“Reflections of the Season”

by J. P. Wearing

If sheer volume of compositions is a measure of fame, Georg Philip Telemann (1681-1767) with his estimated 3,000 or more pieces would be far better known than his contemporaries Bach (1685-1750) and Handel (1685-1759). Quality, of course, is the real determining factor, and eighteenth-century music historian Dr Charles Burney (1726-1814) pinpointed a crucial aspect of Telemann’s music. Burney thought Telemann possessed two distinct styles: “In the first, he was hard, stiff, dry, and inelegant; in the second, all that was pleasing, graceful, and refined” (General History of Music, 1775). Undoubtedly, Telemann’s Die Hirten an der Krippe zu Bethlehem (The Shepherds at the Crib in Bethlehem) embodies the second style. He wrote the piece in 1759, setting to music the text of the poet Karl Wilhelm Ramler (1725-98), sometimes known as “the German Horace.” Unlike Handel’s Messiah, Telemann’s work, as the title indicates, focuses on a specific facet of the Christmas story, and one that captures the essence of the birth of Christ and of Christianity: the shepherds are humble, every day people caught up in witnessing a miraculous event. It is not for nothing that words and imagery associated with sheep and shepherds suffuse the Christian message. Telemann’s setting is, likewise, suitably modest and intimate, yet completely endearing. The work is small-scaled and also follows a familiar, comforting pattern adopted by other composers: several chorales provide a framework for arias and duets that present the story and commentary. The opening chorale, a setting of the traditional carol, “In Dulci Jubilo,” also provides a good example of how composers tackle the task of refashioning familiar music, making it sound fresh by writing new variations. Thus continuity is established while change is effected, a process that can be seen in most of the shorter works that comprise the second part of today’s program.

While Gustav Holst (1874-1934) is best known for his symphonic suite The Planets (first performed in 1918), he actually wrote a wide-range of music—operas, ballets, orchestral pieces, choral works, and folk songs. His “Christmas Day,” dating from 1910, is a choral fantasy upon immediately recognizable old carols. It begins with the same tune that opened Telemann’s work, but now set to the words “Good Christian Men Rejoice.” Here, as a “fantasy” implies, Holst gives full rein to his musical imagination and creativity. Felix Mendelssohn (1809-47) has never suffered from the lack of attention that has afflicted some of Telemann’s work. “There shall a Star from Jacob Come Forth” from his unfinished oratorio Christus (first performed in 1852) has been accounted as among his most lyrical and enchanting choral pieces. The three-section work concludes with the reassuring chorale, "How Brightly Beams the Morning Star," also used by Telemann in his cantata. Pietro Yon (1886-1943), an Italian organist and teacher, moved to America in 1907 where, most notably, he eventually became organist at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. Yon’s popular “Gesu Bambino” (1917) draws on this background by fusing an Italian carol (translated by Frederick H. Martens) with the chorus of “O Come All Ye Faithful.”

Philip Kern (b 1957), a member of the music faculty of Marian College in Indianapolis, turns to a recurrent element of American music, the spiritual. His “Rise Up, Shepherd” is energetic, syncopated and “jazzed up,” yet retains the essential, familiar qualities of the original. British composer John Rutter (b 1945), whose favorite carol is “In Dulci Jubilo,” has said that Christmas is a particularly important time for him: “Christmas is happy memories of the way it was celebrated when I was a kid. As everyone would probably say, it revolves around the family and gatherings. But it also revolves around my school chapel. I was at a school in north London that happened to have a chapel with a fine choir. And our Christmas carol service was the high point of our singing year. So I actually developed a love of the whole music of Christmas, along with the message of Christmas, from when I was a kid. With music, your Christmas can always be perfect.” Among his numerous Christmas pieces “Star Carol” (1972), with its instant singability, displays Rutter’s hallmark combination of tunefulness and energetic rhythms.

No Christmas concert would be complete without some examples of lighter, joyful, secular fare. This Jay Althouse (b 1951) provides in abundance in his “Christmas Pops Trio,” a medley of “Winter Wonderland,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” and “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” The concert ends with a piece that, like the others, reworks the familiar with the sophisticated as American composer Craig Courtney takes us on “A Musicological Journey through the Twelve Days of Christmas” (1990). The music for each day is set in a different musical style, and the piece progresses from sixth-century Rome to twentieth-century America, taking in France, Italy, Germany, Austria and Russia along the way. No prizes–but plenty of fun–for correctly identifying all twelve styles and original composers!