New Early Music Monday Index!

After 2.5 years, we finally have a searchable index! I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, and the cancellations because of Coronavirus finally provided me with enough time (and in-house tech support) to make it happen!

On the right side of the Writing/Research page, you’ll find a link to the Early Music Monday Index, which keeps a tally of how many posts in each major category as well as a listing of tags by category to make it easier to find topics or people or whatever your heart desires (that it can find here).

It also revealed some conspicuous absences, which I will be working to remedy going forward!

A new (old) St. John Passion

From Bach-Archiv Leipzig, here’s a performance of Bach’s St. John Passion. but in a way you've never heard it before (appropriate for a time we've never experienced before). Intimate, solitary, haunting, and beautiful.

Watch the incredible performance here!

A Mozart Celebration

How about a dose of Mozart to help in this time of quarantine? 99.5 WCRB is rebroadcasting Handel + Haydn Society’s “A Mozart Celebration” from last October - have a listen here!

Guerrero and the Plague

Here’s another post from 2019: Guerrero is known as one of the giants of renaissance polyphony, but he also was a plague victim. Before that he was held for ransom by pirates, spent time in prison, and wrote a book about his adventures, among other things.

Read more here!

Music in Times of Pandemic

Following up on last week’s “Black Death Music Parties”, this isn’t the first time the musical community (or the world in general) has been impacted by a pandemic. Early Music America had a great article exploring this issue!

A Historically Informed Approach to Music in Times of Pandemic

The Plague and Music

Here’s a repeat of an Early Music Monday post from May 2019 that seems timely:
The History of Black Death Music Parties

What is our life?

Political upheaval? Rampant disease?
Late Renaissance or just yesterday’s news?
Here’s a setting of Sir Walter Raleigh’s sonnet “What is our life?”, written while he was in the Tower of London awaiting execution.

Musikalishe Exequien

Next up: Monteverdi, Gabrieli, Schein, and Schütz with Back Bay Chorale, including my perennial favorite, Schütz’ Musikalische Exequien! Read more below and then come hear the concert on Saturday night!

Musikalische Exequien (Funeral music), Op. 7, SWV 279–281 is a sacred composition by Heinrich Schütz, dating from c. 1635/36. Written for the funeral services of Count Henry II, Count of Reuss-Gera, who had died on 3 December 1635, it is Schütz's most famous work of funeral music.^[1] It comprises the following sections:

Henry II had planned the service himself and chosen the texts, some of which are scriptural and others of which are from 16th-century Lutheran writers, including Martin Luther himself. He also commissioned Schütz to compose the music on the occasion of his death.

Part I, by far the longest part of the work, is scored for SSATTB (2 sopranos, alto, 2 tenors, bass) chorus alternating with small ensembles of soloists. Part II is scored for double choir SATB SATB, and part III for SATTB choir and a trio of soloists. All movements are accompanied by basso continuo.

Musikalische Exequien (Funeral music), Op. 7, SWV 279-281 is a sacred composition by Heinrich Schütz, dating from c. 1635/36. Written for the funeral services of Count Henry II, Count of Reuss-Gera, who had died on 3 December 1635, it is Schütz's most famous work of funeral music.

… read more on Wikipedia

What if everything you loved was a lie?

Allegri’s Miserere, or “What if everything you loved was a lie?”, courtesy our colleagues at Early Music Sources!

Ainsi qu'on oit le cerf bruire

Psalm 42 has inspired some of choral music’s best moments (“like as the hart”, “as the deer”, “sicut cervus”), but this setting, sung by The Advent Choir a few weeks ago, is probably my favorite of all time.

Ainsi qu’on oit le cerf bruire -- Claude Goudimel (c1510-1572)/ The Advent Choir / Jeremy Bruns, conductor / Ainsi qu’on oit le cerf bruire, pourchassant le frais des eaux: ainsi mon cœur qui souspire Seigneur, après tes ruisseaux, va, tousjours criant, suivant le grand, le grand Dieu vivant. Helas! donques, quand serace que verray de Dieu la face? Jour et nuits pour ma viande de pleurs me vai soustenant, quand je voy qu’on me demande: où est ton Dieu maintenant? Je fond en me souvenant, qu’en troupe j’alloy menant, priant, chantant, grosse bande faire au temple son offrande. As a hart longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me continually, “Where is your God?” These things I remember, as I pour out my soul, how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival. [Metrical paraphrase of Psalm 42:1-4 by Théodore de Bèze, (1519-1605) & RSV]