Purcell : Funeral Sentences and other music for Queen Mary (Vocal and Choral Masterworks)

For a brief period, from 1689 to 1702, the royal houses of Britain and Holland were linked in the person of William III (1650–1702), also widely known as "William of Orange," the sovereign Prince of Orange, and Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from the 1670s. In 1677, he married his cousin Mary II (1662-1695), the eldest daughter of his maternal uncle James, Duke of York, the younger brother and later successor of King Charles II. He ruled Britain alongside his wife and popular histories usually refer to their reign as that of "William and Mary". A staunch Protestant, William participated in several wars against the powerful Catholic French ruler Louis XIV in coalition with both Protestant and Catholic powers in Europe. Many Protestants heralded William as a champion of their faith.

The couple had become betrothed when Mary was only fifteen. They were married in St James's Palace by Bishop Henry Compton on 4 November 1677. Mary accompanied her husband on a rough sea crossing to the Netherlands later that month, after a delay of two weeks caused by bad weather. On 14 December, they made a formal entry to The Hague in a grand procession. Mary's animated and personable nature made her popular with the Dutch people, and her marriage to a Protestant prince was popular in Britain. She was devoted to her husband, but he was often away on campaigns. Within months of the marriage Mary was pregnant; however, on a visit to her husband at the fortified city of Breda, she suffered a miscarriage, which may have permanently impaired her ability to have children.

In early 1689, Mary ascended the thrones of the British lands thanks to the Glorious Revolution, in which her Roman Catholic father, James II, was deposed. William of Orange became her co-regent.

Mary was tall (180 cm) and apparently fit; she regularly walked between her palaces at Whitehall and Kensington. In late 1694, however, she contracted smallpox. She sent away anyone who had not previously had the disease, to prevent the spread of infection. She suffered from a dangerous strain and died at Kensington Palace shortly after midnight on the morning of 28 December, at the young age of 32.

Mary II

William, who had grown increasingly to rely on Mary, was devastated by her death, and said that "from being the happiest" he was "now going to be the miserablest creature on earth". She was widely mourned in Britain. During a cold winter, in which the Thames froze, her embalmed body lay in state in Banqueting House, Whitehall. On 5 March, she was buried at Westminster Abbey. Her funeral service was the first of any royal attended by all the members of both Houses of Parliament.

This concert contains several Mary-related pieces of music, including her funeral music.

(1) Henry Purcell - My heart is inditing (Anthem for the coronation of King James II)
The coronation of King James II (the father of Mary) on 23 April 1685 was an opulent affair. Trumpeters, drummers and kettle-drummers led the procession to Westminster and the magnificent service in the Abbey was accompanied by a large instrumental ensemble. Nine anthems were sung - the final one, during the crowning of the queen, was Purcell’s specially-composed setting of "My heart is inditing of a good matter." This anthem was ‘performed by the whole consort of voices and instruments’. It must have made a splendid climax to a fine pageant.   

(2) Henry Purcell - Celebrate this festival (Ode for the birthday of Queen Mary)
Purcell composed six of his finest odes to honor the birthdays of Queen Mary in successive years from 1689. "Celebrate this festival" (1693) contains writing on all scales, from eloquent chamber music to joyous choruses with strings, trumpet and oboes. This is a very substantial piece.

(3) Henry Purcell - The Queen's funeral march Z.860
The March, in C minor, was written for a quartet of "flatt trumpets," which, as slide trumpets, could play notes outside of the harmonic series and thus in a minor key.

(4) Thomas Morley - The first dirge anthem "I am the resurrection and the life"
We know now that Purcell's three Funeral Sentences were not written for the funeral of Queen Mary in 1695. Following the tradition of the English court, it was pieces by Thomas Morley, originally written for the funeral of Elizabeth I, that were sung there. Text:

I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord:
he that believeth in me,
yea, though he were dead,
yet shall he live.
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me
shall never die.

I know that my redeemer liveth,
and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.
And though after my skin, worms destroy this body,
yet in my flesh shall I see God:
whom I shall see for myself
and mine eyes shall behold,
and not another.

We brought nothing into this world,
and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away.
blessed be the name of the Lord.

(5) Thomas Morley - The second dirge anthem "Man that is born of a woman".
Text:

Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery.
He cometh up, and is cut down like a flower;
He fleeth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one stay.
In the midst of life we are in death:
Of whom may we seek for succour, but of Thee, O Lord,
Who for our sins art justly displeased?
Yet, O Lord God most holy, O Lord most mighty,
O holy and most merciful Saviour,
Deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death.

(6) Henry Purcell - Canzona Z.860
Following the March is the Canzona, also in C minor. "Thou Knowest Lord" is in E-flat major and is a stirring hymn-like setting with all the voice parts moving in the same rhythm. Text:

Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts;
Shut not thy merciful ears unto our pray'rs;
But spare us, Lord most holy, O God most mighty.
O holy and most merciful Saviour,
Thou most worthy Judge eternal,
Suffer us not at our last hour,
For any pains of death to fall away from Thee. Amen.

(7) Thomas Morley - The third dirge anthem "I heard a voice from heaven"
Text:

I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me,
Write, From henceforth, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord:
Even so, saith the Spirit: for they rest from their labors [and their works do follow them].

(8) Henry Purcell - Music for the funeral of Queen Mary: Man that is born of a woman; In the midst of life; Thou knowest Lord.
When the much-loved Queen Mary II died on 28 December 1694, Purcell adapted his 1680-82 funeral service for her funeral. Purcell's earlier setting of the fourth sentence of the Burial Service, "Man that is born of a woman", introduces a melancholy theme. Purcell brings tension to the phrase with "hath but a short time to live", and the melody rises and falls with the words "he cometh up and is cut down like a flower". The music stays in the key of C minor throughout and is of a desolate starkness. The text:

Man that is born of a woman
hath but a short time to live,
and is full of misery.

He cometh up, and is cut down like a flower;
he fleeth as it were a shadow,
and ne'er continueth in one stay.

With "In the midst of life we are in death", an earlier setting of the fifth sentence, Purcell begins with a soprano part that is passed on to the choir. The music portrays with chromaticism an air of anguish. It can be seen as an expression of man's dismay in the face of death. The text:

In the midst of life we are in death:
of whom may we seek for succor,
but of thee, O Lord,
who for our sins art justly displeased?

Yet, O Lord, O Lord most mighty,
O holy and most merciful Savior,
deliver us not into the bitter pains
of eternal death.

There are two earlier versions of "Thou Knowest Lord"; it reminds one of the chorales of Bach reassuring the faithful and gently leading them back to confidence and faith. The text:

Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts;
shut not thy merciful ears unto our pray'rs;
but spare us, Lord most holy, O God most mighty.

O holy and most merciful Savior,
thou most worthy Judge eternal,
suffer us not, at our last hour,
for any pains of death, to fall from thee. Amen.

(9) Henry Purcell - O dive custos (Elegy on the death of Queen Mary)
O dive custos Auriacae (sung in Latin) "shows Purcell’s florid and strongly Italianate vocal style, with the voices intertwining jagged melodic inter­vals amongst passages containing chains of discords" (from the liner notes in the Hyperion CD of this work).

Listen to Vox Luminis conducted by Lionel Meunier ( (1) and (2) are played before the break, the funeral music in the second part of the concert, starting at 50:00):

Choral Masterworks

Charpentier: Te Deum (Vocal and Choral Masterworks)

The "trumpet prelude," the eight introductory bars of Charpentier's Te Deum, was used as a signature tune for "Eurovision" broadcasts (the annual New Year's Concert from Vienna and Eurovision Song Contests) on TV when I was young, so this is really familiar music - in fact, it is also music that deserves a much better fate!

The "Te Deum" (of which there are also great settings by Zelenka, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Berlioz, Verdi, Bruckner, Dvořák, Britten, Kodály, and Pärt among the better known) is a Latin Christian hymn with ancient antecedents, going back at least to the 4th century. The Te Deum was (and still is often) sung at solemn thanksgiving services of a national character. "Te Deum" are the first two words of the phrase "Te Deum laudamus," Latin for "We praise Thee, O God".

Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Te Deum (H. 146) in D major is a "grand motet versaillais" (a musical form born at the court of Louis XIV). It was composed between 1688 and 1698, during the composer's stay at the Jesuit church of Saint-Louis, in Paris, where he was musical director. The work is written for four-part chorus, eight soloists, and an instrumental ensemble including strings, flutes, oboes, trumpets and timpani.

The instrumental introduction (the one misused as Eurovision melody) precedes the first verse sung by the bass alone. The choir and other soloists gradually join in. Charpentier's music follows the Latin text: the choir predominates in the first part (verses 1-10, praise to God, celestial dimension), and the soloists in the second part (verses 10-20, Christological part, secular dimension). In the following verses, nos. 21-25, soloists and choir alternate, and the final verse is a large fugue for choir with a short trio of soloists in the central episode.

From the beginning of the famous instrumental "Marche en rondeau" to the end of the final "In te Domine speravi" Charpentier bases his composition on the trumpet key of D major, a key considered as glorious and victorious (see my article about "Music in D Major" at this blog). The Te Deum has always been associated with times of national rejoicing (victories, a monarch's recovery from illness, royal births) and it has been suggested that this masterpiece was part of the celebrations which followed the French victory in a battle at at Steinkerque on August 3, 1692.

Following the rediscovery of this Te Deum by the musicologist Carl de Nys in 1953, it has been numerous times recorded.

Listen to: B'Rock Orchestra, Vox Luminis & Lionel Meunier

Choral Masterworks

Biber: Missa Salisburgensis (Vocal and Choral Masterworks)

Biber is not completely unknown, but also not exactly famous - you have to be an aficionado of high Baroque music and especially violin music to know him (he wrote a great cycle of violin sonatas called "Mystery Sonatas"). Biber was one of the many musicians who came from the Czech lands and sought their fortune in the cultural capitals of Austria. Salzburg was an independent bishopric that played an important role in the Counter-Reformation, with monasteries and numerous Baroque churches built. In 1731, more than 20,000 Protestant citizens were expelled from the city and found new homes in Prussia. This "Catholic fortress" was the Salzburg in which Biber and later Mozart and his father worked and the Missa Salisburgensis is the major statement of all it stood for.

Big, bigger, biggest... The Missa Salisburgensis à 53 voci is the largest-scale piece of sacred Baroque music, an archetypal work of the Colossal Baroque that is now universally accepted to be by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644-1704). The manuscript score of this Mass was rediscovered in the 1870s in the home of a greengrocer in Salzburg, Austria. It has been said to have narrowly escaped being used to wrap vegetables, the fate of old newspapers and almost old music as well. At that time, the manuscript was also attributed to several other composers, but based on modern methods of analyzing handwriting and watermarks it has now been proven that the Mass must have been written for the 1682 commemoration of the 1100th anniversary of the Archbishopric of Salzburg, and stylistic analysis clearly points to Biber as the composer.

Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber received his musical education in a Jesuit grammar school in Silesia and took further lessons from Johann Heinrich Schmelzer. His first known composition dates from 1663, a Salve Regina for soprano, violin, viola da gamba, and organ. After a first employment as court musician of the Moravian bishop of Olomouc, Biber from 1670 entered the service of Archbishop in Salzburg. In the next decades he would climb to the positions of Vice Kapellmeister and Kapellmeister. He was considered a brilliant violin virtuoso; for his compositional work, Emperor Leopold I awarded him a title of nobility, which meant that he was allowed to call himself "Biber von Bibern." His monthly income at that time was 60 guilders, with free housing, wine, bread and firewood.

Biber wrote masses, two requiems, numerous violin sonatas, and table music. Except the Missa Salisburgensis, most of his sacred works are virtually unknown. In many of his works for the violin, Biber used scordatura (the retuning of individual strings) to achieve special sound effects and to enable difficult fingerings in the lower registers and on empty strings. Of few violinists and composers before his time are double stops, triple and quadruple chords found as frequently as in Biber! His most famous work for the violin is the collection of Sonatas called "Mystery Sonatas" or "Rosary Sonatas."

The huge Missa Salisburgensis is a polychoral composition which takes advantage of the multiple organs and various locations at balconies available for groups of singers and musicians performing in Salzburg Cathedral. The vocal parts feature in concerto (soloists) and in cappella (the full choir) parts across the sixteen vocal lines. However, several times in the Mass, the composer "collapses" all the voices into simple four part harmony (SATB) and uses some of the instrumental groups, the cornetto and trombone choir, in particular, to play in unison with the human voices. The work is in C major throughout – necessitated by the use of ten clarino trumpets fixed in C. There are 53 vocal and instrumental parts, leading to an outsize score of 82 by 57 centimeters!

Missa salisburgensis is noble music, which splashes up in big waves against the tall church walls. Listen to a performance by Václav Luks Collegium 1704:

Choral Masterworks

Buxtehude: Membra Jesu Nostri (Vocal and Choral Masterworks)

Sometimes it seems as if Dietrich Buxtehude (ca. 1637-1707) - the great North German composer and organist who forms the link between Sweelinck and Bach - is only remembered for the fact that Bach, as a young man of 20, walked from Arnstadt to Lübeck, a distance of more than 400 kilometers, to hear the outstanding resident organist of the Marienkirche play and "to understand a thing or two about his art. In fact, Bach studied with him for several months. In other years, other great composers such as Handel, Matheson, and Telemann made the same pilgrimage to Lübeck.

Dietrich Buxtehude wrote a wide variety of music - from beautiful works for harpsichord to masterpieces for organ and, most importantly, 100 vocal compositions. He also began a series of concerts separate from church services, called Abendmusik, to provide musical entertainment for the city's bourgeoisie. Buxtehude's style greatly influenced other composers (such as Bach), and he is considered one of the most important composers of the mid-Baroque period in Germany.

Compared to Bach, Buxtehude's style has an essential simplicity, especially in his cantatas: understated, elegant, and all the more beautiful for it (though he didn't write the unforgettable melodies of Bach at his best). His surviving church music is praised for its high musical qualities rather than its progressive elements.

Buxtehude's most famous vocal work, Membra Jesu Nostri, a cycle of seven cantatas from 1680, is strange music, or rather the idea behind the music is strange: music about the different parts of the body of the crucified Christ, namely the feet, knees, hands, side, chest, heart, and head. The music is in good taste, but the (Latin) lyrics sometimes border on necrophilia...

The full Latin title, Membra Jesu nostri patientis sanctissima, means "The most holy parts of the suffering (body) of our Jesus. The text consists of stanzas from the medieval hymn Salve mundi salutare, a poem once attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux but probably written by Arnulf of Louvain (d. 1250). Buxtehude selected three stanzas from the poem for each part and added an appropriate biblical text for the concertos.

Each cantata in Membra Jesu Nostri is divided into six sections: an instrumental introduction; a concerto for instruments and five voices (SSATB), except for the fifth and sixth cantatas, which use only three voices; three arias for one or three voices, each followed by an instrumental ritornello; and an exact reprise of the concerto. In the last cantata, a final Amen chorus replaces the reprise.

The mood is quiet and contemplative, in contrast to the usual passion narrative. It has the clear emotional intensity found in Lutheran chorales. But the sensitive textual setting also shows a debt to the expressive power of Venetian music.

This work might well be called the first Lutheran oratorio.

See this Wikipedia page for the text.

Listen to a performance by Schola Cantorum Basiliensis conducted by René Jacobs:



As a bonus, here is Buxtehude's most beautiful soprano aria, from the cantata "Herr, wenn Ich nur Dich Hab'", sung by Laura Heimes, with Voices of Music:




Choral Masterworks

Allegri: Miserere (Vocal and Choral Masterworks)

Allegri's Miserere is as famous as it is short. The a cappella composition is also shrouded in mystery, leading some to believe that the widely known version may not be the authentic one. (I have my doubts about the famous "high C" in the second half of the 4-voice falsobordone - it smacks of 19th century romanticism rather than the cooler 17th century.) But as it is, the music has an ethereal beauty. The piece is written for two choirs of five and four voices, singing alternately and coming together for the 9-part polyphonic conclusion.

"Miserere" refers to a setting of Psalm 51, one of the penitential psalms, which begins with "Have mercy on me, O God". According to tradition, the psalm was composed by David as a confession to God after his sin with Bathsheba. David's confession is seen as a model of repentance in both Judaism and Christianity, with the belief that those who confess their sins and pray to God, as David did, will be forgiven, while those who ignore their sins will be punished.

The Miserere was sung during the Tenebrae services of Holy Week and at Lauds in the three days before Easter. During the Tenebrae services, the candles in the chapel were gradually extinguished until the Miserere was sung in near darkness. Allegri's version of the piece alternates between plainchant and harmonized chant.

Gregorio Allegri (1582-1652), a singer in the Papal Chapel, is best known for his composition of the Miserere. The piece was commissioned by Pope Urban VIII and performed annually in the Sistine Chapel during the Tenebrae services of Holy Week. Its mystique has been enhanced by rumors of unwritten performance traditions and secret ornamentation. Several myths have grown up around the piece, such as the idea that the Pope forbade copying the work, punishable by excommunication. This is not true. Another myth is that the 14-year-old Mozart visited Rome and, after hearing the work performed, proved able to write out the text and composition. But the fame of the piece made it de rigeur for those on the Grand Tour in the 18th and 19th centuries to hear the work in the Sistine Chapel during Holy Week. Many have commented on the beauty and uniqueness of the piece. In fact, the work was transcribed by Felix Mendelssohn and Franz Liszt, and various other 18th and 19th century sources, with or without ornamentation, survive.

Allegri's Miserere remains one of the most widely known and beloved a cappella choral works in the canon.

Listen to the Tenebrae, directed by Nigel Short, and filmed at St. Bartholomew the Great, London.

Choral Masterworks

Monteverdi: Vespers of the Blessed Virgin (Vocal and Choral Masterworks)

Published in Venice in 1610, Claudio Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine (The Vespers of the Blessed Virgin) is notable for its grandeur and opulence. It is a composition on an unprecedented scale, blending grand public music with intimate solo songs and using various colorful obbligato instruments in a daring and virtuosic manner.

Claudio Monteverdi is best known as the composer of some of the earliest and most remarkable works in the Western operatic genre, including L'Orfeo, Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria, and L'Incoronazione di Poppea. He also wrote religious and liturgical music, of which the "Vespro della Beata Vergine" is part of the first volume published in 1610.

At the time, Monteverdi was serving as Maestro di Capella at the court of Vincenzo I Gonzaga of Mantua. He dedicated the "Vespro della Beata Vergine" to Pope Paul V and personally traveled to Rome to present it, hoping to gain an appointment to the Papal Chapel in Rome, as evidenced by his demonstration of a wide range of styles and techniques. Although he did not receive the appointment, he was later appointed to the prestigious position of Maestro di Capella at the San Marco Basilica in Venice in 1613, where he spent the rest of his life.

During Monteverdi's time, the Catholic Church had a strong devotion to the Virgin Mary, and much music was dedicated to her. The "Vespro della Beata Vergine" sets texts for various Marian feasts and includes a sonata and non-liturgical motets interspersed among the psalms. As vespers (evening prayers), the pieces were written with Roman Catholic evening prayers in mind, which were performed around sunset and included thanksgiving for the day that had just passed.

What sets Monteverdi's Vespers apart is the inclusion of 4 concerti sacri and a sonata sopra Sancta Maria, in addition to the 5 psalms, hymn, and Magnificat. These additional parts serve as alternatives to the usual antiphons and provide great liturgical coherence through related keys and the use of the cantus firmus, a Gregorian plainchant used as a fixed voice in the psalms, hymn, sonata, and Magnificat. The musical forces required are considerable, including seven solo singers and a large chorus that can be divided into up to ten voices, as well as a richly varied orchestra with virtuoso parts for violins and cornetti. The final orchestration is determined by the conductor, allowing for variations in each performance.

PDF with Latin text and English translation.

Listen to the Venice Monteverdi Academy and Orchester Lorenzo da Ponte under the direction of Roberto Zarpellon (at the Musik Sommer Festival Pustertal (Südtirol) in the Stiftskirche Innichen):



Choral Masterworks

George Frideric Handel: Susanna, oratorio

I became interested in Handel's oratorio Susanna because of the painting "Susanna and the Elders" by Artemisia Gentileschi. Although I have written about it before, I think it is only right to include Susanna also in this list of great choral masterworks.

The story of Susanna is included in the Book of Daniel, although in the Protestant tradition it is considered as an apocryphal chapter in that book. It is set during the captivity of the Jewish tribes in Babylon.

Susanna, a fair Hebrew wife (whose husband is apparently temporarily away from home), was secretly desired by two Elders of the community, who plotted together to seduce her. When Suzanna took a bath in her garden, having sent her attendants away, the lecherous voyeurs hid themselves and secretly observed her. When she made her way back to her house, they emerged and threatened that, unless she gave in to their desires and had sex with them, they would publicly accuse her of adultery - the penalty for which was death. But Suzanna spurned their vile proposal and refused to be blackmailed. The "pious" Elders duly made their false accusation, claiming that they had caught Suzanna while she was having a tryst with a young man in her garden. Suzanna was charged and condemned to die, but at the last minute the youthful Daniel - the future prophet - interrupted the proceedings, demanding that the Elders should be questioned to prevent the death of an innocent. The two men were separately questioned about the details of what they saw - and they disagreed about the sort of tree under which Susanna supposedly met her lover. Thus Susanna's innocence was established and instead the false accusers were put to death.

The above paragraph has been cited from my blog article on the painting "Susanna and the Elders" by Artemisia Gentileschi. Susanna's story became the subject of paintings by many artists, including Lorenzo Lotto, Guido Reni, Rubens, Van Dyck, Tintoretto, Rembrandt and Tiepolo. Handel is the only composer who wrote music on this subject. That was in the summer of 1748 and the work was premiered the next season at Covent Garden Theater, London. 

After a series of patriotic oratorios celebrating victory in the Jacobite rebellions, including Judas Maccabaeus and Joshua, Handel turned to a lighter style with Susanna. The oratorio is scored for a small orchestra of strings with oboes and bassoons, with trumpets appearing only at the end of the work. Some of the solo vocal pieces are in the simple style of popular English ballad opera. There are touches of comedy in Handel's musical characterizations of the lecherous Elders, while the steadfastness, purity and courage of the heroine Susanna are vividly portrayed. The aria "Crystal streams", sung by Susanna while she longs for her absent husband and seeks relief from the summer heat by bathing in a garden stream, is in particular notable. 

Here is a great performance by Les Arts Florisants, conducted by W. Christie. The complete libretto is hosted at Stanford University.

Choral Masterworks

Johann Sebastian Bach: Coffee Cantata "Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht"

It is often said that Bach didn't do opera. True, perhaps - but his Coffee Cantata  "Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht" is nothing else than a chamber opera, especially when the dramatic possibilities are brought out as skillfully as in this superb performance by the Netherlands Bach Society. And don't tell me that Bach didn't have humor!

Bach was also apparently a coffee enthusiast - so much so that he wrote a composition about the beverage. The Coffee Cantata was written circa 1735 for a musical ensemble called The Collegium Musicum based in Zimmerman’s coffee house in Leipzig - since 1723, the regular performance venue for the best amateur music ensemble of the city, of which Bach acted as leader from 1729 on. The whole cantata seems very much to have been written with the local audience in mind. The culture of drinking coffee spread over Europe from the beginning of the eighteenth century, first to the noble elite and then to the middle classes. Coffee houses sprang up everywhere. In Leipzig, there were more than ten.

Coffee is strongly linked with the Netherlands. From the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Dutch East India Company set up its own coffee plantations in Java, as an alternative to importing coffee from Yemen. This meant that the Dutch were the main suppliers of coffee to Europe at the time Bach wrote his cantata.

In Bach’s day, drinking coffee was not without controversy. The effects of the beverage were unknown as yet and the (male) protectors of morality feared that it would make women not only too headstrong, but also induce an erotic mood in them. Sexual innuendo is never far away in this cantata.

The protagonist is a young vivacious woman named Liesgen who loves coffee. Her killjoy father is, of course, dead set against his daughter having any kind of caffeinated fun. So he tries to ban her from the drink. Liesgen bitterly complains:

    Father sir, but do not be so harsh!
    If I couldn’t, three times a day,
    be allowed to drink my little cup of coffee,
    in my anguish I will turn into
    a shriveled-up roast goat.

    Ah! How sweet coffee tastes,
    more delicious than a thousand kisses,
    milder than muscatel wine.
    Coffee, I have to have coffee,
    and, if someone wants to pamper me,
    ah, then bring me coffee as a gift!

She is prepared to give up parties and fashionable clothing in order to sustain her coffee-drinking habit, but when her father says she will never get a husband, she appears to give in. “Ah, a husband!”, she swoons. But actually, of course, she makes sure that she gets both - daughter and father reconcile when he agrees to have a guaranteed three cups of coffee a day written into her marriage contract.

Do watch this wonderful performance! It was recorded at Radio Kootwijk at De Hoge Veluwe, a national park in the central part of the Netherlands. Performers of the Netherlands Bach Society are: Shunske Sato, violin and direction; Lucie Chartin, soprano; Jan-Willem Schaafsma, tenor; Mattijs van de Woerd, bass; and Marc Pantus, theater concept, direction and design.

German libretto at Wikisource.

Choral Masterworks

Antonio Vivaldi, Juditha Triumphans

Juditha Triumphans (1717) is the only oratorio by Vivaldi that has come down to us. The work is on a Biblical theme, but one from the Apocrypha, and despite the allegory, it belongs rather to the opera house than the church. Moreover, it is a story about murder and revenge that has very little of a sacred nature, so I put it at the head of my secular cantatas. It is believed that the book as we know it is the Greek translation of a Hebrew or Aramaic original, dated around 100 BCE. The author deliberately makes many historical errors in the introduction. Nebuchadnezzar was not a king of Assyria, but the Babylonian king who conquered Judea in the sixth century BCE.

After listening again to Juditha Triumphans (I also have it on Hyperion CD with the King's Consort under Robert King) I am convinced that this is an incredibly beautiful piece of music - it is unbelievable that it is so little known and that some people can be satisfied by repeatedly listening to The Four Seasons instead.

Judith with the Head of Holophernes, by Cristofano Allori, 1613

Vivaldi wrote the oratorio for the youthful female virtuosi of the Ospedal della Pieta, the famous girls' orphanage in Venice where Vivaldi was Music Director and for which much of his music was composed (such as his Gloria). The orphanage allowed Vivaldi lots of experimentation, such as the use of extravagant instrumentation, including clarinets, a chalumeau, mandolin and violas "all' inglese," viola d'amore and four theorbos, in addition to the instruments of the normal baroque orchestra. The vocal writing for an all-female cast is both agile and intense, the choruses have a thrilling martial quality. This a stunningly colorful work. 

The story tells how Judith, a Jewish widow, saves her people from the army of Nebuchadnezzar. The city of Betulia is besieged by the legendary Holofernes, an army commander who was commissioned by Nebuchadnezzar II to conquer the entire world. The huge Assyrian army moves west and seems invincible. The Israelites closed the passes, built fortifications on all the high mountain peaks, and erected obstacles in the plains. Then Holofernes cuts off the water supply to the city, in the hope that the inhabitants will perish of thirst and surrender.

The townspeople become parched and despair of a happy ending. The beautiful, wealthy widow Judith and her servant Abra secretly make their way to the camp of general Holofernes pretending to sue for peace. Holofernes falls in love with Judith, and, after giving a feast in her honor in his tent, he falls into a drunken sleep. Judith seizes the opportunity and beheads him with his own sword.

"Then she came to the pillar of the bed, which was at Holofernes' head, and took down his fauchion (short sword) from thence, And approached to his bed, and took hold of the hair of his head, and said, Strengthen me, O Lord God of Israel, this day. And she smote twice upon his neck with all her might, and she took away his head from him. And tumbled his body down from the bed, and pulled down the canopy from the pillars; and anon after she went forth, and gave Holofernes his head to her maid; And she put it in her bag of meat..."

[Gentileschi, Judith Slaying Holofernes]

Judith and Abra manage to escape back to their town. The besiegers become confused when they see Holofernes' head displayed on the city wall, and the citizens immediately attack and drive away the leaderless and demoralized Assyrians. The story of Judith is one of the few in the Bible where the power of woman exceeds that of man.

Many artists were inspired by the dramatic story of Judith. Donatello was the first artist to cast a bronze sculpture, for the palace garden of the Medici; Michelangelo painted Judith in a corner of the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. Lucas Cranach, Botticelli, Paolo Veronese and Caravaggio also painted Judith. The gory theme was very popular around 1600, especially among Caravagists: Cristofano Allori created the work Judith with the Head of Holofernes around 1610, which depicts Judith with Holofernes' head in her left hand (see above). Caravaggio himself also painted the canvas Judith beheading Holofernes. Judith beheads Holofernes is a famous painting by the Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi (see above). More recently, Gustav Klimt painted a Judith holding the head of Holofernes; he even made two paintings about her, Judith I and Judith II. 

[Klimt, Judith I]

Vivaldi was not the first to treat the theme of Judith in music. Alessandro Scarlatti wrote La Giuditta in 1693, an oratorio first performed in Naples. Vivaldi's Judita triumphans dates from 1717. The work was a commission following the victory of the Venetians in Corfu over the Turks. In 1771, as a 15-year old, Mozart compose the dramatic opera La Betulia Liberata on the same subject. 

See Juditha Triumphans performed in the Dom in Brixen by the Venice Monteverdi Academy Choir (and soloists) and the Chamber Orchestra Lorenzo Da Ponte conducted by Roberto Zarpellon. Note that the text is in Latin!

Here is the rage aria "Armatae face et anquibus" by Holofernes' steward Vagaus, when he discovers the body of his master minus its head, in a wonderful performance by Cecilia Bartoli:

:

Choral Masterworks