of the very same tradition of interpolated carols espoused by Praetorius.
So there's some background for you! I know you're busy today, but at least put this wonderful piece--on in the background. You'll find it thematically appropriate for the day and I pretty much guarantee that it'll bring multiple smiles to your face. (Possibly also to the faces of your fellow Covid-circle shut-ins.)
A score is included in the link above if you'd like to sing along. Also included are scores and recordings of the Lassus motets upon which the Magnificat is based. Plus a text-translation sheet of the whole kitamaboodle (cf. Booth Tarkington).
Yes, while you were nestled all snug in your beds, with visions of sugar plums (or perhaps world peace) dancing in your heads, Santa was hard at work dropping off all those presents, including this one: A Christmas Motet!
Actually, it's much more than that: It's a Parody Magnificat wrapped around some of the coolest carols you've ever heard. It's like a Doberge cake: Many thin layers of cake (that's the Magnificat), joined together with layers of delicious creamy chocolate frosting (those are the carols).
What's a Parody Magnificat? (Actually, the official term doesn't do it justice because of that word's modern connotations.) What happens (more commonly with a Mass than with a Magnificat) is that a composer bases a new piece upon an old. The preëxisting piece can be by the composer him/herself, or by another composer, in which case I like to call it a Tribute Mass (or Magnificat, as in the present case).
Once the model piece is selected (and, no doubt, carefully studied and analyzed), a new piece is created using segments of the old, put together in new ways and intermixed with brand-new music created specifically for the purpose. It's a wonderful example of creative borrowing, as it intermixes old and new music in service of creating a new work of art, anchored in the past (as is all art) but very much of the present.
Here we have a special exemplar of this already special genre: Praetorius has based his Magnificat upon not one but two motets by the redoubtable Orlande de Lassus. We know that this is a Christmas Magnificat because both of the model motets tell of the birth of Jesus and of the celebrations and acclamations thereunto pertaining.
The music of course has been repurposed to the Magnificat (also Christmas-related); but to the listener who already knew the motets (and certainly to Michael Praetorius), echoes of the original context of the musical passages would surely remain. More new age-y (take it as you will): One could say that even for listeners unfamiliar with the original context, the borrowed Christmas music would somehow seem peculiarly appropriate to the Magnificat text.
So we have the Magnificat--in which Mary shares with her cousin Elizabeth her thanks and praise at the coming birth of Jesus--now richly imbued with this earlier music created for its Christmas texts. But that's not all. Praetorius has chosen to provide this Magnificat with a set of interpolated Christmas carols.
This interpolation was actually a thing. Praetorius (in his inimitable, engaging and generous style) writes of the tradition and of how to carry it out. In the Megalynodia (1611), he gives us sixteen settings of the Magnificat, several for Christmas and Easter with interpolated carols. Today's project is one of these. But in his introduction to the volume, he invites us to put together our own creations, either by tossing out his carols and using others, or by baking (back to the Doberge cake metaphor) our own from any of his Magnificats (or those of other composers), adding any of his countless carol settings (or, again, those of others).
We did exactly these things last Fall. In the Bach Choir's 'Sing Glorious Praetorius' concerts, we used one of Praetorius' own Magnificats and built around it with Easter chorales. We also added chant for the missing verses. (Most Magnificat set only odd- or even-numbered verses. in Circa 1600's 'Nordic Climes' concerts, we did much the same thing with a Magnificat by Nicolaus Zangius, embellished with Christmas carols by Michael Praetorius.
And, going back a bit, six years ago, in our 'Song of the Morning Star' concerts, the Bach Choir performed today's very 'Magnificat-super Ecce Maria et Sidus ex Clara' in Schroeder with The Whole Noyse.
Going a little further afield (in time if not in geography): Some of you will recall performing the E-flat version of Bach's Magnificat many years ago with the Santa Rosa Symphony. Aside from some variants in orchestration (and the key), the main difference between this version and the later, better-known Magnificat in D Major is the presence of four carols interspersed with the verses of the Magnificat. This represents a survival in Leipzig of the very same tradition of interpolated carols espoused by Praetorius.
So there's some background for you! I know you're busy today, but at least put this wonderful piece--on in the background. You'll find it thematically appropriate for the day and I pretty much guarantee that it'll bring multiple smiles to your face. (Possibly also to the faces of your fellow Covid-circle shut-ins.)
A score is included in the link above if you'd like to sing along. Also included are scores and recordings of the Lassus motets upon which the Magnificat is based. Plus a text-translation sheet of the whole kitamaboodle (cf. Booth Tarkington).