We will sing this canonically, meaning like a round. I’ll get
one group started and our guest, Mr. Bryant, will lead the second group. Once it feels like
we have settled into a reflective mood as a group, we’ll allow the singing to
fade out. When the singing fades out, Anna will read a portion of the 23rd
Psalm as recently translated by our friend, Dr. Cameron McNabb.
It is my hope that this evening's psalm experience will haunt us in a good
way and encourage us to trust in Jesus for the things we need including deeper understanding of ourselves. It occurs to me that, in one way or another, I
spend much of my time consciously or unconsciously trying to have my
needs met but not turning to Jesus to define or meet them.
Oratorio
What is an oratory? An intentional Christian community and the
building where their events are held. The building is not, in essence, a church for the saying
of Mass but for other activities such as teaching, meditation, performances, etc.
“Oratory” is derived from a word associated with
praying, pleading, speaking – expressions we might hear from a pulpit
An oratorio is a large musical work, usually based on a Bible story, and
rendered by singers and orchestra. It a sort of thing that might be heard in an oratory. Stylistically, it is a lot like opera minus the
staging and acting but with a more robust role for the choir.
Handel (1685-1759) was a German composer who was brought to England to
provide Italian opera.
Lent was oratorio season. It involved an annual ban on staged works. Handel
composed 17 oratorios and put more and more of his energy into oratorio work in
his later years as the interest in Italian opera waned. His oratorios tend to
be based on Old Testament situations and his public would have seen a parallel
between Israel as God’s chosen and favored people and their own nation. We often do something similar in today's America.
Handel's Messiah is in three large sections:
Prophecy and Promise of the Redeemer
The Suffering Lamb Who Redeems
Thanksgiving for the Defeat of Death
These titles remind us that this is not a Christmas piece or
an Easter piece, but something composed for use during Lent. Aspects of it can be relevant to any season of the church year and one scholar has planned out services based on excerpts from Messiah that would be appropriate for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, missions, Christ the King, the Second Coming of Christ . . .
Messiah consists of 53 musical numbers, some of which are cut from
most performances, and it includes texts from Isaiah, Malachi, Zechariah, Psalms,
Lamentations, Matthew, Luke, Hebrews, Romans, Revelation, and I Corinthians.
It begins with an overture and I was playing Handel’s
arrangement of that overture just before we started our class. Jen
Peter Larsen describes the overture as expressing a “mood without hope” and
interprets it as “darkness from which light will later shine forth.” A sense of
movement from darkness to light is characteristic of the entire oratorio.
I keep talking about the process of making abstract concepts
more concrete through musical actions and what that process contributes to our
spirituality. Last week, Dr. Sledge referenced the practice of text-painting in
his own psalm settings and tonight we will be exploring that in greater detail
in Handel’s music. (Text-painting is a sort of musical onomatopoeia in which the sounds do what the words are saying.)
Handel was a master of this. He did it well and creatively.
He did it probably more than we realize. And he did it without it ever
becoming silly.
“Every Valley” from Messiah is compelling music whether or not the listener is aware of the
text-painting. But tonight, I would like to invite you to raise your
consciousness of this aspect of Handel’s genius. Tracking these types of
details – details that demonstrate the seemingly limitless imagination,
personality, and technical mastery of Handel, tune us up more fully
to appreciate that this music is, as my music theory mentor Vern Falby would say,
“saturated with glory.”
 | |
| Ed Bryant and me |
Listening to Mr. Bryant perform "Every Valley," members of our group discovered the following instances of text-painting. There are listed here in the order they occur in the piece. I encourage reading over these discoveries then listening to one or both of these recordings while following the text-painting as described below.
Here, Juan Diego Florez sings the air with breathtaking elegance and flexibility.
And here, the great Canadian tenor Jon Vickers sings a performance of tremendous strength and radiance.
One
of our participants beautifully recognized the text as a "descripitive
poem" and Handel's music as providing the "environment" of the poem for
the listener.
The initial "Ev-ry valley" climbs up out of a literal valley of register.
The initial "Ev-ry valley" climbs up out of a literal valley of register.
single notes on "ev" and "ry"
climbing more rapidly on "valley"
snappy dotted rhythm on "valley" accentuating the rapid rise
The word "exalted" is very dramatically elongated and climbs floridly. It is being lifted, exalted.
As the first "exalted" comes to a close, the orchestra returns to the opening vocal "ev'ry valley" motive. This overlaps with a mountain-like shape in the voice on the words "shall be exalted." The impression of these overlapping parts is that of the sense of perspective we experience in the mountains when we glimpse further rows of mountains between the rises of nearer mountains.
Following the next "exalted," there is an octave leap on the word "mountain." This is precipitous and is the largest vocal leap to this point in the piece. Immediately after this descent are a quick little rise and fall on "hill" which are appropriately scaled to their neighbor "mountain." The phrase ends with a jump down to a rather low note on the word "low."
Next, the line wobbles on "crooked" but lingers on single notes for the words "and the rough places plain." The word "plain" seems to be on a plain with a few small undulations or furrows.
The next "crooked" passage is even more angular and the bass line covers some pretty rough terrain at the same time.
We come to another "plain" and this time, its notes seem to paint a terraced landscape where a hillside has been leveled in stages making it fit for growing things. The last "rough places plain" in this section feels simple and quite resolved.
In the last third of the piece, Handel demonstrates subtle variations on the text painting choices he has already made.
The next "Ev'ry valley" moves directly to an octave-long drop-off. This instantaneously heightens the intensity. Contributing further excitement, he adds larger leaps to the "exalted" passages.
The final "crooked" is set to the interval of a tritone, the "diabolus in musica," an interval avoided to a great extent in the Medieval due to its dissonance and its disturbing quality. This is only one of two times the interval is use in the vocal part. The earlier was on the equally appropriate "rough places." Singing a tritone is always a rough place.
The final "crooked" is set to the interval of a tritone, the "diabolus in musica," an interval avoided to a great extent in the Medieval due to its dissonance and its disturbing quality. This is only one of two times the interval is use in the vocal part. The earlier was on the equally appropriate "rough places." Singing a tritone is always a rough place.
Conclusion
Following this exploration, Dr. Cotton asked for testimonies of the power of music of this sort to transport and transform the listener. He went on to share that those types of experiences are available to us when we "slow down and give ourselves over to the works." To use C.S. Lewis's term, works of art require our "surrender."
We concluded the evening with a compline service, including a reprise of "He Shall Feed His Flock" framing these reminders from John 10:
Jesus said,
“ . . . I am the gate for the sheep . .
.
Whoever enters by me will be saved, and
will come in and go out and find pasture
. . . I came that they may have life, and have
it abundantly.
Jesus said,
“I am the good shepherd. The good
shepherd lays down his life for the sheep . . .
Jesus said,
“I am the good shepherd.
I know my own and my own know me,
just as the Father knows me and I know
the Father.
And I lay down my life for the sheep .
. . I lay it down of my own accord.”
