Wir glauben all an einen Gott
Ah yes, it's Saturday! I don't send out a repertoire project on Saturdays, do I?
But wait a minute. Did anybody get our Wednesday Chorale? The answer is a resounding 'No', and I hereby wish to offer my most sincere apologies to those of you who have been keeping a close and eager eye on your inboxes for some relief from the exigencies of this bizarre period through which we are living.
In my defense: I have not been idle. What actually happened is that I decided to take on a long-delayed project: The presentation of Martin Luther's great and most unusual chorale, 'Wir glauben all an einen Gott'. It turned out to be an even bigger project than I had anticipated.
However, I'm now ready to roll, so climb in and we'll take it for a spin!
-----
In 1524, a signal year for Lutheran liturgical music, in Wittenberg, Johann Walter published his collection of hymns by Martin Luther and others entitled 'Eyn geystlich Gesangk Buchleyn' ('A little book of spiritual songs'). Contained within the publication were two settings of Luther's version of the Credo of the Mass: One with the melody placed in the tenor voice, and another in a newfangled style, later to become the standard, with the melody placed in the soprano.
In his translation, Luther transformed the prose of the Credo into a three-verse poem, following a 1417 manuscript from Breslau. He set this poem to a melody which was probably also adapted from earlier sources.
As most of you know, the Credo is one of the longest of the liturgical items of the Mass. Margaret, who grew up Catholic, still has a sort of Pavlovian response when we begin a Credo. (No she doesn't salivate; it's apparently more a feeling of dread at the prospect of yawning tracts of time occupied by interminable words, words and more words.) So it's not surprising that Luther's chorale, even in its compressed poetic verse form, is his longest, and indeed one of the longest in the entire Lutheran chorale tradition.
It's also complex. The phrases are of varying lengths, and though there is some limited repeat of material, it is otherwise through-composed. The range is carefully controlled, beginning and ending at the bottom, living there at times, while at several points it soars to the top of its range, then spirals downward dizzyingly and daringly. It is staggeringly beautiful, a true unicorn of chorales.
Don't believe me? Listen to this magnificent solo performance by the great countertenor Franz Vitzthum, who includes each of the three verses. (You can follow along with the score attached. Also attached for your perusal is the tenor line from the original print of Walter's 1524 setting, and a text-translation sheet.)
Who needs polyphony?
-----
Actually, as one might imagine, given its extraordinary length and complexity, 'Wir glauben all an einen Gott' has not received as many polyphonic settings as most of Luther's chorales. But its unusual character indelibly marks each of the existing arrangements. We're going to take a look at two of these, in reverse chronological order.
First, Bach's single vocal arrangement of the chorale. (He featured it in several organ versions, including BWV 680 and 681.) In BWV 437, one of the so-called independent chorales, he preserves the melody almost exactly as it appears in the 1524 Johann Walter settings. This is remarkable because almost all of the chorales evolved over the centuries, and by Bach's time, many of the rhythmic peculiarities had been ironed out, and many of the leaps had been filled in to make smoother lines.
Listen to this very nice recording along with the attached score. You'll notice in the lower voices a whole lot of movement and character--each part contains a lot of motion and a lot of individual flavor, and each part contributes its own little tags and suspensions and flashy riffs. This setting is now one of my new favorites among Bach's oeuvre--and that's saying a lot!
-----
There are a number of early settings by the usual suspects--Johann Walter, of course, plus people like Arnoldus von Bruck, Johannes Eccard, and Balthasar Resinarius. Sadly, there are very few good recordings. As I was searching for some good examples, I suddenly thought of Michael Praetorius, and opened my database of his works (largely created by Dianna, by the way, something for which I am profoundly grateful).
It turns out that Praetorius penned some 15 settings of 'Wir glauben all an einen Gott', right up there with 'Vom Himmel hoch' and 'Ein feste Burg'. There's even one in the Polyhymnia! But the one that immediately caught my fancy was a six-voice setting from Musae Sioniae V (1607). Some of you will recall my interest in six- and seven-voice textures, and I had a hunch even looking at the old score that this one was well worth some work. So I scored it up in modern notation, and am pleased to present it in score and guitar-sound audio, hereunto attached.
It is one of the most closely-argued imitative pieces I have ever encountered. Almost every phrase in every part is traceable back to the chorale itself. The parts alternate in having the chorale phrases in long notes, while the other parts contribute diminutions and fragments of the melody, creating a rich matrix, an echoing chorus of
song and praise.
Note: Each phrase gives over to the next in a staggered fashion, with some finishing one phrase while the others begin a new one. Because this makes it a bit difficult to track the phrases in real time, I have alternated roman and italic fonts phrase by phrase.
By hook or by crook, we're going to perform this piece someday!
Ah yes, it's Saturday! I don't send out a repertoire project on Saturdays, do I?
But wait a minute. Did anybody get our Wednesday Chorale? The answer is a resounding 'No', and I hereby wish to offer my most sincere apologies to those of you who have been keeping a close and eager eye on your inboxes for some relief from the exigencies of this bizarre period through which we are living.
In my defense: I have not been idle. What actually happened is that I decided to take on a long-delayed project: The presentation of Martin Luther's great and most unusual chorale, 'Wir glauben all an einen Gott'. It turned out to be an even bigger project than I had anticipated.
However, I'm now ready to roll, so climb in and we'll take it for a spin!
-----
In 1524, a signal year for Lutheran liturgical music, in Wittenberg, Johann Walter published his collection of hymns by Martin Luther and others entitled 'Eyn geystlich Gesangk Buchleyn' ('A little book of spiritual songs'). Contained within the publication were two settings of Luther's version of the Credo of the Mass: One with the melody placed in the tenor voice, and another in a newfangled style, later to become the standard, with the melody placed in the soprano.
In his translation, Luther transformed the prose of the Credo into a three-verse poem, following a 1417 manuscript from Breslau. He set this poem to a melody which was probably also adapted from earlier sources.
As most of you know, the Credo is one of the longest of the liturgical items of the Mass. Margaret, who grew up Catholic, still has a sort of Pavlovian response when we begin a Credo. (No she doesn't salivate; it's apparently more a feeling of dread at the prospect of yawning tracts of time occupied by interminable words, words and more words.) So it's not surprising that Luther's chorale, even in its compressed poetic verse form, is his longest, and indeed one of the longest in the entire Lutheran chorale tradition.
It's also complex. The phrases are of varying lengths, and though there is some limited repeat of material, it is otherwise through-composed. The range is carefully controlled, beginning and ending at the bottom, living there at times, while at several points it soars to the top of its range, then spirals downward dizzyingly and daringly. It is staggeringly beautiful, a true unicorn of chorales.
Don't believe me? Listen to this magnificent solo performance by the great countertenor Franz Vitzthum, who includes each of the three verses. (You can follow along with the score attached. Also attached for your perusal is the tenor line from the original print of Walter's 1524 setting, and a text-translation sheet.)
Who needs polyphony?
-----
Actually, as one might imagine, given its extraordinary length and complexity, 'Wir glauben all an einen Gott' has not received as many polyphonic settings as most of Luther's chorales. But its unusual character indelibly marks each of the existing arrangements. We're going to take a look at two of these, in reverse chronological order.
First, Bach's single vocal arrangement of the chorale. (He featured it in several organ versions, including BWV 680 and 681.) In BWV 437, one of the so-called independent chorales, he preserves the melody almost exactly as it appears in the 1524 Johann Walter settings. This is remarkable because almost all of the chorales evolved over the centuries, and by Bach's time, many of the rhythmic peculiarities had been ironed out, and many of the leaps had been filled in to make smoother lines.
Listen to this very nice recording along with the attached score. You'll notice in the lower voices a whole lot of movement and character--each part contains a lot of motion and a lot of individual flavor, and each part contributes its own little tags and suspensions and flashy riffs. This setting is now one of my new favorites among Bach's oeuvre--and that's saying a lot!
-----
There are a number of early settings by the usual suspects--Johann Walter, of course, plus people like Arnoldus von Bruck, Johannes Eccard, and Balthasar Resinarius. Sadly, there are very few good recordings. As I was searching for some good examples, I suddenly thought of Michael Praetorius, and opened my database of his works (largely created by Dianna, by the way, something for which I am profoundly grateful).
It turns out that Praetorius penned some 15 settings of 'Wir glauben all an einen Gott', right up there with 'Vom Himmel hoch' and 'Ein feste Burg'. There's even one in the Polyhymnia! But the one that immediately caught my fancy was a six-voice setting from Musae Sioniae V (1607). Some of you will recall my interest in six- and seven-voice textures, and I had a hunch even looking at the old score that this one was well worth some work. So I scored it up in modern notation, and am pleased to present it in score and guitar-sound audio, hereunto attached.
It is one of the most closely-argued imitative pieces I have ever encountered. Almost every phrase in every part is traceable back to the chorale itself. The parts alternate in having the chorale phrases in long notes, while the other parts contribute diminutions and fragments of the melody, creating a rich matrix, an echoing chorus of
song and praise.
Note: Each phrase gives over to the next in a staggered fashion, with some finishing one phrase while the others begin a new one. Because this makes it a bit difficult to track the phrases in real time, I have alternated roman and italic fonts phrase by phrase.
By hook or by crook, we're going to perform this piece someday!