WordPress.com



III.?Christian MusicTable of Contents??? A.??? Early Christian MusicReligious Music of the Abrahamic Religious Traditions Jewish Chant Islamic Chant Role of Creed in the Development of Christian Liturgical Music Man, Jesus, and Faith on the Development of Christian Dogma Embellishment and Augmentation of Chant to Polyphony ???? B.??? Music: the Universal Language by Which Texts Soar Many Ways to Sing Thy Praise! Impact of Music on My Spiritual Life ???? C.??? Medieval MusicChant, the Mass and Hildegard of Bingen (1098 – 1179) Embellishment and Augmentation of Chant to Polyphony éonin (1150 – 1201) (ca.1200) and Heloise Christianity:? The Crusades de Coincy (1177–1236) of the Ars Nova da Bologna (1340–c. 1386) ??? D.??? Music of the RenaissanceLeonel Power (ca. 1370 – 1445) Dunstable (or Dunstaple) (c. 1390 –? 1453) Dufay (ca. 1397 – 1474) Ockeghem (ca. 1410 – 1497) Tavener (c. 1490 – 1545) Musical Aftermath of Henry VIII’s “Divorce “: Thomas Tallis (c. 1505 –1585) and William Byrd (1540–1623) Pierluigi da Palestrina (1526 – 1594) de Lassus (ca. 1532–1594) ??? E.??? Music of the Baroque EraAndrea Gabrieli (1532 – 1585) and Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1554 –? 1612) Luis de Victoria (1548 –1611) Monteverdi? (1567 –1643) and Introduction to the Baroque Allegri (1582 – 1652) Schutz (1585 – 1672) Scheidt (1587 – 1654) Lully (1632 – 1687) Buxtehude (ca. 1637 – 1707) Purcell (1659 – 1695) Scarlatti (1660 – 1725) Jaroussky,? Countertenor, Performing a Number of Baroque Pieces Couperin (1668 – 1733) Vivaldi (1678 – 1741) Philip Telemann (1681 –1767) Philippe Rameau (1683 –1764) Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750) Friedrich Handel (1685 – 1759) Power of Rhythm ???? F.??? Music of the Classical EraFranz Joseph Haydn (1732 – 1809) Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791) .??? Music of the Romantic EraLudwig van Beethoven (1770- 1877) Rossini (1792 – 1868) Schubert (1797 – 1828) Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini (1801 –1835) Mendelssohn (1809 –?1847) Gaetano Maria Donizetti (1797 – 1848) Gounod (1818 – 1893) ésar-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck (1822 –1890) Brahms (1833 –1897) Saint-Sa?ns (1835 –1921) (1840 – 1893) Fortunino Francesco Verdi (1813 –1901) ??? H??? Music of the 20th CenturyGabriel Urbain Fauré (1845 –1924) Grigorievich Chesnokov (1877 – 1944) Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini (1858 – 1924) Janecek (1854 – 1928) Vaughan Williams (1872 – 1958) án Kodály (1882 – 1967) Poulenc (1899 – 1963) Fyodorovich Stravinsky (1882 – 1971) Honegger: (1892–1955) Bernstein (1918 ) Note or Sacred Harp Singing Protestant Hymnody – Charles Wesley ??? I.??? Black Contributions to Our Culture and to SocietyThe Contribution and Influence of Black Song and?Dance Americans’ Great Gifts to Me, Personally, to American Culture, and to World?Culture Development and Influence of Black Song and?Spirituals Much More Than Music! of Black Religious Music – an Invitation Music of the Abrahamic Religious?TraditionsBefore we explore the development of polyphonic music in the Christian traditions, we would do well to explore the role of chant and its history in the Middle East among Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the unique contributions and characteristics of each, and their similarities and differences.? See for an exploration of similarities and differences between those religions and the unique reliance of each upon their inheritance from Abraham.I welcome this opportunity partly because there is so little painting or sculpture in either Judaism? or Islam, because of the biblical prohibition specifically?against idolatry and generally?against graven images; and more so because, given the strife in the predominantly developed portions of the world between these three religions, we tend to forget that we all share the same planet, and that each of our faiths claim that all humanity is “made in the image of God.”? Despite our differences, we are family.? Indeed, we are told that God not only promised Abraham descendents greater than the number of the stars, but that he would become the father of many nations. The first born son was Ishmael, the second was Isaac, and he had six other sons with his wife, Keturah (Genesis 25:1).Acknowledging that the biblical Abraham is claimed by each of the Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, as its own father, we will explore the liturgical traditions of each and any interconnection that they may have either in history or in form and practice. We will explore them in the chronological order in which they first appeared. The difficulty that we face in doing so is that there are no extant recordings of the liturgical musical performances of the music of any of the three religions; nor was there in place at that time a precise system?for notating the chant. ?By the first century the Jews had hand signs to generally indicate the contour of the melody but it was hardly sufficient to provide an adequate experience of the music-making that then existed. Contemporaneous historical records may describe the chant or the manner of its performance and the effect it had upon its audience, but even those are limited.I will offer in the next several posts the worshipful chants of each of these religions.? The arts, particularly music, enable us to access the emotional and aesthetic experiences of others and to join them socially, musically and spiritually in the rich life that we can have together.Jewish and Early Christian?ChantFor an article concerning the development of cantillation in the Middle East, most specifically in Judaism and in Christianity, see examples of ancient Hebrew chant, see an example of contemporary Jewish chant, see: Islamic?ChantFor articles describing Islamic chant, see an example of call and response (note cantor’s embellishment’s and rhythic instrumental accompaniment) see: an example of a cantor reciting in chant at a mosque: ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=relatedFor modern Islamic chant in English, entitled “Forgive Me” and one that I find uniquely beautiful and meaningful to me, see: Role of Creed in the Development of Christian Liturgical?MusicBy way of introducing this section, I don’t seek to explain why creeds developed as they did, but to understand the circumstances at that time that likely contributed to the development of those creeds.What one of us has not, when facing a recent significant health challenge, or loss of a loved one, a hope or a sense of trust dashed, asked why?? If that tragic loss is very much in the eye of the public, how much more do we protest, “But why?” ?Or, when facing some tragedy, as the unexpected loss of a loved one, a serious accident, or a serious criminal violation of our person or that of a loved one, asked, “Why?” Or, “What if?”That was the atmosphere that the disciples and other followers of Jesus experienced following his crucifixion. They had such high hopes for Jesus. Jesus was a remarkable, loving, courageous person, a friend of all who were oppressed and an outspoken opponent of all social powers and persons who oppressed them.? During his lifetime, Jesus directly confronted those who burdened others with petty rules of religious practice. He and his disciples violated them in ways that did no harm to others in order that they might do good for others. But, Jesus became a threat to the then-existing religious authorities. He was committed to the Truth in a way that Gandhi would have appreciated. ?He was committed to loving all and excluding none; he pursued Truth, whatever the cost; and he comforted the dispossessed, the oppressed, and all those who suffered.? He saw and taught that to do so was God’s will, and he was committed to such acts of love even though it resulted in violating the oppressive laws, which, in Jesus time and in his society, happened to be those of the religious authorities.? I recognize it as Civil Disobedience. When I see the examples of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, or another who violates openly an unjust law for Truth and Justice, I think of Jesus’ loving example and commitment to Truth and Justice, whatever the consequences.? And I think that each one of these people was killed by someone or some group who felt threatened.I have not always seen things that way. I grew up in the North East of the United States, Rhode Island, at a time of civil unrest known as the Civil Rights Era in the mid-20th century. “White Anglo-Saxon society,” which was my environment, became frightened of the social unrest caused by the boycotts and civil disobedience led by Martin Luther King.At that same time, the Black Muslims became dramatically prominent. In the mid- to late 1960s, I was attending a national church conference where a?film was played which highlighted the hatred of the Black Muslims for whites, including the reverse racist, hate spewing Malcolm X.? In truth, when those who have become fearful of losing what they have, or even having to share it, too often their response is to react in fear to keep their hold on it. Not until many years later, about 1990, when the movie of Malcolm X came out did I discover that his own father was a Christian minister who suffered great racial hatred and violence from white people.? That, understandably, embittered Malcolm and he reacted in hatred. That hatred led to crime, for which he was imprisoned. While in prison, he was introduced to the Black Muslims who shared his hatred. He embraced them and their ideology and they him.? Malcolm was not only driven by hatred, but he also had great verbal and charismatic skills to articulately and dramatically express it. The Black Muslims fanned the flames of his anger and hatred, and they used him for their own political agendas. In time, as I recall, Malcolm became disillusioned by the hatred of the Black Muslims, and he went to Mecca, as all good Muslims intend to do, where he discovered, not a hateful Islam, but a loving Islam where vengeance had no place. There, he also discovered forgiveness. ?That was an inclusive religious society in which color did not matter at all.? Whether black or white, all were included within the circle of love that warmed the heart and healed the soul. It was a peaceful society. ?I discovered, when watching the movie of his life, that when Malcolm X returned to the United States, he was a converted Muslim, who, so far as I could see, embraced a loving and peace-making religion that, on an ethical plane, was little different from that of Jesus.? Indeed, the Black Muslims, with whom he was previously so strongly identified, became threatened by this man of peace who had abandoned their agenda of hate for an Islamic religion of love; the Black Muslims became the religious authorities that Malcolm dared disobey for a higher purpose, the Truth.? Ultimately, the Black Muslims were so threatened by his message of peace and love, quite like the position that Jesus was in with the religious authorities of his day, that they? conspired to kill him, as did the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. As the Pharisees conspired with Judas, who was one of Jesus’ disciples, so did the Black Muslims.? They secretly infiltrate a religious service that Malcolm was leading, where they murdered him as he preached his message of love, forgiveness and peace. ?I recall no news of that murder at the time that it actually occurred, and I was utterly unaware of it until I saw it depicted in the movie.? I am sure that the followers of Malcolm X were asking questions similar to those asked by the followers of Jesus: Why? How did it come to this? What meaning does his life have, if any, after his death?Those who looked to Malcolm X as their hope for the future did not have the resources that Jesus’ disciples had to redeem the memory of Jesus from his ignoble end.? Jesus’ disciples had both a Jewish tradition and a pervasive Greco-Roman civilization and myth to aid them; the?followers of Malcolm X had no such staple of resources to draw upon.? They were originally brought here as slaves where they served their “masters.” Harriet Beecher Stowe in her book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, describes their deplorable conditions and treatment.? Even upon their emancipation, blacks did not have the same opportunities that whites had for education, financial or social improvement; ?nor did they have the leisure time required for reflection and the arts. Although they were “freed,” yet they were oppressed, excluded by mainstream white society, and treated?in various degrees as less than fully human.? Although, during slavery, the Blacks had great hope for a better day, that day was “In that great getting’ up morning, fair thee well,” they sang?during their toil; but they had little if any hope of that in their own lifetimes. Nor did they have leisure time or the education to reflect upon their plight or their hope, to write about it, or to devote to artistic expression about it, except so far as they were able?sing as they toiled.? That contributed to the one great artistic and expressive form available to them: the Negro spiritual. While that may have been some consolation and eased to some small degree the pain of slavery, it did not provide a tradition that the Blacks in the Civil Rights Era could draw upon to console, reinterpret, encourage, and give hope to Malcolm’s followers after his death. They had no means of explaining how a man committed to Allah and spreading news of forgiveness, peace and love, could be gunned down in the prime of his life, when he had given so much hope to so many.The Jews, on the other hand, had a rich heritage of prophecy looking to a time to come of peace, when the lion would lie with the lamb, when there would be no more war. ?But the time?when the prophecy was made was also a time when both pagans and Jews sacrificed animals to their gods (the Jews to God) to please him, to ask a favor, or to ask for forgiveness. That continued into the first century.? You may recall that Jesus, upon his entry into Jerusalem cast over the tables at the temple where merchants were making a profit selling animals for sacrifice. ?The disciples also had an example of the Paschal lamb which was a lamb without blemish that was sacrificed according to a prescribed ritual. See . ???The Jews of the Old Testament had another rite in which the sins of the community were symbolically placed upon a goat that was then punished in the place of the people to cleanse them of guilt: the “scape goat.” ?See . ??They had the example of the Passover which originated in the story of the liberation of the Jews from slavery in Egypt when the lamb’s blood was smeared on the posts of the door to protect the occupants so that the Angel of Death would pass over them as it passed through Egypt, killing, we are told, the first born of both human and animal. Jesus’ disciples and followers had a great tradition of praise, thankfulness, forgiveness, and hope, with many vehicles for each available to help them understand how this innocent man, so full of love for God, and so caring for all could be crucified as a common criminal.See, also, The Need for Creeds?at the evolution of religion and the benefit of writing at Man, Jesus, and?FaithI will begin this section by being up front about my views of Jesus and the meaning of his life.?First, what I do not believe:I do not believe that Jesus died “because of the Jews.” Nor do I believe that he died because it was according to some Divine Plan by a God who made the world, which operated on certain rules that He created, but Who was powerless to change “the rules,” thereby requiring that “His Son,” Jesus, the “perfect lamb,” be sacrificed in order that God can forgive men, all of whom became guilty because of the Original Sin of Adam and Eve in eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.? God is neither a terrorist nor vindictive.? Surely the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is a metaphor for a deeper truth.My?experience of the Truth?in any religion is that Truth is not always to be found on the surface.? But, the fact that I need to search for Truth beyond the mere facts of many of the biblical stories does not mean that everyone must do the same or in the same way.? Some people need something more concrete.? I?have heard many Christians cite the verse literally,?”We love because He first loved us.”? Many of those interpret that verse to say humans are capable of loving only because “He first loved us.”?I really don’t understand what that means.? If we are “made in the image of God,” and if God is Love, it is only natural that we would love one another. ? Although I believe that the power of love is greater then the power of “belief,”?nonetheless, if one must believe first in order to love, what is the difference?? Good fruit is good fruit, and that is what we are called to produce.I cannot believe in miracles as magic that suspend the laws of nature.? For example, when the story is told in Judges that the sun was made to stand still so that Joshua could complete annihilating an?enemy, I believe there are many laws of nature that would make a disaster of that feat if it were literally true. Science is based upon observation and experimentation, and I cannot ignore that.? The United States did not make its moon landings on the basis of a hope and a prayer. When Discoverer and?Challenger exploded, we discovered that there was a physical reason for it.? It was not the intervention of God. One of the signs of mentally healthy persons is that they “see things as they are,” not as they want or imagine them to be.???Miracles are not? magical suspension of the laws of nature,? but rather, miracles are “where the eye of faith sees the hand of God at work.”? (I owe that to my professor, Dr. Nida, at Salem College, West Virginia.)I accept the part of any Christian?creed that asserts that Jesus was fully human.?? The gospel of John is the one gospel that asserts what amounts to a Gnostic claim that escaped canonical condemnation to extinction (except for the Dead See Scrolls)?that Jesus and God are one.?? That is the last gospel that was written and it was written after Paul took the gospel to the”Greek world” of the Gentiles.?? It is not one of the synoptic Gospels, meaning those?first three books of the New Testament share a common view of the life of Jesus.? I see John as a poetical response to?the Jesus experience.?? Poetry is not an equation but a celebration.?? I note that many principles?of modern psychology?are forecast in Gnosticism.???Modern psychology would understand the role of its symbology in the world of dreams that reflect upon our experiences of life and?guide us; they tap into our subconscious.?? When I consider the book of John in relation to the Genesis creation stories, I see that we each are children of God, and each of us is made in the image of God.??? When we lose sight of that, we risk idolatry.??Jesus, the human, I understand; Jesus, the God – separate from humanity, I do not understand.?? Eric Fromm understood the difference.There are certainly events in our lives without rational explanation.?? Not all reality is to be experienced rationally; not everything?needs, or deserves,?an explanation.?Some truths must be simply experienced.??? Rationality is only part of the experience of human life.?? But I cannot ignore the physicality of our experiences of sense, logic, emotion, and the spiritual.??I do?accept that human beings sometimes have accurate premonitions, forebodings or?visions of the future that cannot be explained.? As an example,?my mother tells of the dream that she had when she heard?a voice, much as Samuel heard, say, “It is not unto death.” I do not recall the passage in the Bible that was quoted in her dream, but she recognized it.??The next day, one of my younger brothers told her of a lump that he had on his neck.? They took him to the doctor and the growth was biopsied, resulting in a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s disease, a form of cancer.?? We had just had an older church member die of the disease, and at?that time it was considered to be fatal.?? My brother had his lymph nodes ?surgically removed and was seriously threatened by?a staph infection while yet in the hospital.? At? that time my parents and younger siblings lived?in Rhode Island, not far from Yale University . Yale had developed a high-intensity radiation treatment that offered some hope.?? Whether by vision, divine promise, prayer or love, my brother survived that bout with cancer.? Since then, treatments have improved.??He has had two other recurrences, each more?aggressively treated, but each has been followed by remission.My mother’s own mother was also a woman of great faith,?and, like Mom, was well grounded.? My mother tells in her written Memories of a time?that she asked her mother, “If I have the faith of Peter, could I also walk on water?”? Grandma answered, “When you have to, you will.”?? Mom has walked on water,” as she will say, “with God’s help.”???Her weekly e mail correspondence usually ends with, “God is so good.”???Gratitude is a natural expression of faith and worship.? And Christians share that with many “God-filled” persons of many different faiths and religions.I cannot explain my mother’s experiences when her?eyes of faith, or, if you will, her ears of faith, reveal to her the Divine, but I do know that?she has had other experiences where she has become aware of circumstances and received some form of?knowledge or perception?that is beyond normal human experience.? I would not call them paranormal experiences;?my mother would say it was God speaking to her.??None of us knows the extent of human powers or of the power of the Divine, “the Living God,”?in human lives. ? Pres. Abraham Lincoln is said to have spoken the night before his assassination of a vision in which he looked upon his body in a?casket lying “in State” at?the Capital.?? Whether that is true or not, or whether it was reinterpreted following his death, I don’t know.?? There is much that I do not know nor need I know.I believe that there is a power of healing that is beyond mere medical intervention, ?the extent of which we do not know.??But, if I have appendicitis and I must choose between prayer and surgery, I will choose surgery and be thankful for any prayer support that may be offered.??I?also trust??that there are certain laws of nature that?I can rely upon: if I throw a ball up in the air, and it is not caught or diverted?by an object, gravity will pull it back to the earth; as a student of physics, I am confident that there are certain laws which are mathematically expressed that will determine its rate of dissent.? It is that kind of faith and knowledge which? enabled NASA to make its moon landings ,?its Mars landings, and exploration upon? each. I am sure that there were a lot of prayers offered at the time of the NASA moon landings , but that was not achieved except for immense scientific understanding, engineering skills, analysis of the circumstances that would be encountered, including?of the demands of the mission and?preparation.Some things may change in ways that we do not expect, whether it is due to human action or not, but for my purposes today I can rely upon observations of science and personal experience that, based upon the facts known to me,?appear to be accurate. Things are relative; I understand that.? But, if I choose to participate in my future then I must do my preparations in a real world as it is revealed to me, trusting that if I do something well, something good will come from it; and that whatever comes of that effort, I can learn from it rather than the victim of it. That is my?faith.? It is?sufficient?that I?live in the light that?I have today.? The following is my attempt to?remove the scales from my eyes so that I can live in that light.About “God” I cannot say anything specific and concrete; I tend to agree with the mystics of each of the Abrahamic religions.? I am inclined toward Moses Maimonides’ Doctrine of Negative ttributes.? However, I’m not sure that we can even describe what God is not.? As the psalmist says, wherever I make my bed, “Thou art there.” I believe that.I believe in a Divine presence and activity?that is larger than?a God that fills the empty spaces of our knowledge. If, for example, we were to discover why evolution has been capable of coordinating a number of changes?to achieve?a particular bodily or intellectual function, it would be just another piece of knowledge that we are able to gather, but likely there will always be a mystery no matter how much we know.? In my experience and in science that I trust, nothing is created out of nothing; energy and matter are simply exchanged or their form is changed. I think that the mystics, whether Jewish, Christian, or Muslim, were on the right track:?the world is filled with mystery.??That is enough for me without needing to explain it, except as it may help me to act.? Whether or not some phenomenon appears to someone to be the action of “God” or “Allah” can always be debated.? It will be revealed only to the eye of faith, and that not contrary to the evidence. I believe that we are “given” our senses, our memories and our intellect to be used wisely, accepting that there is yet more – a great mystery, not a great magic show.As a man, which the creeds acknowledge, I believe Jesus was subject, not only to the same temptations, as creeds? hold, but also to the same physicality of himself and physicality in laws of nature about him.??In my view, he died, not? “because of of the Jews,”?but in large part because he violated the rules of the powerful of that day, the religious authorities: he refused to allow the law to prevent him from doing good or?from caring about people.? Every religion has its adherents who take the stories of that religion in a literal, exclusivist?way, robbing them of their underlying truth and power.? It is the same with Christianity.? Too often the zealots become the religious authorities whatever the religion.? That is what Jesus was up against during his lifetime, and, unfortunately, that is also what we all are up against when, in every one of the Abrahamic religions,?and likely among all religions, fundamentalist zealots, promising certainty in an uncertain world, come to powerful positions in that religion and in their society because they tell people what they want to hear.?? However, because of their own disguised?uncertainty, which they refuse to acknowledge themselves, they destroy all those?who they see as a threat to?their own idolized faith. Such persons, whatever their religion, Abrahamic or not, are unable to live a life of faith, but need self aggrandize and control in order to maintain the appearance of?certainty. These types of persons develop styles of hypervigilance and aggressive defense, because the paths to that certainty are constantly changing with life, the essence of which is change.? The very thing that makes us human, growth and change, they cannot tolerate, but must destroy.Enough said.? Now, on to a discussion of who Jesus was, what the meaning of his life is for me, and how Christian dogma developed.? That will be the subject of my next post.The Role of Creed in the Development of Christian Liturgical?MusicBy way of introducing this section, I don’t seek to explain why creeds developed as they did, but to understand the circumstances at that time that likely contributed to the development of those creeds.What one of us has not, when facing a recent significant health challenge, or loss of a loved one, a hope or a sense of trust dashed, asked why?? If that tragic loss is very much in the eye of the public, how much more do we protest, “But why?” ?Or, when facing some tragedy, as the unexpected loss of a loved one, a serious accident, or a serious criminal violation of our person or that of a loved one, asked, “Why?” Or, “What if?”That was the atmosphere that the disciples and other followers of Jesus experienced following his crucifixion. They had such high hopes for Jesus. Jesus was a remarkable, loving, courageous person, a friend of all who were oppressed and an outspoken opponent of all social powers and persons who oppressed them.? During his lifetime, Jesus directly confronted those who burdened others with petty rules of religious practice. He and his disciples violated them in ways that did no harm to others in order that they might do good for others. But, Jesus became a threat to the then-existing religious authorities. He was committed to the Truth in a way that Gandhi would have appreciated. ?He was committed to loving all and excluding none; he pursued Truth, whatever the cost; and he comforted the dispossessed, the oppressed, and all those who suffered.? He saw and taught that to do so was God’s will, and he was committed to such acts of love even though it resulted in violating the oppressive laws, which, in Jesus time and in his society, happened to be those of the religious authorities.? I recognize it as Civil Disobedience. When I see the examples of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, or another who violates openly an unjust law for Truth and Justice, I think of Jesus’ loving example and commitment to Truth and Justice, whatever the consequences.? And I think that each one of these people was killed by someone or some group who felt threatened.I have not always seen things that way. I grew up in the North East of the United States, Rhode Island, at a time of civil unrest known as the Civil Rights Era in the mid-20th century. “White Anglo-Saxon society,” which was my environment, became frightened of the social unrest caused by the boycotts and civil disobedience led by Martin Luther King.At that same time, the Black Muslims became dramatically prominent. In the mid- to late 1960s, I was attending a national church conference where a?film was played which highlighted the hatred of the Black Muslims for whites, including the reverse racist, hate spewing Malcolm X.? In truth, when those who have become fearful of losing what they have, or even having to share it, too often their response is to react in fear to keep their hold on it. Not until many years later, about 1990, when the movie of Malcolm X came out did I discover that his own father was a Christian minister who suffered great racial hatred and violence from white people.? That, understandably, embittered Malcolm and he reacted in hatred. That hatred led to crime, for which he was imprisoned. While in prison, he was introduced to the Black Muslims who shared his hatred. He embraced them and their ideology and they him.? Malcolm was not only driven by hatred, but he also had great verbal and charismatic skills to articulately and dramatically express it. The Black Muslims fanned the flames of his anger and hatred, and they used him for their own political agendas. In time, as I recall, Malcolm became disillusioned by the hatred of the Black Muslims, and he went to Mecca, as all good Muslims intend to do, where he discovered, not a hateful Islam, but a loving Islam where vengeance had no place. There, he also discovered forgiveness. ?That was an inclusive religious society in which color did not matter at all.? Whether black or white, all were included within the circle of love that warmed the heart and healed the soul. It was a peaceful society. ?I discovered, when watching the movie of his life, that when Malcolm X returned to the United States, he was a converted Muslim, who, so far as I could see, embraced a loving and peace-making religion that, on an ethical plane, was little different from that of Jesus.? Indeed, the Black Muslims, with whom he was previously so strongly identified, became threatened by this man of peace who had abandoned their agenda of hate for an Islamic religion of love; the Black Muslims became the religious authorities that Malcolm dared disobey for a higher purpose, the Truth.? Ultimately, the Black Muslims were so threatened by his message of peace and love, quite like the position that Jesus was in with the religious authorities of his day, that they? conspired to kill him, as did the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. As the Pharisees conspired with Judas, who was one of Jesus’ disciples, so did the Black Muslims.? They secretly infiltrate a religious service that Malcolm was leading, where they murdered him as he preached his message of love, forgiveness and peace. ?I recall no news of that murder at the time that it actually occurred, and I was utterly unaware of it until I saw it depicted in the movie.? I am sure that the followers of Malcolm X were asking questions similar to those asked by the followers of Jesus: Why? How did it come to this? What meaning does his life have, if any, after his death?Those who looked to Malcolm X as their hope for the future did not have the resources that Jesus’ disciples had to redeem the memory of Jesus from his ignoble end.? Jesus’ disciples had both a Jewish tradition and a pervasive Greco-Roman civilization and myth to aid them; the?followers of Malcolm X had no such staple of resources to draw upon.? They were originally brought here as slaves where they served their “masters.” Harriet Beecher Stowe in her book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, describes their deplorable conditions and treatment.? Even upon their emancipation, blacks did not have the same opportunities that whites had for education, financial or social improvement; ?nor did they have the leisure time required for reflection and the arts. Although they were “freed,” yet they were oppressed, excluded by mainstream white society, and treated?in various degrees as less than fully human.? Although, during slavery, the Blacks had great hope for a better day, that day was “In that great getting’ up morning, fair thee well,” they sang?during their toil; but they had little if any hope of that in their own lifetimes. Nor did they have leisure time or the education to reflect upon their plight or their hope, to write about it, or to devote to artistic expression about it, except so far as they were able?sing as they toiled.? That contributed to the one great artistic and expressive form available to them: the Negro spiritual. While that may have been some consolation and eased to some small degree the pain of slavery, it did not provide a tradition that the Blacks in the Civil Rights Era could draw upon to console, reinterpret, encourage, and give hope to Malcolm’s followers after his death. They had no means of explaining how a man committed to Allah and spreading news of forgiveness, peace and love, could be gunned down in the prime of his life, when he had given so much hope to so many.The Jews, on the other hand, had a rich heritage of prophecy looking to a time to come of peace, when the lion would lie with the lamb, when there would be no more war. ?But the time?when the prophecy was made was also a time when both pagans and Jews sacrificed animals to their gods (the Jews to God) to please him, to ask a favor, or to ask for forgiveness. That continued into the first century.? You may recall that Jesus, upon his entry into Jerusalem cast over the tables at the temple where merchants were making a profit selling animals for sacrifice. ?The disciples also had an example of the Paschal lamb which was a lamb without blemish that was sacrificed according to a prescribed ritual. See . ???The Jews of the Old Testament had another rite in which the sins of the community were symbolically placed upon a goat that was then punished in the place of the people to cleanse them of guilt: the “scape goat.” ?See . ??They had the example of the Passover which originated in the story of the liberation of the Jews from slavery in Egypt when the lamb’s blood was smeared on the posts of the door to protect the occupants so that the Angel of Death would pass over them as it passed through Egypt, killing, we are told, the first born of both human and animal. Jesus’ disciples and followers had a great tradition of praise, thankfulness, forgiveness, and hope, with many vehicles for each available to help them understand how this innocent man, so full of love for God, and so caring for all could be crucified as a common criminal.See, also, The Need for Creeds?at the evolution of religion and the benefit of writing at : Fully Human – and Fully?Divine?Christian dogma asserts both Jesus’ full humanity and his full divinity.? That presents a logical problem: the difficulty of being both limited and unlimited. The literalist or fundamentalist Christians attempts to use the paradox to prove that faith in Christ defies all human reasoning. It is quite one thing to understand that our understanding is limited, but to assert a paradox as?proof of a matter that has no meaningful relationship to human understanding and healthful living, is quite another thing.? In this case, however, we do not need to rely upon a? assertion of disconnected faith.According to the synoptic accounts, Jesus did not claim to be one with God.? To the contrary, when a certain ruler came to Jesus and asked him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life.”? Jesus replied, “Why do you call me good?? No one is good except God alone.”? Luke 18:18, 19.? And when Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he taught them, “Our father, . . . “?? It was to that same Father of all that Jesus prayed in his own hour of despair, “Father, if Thou art willing, remove this cup from me; yet not my will, but Thine be done.”? Luke 22:42.Both Matthew and Luke introduce Jesus’ public ministry with the Beatitudes.? This sermon summarizes his message: the least of us is loved by God and called to the Kingdom.?? It is a message of a relational world:Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me.Rejoice, and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.Matthew 5:3-12.? That expresses the core of civil disobedience.? Indeed, Luke’s account of the Beatitudes is preceded by Jesus’ disobedience of pharisaic law in that he permitted his disciples to harvest grain to eat on the Sabbath and he healed on the SabbathIn Matthew 12:10-13 the Pharisees ask Jesus in the presence of a man with a withered hand, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”? Jesus answers, not the specific question, but he responded with the principle which commanded the answer,What man shall be among you who shall have one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it, and lift it out?? Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep!? So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.In Mark and Luke, Jesus merely asks the man, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath?”In each of these accounts Jesus focuses on doing good.? Right personal relationships produces good results.? Jesus did good, even when it violated the law.Jesus also had a reputation for associating with social outcasts.? Luke 5:30 reports that the Pharisees and the scribes complained to the disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax gatherers and sinners?”? Later, Luke reports in Chapter 15 the same question by the Pharisees was put to Jesus, who responds, not directly, but with three parables: the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Prodigal Son.? Those are messages of inclusion.Jesus’ first sermon speaks of blessed suffering.? His last sermon speaks of its rewards.But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before him; and he will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and he will put the sheep on his right and the goats on the left.Then the King will say to those on His right, “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.? For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited me in; naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.Matthew 25:31-46.? The people (without regard to their belief or unbelief ) who were rewarded are genuinely surprised at their reward:Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty, and give you drink?? And when did we see you a stranger, and invite you in, or naked, and clothed you?? And when did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to you?”And the King will answer and say to them, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to me.”Then he will also say to those on his left, “Depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite me in; naked, and you did not clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit me.”In turn, the people (again without regard to their belief or unbelief ) were surprised at their punishment:Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of you?”Then he will answer them, saying, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.Jesus’ civil disobedience threatened the religious order of his time.? Matthew reports that the chief priests and elders plotted to kill Jesus.? The Pharisees sought to justify their plot to kill Jesus.? They claimed Jesus gave false testimony.? Mark 14: 55-56.? And then they goaded Jesus, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?”?? Jesus answered, “I am; and you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”? Mark 14:61-62.? The high priest then charged Jesus with blasphemy, punishable by death under Jewish law.The Pharisees still needed civil authority to kill Jesus, so they took Jesus to Pilate.? Luke 23:1; Matt. 27:2.?? Upon examining Jesus, Pilate announced “I find no guilt in this man.”? Luke 23:4.? But the Pharisees and the “crowd” persisted.? Luke 23:14; 23:22.? Pilate finally succumbed.? He “washed his hands” of the matter and turned Jesus over “to their will.”? Jesus thereby paid the price for his civil disobedience.? He did not run from its consequences.? Neither did he desire the consequences, as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Father, remove this cup from me; nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done.”Mark, recognized to be our oldest source material of the life of Jesus, and probably the most historically reliable, with fewer post-Jesus Christological statements, reports at 15:34 Jesus’ last words to be, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?”? Matthew 27:46 reports the same.? Neither account gives more.? These words, Edward Schilebeekx believed, are shown likely to be authentic words because of the embarrassment that such words would have had for the early Christians.? Luke omits those embarrassing words altogether, and ends his account of the crucifixion with the words, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.”Because the first Christians were Jews who had followed Jesus, it was natural that they would look to Jewish traditions and Scriptures to understand their tragedy.? Most helpfully, it might be explained by the great Jewish hope for the Messiah who would bring peace for them on earth. There was much of Jewish history and tradition that could support that hope. This new body of Jewish Christians attempted to show that Jesus did not conflict with their laws and traditions, but rather, fulfilled them.When St. Paul brought the gospel to the Gentiles, i.e. those outside Judaism who were steeped in Greco-Roman culture, it is also natural that the history, myths, traditions, and logical skills with which they were familiar could help him, in a pagan world, to show that Jesus was also the fulfillment of their dreams as expressed in their myths.? The rite of Dionysus, of his death and resurrection, may have provided some support to Gentile Christians among Jewish Christians, connecting the Jewish traditions of the sacrificial lamb and the hope of the Messiah, a time of peace, with the pagan rituals relating to the death and resurrection of Dionysus, and participation of those devotees in a communal meal in which they participated in his death and resurrection by eating a feast of wine and the meat of a sacrificed animal representing his blood and body.Again, I do not intend to disprove the creed. ?I intend to cause no offense to the faith of any reader, Christian, Jew, or Muslim.? However, I cannot ignore my life experience that a human body, already decomposing, cannot be resuscitated because of the damage to vital organs necessary for human life. I also know that if it were a body that was resurrected, physical bodies do not walk through walls and locked doors as is reported when “the risen Christ” suddenly appeared among the disciples meeting in that upper room; nor does the body simply disappear as is reported concerning the walk to Emmaus and the following meal.? I don’t seek to explain either event, but I cannot suspend some basic principles of what I know, in this life, to be true for the sake of a belief that is thrust upon me that is common to my experience and the science of life in order to prove that God’s ways are greater than man’s ways.? That certainly is true, but in no way does it support a notion that God suspended the laws of nature in this or any other single case.? I believe in the same resurrection which sensitive people of all faiths and convictions experience; but, that experience of resurrection is much deeper than a magical trick.The answer of many Christians is that although Jesus was fully man, Jesus was fully God, and with God all things are possible. Additionally, we have been told by Paul that if the death and resurrection of Jesus is not true, then Christianity has no meaning at all. I have many times been told that this reality of the bodily resurrection of Jesus is a matter of faith that defies all human reason. I simply cannot reject my education and experience in life.? That, also, was not possible for the devout Christian priest and scientist, Teilhard de Chardin who wrote:If, as the result of some interior revolution, I were to lose by succession my faith in Christ, my faith in a personal God, and my faith in spirit, I feel that I should continue to believe in the world. The world, (its value, yes its value and its goodness) – that, when all is said and done, is the first, the last, and the only thing in which I believe. It is by this faith that I live.So what is the role of faith??? Friedrich Nietzsche, the well-known Nihilist, said of it, “‘Faith means not wanting to know what is true.”? Because their perception of truth is absolute, they are intolerant of people with other experiences and views.? In Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead, she has Rev. John Ames say at page 146, “It seems to me there is less meanness in atheism, by a good measure.” In that such fundamentalism is exclusive and intolerant of other views, it threatens peace and justice.? In a more positive manner, the great Seventeenth Century mathematician, scientist and philosopher, Blaise Pascal, writes, “Faith declares what the senses do not see, but not the contrary of what they see.” That is meaningful to me.Marcus Borg and Dominic Crossan note that many of the terms that Christians used to describe Jesus were titles already attributed to?Augustus Caesar as they appear on the Palatine hill:? Divine, Son of God, God from God, Lord, Redeemer, Liberator, and Savior of the World.??We miss the connection of these original?titles to Augustus Caesar and their intended meaning concerning him.? The have been used to support a dualistic view of Jesus and of “the Kingdom of Heaven.??Duality?masks the historical Jesus and his teaching.? ?If we see Jesus’ full humanity, then Jesus’ call to follow him must be taken seriously.Edward Schillebeeckx, the Catholic priest and theologian who wrote Jesus: an Experiment in Christology, asserts that the historical study of Jesus is vitally important because it gives “a concrete content to faith.” Without that concrete foundation, faith degenerates into mere ideology and risks becoming ephemeral and irrelevant. Further, he writes,The fundamental issue is what are the evangelists really getting at when reporting the wonders performed by Jesus?Schillebeeckx then asks,Even if Jesus had done all this in a historical and literal sense, what would that signify for us here and now??Music: the Universal Language by Which Texts?SoarMusic has been called the “universal language.” That, obviously, is an overstatement in that whatever the music, it requires some familiarity with it and its cultural context to fully appreciate it. For example, a Muslim call to prayer might seem to the uninitiated to be just a bunch of shouting, but to a devout Muslim, it might be the beginning of a very meaningful and religious experience. I find it remarkable, for example, that Japan has in recent years produced so many recordings of masses, such as Bach’s B Minor Mass, when a hundred years ago, that same music may have been for Japanese just so much foreign music concerning a religious topic that?few of them had much to do with, let alone experience. Suzuki, the father of the Suzuki talent development method, particularly as applied to the violin and other stringed instrument, clearly understood the value of experience when he required that the mother play the violin so that while the baby was yet in utero, your she could hear the music and respond to it.As I believe that there is great benefit in seeing the Bible through others’ eyes, and particularly through the eyes of a trained artist who has developed some sensitivity and artistic skills to convey a deeper experience of that world and to invite the observer to bring to the viewing his or her own experiences, so, also, music touches the soul in its own unique ways. One of the advantages of?creeds, from an artistic standpoint, is that the same text can receive many different treatments throughout many different periods by many different composers as heard by many different audiences; and yet, each is unique, as is each person unique from all others. Music touches the soul.I recall a time when I lay on the floor in front of my stereo record player (yes, indeed, I had one at one time)?listening to a recording of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. I had a very deep religious experience. Music has a way of doing that, transcending the individual notes, rooted in this physical world, performed by trained and experienced musicians, transported by sound waves from voice or instrument to receptive ears, processed and interpreted by brains conditioned by unique experiences, and yet having the potential to transport human souls beyond the limits of everyday existence. It can do so individually as well as communally.Western music owes much to Christian liturgy. That is my heritage. It has great meaning to me because, in part, I have chosen to participate in that heritage, and not to abandon it for traditions with which I have no familiarity.? I am enriched by music of other traditions, but this is where my roots were established; it is from here that I relate to other rich traditions.I know that the spark of the divine, that which transcends mere bodily existence, is shared by each of us; or, expressed in other words, we are, each one of us, “made in the image of God”. Religion is more than a list of beliefs, more than a bag of supernatural rewards for such beliefs. In Eric Fromm’s definition, religion affects how we live by giving us a sense of orientation and an object of devotion. The Catholic theologian, Matthew Fox, puts it this way:True religion is a union of the soul with God, a real participation of the divine nature, the very image of God drawn upon the soul, or [for us Christians], in the apostle’s phrase, it is Christ formed within us. Briefly, I know not how the nature of religion can be more fully expressed than by calling it a divine life. . . .And now, in the rest of the pages of this musical section of the blog, we will seek to put words to flight that is reflective of the human spirit in union with the divine mystery.?How Many Ways to Sing Thy?Praise!Psalm 117:1-21 O praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people.2 For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever. Praise ye the Lord.—Following are some ways Christians have sung God’s praise through the centuries:Gregorian chant Century Chant Organum above site is an excellent source of chant of both Western and Eastern Christianity.Seventh Century Chant Century – Guillaume de Machaut ""&HYPERLINK ""playnext=1HYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""list=PL08638E28A132622CHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=results_main16th-centuryPhilippe Rogier 17th CenturyMonteverdi Margarita Cozzolani: Century – Mendelssohn ""&HYPERLINK ""v=pdZz8rmhkNAHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""NR=120th century –? Stravinsky many ways can?different ensembles perform the same piece of music, Mozart’s? Laudate Dominum from Vesperae solennes de confessore, K. 339 written in1780.The linked sites will provide a description of the performers and other information concerning the performance. ""&HYPERLINK ""playnext=1HYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""list=PL63745D7B8272D880HYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=results_main ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=fvwrel ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related ""&HYPERLINK ""NR=1HYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""v=hQS7_xhREKk heard examples of how music can contribute to praise and worship, we will now turn our attention to how music developed from the time of the early Christian church to the present.?The Impact of Music on My Spiritual?LifeBefore we begin our survey of the development of liturgical music in Christianity as it relates to the Bible, I want to share with you the impact that music has had upon my own spiritual life. When I was at college, studying vocal and instrumental music, I was introduced to ideas quite different from the religious environment with which?I was familiar.? At one point, as part of the rebellion that I had delayed through high school, I told my father,?a Seventh Day Baptist minister, that I thought that Augustine was as inspired as many of the writers of the Bible. It perhaps made the point that I had discovered that the canonization of the Bible occurred in history by the action of men, yes, actually men.? But, it was an ignorant statement. ?I had never read Augustine, and when I later did read his work, I found him too much the root of Christian fundamentalism through the almost two millennia that followed him. Too doctrinaire for my views today.? I discovered Eric Fromm, studied sociology and the impact of our social environment upon each of us individually, and I studied psychology and the impact of conditioning, environment, volition and much more which caused me to examine who I was, why I was that person, and what choice I had?about who I might beome. ?Actually, I learned more from Eric Fromm than from that psychology class.With so much new information, I was excited to explore other ideas that were foreign to my experience as a child and adolescent. One of the things that caused me some concern was this question: “What if I die when I am doubting?”? In childhood one of the fundamental messages that I got was that we are “saved by faith.” What if I lost my faith? What if I died doubting?? I am sure that is not unique to me or to Christianity.In about my third year of college I was studying the tenor aria from Mendelssohn’s oratorio, Elijah: “If with all your hearts ye truly seek me, ye shall ever surely find me, thus saith our God.”? I do find Augustine perceptive and he has left a number of jewels, not the least of which I have used in this blog: “He who sings, twice prays.”? Reading a text is one thing, but putting it to music and singing it fixes it in one’s soul and sets it to flight. ?Singing the recitative and aria gave me great hope.? If God wanted me to grow, I would have to let go of some old, comfortable ideas that did not so well fit the world that I had discovered. God understands that (if there is any part of God that is like a human being’s understanding).? I?felt safe to seek. I felt assured that if I honestly sought the Divine?in life, I would surely find it.? The insight and encouragement that I received from that aria back in the 70’s has stayed with me, and I am now age 64. That experience has influenced my respect for others and for many different religions.? I do not see that the Divine is limited to any set of beliefs or religion; rather, the message that I get from?the New Testamentis is that Jesus said not to worry in whose and what name people show love and caring of others, or do their miracles of love; but “by their fruits you will know them.” ?Love of neighbor is like love of the Divine.I will post two YouTube videos performance of that aria?that?has had?particular meaning?for me.The first is a college student, a tenor, accompanied on piano, which would be very similar to my performance of it, except that I could only hope to have approached the quality of his voice and performance: second expresses my vision of what “I could have done with an orchestra” (if I only had his vocal and expressive talents): sang that aria in several churches and at my audition for the chorus of Opera Omaha and thereafter until the late 1970s when I had surgery on my vocal chords. I have often thought of the aria both because of its beauty and because of its assurance.For a magnificent complete performance of the oratorio, Elijah, by the?Boston University College of Fine Arts, see? the next blog, we will continue our journey through time with the music of the Christian church and its contribution to Western music. ?Hopefully, those readers of other faiths, be they Abrahamic or not, will find something here that touches their hearts and inspires them.?From Embellishment and Augmentation of Chant to?Polyphony“He who sings twice prays.” The Latin phrase for this, “Qui bene cantat bis orat,” has been attributed to St. Augustine.? See .? As Christianity developed and its places of worship developed?architecturally, invoking a sense of ascendancy to the divine, the chants contributed to that purpose.? It is human nature, I suppose, to personalize our?public material,?to make a personal mark.? In music, that was expressed in ornamentation of the basic musical materials of worship?and?liturgy.? One way to do that is to embellish the melodies, not unlike modern, personalized renditions of the Star-Spangled Banner.? Another way to?embellish the basic chant melody is to add another voice at the octave, such as men’s and boys’ voices (remember that in early church history leadership of worship was a male activity).? If an octave doubling of the melody?sounded good, what if we doubled?it at the fifth interval?? Or at the fourth?? Or, if we are going to add an additional line, why should it have to follow the plain chant melody?? Why not make the additional line as interesting as the main melody? Over time, these additions and embellishments developed into what we call polyphonic music, in which interesting melodies in their own right are juxtaposed in ways that have individuality, do not distract from the plain chant melody, but? are mutually supportive among the parts to a larger purpose, as in a dialogue between?two individuals.? Why not make it a dialogue between three individuals? Four or five?? So, now we have a choir. Wouldn’t it be cool to sneak into the mix that drinking song so popular among the peasantry, set to the same sacred?Latin text? Now wouldn’t that be ironic: sacred texts set to a common drinking song, hidden within choral tapestry on a background of plainchant? I wonder if anyone will recognize that? If the priests, monks, or bishops do recognize it as such, would they admit their familiarity with it by criticizing its inclusion in this choral rendition of the plain chant?? You get the idea.One of the problems of getting a number of people singing different parts is teaching them?the parts and then?putting them together.? I previously addressed the need for some writing or notation for these purposes in?my post, From Monody to Polyphony with contribution by Guido d’Arezzo, of November 24, 2011.The music of that time would sound strange to us because use of major and minor scales was not yet known.? At that time?music was modal, which was akin to taking our C major scale and, without adding sharps or flats, making a scale by starting and ending on D, E, F, or any other scale degree . If you try that on the piano keyboard, you’ll see that such scales? consist of an arrangement of whole steps and half steps, with? half steps occurring where there is no intervening black?key, i.e., between E and F?, and B and C.? The modal?scale beginning and ending on?A has become the basis for the?modern natural minor key, from which we have developed the modern natural minor,?melodic minor?and harmonic minor scales.? The arrangement of whole steps and half steps in a natural minor key is such that the half steps are between the second and third, and fifth and sixth?scale degrees.? The rest?are whole steps.? That is what makes it sound like a minor key.???Our most familiar major?scale has half steps between three and four, and seven and eight.? To complicate ancient chant even further,? notes could have?less than a half step between them, called microtonal.? One can hear that in, for example,?Buddhist or Hindu chant, or in recordings of Ravi Shankar.See ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related, entitled Chant of the Early Christians, for an excellent and lengthy video demonstrating modal and microtonal features of chant.? It also demonstrates some of the beginnings of polyphonic music such as the use of a pedal point, or sustained low notes over which the chant soars.See the following resources for other examples of the development from Plain Chant through Organum, both instrumental and vocal, to polyphony: ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related;? ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related.See ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related?for a video of?unison Gregorian Chant?performed?in an Abby?arched ceiling, stained glass and much more.? See a documentary?video of the Cistercian Monks Of Stift Heiligenkreuz.See an excellent and extensive?resource of medieval sacred music at a very reasonable price.? It also offers a free fourteen day trial period.?? See, also, videos of sacred music, organized according to the biblical order that the texts appear; it also has tools available to search according to musical stylistic period and by the names of composers.See an excellent and? quite readable article concerning instruments, genres,?music theory, notation , and?early polyphony of the Medieval period.I have previously addressed the development of music as, in my mind, it became an integral part of the cathedral worship experience.? See my prior posts:, the Mass and Hildegard of Bingen (1098 –?1179)Constantine is the first Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity. His predecessor, Diocletian, had waged a fierce persecution against the Christians, the severest in Christian history.?Civil War had erupted.??Constantine was commanding his army against?rebel forces that were twice the size of his.? The night before battle, Constantine had a dream, the contemporary reports of which conflict in?details but?are consistent?in general affect: if the sign of the cross of the crucified Christ?led?his soldiers into battle, he would be victorious. He did so, was victorious, and continued in?military successes with the same talisman.??The final battle was seen as a religious war: Christianity against paganism.? Constantine prevailed.? He saved the Empire,?attributing his success to the Christian God.??He then proceeded to organize Christianity throughout the Empire, and?made it the new state religion.??He called church leaders to Nicaea, where he led the Council?in establishing a common creed which would resolve various conflicting statements of faith, particularly concerning the divinity or humanity of Christ and that relationship to God and the Holy Spirit.?? That council addressed those issues and Constantine established uniformity throughout the empire concerning the Trinity. It remains as the predominant?creed of Christians, although later councils would adjust?it for their own particular interpretations of the Bible. ?In its current English form,?it states:We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,the only Son of God,eternally begotten of the Father,God from God, Light from Light,true God from true God,begotten, not made,of one Being with the Father.Through him all things were made.For us and for our salvationhe came down from heaven:by the power of the Holy Spirithe became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;he suffered death and was buried.On the third day he rose againin accordance with the Scriptures;he ascended into heavenand is seated at the right hand of the Father.He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,and his kingdom will have no end.We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of Life,who proceeds from the Father and the Son.With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified.He has spoken through the Prophets.We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.We look for the resurrection of the dead,and the life of the world to come. Amen?See, also, The Nicene Creed at and The Need for Creeds?at the time of Pope Gregory, (540 – 604), the official chants of the church were established as?Gregorian chant.Although there were some variations among churches of different regions throughout the Holy Roman Empire,??It was established generally as the Ordinarily Mass? which was?observed each?Sunday, the which long before had been established as the holy day of worship in commemoration of the disciples’ experience of Jesus’ resurrection.The mass became a central part of Christian worship and was celebrated with Gregorian chant, in which the priest, monks, perhaps a choir,?or even the congregation, might participate.? The Ordinary Mass has five parts:Kyrie Eleison (” Lord Have Mercy”)Gloria (” Glory to God in the Highest”)Credo (” I Believe in One God”), the Nicene CreedSanctus (“Holy, Holy, Holy”)Agnus Dei (“Lamb of God”)Because the Mass was a central part of worship, and it’s melodies?were officially recognized by the Church throughout the Empire, there was opportunity?to embellish those melodies, not unlike the renditions of the national anthem that we often hear?at our sport events today.? In time, not only might the melodies?be embellished, but additional parts may have been added, such as a drone below, a counter melody, a descant, or even interplay of the various melodic parts, each interesting in its own right, together making a lively musical discourse. ?As the embellishments became more ornate, or as more melodic lines?were added,?notation became necessary for teaching and performance purposes.? Guido of Arezzo (991-1050) met that need by devising a system of notation to aid participants in their performances.? Hildegard was one of its beneficiaries.Hildegard of Bingen was one of the earliest composers of embellished melodies?of Gregorian chant, to which she added her own original?and notated?melodies.? She was born in 1098 in the portion of the Holy Roman Empire that is now known as Germany.? She was a nun, or “abbess,” of the Benedictine order, and, although she was one of the first names to be submitted to church authorities for canonization, it was resisted until 2012 when she wasn’t canonized, but the church?finally relented to give her what has been described as the “equivalent” of canonization, or “sainthood:” “Doctor of the Church.”? She was known as the “Sibyl (prophetess) of the Rhine” for her visions; she was a German writer, philosopher, mystic, and composer, predating what would later become known as a “Renaissance man,” or, rather, she was a Renaissance?woman.Early in her life Hildegard had remarkable visions.? By the time she was three years of age, she had her first vision that was described as “The Shade of the Living Light.”?? By age eight, her parents cloistered her in a nunnery.? That, of course, would also provide her ?an education at an early age, quite unusual for a child of her age or, for that matter, for any female of that day.She continued to have visions throughout her life, until she had a vision, not unlike that of Mohammed, in which God told her to “write down that which you see and hear.”? This was quite disconcerting for her.? Doubtful of the authenticity of the command, she resisted. She described those struggles in Scivias (“Know the Ways”).? She suffered many illnesses before she took seriously that “message from God,” not unlike Jonah, and did what she was told to do in her vision.? She wrote several books on religious subjects and theology, becoming well known. Ultimately, Pope Eugenus gave his approval that she document her visions. Even more unusual, he authorized her to preach.? She wrote two volumes on natural medicine; a gospel commentary; three volumes of her visionary experiences, which were artistically decorated as she directed; and a morality play, which was popular during the latter part of the Middle Ages, entitled, Play of the Virtues.? The morality plays of that time?included music, which were precursors to later polyphonic music and included instruments in its performance. She developed her own alphabet, indeed her own language called, “Lingua ignota,”and was a prolific correspondent by letter.?? She wrote monophonic music, elaborately and delicately ornate, some based upon existing chant, and some her own.? About 70 pieces of her music are known to us, much of it with her poetic text.See ? for a scholarly but interesting article entitled HILDEGARD of Bingen: Cosmic Christ, Religion of Experience, God the Mother, which was apparently posted by Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality, Holy Names College, Oakland, CA, from which I quote: “Hildegard awakens us to symbolic consciousness. An awakening to symbolism is anawakening to deeper connection-making, to deeper ecumenism, to deeper healing,to deeper art, to deeper mysticism, to deeper social justice..See ? for another scholarly and interesting article entitled EGO PAUPERCULA FEMINEA FORMA Hildegard of Bingen and the Re/Visionary Feminine for articlefrom a feminist view.?? See ? for a similar view but with excerpts from various entitled, A BLAZING MIND LONGING TO SOAR ABOVE THE CLOUDS.”?? It includes several excerpts of Hildegard’s writing as translated to English.Hildegard von BingenSee ? for the source of the above photograph of the original medieval painting.?? I note that the figure of Hildegard seems to float?above the floor, perhaps indicating that the painter considered her to be representative of the divine, even then?a saint, which would be consistent with her?well – known writings describing her visions.?? Also in the foreground you will note a contemporary organ, precursor to the modern organ, and in the background, mounted on the wall, is some contemporary music manuscript.?? The notes that are shown on it are not in modern form, and are called neumes, which indicated the pitches , but only approximated? the rhythms? of the chant.See, also, Illuminated Music ManuscriptFor?examples of modern performances of Hildegard’s music, see ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=fvwrelSee a beautiful Kyrie? from Marriage of the Heavens and the Earth.????? I don’t know how much of this performance is true to any original manuscript I Hildegard and how much is interpretation or adaptation.? But, it is beautiful. ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=relatedSee ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=fvsr?for a gorgeous contemporary homage?, “Hildegard von Bingen, The Marriage of the Heavens and the Earth“? I note one comment to that post questions some of the performance as not being necessarily historical? or introducing elements not common to late medieval musical culture.?? I take this homage To be a contemporary expression of gratitude for the music of Hildegard , expressed in contemporary language.See, also, ? a German language tribute to Hildegard, with English subscripts, which is? an official US trailer to the film, ?FROM THE LIFE OF HILDEGARD VON BINGEN.??? This clip was uploaded by Zeitgeist Films on August 4, 2010.See Hildegard von bingen- O vis aeternitatis- Cantides of Ectasy sequantia- Chants de l’extase, at .? It is sung by women over a true instrumental drone ( single note ). It also features some beautiful graphics of visual art and photography.?? The word in the title, sequentia, refers to chant that was not part of the Gregorian chant repertoire, but rather based upon poetic texts that are not partthat are not part of, arising in the ninth century.???that is a form that Hildegard inherited that might seem to have been made in anticipation of her life, poetry, and music.See ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related.See for a contemporary interpretation and? tribute to Hildegard for two voices, guitar accompanimen that sounds like a synthesize sound of orchestra.?? It is possible that some of? Hildegard’s? melodies are incorporated? in the arrangemt but the melodies are so romanticized that I cannot recognize medieval qualities in it .?This is more like? mood music? in response to? the woman, Hildegar. ?Having said that, there are a number of? moving graphics? which?? range from? script? to? pictures of? artistic? responses? from that time to the present? which I take? to be authentic.??? I, personally,? don’t care? too much? for the style? as being what I consider trite; however,? it works and? is a beautiful tribute when? joined? with so much visual? artistic? and? informational substance.?Iin addition,? the site contains? some information concerning? her and the church that she served , from which I quote? excerpts as follows:? “She refused to allow the church to treat women as subservient to men, she rejected negative stereotypes of evil seductresses, and taught that woman was indeed created in the image and likeness of god.”At the age of 80, she defied the church by burying a revolutionary at her abbey. Fellow clerics ordered her to exhume the body. She protested that the man had had his sins absolved. The clerics authorized local authorities to exhume the body, but she formally blessed all of the graves and then removed the tombstones so that they could not tell which grave was his. The clerics placed a ban on mass and music within her abbey, but the ban was later lifted.It is no wonder that it has taken almost 1000 years? for the? Catholic Church,? even yet a man’s? organization,? to give her special? recognition ,? but not exactly sainthood, and that women would take so much inspiration from her life and gifts to us in music,? her poetry,? her theology? and in her own story.? What a remarkable woman!See ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=fvwrel? for a collection of performances of the 11th Century French polyphony.See ? for an extensive list of Hildegard recordings available? for purchase at Classical Archives.?Léonin (1150 –?1201)Whereas Hildegard composed her own original melodies with traditional texts or those of her own, and embellished Gregorian chant and notated a single melody, Léonin is the first notable composer of organum, which consisted of the melody (usually plainchant) with a second voice (or part) that paralleled the melody at a particular, usually larger interval, such as a fourth (as F and C) or a fifth (as G and C) plus a bass part which was likely not interesting alone, but, if you will, anchored the higher parts, as would a drone.? Little is known of Léonin except through the writing of one of of the later students at the Notre Dame school?of polyphony and the ars antiqua style known as Anonymous IV. That student referred to referred to Léonin’s Magnus Liber, or, Great Book, and called Léonin?the finest composer of organum.? Although the famous troubadours were active during this time and had their own secular music, accompanied with instruments, organum is strictly sacred liturgical music.? See an excellent article concerning Léonin.See ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related for a video of Leonin’s Allelujah for two voices in which the second part is limited to a gradually changing series of drones or, or perhaps more accurately, pedal points, or baseline called a bourdon.? To my ear, the bourdon provides a simple foundation, over which the melody meanders without any notion of chordal progression.? That would not appear until Monteverdi developed it at the end of the Renaissance and?the beginning of the Baroque Periods.See ?, Dulce Lignum, meaning “sweet the wood.”? It is part of the Christian observance of Good Friday and refers to the pain and suffering of Jesus when he was crucified.? For an excellent article on the meaning of that suffering in the Catholic tradition, see ? for Alleluia Dies Sanctificatus Illuxit Nobis – Magister Leóninus,? performed by male voices as pictures of Notre Dame Cathedral merge from one to another taking us on a visual tour from outside the Cathedral and throughout it as the experience of the music and the environment may have been when Léonin? lived.See ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=BFaHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""list=LPo3AypYmE-oI, which is another Allelujah, more lively, with the addition of bells or chimes. it also demonstrates a number of different functions for the additional voice: not only does it begin with the second part supporting the melody with a series of drones, but it also demonstrates the organum at an octave.The above site also features a number of excellent performances of a variety of Léonin’s ?compositions.? Among them, is a fascinating, nuanced set of?accordion variations on ?a Léonin melody (who would have thought it!!) by V. Nedosekin (bayan)? entitled, “Improvisation on a theme by Léonin” at ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=BFaHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""list=LPo3AypYmE-oI.? This is BRILLIANTLY IMPROVISED AND PERFORMED, first as voices might?have sung it at the time that Leonin composed it, and in the manner, so far as can be determined, that he intended it to be performed. Upon the statement of the theme, it is expressed and interpreted through a range of stylistic periods, moods and treatments, including several dissonant?effects, some of them startling, even stabbing, but all of them with captivating affect.? For some reason, it reminds me of Charles Ives’ Variations on America, althhave taken the latter to be simple fun indicative of a composer and organist young at heart.? These variations by ?Nedosekin cannot be taken lightly, although that may have an appropriate place among them.Part of what fascinates me about Léonin’s music is?his use of dissonance, as when two parts are in unison and one of them moves upward or downward a step or half a step as thas the other part sustains the same, creating a momentary and a gently twisting dissonance? and resolution that is a characteristic that I note in Russian sacred choral music, as well.? Another characteristic of organum form is that it’s beginning and ending is often an Allelujah, in ABA form.See ? for recordings of Léonin’s works available for purchase at? Classical Archives.See, also, ? for another resources regarding? Léonin.Perotin?(ca.1200)The same anonymous English student at the Notre Dame school who identified Léonin as the greatest composer of organum, also identifies Perotin as ?Magister Petronius, or in English, “Pérotin the Master” of organum.? He was known for the development of three – part and four – part organa.? He was the most famous of all of the composers of the Notre Dame school.A prominent feature of his compositional style was to take a simple, well-known melody and stretch it out in time, so that each syllable was hundreds of seconds long, and then use each note of the melody (the tenor, Latin for “holder”, or cantus HYPERLINK ""firmus) as the basis for rhythmically complex, interweaving lines above it. The result was that one or more vocal parts sang free, quickly moving lines (“discants“) over the chant below, which was extended to become a slowly shifting drone. page from Pérotin’s Alleluia nativitasIn addition to organum, which was liturgical music, Pérotin also wrote conductus, which was sacred but not liturgical, more akin to the modern hymn.See ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related for “ Views of Notre Dame de Paris accompanied by Perotin’s 4-part organum ‘Sederunt principes.’”See ? for Perotin’s 3-part organum Alleluia nativitas.For a early work for organ in the organum style, Perotin’s “Alleluya. Nativitas” at ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=watch_response.See Perotin’s Viderunt omnes in four parts, which I find interesting?for several reasons. First, it begins with a forte “Vi-“ which decrescendos dramatically during which the base part drops out. You will also note that he uses a middle voice drone.? There is some of the same dissonance which slightly wrenches the listener at significant moments of the music and then resolves, often to close a musical section.? Throughout, the video fixes on a portion of an illuminated manuscript, presumably of the music that is sung.See ? for recordings available for purchase at Classical Archives.See, also, ? for other resources regarding? Perotin.Perotin?(ca.1200)The same anonymous English student at the Notre Dame school who identified Léonin as the greatest composer of organum, also identifies Perotin as ?Magister Petronius, or in English, “Pérotin the Master” of organum.? He was known for the development of three – part and four – part organa.? He was the most famous of all of the composers of the Notre Dame school.A prominent feature of his compositional style was to take a simple, well-known melody and stretch it out in time, so that each syllable was hundreds of seconds long, and then use each note of the melody (the tenor, Latin for “holder”, or cantus HYPERLINK ""firmus) as the basis for rhythmically complex, interweaving lines above it. The result was that one or more vocal parts sang free, quickly moving lines (“discants“) over the chant below, which was extended to become a slowly shifting drone. page from Pérotin’s Alleluia nativitasIn addition to organum, which was liturgical music, Pérotin also wrote conductus, which was sacred but not liturgical, more akin to the modern hymn.See ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related for “ Views of Notre Dame de Paris accompanied by Perotin’s 4-part organum ‘Sederunt principes.’”See ? for Perotin’s 3-part organum Alleluia nativitas.For a early work for organ in the organum style, Perotin’s “Alleluya. Nativitas” at ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=watch_response.See Perotin’s Viderunt omnes in four parts, which I find interesting?for several reasons. First, it begins with a forte “Vi-“ which decrescendos dramatically during which the base part drops out. You will also note that he uses a middle voice drone.? There is some of the same dissonance which slightly wrenches the listener at significant moments of the music and then resolves, often to close a musical section.? Throughout, the video fixes on a portion of an illuminated manuscript, presumably of the music that is sung.See ? for recordings available for purchase at Classical Archives.See, also, ? for other resources regarding? Perotin.Abelard and?HeloiseThe intellectual, richly romantic but tragic lives of Abelard and Heloise are expressive of the tension among independence of thought,? Church authority, and its unnatural demands of celibacy?in an increasingly secular world. One of Abelard’s first teachers was Jean Roscelin who was condemned by the Church for challenging its “nominalism.” Although scholasticism sought rational support for the Church’s creed and doctrine, it started, not from observation, but from a notion that it accepted as authoritative.??? That?irrational and unobserving leap,?which the church called Faith, was exposed as such by Roscelin.? He challenged the notion that the Church was an independent spiritual entity existing above its individual members; or that the notion of the Trinity had a separate existence: “three persons” must either be an abstraction, not a reality, or they are three separate gods.? He was twice condemned for his challenge to the Church doctrine of the Trinity. The Church was defended by Anselm who took up Augustine’s assertion, “I do not seek to understand in order to believe; I believe in order to understand.”More broadly, Abelard challenged the scholastic notion that concepts such as “Church,” “man,” and “divine providence” had an existence as such.? [In that respect he anticipated the "radical" book of 1999,??Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought, by George Lakoff, and Mark Johnson.] Abelard, as do Lakeoff and Johnson,?asserted that such concepts were merely descriptive of life in the flesh and in the physical world.? He became a leader of the young rebels of the “modern” school. He opened his own school in Paris, where he studied and taught literature and philosophy.? There, he became cannon of the Notre Dame Cathedral.Heloise was an orphan and was raised by her uncle,?the canon Fulbert.??He sent her to a convent where she became known as the best student they ever had. When she was 16, her uncle took Abelard?into the home to tutor her.? Of that, Abelard later wrote, “the man’s simplicity was nothing short of astounding; I should not have been more surprised if he had entrusted a tender lamb to the care of a ravenous wolf.” Not long after his arrival at the home, Heloise found herself pregnant.? Abelard was foolish enough to boast of his conquest.? After some convoluted intrigue, Abelard tells us that her uncle and kin stole into his room when he was sleeping and “they cut off those parts of my body whereby I had done that which was the cause of their sorrow.”? He urged Heloise to become a nun and he became a monk. Heloise joined a cloister and, in time,?became a prioress, much loved by her charges and the religious community. Abelard helped her establish new quarters for the convent. At that time he wrote his autobiography, Historia Calamitatum Mearum, which contained both his confession and a defense of his theology.Abelard and Heloise in a manuscript of the Roman de la RoseSee ? for the?source of the above photograph of the manuscript.Will Durant, the source of the above quotes, writes the following of Abelard in The History of Civilization, The Age of Faith at pages 938-940:Truth cannot be contrary to truth, Abelard pleads; the truths of Scripture must agree with the findings of reason, else the God who gave us both would be deluding us with the one or the other . . .Abelard did not question the authority of the Bible but he argued that its language was meant for unlettered people, and must be interpreted by reason; that the sacred text had sometimes been corrupted by interpolation or careless copying; and that for scriptural or patristic passages which contradict one another, reason must attempt their reconciliation.. . . .Anticipating the “Cartesian doubt” by 400 years, he wrote in the same prologue: “The first key to wisdom is assiduous? and frequent questioning….For by doubting we come to inquiry, and by inquiry we arrive at the truth.”[Concerning the divine unity and Trinity, Durrant writes of? Abelard's ideas:]? It was futile to utter words which the intellect could not possibly follow, that nothing could be believed unless it could first be understood, and that it was absurd for anyone to preach to others a thing which neither he himself, nor those whom he sought to teach, could comprehend….He pointed out the unity of God was the one point agreed upon by the greatest religions and the greatest philosophers. In the one God we may view his power as the first person, his wisdom as the second, his grace, charity, and love as the third; these are phases or modalities of the divine essence; but all the works of God suppose and unite at once His power, His wisdom, and His love.? When my father, Rev. Edgar F. Wheeler,?attended a Baptist seminary in New Orleans during the late 1940′s, he was taught a similar view of the Trinity as modalities of perception.Sculpture of Abelard by Jules Cavelier at the Louvre Palace, ParisSee ? for the source of the above photograph of the sculpture.Although some in the Church hierarchy and many philosophers believed his teaching on the Trinity to be appropriate, Church authorities called him to Soissons to defend his book, The Trinity. When he appeared as ordered, he was not permitted to speak in his own defense because of fear that his power of persuasion would be irresistible. Therefore, without hearing, he was condemned to burn his book and to be confined in a monastery cell. A year later, a new Abbott permitted him to be released to establish a hermitage, where he lived and resumed teaching and writing. His teaching was preserved in?two books, Theologia Christiana and Theologia.?Will Durrant writes at page 941,He could not believe that all these wonderful pre-Christian minds had missed salvation; God, he insisted, gives his love to all peoples, Jews and heathen included.… Those who recommend faith without understanding are in many cases seeking to cover up their inability to teach the faith intelligibly… Abelard sought to embrace the most mystic doctrines of the church within the grasp of reason.Abelard?sent a copy of his Historia Calamitatum Mearum to Heloise, to whom history imputes a lengthy reply, including in part:To her master, nay father, to her husband, nay brother: his handmaid, nay daughter, his spouse, nay sister: to Abelard, Heloise.…Thou knowest, dearest – all men know – what I have lost in thee.… Obeying thy command, I changed both my habit and my hair, that I might show thee to be the possessor of both my body and mind.…Tell me one thing only if thou canst: why, after our conversion [to the religious life], which thou alone didst decree, I am falling into such neglect and oblivion with thee that I am neither refreshed by thy speech and presence, nor comforted by a letter in thine absence. . . . Concupiscence joined thee to me rather than affection.…I deserved more from thee, having done all things for thee….… Farewell, my all.See for Alexander Popes poem, Eloisa to Abelard.Twisted Christianity: The?CrusadesThe Crusades (1095 – 1291) had a profound impact on Western culture, directly or indirectly, both positively and negatively.?It was destructive of life and property?then and to this day, a millennium later,?it has had harsh?effects?upon the relationships of Christians and Western nations with the rest of the world, particularly with the Arab, Muslim and Jewish parts of the world.? I do not attempt to justify?them; inhumanity, whatever its form, especially that justified by “faith,” is indefensible.Here is some history that preceded?the Crusades.? Prior to them, Muslims ?controlled?Palestine. The Christians living there enjoyed freedom of religion, and Christian pilgrims?were welcome to Jerusalem, much as Muslims? go to Mecca some time during their lifetime.? The Muslims who ruled the area were supportive of Christians who lived in Palestine, so much so?that when the caliph of Cairo destroyed the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Muslim rulers contributed greatly to its restoration.? However, when in 1047 the Seljug Turks took Jerusalem from the Fatimid Muslims, they were not tolerant of Christians living in their territory nor of pilgrims visiting Jerusalem. Moreover, the Byzantine Empire, which was considered to be?at the crossroads between Asia and Europe, had become weak and??Latin Christendom feared that?the Turks would advance into Europe, putting them in great danger.?The Italian cities saw the Turks as an impediment to their markets in the near East.? Pope Urban decided that Christians must remove the Turks from their holy city,?Jerusalem.? He called upon Christians to rally in a crusade.? They were to be marked with?and led by the sign of the cross. As an inducement to?crusaders, he offered benefits: serfs were freed from bondage to the soil and to the barons, prisoners were freed, death sentences were commuted, and spiritual benefits were conferred.The First Crusade was from 1095 – 99, the Second from 1146 – 8, ??the Third from 1189 – 92, and the Fourth from 1202 –4. Between Crusades, many crusaders?settled in Muslim lands near Jerusalem, marrying their women and adapting to their ways. Much evil was done in the name of Christianity during each of the Crusades; and often, but not always, they were met with like force and retribution from Muslims.? After the demise of the Fourth Crusade, church leaders in Western Europe concluded that perhaps the reason for their lack of success in four consecutive Crusades was that the crusaders were not innocent: perhaps only innocents, children, could regain Jerusalem.? So, about 30,000 children at the average age of 12 were gathered and sent across the Alps to Italy, where they expected to have ships to take them to Jerusalem.?? When the survivors arrived at Genoa they were met with derision.? There were no ships to Palestine. Many children died on their Alpine trek to Italy and yet more on their return through those same Alps. Two more Crusades were attempted thereafter, this time with adult crusaders.? In the final Crusade, the crusaders robbed a Muslim caravan, hung 19 merchants and raided several Muslim towns. When Sultan Khalil demanded reparation of the crusaders, and was refused it, he lay siege to Acre, a Christian town in Palestine, took it, and left his men free to kill or enslave its 60,000 inhabitants.It should come as no surprise that, contemporaneously with the Crusades, the Church began its Inquisition, in which it tortured and killed its own for departing from official doctrine, or even upon the suspicion or allegation of heresy.?It was rules-based terror, utterly contradictory to what is known?of Jesus’ life and teaching.? Tolstoy later asserted that?Christianity is not a set beliefs, but a way of life.? True faith does not need defended, but must be lived in loving community with all humanity, unconditionally.Through the Crusades, Christian Europe discovered?a Muslim civilization, more?enlightened and much superior to its own.? Many serfs who had obtained release from the land, never returned. ?By then, the Roman Empire was weakened, as was the Roman Catholic Church; but the French monarchy was strengthened. With the contact of Christians with the?Muslim world?came new markets for Italian and Flemish industry, the establishment of towns and the rise of the middle class. With Christian zeal waning, secular life was stimulated. As industry and commerce developed?so?did European culture and learning.?? The arts were beginning to experience a Renaissance as Greek and Roman classics were discovered, many of which were preserved and discovered in monasteries. Gothic architecture utilized and improved upon classical forms, such as the arch, and the cathedrals which were?built?were as much a tribute to human ingenuity and perseverance as they were praise to God.See, also, my prior post during my discussion of architecture, de Coincy?(1177–1236)From that time comes the raucous and?seductive text, Carmina Burana.? Interestingly, it was?preserved by Benedictine monks until they were printed in 1847. uring that time, galliard poets and singers?roamed France and Western Germany as “wandering scholars.”?The time?saw the rebirth of drama in the form of mystery plays or miracle plays which were first performed within the churches, and when?the form?outgrew the confines of the cathedral, it was staged?on a platform outside the church. As the subjects became more secularized, performances were moved from the church grounds altogether to?the marketplace. Beowulf and other epic poetry were produced during this time.? Troubadours wandered southern France singing their lyric poetry of love and sensuality. In time, the?they would sing the virtues of Mary, Mother of Jesus. Their influence spread into southern Germany, giving rise to German poets and singers, known as minnesingers, who spread through that region with their own?songs of love and chivalry.See? HYPERLINK "" for a modern rendition of a variety of troubadour song, including a lively call and response between troubadour and audience, lavishly accompanied by drums and tambourine; unison ballad style accompanied by drum; an extensive French narration interspersed with fife or other instruments; and a wide variety of other troubadour music.See ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related for?troubador song with?voice accompanied by lute and wind instruments, also in French.If religion is to be relevant, it must somehow connect with the lives of its adherents.?And so,?secular music?of the late Middle Ages left its mark on religious music, not so unlike love songs of the early Twentieth Century affected hymnology of that time in its personalization and adoration of Jesus, such as “Oh, How I Love Jesus.”Gautier de Coincy (1177–1236) was a troubadour who was known for his poetry in veneration of the Mother Mary about whom developed the Cult of the Virgin Mary.? He set his poetry to popular troubadour melodies and song of the time.? Those he compiled into a work, Miracles of Notre Dame.? While reverent, his songs are full of secular humor. At this time, we see an increasing impact of secularity on the Church and on religious life among the populace.? Mary was a figure that the populace could relate to.? Perhaps like a doting mother smiles upon her child’s mischievous nature and deeds, Mary was perceived as smiling upon their own celebrated frailty and wantonness. For the populace, she?was a great antidote to Pauline holy rigidity.See for Gautier’s Ro?ne celeste, for solo voice and bowed string instrument. Note its similarity in musical texture to vocal organum which preceded.See for his Alla Francesca,? Les Miracles de Nostre-Dame for voice, percussion and flute.See ? for and album? of his Miracles of Notre Dame available for purchase at Classical?Archive.See ? for other resources regarding? Coincy.Music of the Ars?NovaAdam de la Halle (1250 – ?1306), also known as Adam the Hunchback, was one of the last trouvères (a northern France version of the troubadour). ?He wrote both monophonic music and three-part, polyphonic music.? You will note the increasing complexity of the polyphonic music, in which there is greater independence of each of the melodic parts. See ? for his recordings available for purchase at Classical Archives.Philippe de Vitry (1291-1361) was a true Renaissance man before his time: Not only was he a well-known poet and musician, but he was also a bishop, diplomat, administrator and political adviser. He was active in the Ars Nova, or New Art, which improved upon rhythmic notation, allowing for greater rhythmic precision in choral music. Previously rhythm was determined more by “rhythmic modes” or rhythmic patterns that the performers recognized and applied to the existing neumatic notation.? He also contributed to the development of the motet, which was polyphonic, a cappella (unaccompanied), and sacred.?The motet also developed a secular form, much to the displeasure of the Catholic church. See and ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=relmfuSee ? for his recordings available for purchase at?Classical Archives.Guillaume de Machaut (c. P300 – April 1377) about whom we have significant biographical information? is one of the last poet – composers.?? He wrote the first complete Ordinary Mass entitled Mass of Notre Dame, and he contributed to the development of the motet and a number of secular musical forms.? His secular works typically involved courtly love; his music is rhythmically intricate and innovative; and his poetry?influenced many?contemporary poets, including Jeffrey Chauser.See and ""&HYPERLINK ""list=LPj6z2rdSnLkQHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""index=2HYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=plcp, with video view of a page of its score,?from sections of his Mass of Notre Dame.? You will note the throaty quality of each of these.? The first is more refined and nuanced; the second reminds me of “sacred harp” or “shaped note” singing which can yet be heard in some churches and places in the south.? (see for an excellent site concerning this style of singing, its history; and for video.)? By way of comparison, see, also, the following examples of his secular motets: ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=relatedSee ? for an extensive list of his recordings available for purchase at? Classical Archives.Jacopo da Bologna (1340–c.?1386)We have mentioned the Ars Nova.? The Italian composer, Jacopo da Bologna wrote in that style. ?He mostly wrote madrigals, both secular (as in a love song) and sacred; canonic (where the same melody starts at different times in different voices, as in Row, Row, Row Your Boat) and non-canonic; laudat-ballata (sacred but-noncanonical songs, such as Christmas carols) and motets (sacred polyphonic choral pieces meaning, literally, movement of voices against each other). The motet was a rather formal form in the organum tradition of multiple voices over a “cantus firmus,” or plainsong; it marked the beginning of polyphonic music known as counterpoint, i.e., point against point, or melody against melody.? Rather than parts that merely harmonizing with the cantus firmus, as the modern Protestant hymn,?each part tended to be an interesting melody in itself, hence, “polyphonic.”? Despite that, his works often include parallel fifths which would be prohibited at the height of the polyphonic era, such as the music?of Bach.See ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related, which, I assume, is an instrumental rendition of a choral work. and ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=fvwrel for choral performances of his works which I believe are secular; but I have been unable to find any sacred examples.? However, I did want to include him because of the remarkable contribution he made to the development of counterpoint.See, also for what again appear to be recordings of secular works.Leonel Power (ca. 1370 –?1445)Leonel Power was one of the first composers to set the various creedal portions of the Mass as individual compositions, which could stand alone, or could be taken with the other parts of the mass as a whole.See ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related? for his Ave ReginaSee for another performance of the same Ave Regina with different voicing and key.See for his GloriaSee for his Tempora Vagantibus- Beata Progenies with spoken narration, instruments and voiceSee for his Alma Redemptoris Mater, Credo a capella voiceSee for his Beata progeniesSee for his Missa: Alma Redemptoris Mater, CredoSee for recordings of Leonel Power’s works available for purchase at Classical Archives.John Dunstable (or Dunstaple) (c. 1390 –?1453)Dunstable was one of the most famous composers active in the early 15th century, and a contemporary of Leonel Power. Until Dunstable, the octave, fifth, and fourth were considered stable and consonant intervals. It isn’t like these other intervals were not as good, indeed, you will note in most of these composers we have looked at so far,?it is not unusual to have a passing second which is quite dissident, especially the minor second, but works very nicely when in a passing melodic line and is gently entered and resolved.? Dunstable was noted for his style of music known as the “English countenance,” or la contenance angloise.? He not only liked the interval of the third, but discovered that if one third was placed above another third,?making a triad, it sounded very pleasing and stable, as did a third juxtaposed with a sixth.? ?Today we would know this combination as a chord; however, it would not be until Monteverdi in the early Baroque Period?that these cords would be arranged into a chordal progression that could have the effect of giving the listener an expectation of what was to come, of leading the listener to anticipate what will come, which also could set up a harmonic surprise.? We haven’t arrived there yet.In order to see the function of a chordal progression in Monteverdi as compared to the mere triadic structures in John Dunstable, see ""&HYPERLINK ""v=zsL4MGFh6QIHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=endscreenCompare John Dunstable’s Veni Sancte Spriritus at , which has a visual of his score, and in which you will note passing dissonances of a second, a seventh or a nineth, with the chordal qualities of Monteverdi’s Lamento della Ninfa ?at ""&HYPERLINK ""v=zsL4MGFh6QIHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=endscreen; or see ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related for a performance of the same piece in a different venue and by a different group.See for a performance of Quam HYPERLINK ""pulchraHYPERLINK "" HYPERLINK ""esHYPERLINK "" [How beautiful you are] from the Song of Solomon 7:6, 7, 5a, 4a, 11a, 12.See ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related for a performance of his O rosa bella by soprano, harp and pare ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related for a different performance and instrumentation of the same composition.SeeSee for a performance by male voices of Sancta Maria, non est tibi similis. ""&HYPERLINK ""list=ALDZPCPAXS78g7xtnvcSpAQBxlYFA4q785HYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""index=2HYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=plcp for a performance of his Salve Scema Sanctitatis.See ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related for a performance of his Motets – Veni sancte spiritus – Veni Creator.See ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related for an organ performance of Agincourt Hymn.See for a performance by male voices of Sancta Maria, non est tibi similis.See for recordings of his compositions available for purchase at Classical Archives.Guillaume Dufay (ca. 1397 –?1474)See for a performance of his Ave Maris Stella.? Although, as we previously mentioned concerning the harmonies of Medieval and Renaissance choral music, the harmonies do not rise to organized chordal progressions as that?later introduced by Monteverdi,?he?uses a technique common to such chordal progressions: he creates a dissonance just before the close of the piece which?resolves into a consonant chord of repose upon the tonic (the first scale degree).See ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related for another setting of Avé Maris Stella for women’s voices and organ.? You will note that the music is much more?refined than is prior medieval music, part of which is attributable to its triadic harmonies,?which, toward? the close of phrases or a series of phrases.?anticipate a closing cadence.See ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=fvwrel for a performance of the Credo from Dufay’s L’homme armé (The Armed Man”) Mass.??L’homme armé was a popular, secular song in the 15th century, with overtones of political satire, which many composers of that century used as a cantus firmus (principal melody upon which the choral piece is built) for sacred works, such, as here, a mass.???See, also, ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related for a performance of the Agnus Dei and ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=relmfu?for the Gloria from the same Mass.See for a performance of his Magnificat for voice and instruments.See recordings of Dufay’s music available for purchase at?Classical Archives.Johannes Ockeghem (ca. 1410 –?1497)The Franco – Flemish school flourished in the area of the Netherlands. It was known for its development of polyphonic techniques and music, particularly that of the motet in which all four voices were interesting in their own right as melodies, of generally equal weight.? Johannes Ockeghem was an early member of this school the most well-known in the last part of the 15th century. He stands as a bridge between Dufay and JosquinHYPERLINK "" des HYPERLINK ""Prez. He wrote chanson, which is a secular, polyphonic song in which the music supports the lyrics; but his primary output was in the form of the Mass, in about half of which he continued to use the principle of the cantus firmus. ?Of those, two masses are built upon a cantus firmus based upon the melody of a chanson that he had written.? He was well known for both the quality of his technique and of his expressive affect. The design of his bass line was likely affected by his experience as a bass singer: they are particularly interesting.See for the Kyrie from his Missa Prolationum.See ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related for a performance by The Clerks’ Group of the entire Missa Prolationum.?John Tavener (c. 1490 –?1545)The periodIn the late 14th and early 15th centuries, Europe saw the church’s influence weakened politically, culturally, and theologically. With the organization of labor in guilds, and the increase of industry, local economies began to develop, leading to the rise of political states rivaling the power of the Church and the rise of a new aristocracy associated with the development of industry and trade. Previously, Latin had been the language of the church and of learning. With the rise of political states, their vernacular languages also developed. In the course of time, the vernacular became acceptable in courts of law and literature. With the invention and development of the printing press by Gutenberg in the early 15th century, the dissemination of ideas proliferated and empowered those who could afford the published books and pamphlets, wresting control of learning from the realm of the Church, which previously could provide the labor of monks to copy and decorate manuscripts in the official language of the church, Latin, and to disseminate it. With the advent of movable type, the power of the press and the printed word increased exponentially, expanding the scope of education beyond that provided by the Church. The power of ideas grew with the spread of learning from Church to university and?to trade guilds.??The publication of ideas escaped the censorial?grip of ecclesiastical authority, becoming available via commercial interests?to a secular culture which became increasingly independent of the hurch.Not all of these developments can be attributed to the printing press. Indeed, in the early 14th century, John Wycliff, writing in the official language of the church, Latin, laid the foundation for?England to sever political and ecclesiastical ties to the Church and the establishment of the Church of England, based upon the model of its parent; not beholden to it, but “free” to serve the English monarchy. Wycliff, an ordained priest and a professor of theology at Oxford, introduced the doctrine of predestination, which, in some form or another, has dogged Protestant throughout its history. From that doctrine were derived notions of manifest destiny in the later colonization of distant lands by European powers, and even today by Christian notions in various degrees of “God’s will.”With Wycliff arises a notion picked up by Luther and other reformers almost a century later that no priestly intermediary is necessary for a relationship of the Christian with God; rather, all persons are priests with the capacity of direct communion with God. God is not the exclusive property of the Church. Rather than the assertion of some Catholic mystics, such as St. Francis, that the world reveals the glory of God, Wycliff, in releasing laity from dependence upon the Church for direct communion with God, he taught?a dualism and notion of Original Sin that harasses Protestantism yet? today;??he challenged the Catholic notion of transubstantiation which held that in the Catholic Eucharist the bread not merely represented?the body of Christ but upon its consecration became the body of Christ,?and the wine became his blood – not symbolically but literally. As a middle ground, he put forth the theological notion that Christ’s blood and body did not change the substance of the bread and wine, but became spiritually present?in consubstantiation with Christ. He recommended that the Church in England?declare independence from?the Catholic Church.At that same time, the riches of the earth and its minerals were discovered, mined and utilized in England and traded throughout Europe. The increase of the woolen industry, saw the rise of the business class, and, through trade with other European centers of commerce, brought great wealth to England. The manorial system throughout Europe had been weakened by the Church’s release of peasants from fealty to join the Crusades and by the influence of its encounters with Muslim and other civilizations in the process.As political power became concentrated in local areas throughout Europe, and as they gained independence from the authority of the Church, conflicts between the states often resulted in war, some of it?fitful and prolonged,?as the Hundred Years War. That further weakened the manorial system. The populace shifted its allegiances from feudal lords and swore loyalty to?its King. During that time the English language was established as the language of both English law and?its courts. Increasingly, literature was written in the vernacular. Chaucer wrote his Canterbury Tales in the latter portion of the 14th century and through its characters provided the reader a baudy view of contemporary English political, ecclesiastical and social society?of that time.Biblical scholarship took a leap in England with Tyndale’s publication of the English New Testament. It was distinguished from prior versions in that he returned to the original Hebrew and Greek sources rather than the traditional Latin Vulgate. His intention was to make that Scripture directly accessible to the laity rather than as restricted to priestly mediation under the authority of papal orthodoxy.John TavenerJohn Tavener, an organist, and composer, was known as the most important English composer of his time. He wrote sacred vocal music, primarily, including masses, motets, antiphons, and Magnificats.Like Johannes Ockeghem, he based a Mass upon a popular secular song, “The Western Wynde;”? and Johannes Ockeghem later wrote a mass on the same melody. Unusual for the day, John Tavener introduces that?melody?by three of the four voices of the Mass, at different times, nine times each.? In order to make each of the mass sections approximately of equal length, those with fewer words are more melismatically treated, as in the Gloria in the Christmas carol, “Angels We Have Heard on High.”? He also frequently uses the cantus firmus of a plainchant in an interior part, often augmenting it?to draw it out, and to some extent disguise it from superficial hearing.? Some of his masses include sections for soloists rather than the entire choir. The solo sections marked with the words “In Nomine” were at times scored for instruments.? Other composers began writing for groups of instruments, such as?a viol consort, upon his modeling,?also designated by the words, In Nomine. He often used material from a motet that he had composed to construct a mass.? The resultant form was called a “parody” mass.You will also note that during this period of the Renaissance, although chordal progressions are limited, there is a sense of “drive to the cadence,” which is a major step toward chordal progression.See ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related for a performance of the Gloria from his “Westron wind“See ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=fvwrel for a performance of his Sanctus and Benedictus from Missa Gloria Tibi Trinitas, with video that visually follows his score.See for a video of his Dum transisset sabbatum in the cathedral setting by Cappella Nicolai as it originally would have been performed.See ""&HYPERLINK ""playnext=1HYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""list=PL3ACB2D630E255586HYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=results_main for a performance of his ‘Dum transisset Sabbatum,’ Easter Sunday with video representation of the score.See ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related for a recording of his complete Missa O Michael, with video identification of the mass sections.See ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related and ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related for his instrumental, In Nomine.This performance of “The Mother of God” is sublime: ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=relmfu is sublime!The Musical Aftermath of Henry VIII’s Divorce: Thomas Tallis (c. 1505 –1585) and William Byrd?(1540–1623)Henry VIII’s DivorceIn 1509, Henry VIII, age 18, ascended the throne of England. His interests were then, as now, the common interests of a youth: of sport, of intellectual prowess and as monarch,?political clout, with?soldiers and a Navy at his command.The priest – become – Chancellor, Wolsey, had served Henry VII and likewise served Henry VIII. He recognized the moral profligacy of the English clergy, but was not above it, himself. The public, also recognized its base condition. Heresy increased. In 1506, 45 men were charged and tried for heresy; most recanted, but two were burned to death. There were many such inquisitional trials throughout England for the next 15 years. The heresies giving rise to such barbarity included the rejection of transubstantiation for consubstantiation; rejection of the intermediary role of priests to consecrate or absolve; rejection of the salvific necessity for sacraments; rejection of pilgrimages and prayers for the dead; the notion that celibacy was contrary to human nature and that priests should marry (probably as a reaction to widespread concubinage of English clergy); and even, with Luther, the notion that the Christian is saved by faith, and not by works.In 1521 Henry VIII issued his vituperous Assertion of the Seven Sacraments against Martin Luther, which many believed was authored by Wolsey. Luther took his time to reply, but then in kind, to the “King of the Lies, King Heinz, by God’s disgrace King of England.”We have often heard of Henry VIII’s request for an annulment of his marriage to Catherine,?of?denial by the Church, and of his decision to part ways with the Catholic Church because of that denial.Somewhat foreshadowing Princess Di, the English public remained sympathetic and devoted to Catherine. Among the lower classes, the divorce was an anathema; many clergy had difficulty accepting the replacement of the Pope with Henry VIII; the demise of Wolsey left the clergy without?support or defense; and the northern provinces remained strongly Catholic and loyal to the pope. In England, proper, nationalism prevailed over ecclesiastical demands. There appeared a written demand that the King confiscate property of the hurch in England: “The Supplication of the Beggars.” There was further intrigue; Thomas Cromwell, who grew up in poverty but came to serve Wolsey, came to valiantly support King Henry. Henry was able to obtain from the parliament a declaration annulling the marriage of him with Catherine, thereby bastardizing their child, Mary.??Ultimately,?Patliament declared the King to be sovereign over the Church in England (Anglican church). Chaotic!?This was?the political and cultural environment in which Thomas Thales and Robert Byrd lived and composed.Thomas TallisThomas Tallis is one of England’s great composers. He was a Roman Catholic in a time of religious turmoil in England precipitated by Henry VIII?when?he?established the Anglican church. Queen Mary granted him and the younger William Byrd exclusive rights to publish monophonic and polyphonic music in England, the use of a manor and an annual income.His style of writing moved from melismatic treatment of the texts to syllabic and chordal treatments, wedding music to text.? He wrote a number of anthems in the English vernacular.? In a time when musical composition was becoming more complex, he maintained?a more simple style with the possible exception of his Spem In Alium , written for eight choirs and?forty parts or voices.? Even then, despite the many voices, it remains thematically, rhythmically and harmonically simple.God Grant with Grace (Psalm 67:1-2: ""tallis/?utm_source=feedburnerHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""utm_medium=emailHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheBibleAsMusic+%28The+Bible+as+Music%29See for a brief biography and discography of Tallis.See for a performance of Tallis’ anthem, If Ye Love Me Keep My Commandments performed by the Cambridge singers, directed by John Rutter; see, also a choral performance and a brass quintet performance of the same work.? At the bottom of that page you will also find a video of a choral performance of his In ieiunio et fletu (from HYPERLINK ""CantionesHYPERLINK "" HYPERLINK ""SacraeHYPERLINK "", 1575)See ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related for a performance of his motet, “The Lamentations of Jeremiah.”See for a performance of the motet, Spem In Alium.? See, also ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related for a video of a remarkable mass performance of this work?with choirs totaling 700 singers in Manchester, England and conducted by David Lawrence. ""&HYPERLINK ""utm_medium=emailHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheBibleAsMusic+%28The+Bible+as+Music%29See ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related for a collection of his sacred music, including Spem In Alium, and a note concerning the constantly shifting religious environment of England, in which he wrote. The comments of viewers of that particular blog are beautiful in their own right. Several affirm my own experience of the?spiritual nature of aesthetic beauty.See for recordings of his music available for purchase. ""&HYPERLINK ""utm_medium=emailHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheBibleAsMusic+%28The+Bible+as+Music%29William ByrdWilliam Byrd (1540–1623) was an English composer contemporary with Thomas Tallis. He wrote sacred and secular polyphony and music for the keyboard, called a virginal. In 1575 he and Tallis were granted the exclusive right to print and publish music in England by Queen Elizabeth. The two composers jointly published 34 Latin motets, 17 each, dedicated to the Queen. He was a Catholic, remaining loyal to his Church when the Parliament established the Anglican church. When Pope Pius V issued a bull, absolving subjects of Queen Elizabeth from allegiance to her,?Byrd became a subject of seditious suspicions.He remained committed to his Catholic faith throughout his life, as was expressed in his approximately 50 motets. Many of his works have been associated with subjects of Jewish persecution and exile in Egypt and in Babylon, leading some experts to suggest that he intended those representations to analogize his lamentations to the plight of Catholics in England, particularly in his Tribue Domine of 1575, Tribulatio proxima est (1589) and Infelix ego (1591). Oen stylistic characteristic of his motets is its conservative preservation of the cantus firmus style, perhaps reflective of his Catholic allegiance.For examples of his work, see the following:Vigilate,? HYPERLINK "" for Five VoicesKyrie,? ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=relmfuAgnus Dei,? ,? ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=relatedGloria,? ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=relatedMass for 4 voicesCredo,? HYPERLINK "" Dei,? ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=relmfuSanctusAve Verum Corpus,? HYPERLINK "" the preparations for dissonance, the dissonance, and its resolution.Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1526 –?1594)Palestrina is the best-known of Renaissance a cappella choral music composers. He was a prolific composer of more than 100 masses, 300 motets (which were on sacred?texts but are not formalized as liturgy), many hymns, Magnificats, lamentations,? and?a large number of madrigals, i.e., secular music.His popular name is derived from the name of his birthplace, Palestrina. His best known mass was the Pope Marcellus Mass. There is an apocryphal story that he wrote to the mass as the Council in Trent considered whether polyphonic music, with its secular connections and polyphonic complexity distracted its congregations and should be prohibited from the churches.You will recall that organum often had a vigorous, throaty sound. With Palestrina, polyphony became almost suave. Whereas Palestrina was using was expressive, it was not ostentatious; to the contrary, it was sublime. While abuse of polyphony and its inclusion of secular elements were considerations of the counsel in Trent, it is doubtful that it was written for that purpose. While expressive, his sacred works are not ostentatious, but rather, sublime. Whereas dissonances were almost jarring at times in its use in organum, Palestrina used it on a weak beats or passing tones which did not jar, but rather created a bit of tension which then resolved to consonance. His style is generally considered to be the culmination of Renaissance polyphonic sacred music.He had three distinct styles of polyphony but each shares a quality of refinement.See for an excellent Britannica Encyclopedia article concerning Palestrina.For examples of his early Flemish style, see , examples of his middle style, and discography of its representative work, the Missa Papae Marcelli, see performances of the Kyrie of that work, see which is performed by the Tallis Singers with views of various architectural and decorative views representative of the cathedrals of that time; and with images of the score.For the credo of that work, see ; examples of his later style, see these performances of Stabat Mater at ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=relatedFor his lamentations, see ""&HYPERLINK ""sclient=psy-abHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""q=Lamentations+palestrina+youtubeHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""oq=Lamentations+palestrina+youtubeHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""gs_l=serp.12..0i8i30.37181.37181.0.41202.1.1.0.0.0.0.376.376.3-1.1.0.les%3B..0.0…1c.1.MTFo6Tl_XT8&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=2ae57bceec566c09&biw=1017&bih=444.See ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related for Madrigali a quattro voci.For a performance of his Vergine bella by the Vocalia Consort see de Lassus (ca.?1532–1594)Orlando de Lassus, with Palestrina and Victoria, irepresents the maturation of Renaissance sacred music. ?He was Catholic and wrote?during the Catholic counterreformation, which had a significant impact on his work.? He was a prolific composer of both sacred and secular works.? Although conservative in style, he wrote approximately 50 parody masses based not only upon secular melodies, but even some that bordered on the risqué, such as Clemens non Papa’s chanson, “Entre vous filles.”??As one could expect,?his motets are more adventuresome than are his masses.See the following for some examples of his works: and ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related; ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related; ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related; ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related; ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related; ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related; and ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related.Andrea Gabrieli (1532 – 1585) and Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1554 –?1612)Andrea Gabrieli (1532 – 1585) and his nephew, Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1554 – 1612), are known for their sacred compositions which were written for St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, Italy, where each was composer and organist. They were members of the Venitian School of northern Italy, known for its unique responsorial?polychoral style. St. Mark’s was particularly spacious and resonant, producing much echo and delay between the two opposing choir lofts. Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli and their predecessors used those sound characteristics to advantage in several ways. They developed a polychoral style marked by antiphonal effects. St. Mark’s organ and instrumental accompaniment could bridge the delay between the two choirs when positioned between?them. In language of the mid-20th century, high fidelity was fine for the conservative Roman school and its a cappella choral music, but music of the Gabrieli’s and the Venintian school required close-up stereo.The Gabrieli’s were known not only for incorporating string and brass instruments into their choral works, but also for introduced dynamic markings into their music. They and others of the Venetian School introduced?a new style of music to Europe, including sacred music with instrumental accompaniment and secular music at a time that the influence of the Catholic Church?upon sacred choral music was declining. They introduced the Baroque characteristics of terraced dynamics. The crescendo and decrescendo was not introduced to music until the Mannheim school introduced its famous “Mannheim crescendo” at the end of the Baroque period during the Rococo bridge into the Classical Period. Rather, the Gabrieli’s used dynamic markings for?sections or responsorial phrases?of music, as the word “terraced” suggests. It most often was in the form of a loud, short phrase followed by a spatially separate performing group statement repeating or imitatingf that phrase, at a softer level as though it were an echo.?It was only natural to do so given the acoustical properties of St. Mark’s Basilica and its choir lofts at opposing sides of the congregation.Baroque music also saw the development of instrumental music as an extension of that incorporated by the Gabrieli’s in St. Mark’s. The Gabrieli’s music was characterized by a rhythmic drive, which also became a characteristic of the Baroque music that followed.In a society that was becoming more mobile, Europe was experiencing greater artistic communication?among France, England,?German states, and Italian city states. Whereas many European composers visited Italy to experience its music and to learn from it, Andrea Gabrieli traveled to Germany to learn from Orlando de Lassus, who had become well known throughout Europe as a progressive composer of both sacred and secular music. Giovanni Gabrieli also studied in Germany. In time, other European composers came to Venice to study with Giovanni Gabrieli.Following the death of his uncle, Giovanni Gabrieli edited and published much of Andrea’s work.See the following sites for a sampling of Andrea Gabrieli’s compositions:Organ of the time playing his music ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related ""&HYPERLINK ""NR=1HYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=endscreen with view of interior.Thomas Luis de Victoria (1548?–1611)Tomás Luis de Victoria was the Spanish composer of the Catholic counterreformation. Most important composers of the Catholic Counter Reformation, which was also known as the Catholic Revival. He has been called the “Spanish Palestrina,” and deity is conjectured that he may have studied with Palestrina. He was an ordained Catholic priest, an organist, as was common to composers of that time, and also a singer. It has been said that his music is reflective of Spanish mysticism of the time. His style is marked by exquisite, overlapping vocal parts and his organ accompaniments are interesting in their own right. His style is more homophonic texture than the polyphonic style known as counterpoint in which each part tends to have interest of its own, hence, “point against point.” He is more free in his use of dissonance without the preparation and resolution that was characteristic of sacred music of the Renaissance. As with the Gabrielli’s, he incorporated instruments in his sacred music. He also used a technique that became common in the Baroque called “word-painting,” in which the composer painted in sound the affect of the words. In the Baroque Period there developed the Doctrine of Affections which recognized that music can affect the emotions, from which certain keys and certain modes became associated with certain affects.For a sampling of his works, see the following:Salve ReginaAve MariaO Magnum Mysterium?Claudio Monteverdi (1567 –1643) and Introduction to the?BaroqueClaudio Monteverdi (1567 –1643)Monteverdi was an Italian composer who was so revolutionary for his time, that he is considered to provide the pivot point for transition from Renaissance to Baroque. He was influenced by the Gabrieli’s, and Giovanni Gabriele was influenced by himHe was harmonically?revolutionary in that?his music led the listener from a sense of leaving “from home” for a tour of harmonic exploration, with growing tension?(called “drive to cadence,” to?repose in the tonic in the home key.??A cadence literally means to “fall.”? In rhythm it generally refers to the?rhythmicallity that lends itself?to the “fall” of?marching feet.Monteverdi and later Baroque composers discovered that?one could explore “secondary cadences” within the various scale degrees other than the major and final cadence from the chord on the fifth scale degree (or dominant) to that on the first scale degree (or tonic).? Those can be successive descending fifths or ascending fourths which ma proceed through all the scale degrees.? This series of progression, as far as it proceeds is called a “circle of fifths.Terraced dynamics is another characteristic of Baroque music. The crescendo was not?known until after?the Baroque period.??Rather, like?terrace on hillsides, the dynamics were assigned to phrases or parts of phrases, often alternating loud and soft, with the effect of an echo, as in the antiphonal instrumental music of the Gabrieli’s at St. Mark’s.During the Baroque era we see?music that utilizes chordal progressions within a polyphonic texture consisting of interplay of independent voices. At the end of the Baroque era, polyphony was brought to its refined summit with Johan Sebastian Bach, at a time that polyphony was yielding to homophony. Bach was seen in his day as out of touch with the times. It was not until Mendelssohn rediscovered him much later in the Romantic Period that his genius was recognized.For performances of Monteverdi’s work, see:Beatus vir [Blessed is the man], from Selva Morale e Spirituale (Psalm 112:1-10) piece is particularly interesting to me for several reasons: because of three short bass fragments repeated throughout which unifies the piece, although the voices above provide variety; because of the deceptive cadence within it; because of the augmented rhythm at the close of the large sections, affecting a rhythmic cadence before repeating the section or before going to new material; because of the clear metric organization in which the piece begins in homophonic 4 meter, moves to an imitative, polyphonic middle section in which the bass fragments are adapted to the new meter?which is?repeated, as before; because of it’s introduction of the basso continuo; and because it is in clear ABAC form, returning to the original material, and then closing with a section that has some similarity to what has preceded, as though summarizing the entire piece. The deceptive cadence uses the expectation deceives the listener by suspending resolution and gently leading us a little further. The return to the tonic chord is a resolution that finally brings us “home.”Beatus vir anticipates a number of Baroque devices which would follow: harmonic progression, circle of fifths, clear metrical organization, rhythmic drive, rhythmic and melodic pare at slower tempos, but with no less drive: ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related , andVespersVespro Della Beata VergineVespro della Beata Vergine, 1610This video begins with a discussion by the conductor of the music and of its spiritual qualities. You will also note an excursion into the circle of fifths.Lauda Jerusalem, DominumFor more video recordings of Monteverdi’s work, including secular music, see: "…0.0…1ac.8bduy5U2UMo"&HYPERLINK "…0.0…1ac.8bduy5U2UMo"oq=Claudio_MonteverdiHYPERLINK "…0.0…1ac.8bduy5U2UMo"&HYPERLINK "…0.0…1ac.8bduy5U2UMo"gs_l=youtube.1.0.0i33l10.1455750.1463117.0.1466963.2.2.0.0.0.0.179.302.0j2.2.0…0.0…1ac.8bduy5U2UMoDamigella & Valetto scene ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=watch-vrec?Gregorio Allegri (1582 –?1652)Gregorio Allegri (1582 – 1652) was an Italian composer of sacred music for the Sistine Chapel, serving under Pope Urban VIII. He was heavily influenced by Palestrina and the Roman school. He was one of the early composers of sacred music which included stringed instruments in his sacred choral works; and he is the earliest known composer of string quartets.His Miserere Mei Deus on the text of Psalm 50 is by far the most popular of his works. It is written for two small choirs, to be sung antiphonally. The second, smaller choir culminates each of the sections with a gorgeous, arched soprano solo. There are many videos of its performance available on YouTube?but few of his other works. Pope Urban highly prized Miserere Mei Deus and forbade dissemination of its printed form. This is what Mozart heard twice in the Sistine Chapel, committed to memory and transcribed. Vidi turbam magnam (A Sei Voci)Messe Vidi turbam magnam – Statuit ei dominumHeinrich Schutz (1585 –?1672)Heinrich Schutz (1585 – 1672) was a German composer and organist in the early 17th century.??He was considered by many to be in the class of Monteverdi. He was first trained as a lawyer and only later studied music with Giovanni Gabriele and then with Claudio Monteverdi. He wrote in a polyphonic style similar to that of the Renaissance in approaching and resolving dissonances. In addition to his organ works and sacred choral music, he is known as the composer of the first German opera. Also, as was common in the Baroque era, he was known for “word painting,” in which the composers sought to portray in sound a specific action or mood, such as a falling melodic line painted a picture?of depressed moods, or rising melodic line for happy moods.? A miniature?form of this affect is the “Baroque “sigh,”?consisting of an appoggiatura of a single dissonant note?resolving downward to a consonant note.This power of music was recognized in what was known as the Doctrine of Affections. Both Bach and Brahms were influenced by his works for examples of his work.For performances of his work, see:Heu mihi domine & Quid commisistiDie Himmel erz?hlen die Ehre GottesGib, gib unsern FürstenPsalm 100Jauchzet dem HerrenTr?stet, tr?stet mein VolkEs ist erschienen die heilsame Gnade Gottes [For the grace of God] (Titus 2:11-14) Scheidt (1587 –?1654)Samuel Scheidt (1587 – 1654) was a German composer who, all so lived and composed during the Thirty Years’ War, and, for a time, was Kappel lmeister to the Margrave of Brandenburg. He is the first German composer to be internationally recognized. He developed the German style of music in response to the Protestant Reformation. Organ works are a major part of his musical contribution.For performances of his music, see:Canzona Bergamasca is a favorite of brass quintetsSuite für Blechbl?serDas Orgelwerk for organ, ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=fvsr with some interesting sound effectsVariations on “Ach, du feiner reiter”Canzon for 4 Trumpets Lully (1632 –?1687)Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632 – 1687) was born in Italy, but became composer in the French court of Louis XIV. He was a chief contributor to what became known as the French Baroque style, rejecting his Italian roots. He developed his musical skills by playing the guitar, instructed by a Franciscan Friar in Italy. Someone recognized his musical talents and took him to France to serve Mademoiselle de Montpensier to do various jobs that she requested and to teach the Italian language. While there, he studied music theory.??Ultimately?she dismissed him?for some indiscreet song he made concerning her. In 1653, he became a dancer in the court of Louis XIV. While there, he composed a ballet, sufficiently?impressive that King Louis?appointed?him the court composer of instrumental music. He is known primarily for his ballets.? One Day, he?was directing the court orchestra with a staff by pounding it on the floor (can you imagine the effect of that?), when he accidentally pounded on his toe. It became became abscessed ultimately resulting in gangrene, which took his life.The behaviors which caused his dismissal by the Mademoiselle continued throughout his life. He was a free spirit and was marked by numerous scandals and relationships with both men and women. It is always remarkable when people of questionable repute, at least in the public eye, produce such beauty. My mother, Xenia Lee Fitz Randolph Wheeler, says that she likes the Bible stories, using as an example, King David, because it tells her that God can use flawed and ordinary people for “His” purposes. I think the same can be said of Lully.Although he is particularly known for introduction of new instruments to the orchestra, his ballets, many of which he danced him him him him self until advanced age, his operas, and music written for comedies of Molière, he also wrote some beautiful sacred music, such as the following:Te Deum Profundis ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=fvwrelGrand Motet – Exaudiat te Dominus ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=relatedDies irae ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=relateMiserere Buxtehude (ca. 1637 –?1707)Dietrich Buxtehude (ca. 1637 – 1707) was a German – Danish organist and composer. He is particularly well known for his organ pieces. He strongly influenced Johan Sebastian Bach and other Baroque composers. While he was yet active in music composition, he organized evening performances, called Abendmusik, or “evening music,” which were held at the church that he served at Marienkirche, Lubeck, Germany.??They were free to the public. These were also attended by many composers, including George Phillip Telemann, George Friedrich Handel and Johan Sebastian Bach.He wrote a significant volume of organ works based upon chorale tunes, choral music, including oratorios, chamber music, choral chorale settings, and chorale fantasies. Much of his music is fugal, that is, much as around, certain melodic material set on the same or different notes that come in at different times before they diverge into new material; consistent with the practice of the time, it also provided places for the organist to improvise based upon material already written, much as a jazz artist might improvise during the 20th century or two day. There typically are two or three fugues within a given piece. Much of his rich in music has been lost, and in some cases, survives only by the transcriptions of an works:Toccata in F MajorPraeludium und Fuge (A moll) BuxWV 153“Passacaglia” BuxWV 161Praeludium in gPraeludium und Fuge (A moll) BuxWV 153Orchestration of his organ work, Chacona en Mi menorChoral works:Jesu meines Lebens LebenLaudate pueri, DominumDas neugeborene KindeleinDer Herr ist mit mirMagnificatInstrumental works:Sonata opus 2 for viol and harpsichordPassacaglia (Bux WV 161)Triosonata Opus 1 no. 3 violin & viola da gambaHenry Purcell (1659 –?1695)Henry Purcell (1659 – 1695) was an English composer who was heavily influenced by Italian and French styles of composition, but his style remained distinctly English. He has been considered the greatest English composer prior to Edward Elgar. Some have claimed that he was composing as young as nine years of age, but, unlike Mozart, none of those childhood compositions remain extant. He wrote songs, and Psalm settings; operas, Dido and Aeneas, The Faerie-Queen, and several musical settings of Shakespearean plays, including the Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest; several less formal operas, called “semi – operas,” or “dramatic operas;” music for the theater; and sacred works for Westminster Abbey.? At the same time that he served Westminster Abbey, he served as organist for the Chapel Royal. He is well-known for?”Trumpet Voluntary,” which has often been played at weddings and anthem and eulogies for Queen II’s funeral; and for the choral piece, “Sound the Trumpet.” He met an untimely death at about 35 years of age. He was buried beside the organ in Westminster Abbey, and the music that he wrote for Queen Mary’s funeral was performed at his own. He was quite prolific given his early death.See,? Abdelazer Suite: II. Rondeau,? HYPERLINK ".??" Britten used the same theme for the variations in his Young People’s Guide to the Orchestra, as performed by the London Symphony and directed by Michael Tilson Thomas, which may be found at Deo in D major (which has many similarities to Sound the Trumpet, belowHear my prayerChrist is made the sure foundationSound the Trumpet uses an interesting repeating ground base over which to counter tenor’s (men who have trained their voices to sing soprano and alto) imitate to lively trumpet parts. Will note that during the Baroque Period the voices treated as an instrument that is with rich, florid passages played by an instrument, including delicate ornamentation’s. You will also note to the characteristic Baroque rhythmic drive.I first became familiar with this piece when I was directing church choirs. The following is similar to that arrangement, but sung by young children:Let mine eyes run down with tears (Jeremiah 14:17-22) ""&HYPERLINK ""utm_medium=emailHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheBibleAsMusic+%28The+Bible+as+Music%29Alessandro Scarlatti (1660 –?1725)Alessandro Scarlatti (1660 – 1725) was a composer of the Baroque era and founder of the Neapolitan school of Opera. The Baroque era is considered to have culminated with the work of Handel and Bach in 1750. Alessandro Scarlatti was representative of the mature Baroque era. He is considered to have bridged the Baroque era and the succeeding Classical era of music. His opera experience certainly influenced his?sacred music, particularly the oratorio. The oratorio also?was dramatic, but without staging and acting, as in opera. A device that he used in both is the recitative, which precedes the aria and introduces its?subject matter gives it setting rather than having great melodic interest in its own right; neither had it?costumes or?stage settings. I understand that it might have included some narration. We will further discuss and demonstrate that in our discussion of Handel and his Messiah.Alessandro Scarlatti also composed upward to 500 chamber sonatas, some of which are included, below.I must say that I am exceptionally grateful for the materials that have been made available through YouTube, which make exceptional performance resources. ?At age 64, as I write this, it is remarkably different from the time in which I grew up, went to school and taught music. What an immense and beautiful resource!!Vocal sacred musicSalve Regina, op. 2 Nr. 10Cieca TalpaThe above link is provided not only because it is sacred music of the Baroque period, but, also, for its sound musical performance, its beauty, particularly that of the vocalist, Roberta Invernizzi, it’s demonstration of the increasing role of instruments in sacred music, its also demonstrates?the impact of instrumental music upon Baroque composition for the human voice, its rhythmic and harmonic drive.At the above site?there is also a comment which, while it may be somewhat critical in its introduction, more articulately and expressively states my own observation, above:Only Alessandro Scarlatti’s talent and intellect could combine such operatic techniques into a sacred work and still produce something lofty and sincere. How much Handel owes this man! Also “strings are not bad either” – not bad for some of the finest baroque musicians in Europe…Salve Regina? HYPERLINK "" had never heard of the name of Roberta Invernizzi until I?located this clip on YouTube of the performance of Cieca Talpa, above. Not only is her performance remarkably beautiful and artistically sound, but it demonstrates, also, the belcanto, or “beautiful singing,” style characteristic of the Baroque era.??The composition has a contrasting section in which Scarlatti uses the human voice as an instrument with immense rhythmic drive. In this case, one can also observe the dramatic contrasts (as in the visual artistic use of chiaroscuro ) and ornamentation, both of which are stylistically?characteristic of the Baroque era.The oratorios:Sedecia, Re Di GerusalemmeThis oratorio has an extensive overture as is common to that form in the later Baroque as is perhaps best recognized in Handel’s Messiah. It is all the more interesting because it features two countertenors and a soprano, including a duet of soprano and counter?tenor.?The above site includes the following tribute, beautiful in its own right:I do not know when this was performed but I am so happy to see the early performance of Philippe Jaroussky when he was a budding new face as a CT. He has shown his extraordinary talent already here. How much he has grown since this performance is really amazing!! His voice stronger, fuller and much more beautiful now. Thank you for this precious video.I also include the following YouTube video post that is entitled, “Cecilia Bartoli – Castrati” I do not know Cecilia Bartoli other than by name, but this clip appears to be the performance of a woman who looks similar to other YouTube videos of Cecilia Bartoli, rather than that of a castrati.A castrati (to be distinguished from the counter tenor) was created by a deforming practice common to the Baroque era,?It also risked Joseph Haydn’s manhood as a choir boy some 150 years later, which would?likely diverted his compositional talents. As with a steer, the body developed a large vocal instrument, the vocal instrument being the entire body, castration during adolescence tended to freeze the vocal cords in their development while permitting the body to mature, preserving the voice at the stage of development when the operation was performed, allowing for remarkably powerful sopranos and altos, depending upon when they underwent the procedure. Besides being a beautiful performance (there are so many available on YouTube, that I fear that “beautiful” or “remarkable” gives none of them justice), the selection below is illustrative of both the Baroque instrumental treatment of the voice and of belcanto singing. I do not even know whether this is Scarlatti, although it seems to be consistent with his style:Instrumental worksThe focus of this series of posts is sacred music of the church. That tends to be liturgical, however in the latter part of the Renaissance instrumental music was increasingly incorporated in sacred music, particularly relating to the Protestant Reformation, and that, first with the organ and then with other instruments. The Gabrieli’s increasingly incorporated instruments in their church music; that increased in the Baroque Period. That increase in the use of instruments during the Baroque Period, also influence the technical use of the human voice as an instrument, both in the intricacies of the line and trills.Concerto for Recorder in A minorI include the Concerto for Recorder both for its music and for the visuals inserted into the video which include photographs of Scarlatti, the instruments of the time, and the settings, historically and currently.Concerto grosso n°2 en ut mineurCello Sonata No.1Philippe Jaroussky, Countertenor, Performing a Number of Baroque?PiecesIn the writing of this Baroque section of liturgical music, for the first time I have come across the name of Philippe Jaroussky. Having discovered him, I have also discovered a wide variety of music and composers that he has performed most impressively. He seems to have focused particularly on the Baroque era, but sings most admirably Medieval and Renaissance music as well. He specializes in the music written for the castrati, and a short but focused article concerning his background, his debut as a countertenor, and audience reactions appears at –with-no-surgical-intervention/2010/02/15/1266082241013.htmlHe deserves more hearing, so I include some of those posts:And for a delightful video humorously dramatizing an audience response to him and the same aria, above, in a setting contemporaneous with George Friedrich Handel, see:And for similar contemporary countertenor portrayals of Baroque castrati performances and audience reaction, see:For a musically sound, humorous and delightful side of him, yet characteristically Baroque style, including some more contemporary music which showcases his artistic flair, see?Francois Couperin (1668 –?1733)Francois Couperin (1668 – 1733), was a composer and organist to Louise XIV. He was also a harpsichordist and published works addressing fingering, ornamentation and other skills of harpsichord performance.The organ had already developed a rather rich history, which he inherited. It was first developed during the Middle Ages and compositions for it bloomed in the Baroque era. The modern pipe organ is quite similar to that which Couperin played and for which he composed. Most people know that the pipe organ produces sounds with a stream of air which flows into and through a pipe. The harpsichord is less familiar to us both by look and by sound. It is the precursor of the modern piano looking similar to it and similarly strung, tuned and arranged upon a wood or metal frame within a curved cabinet; however, rather than the strings being struck with a felt hammer, it’s tone was produced by the action of the keys drawing a moderately flexible plectrum across the string much as a guitarist plucks the strings of the guitar. Harpsichords could have two different keyboards, much as that of the organ, one of which could play soft and another loud. It was commonly used as a solo keyboard instrument or as an accompaniment for voice or instrument.??By the Classical Era (from approximately 1600 – 1750) it was replaced by the pianoforte,?which produces sound from its strung?strings by a felt hammer-actuating a keyboard, as opposed to?plectrum-plucked strings actuated by the harpsichord keyboard.?Couperin published much music for the harpsichord, much of it in “ordres,” which might be a collections of dances or descriptive of a mood, a place, or an action, much as a “suite”in the compositions of Bach. His writing is very much indicative of the influence of the Doctrine of Affections, in which different keys were associated with different moods, and different melodic lines, ornaments and tempos associated with different affects. One characteristic of Baroque music in the Doctrine of Affections is a musical device known as a “sigh” which was a melodic and harmonic device in which the end of a phrase consisted of a dissonance on a strong beat of the measure which was then resolve on a weak beat or weak part of the beat. Moreover, Couperin’s music became so descriptive as to be picturesque with specifically associative titles such as “the mysterious barricades” Jordi Savall, an early – music expert, called him the “poet musician par excellence.” His style and technique of compositions for harpsichord would influence J.S. Bach in his compositions both for harpsichord and for orchestra, which were designated as “suites,” rather than “ordres.” His descriptive music would later be developed by Strauss into even more descriptive tone poems.The Baroque eras a time when musical form developed into richer and more complex forms. Polyphony predominated with its fugues, cannons, and imitative or dialogical interplay of the voices; but composers were also developing more homophonic textures. Much as the liturgical music of the individual parts of the mass developed from individual settings to an artistic grouping of the whole, so, suites, ordres, and other multi-part collections were composed so that not only were the parts were composed with the sense of wholeness standing alone, but they also provided some contrast to maintain the interest while complementing each other. Typically, a three – part form would begin allegro (or fast), followed by a middle section of a slower tempo (such as Largo), and concluded with a final section of a faster tempo. Or, it could begin and end with a slower tempo, with a faster middle section.Not much of his sacred music is extant, but its expressive qualities in that which is available is rich: ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=fvwrel ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related a dramatic cinematic use of a fragment of Couperin’s Tous les Matins du Monde, see: ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=relatedThe following YouTube site presents a video of Michel Chapuis playing an improvisation of ”Prelude et Fugue dans le Stylus Phantasticus.” It would be of particular interest to those who play organ, is preceded for 40 seconds by videos of still photos of the organ on which he plays and its setting within the church, and shows not only his own playing, but the mechanics of operating the bellows, as would’ve been typical in the Baroque era when it was composed and performed: ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=related?Antonio Vivaldi (1678 –?1741)Antonio Vivaldi (1678 – 1741), known as “the red priest” for his red hair, was an Italian composer and violinist, is recognized by some as one of the greatest of the Baroque composers, and criticized by others who consider that because of his characteristic style, he had little originality, and that each major composition tended to be a variation on the patterns of others. Perhaps each position could be analogized to Elton John.Certainly, Vivaldi has become one of the most popular and recorded of the Baroque composers in the 20th century. He is most known for his violin concerto, The Four Seasons, in which he dedicates a movement to each of the seasons – more descriptive music, which was in vogue in the latter Baroque, Classical and Romantic eras. His red hair was sufficiently remarkable that he became known as “the Red Priest.”Much of his music was written specifically for a young girls’ orchestra at an orphanage, which he served for a number of years. He is best known for his instrumental works, particularly, but he also wrote operas and sacred music, including oratorios, contatas and masses. Although his style, to me, is more homophonic, nonetheless it has energetic rhythmic drive, and had a great influence upon Johan Sebastian Bach, who transcribed some of his works for other instruments or groupings.Vivaldi is one of the earliest composers that remains en vogue today. When I taught music in the 70s, my students could relate to Vivaldi’s rhythmic and harmonic drive, because of their familiarity with rock and the melodic qualities of the Beatles. The harmonies are much more familiar to modern audiences because of the old rock classics and modern hymnody.I am amazed at the excellent quality of the videos available on YouTube, generally, and specifically concerning Vivaldi. It reflects his great appeal to performing artists as well as audiences.Following are four laudable performances of Laudamus Te, from Vivaldi’s Gloria in D Major; it seems appropriate that each is performed by young women, and that causes me to wonder if Vivaldi had in mind two of the young women in the orphanage where he served and taught:Florilegium with soprano soloist Elin Manahan Thomas perform sacred works for soprano and orchestra, with nice dialogue between the soloist and the director:From the Gloria in D, Cascade High School Honor Choir in FranceNulla in mundo pax sincera, RV 630Vivaldi – Gloria: 1. Gloria in excelsis Deo – Trevor PinnockVivaldi’s Gloria in its entiretyEnsemble Caprice “The return of the Angels” with insightful comments upon Vivaldi and this music by the director:Stabat Mater RV 621Gaude mater EcclesiaSee Vivaldi and the women of the Pieta – Vivaldi’s Women for an excellent documentary:George Philip Telemann (1681?–1767)George Philip Telemann (1681 –1767) left study of the law to become the most prolific German composer of his time, largely self-taught. He was an acquaintance of both George Friedrich Handel and Johan Sebastian Bach. By age 12, he had composed his first opera.? He also composed poetry, wrote his own libretti, and engraved covers and published his own compositions. His married life was marred by spousal death and debt. His compositional style brought together a number of international musical styles.Last movement of Du aber, Daniel, gehe hinSt. Matthew Passion Aria: “Lass mich mein Teil bei deinem Sterben”Except Singet dem Hernn – Coral del Siglo XXIBrockes Passion – Passion OratorioJan Dismas Zelenka: Miserere IIMatth?us-Passion – Part 1Jean Philippe Rameau (1683?–1764)Jean Philippe Rameau (1683 –1764) was one of the most important French composers and theorists of the Baroque era. He wrote Treatise on Harmony, which was revolutionary for that day. In it, he explores the philosophical underpinnings of music, and its mathematical and scientific foundations, giving musical criticism and pedagogy some objective foci.? He gained notoriety for his departure from what had become conventional harmonies of John-Baptiste Lully?for much more adventurous harmonies, which, in their turn, soon became accepted as convention. He was forgotten until rediscovered in the 20th century.His harmonies are much more familiar to the modern ear, and to my mind, he makes a quantum leap from the past?which he inherited. Having written that, I note that the early 20th century was, itself, a reaction against such harmonies.??Composers were then?criticized for?living in an ivory tower and being inaccessible to the common person. Nonetheless, as modern?”serious music” explored new tonalities or none at all, tone clusters or minimalistic sonorities, some composers turned to the past through primitivism and?neoclassicism.??Concertizing relied upon audience appeal,?so that it tended to turn to music of the past which most related to that which was familiar in our churches and on the airways. One well-known example of such criticism was The Agony of Modern Music by Henry Pleasants.? The listening public of his time, on the other hand,?related to Rameau.Rameau – Motet, In convertendo / Part 1 ( William Christie )Rameau – Motet, In convertendo / Part compositions 2Rameau – Motet, In convertendo / Part 3Beati qui habitantLaboraviDominus virtutumRameau “Les Grands Motets”Laboravi clamans – HerrewegheGrand Motet – Deus noster refugium?Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 –?1750)Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750) was a German composer who wrote in the old polyphonic style, perfecting it. In an age when there was greater travel throughout Europe, and printed music was available, he was greatly influenced by the music of several regions from Italy to Great Britain. I, personally, love his music because, to my ear, it is as a riveting dialogue between individual voices:?declaring, asserting, responding, imitating, inverting, countering, and?ultimately resolving in solidarity and repose. He was a numerologist.? Many experts see significance of certain numbers in his compositions.? Some find significant musical moments at numerically significant?points in?his music.Bach wrote during a time?when keyboard tuning became “well tempered:” if the division of an octave into separate steps and half steps is strictly mathematical, there are some keys that will sound good and others that will sound out of tune or conflicting. It was discovered that if the keyboard?was tuned slightly out of tune, then all keys would sound “the same.”??Piano tuners know that they have tuned the notes “perfectly,” or sufficiently out of tune, when they can play?two differently pitched notes?which?create “beats,” much as interference pattern of waves created by casting two stones in water.? Bach demonstrated this new value of this method of tuning in his Well Tempered Clavier, which systematically explored each of the keys for various numbers of “voices,” or parts.He is known for a common inscription on his music manuscripts, roughly meaning “to the glory of God and edification of the soul.”? To my mind, Bach’s?music has a?strong spiritual component reflecting that dedication of all his music, both sacred and secular.He was also an organist and served a Lutheran church, St. Thomas, writing one cantata each week for church services. In his “spare time”?he wrote secular music, one of the most popular sets being the Brandenburg Concertos.? Whatever he composed had a contextual relationship with a set, such as Preludes and Fugues in each key, Inventions for keyboard in each key, a set of unaccompanied sonatas for violin and another set for cello.? I suspect that thoroughness was another expression of?his fascination with numerology.Among his most impressive works is the oratorio, St. Matthew Passion. I understand that?it was not so much intended for performance?as to demonstrate his skills, in hopes?of obtaining?a better position than that which he enjoyed at St Thomas. It is immense in scope and its demands for?resources and?for?audience endurance.??The following YouTube post is exemplary of Bach’s beauty, skill and power’ his?sensitivity, even intimacy:Organ Toccata e Fuga BWV 565-Karl RichterDavid Garrett – popular interpretation of Air on the G stringWachet auf – Strathmere Festival Orchestra – Blanche Moyse Choraleorgan: Wachet auf, ruft uns die StimmeJ.S. Bach Magnificat Ton Koopman BWV 243Motet BWV 227 ‘Jesu, meine Freude’ – Vocalconsort BerlinMotet BWV 229 ‘Komm, Jesu, komm’ – Vocalconsort BerlinBrandenburg Concertos,?George Friedrich Handel (1685 –?1759)As Handel began his study of law, he was appointed as organist at a German Cathedral. He traveled to Italy, where, for a time, he composed sacred music. There, he wrote a number of operas, cantatas and oratorios, gaining some significant fame as a composer. In 1710 he moved to London to become Kapelmeister to King George I of Great Britain and Ireland. There he wrote operas in the Italian style, which was then en vogue, for audiences of aristocrats and royalty. He established three opera companies, but it seemed that his music was secondary in audience appeal to the popularity of the vocalists.When he was nearly blind, yet within 23 days, he wrote Messiah for the benefit of the Foundling Hospital.For a BBC documentary in five parts of his life and contributions, seeHallelujah – Choir of King’s College, Cambridge – AmenSolomonOverture from SolomonMaking of SamsonIsrael in Egypt — SERAPHIC FIRE Power of?RhythmI had mentioned with the Introduction of the Baroque Era not only its harmonic development from the Renaissance, but also its rhythmic drive. One of the characteristic devices that developed and became common by the end of the Baroque is the rhythmic “hemiola.”Whereas chant melodies simply followed the declamation of the text, the Baroque era organized the rhythm into repeating patterns. Hemiola was a way to stretch out those patterns, essentially defying the natural metric design, creating interest and a sense of drama. Rhythm is the heartbeat of music. When we are surprised we speak of our heart skipping a beat. That is somewhat the traumatic, thickening effect of hemiola.Hemiola played upon the established metric order, such as repeated groupings per measure of twos (2/4), threes (3/4 or 3/8), or fors (4/4), and then gave you something you were not expecting by superimposing a different grouping within the same meter so as to suggest a different meter than the dominant one. Not only did it provide some variety, but was often used to emphasize the words or to build some tension or excitement before a major cadence, much as good theater.Handel oftentimes uses the device to emphasize a text. Typically, such devices are used toward the end of phrases to thicken the texture, stretch out the rhythmic organization as it created harmonic tension before finally resolving into the tonic chord (or “home”). Messiah is full of them. Sometimes the hemiola is suggested by the natural rhythm of the speech patterns of the lyrics. Sometimes, as Handel uses it, the hemiola is obvious because all of the parts are organized such as to reinforce each other. Sometimes, however, it is not so obvious and remains hidden within the fabric of the dominant meter. When Handel uses it in Messiah, it is used to support the text. Here are a few examples:And the Glory of the Lord – “shall be redeemed” is introduced in 3/4 time, but upon its final utterance within that phrase section, it is augmented to half notes, themselves being organized in a group of four before it leaps back into 3/4:As I perceive the musical setting of the text from “I know that my Redeemer Liveth,” “he shall stand at the latter ‘day upon the earth’,” that section. The aria is in 3/4 time. The above text is introduced in that same meter, but the penultimate presentation of it within that part is augmented from quarter note beats or pulses to half note pulses organized in 4/2, stretching out that same text. To further heighten the drama, the first violin part remains in 3/4 time as the bass follows and reinforces the declamation of the lyrics:A wonderful example of hemiola is provided by Mozart in his Divertimento in E-Flat. One cannot miss the hemiola because although the pieces written in 34 time, it opens with the hemiola and then re-Kersey each time that theme returns:In His Fourth Symphony, Third Movement, Tchaikovsky plays the coquettish, constantly shifting pattern of a meter of 5/4, within which he groups beats in 2+3, 3+2, 2+3, 3+2. The fact that one expects a group of to be followed by a group of two, then a group of three with a group 3, builds an expectation which unifies the piece. It feels almost like a waltz, but not quite. In the middle of that section, there is a contrasting section melodically, harmonically, and rhythmically in which the pace seems to rest for a moment, yet by the repetition of the same pattern and grouping of 2+3, 2+3, 2+3 becomes restless by insistence, preparing the listener to the return of that alternating pattern and melody which we were first introduced.Bernstein’s” America” from West Side Story plays with a similar concept except that it alternates measures of 6/8 and 3/4 patterns throughout the entire piece, using it as a unifying, yet driving and dynamically ecstatic device from beginning to end.In “Take Five” Dave Brubeck also uses a 5/4 meter, but, throughout, maintains the grouping of 3+2 which gives it a jazzy relentless drive.To explore concepts of rhythmic structure on a larger scale within a musical composition, I recommend The Rhythmic Structure of Music by Cooper and MeyerFranz Joseph Haydn (1732 –?1809)Franz Joseph Haydn was born before the deaths of?Bach and Handel. The Baroque era, generally reflected the manner?and tastes of monarchical and aristocratic society.? It?was highly embellished, harmonically organized and progressive with its characteristic circle of fifths, stately, formal, harmonically driven and its dynamics were? terraced. In the rococo period, embellishment lost its formality and stateliness and became mere frills. It did, however make a significant contribution at Mannheim. There, rather than dynamics in terraces, the “Mannheim crescendo” was introduced.Franz Joseph Haydn (1732 – 1809) was born to a wheelwright and his wife in the small Austrian town of Rohrau. His family was financially poor but musically rich in heritage and environment. His parents recognized his musical talents by age 6. Rohrau offered few opportunities to develop that talent, so they made arrangements with a relative, Johann Matthias Frankh, who was a choirmaster in nearby Hainburg, to take Franz Joseph as an apprentice for musical training.??Franz Joseph lived with him and sang in his choir. There, Karl Georg Reutter, a choirmaster in Vienna, discovered him and his extraordinary voice. Reutter took him to Vienna, where Franz Joseph sang in his choir. As Franz Joseph’s voice was about to change, Reutter made plans that he be castrated to preserve his voiceas a castrati. However, his father learned of, and foiled, the plan.When at age 15 his voice did change, he could no longer sing in the choir.??He then began to compose music.?Soon, he became well known as a composer and was employed by the Eszterhazy Palace.??He was?one of the last composers to be employed in the patronage system. He wrote an opera, Orlando Palladino, for which he was best known during his lifetime. At Eszterhazy he developed the musical form called the sonata allegro form, in which a theme is stated, followed by a secondary theme, usually?contrasting with the primary theme; there is a middle developmental section in which the themes are broken apart into primary pieces, which are repeated and varied; and?a final section as a recapitulation. For an excellent graphic representation of the form, see ""&HYPERLINK ""hl=enHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""tbo=uHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""tbm=ischHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""source=univHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""sa=XHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""ei=w_erUODrEMfyyAGn3IDYCwHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""ved=0CDQQsAQHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""biw=1103HYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""bih=593 .The sonata allegro form permitted the development of new extended sections of music, and Haydn used and developed that form to become known as “Papa Haydn,” composer of both the string quartet and the symphony. One of his more popular symphonies is the “Surprise Symphony.”He married, but, given the instability of his childhood as he was moved from place to place, and not surprisingly with what we now know of bonding and attachment disorders, that marriage failed and they separated. It did not help that he married the sister of the woman that he really loved.Haydn also wrote sacred music, including oratorio (e.g. The Creation), and the mass (e.g. the Nelson Mass). He was a close friend Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was 24 years his junior, and who died 19 years before his own death. He made two visits to London in the 1790s which influenced his “London period.”Oratorios:The Seven Last Words of Christ – in three parts:The seven last words of Christ – instrumental versionThe Creation ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=fvsr – part one – part two – part three ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=relmfu – part four ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=fvsr – part fiveMasses:Nelson MassWolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 –?1791)Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791) is known to the world as the child piano prodigy? who was exploited by his father at age 5, entertaining royalty throughout Europe. He is also said to have been prodigious on violin and composing at the age of five.Although he was to compose for only the next 30 years, his output is also prodigious.? Despite his popularity, he died a pauper.??The circumstances surrounding his death are mysterious in that he was commissioned by a?an unknown person to?write a Requiem Mass for the dead.? He had not finished before he died, but he was able to?instruct a student to complete the task after his death.???Leaving no fund even for burial, he was buried in a common grave with other “un-notable commoners,”?at an unidentified site.? There is little evidence to justify the notion of his rivalry with Salieri, a contemporary composer, but?the movie in the latter part of the 20th century, Amadeus, suggests the rivalry as part of the mystery surrounding Mozart’s death.Besides his numerous symphonies, operas, piano concerto’s and piano sonatas, he also wrote a number of masses. He was well-known,? for “Ave Verum Corpus.” a?favorite of church choirs at least in the mid-20th century.Ave Verum CorpusLaudamus te – Renée FlemingEt incarnatus est – Sandrine PiauMagnificatGreat Mass in C MinorMisa brevis en Do Mayor KV 220 – Kyrie y GloriaExsultate JubilateKathleen Battle:Alleluja from Exsultate Jubilate -Cecilia Bartoli:Requiem K 626 Latin MassLudwig van Beethoven (1770-?1877)Perhaps his best-known sacred music are the Missa Solemnis and Christ on the Mount of Olives.Beethoven “Missa Solemnis” DVD trailer narrated Solemnis – John Nelson, narrator Solemnis Benedictus ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=relatedMissa Solemnis – Sir Colin Davis ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=fvwrel ""&HYPERLINK ""feature=fvwrelChrist on the Mount of Olives“Hallelujah Chorus” from Christ on the Mount of Olives in C MajorKyrie Rossini (1792 –?1868)Gioachino Rossini (1792 – 1868) was an Italian composer, particularly known for his operas, but also for his sacred and chamber music. He was born into a musical family: his father inspected slaughterhouses and was a horn player, and his mother was a singer. His father supported Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of Northern Italy, but when Napoleon was defeated, his father was imprisoned for a year.By age 10, Rossini was composing for his own version of a string quartet: two violins, a cello, and a double bass. He learned much by scoring the quartets and symphonies of Haydn and Mozart,?becoming known as “the little German.” He was early recognized as a composer of Italian opera, perhaps best known for his opera, the Barber of Seville, and his William Tell Overture. He was one of the first composers to earn a good living apart from the patronage system, and he enjoyed some freedom of movement and production throughout Europe.? He was known, not only from his mellifluous musical style, but also as a gourmet chef, “a la Rossini.”Stabat Mater – complete“Agnus Dei” from Stabat Mater“Amen” from Stabat MaterPetite Messe Solennelle (Little Solemn Mass)“Crucifixus” from his Petite Messe Petite Messe Solennelle ChaillyAndrea Bocelli – ”Domine” – Deus Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle?Franz Schubert (1797 –?1828)His father was a well-respected educator with limited musical training, but sufficiently acquainted with musical composition and skilled to prepare his son for musical composition and string experience, beginning at age 5. Franz was early influenced by the melodious music of Mozart, and one can see that influence in his own music. Coming from a poor family, and?being, himself,?without financial means until much later in his short life, he was supplied manuscript paper by his friend, Joseph von Spaun. When I was studying music, he was considered willing to set any low quality of poetry to much superior music. He is reported to have claimed that he composed each morning, and when that piece was done, he immediately undertook another. In his last two years of life, as though portending his own death, his compositions became dark, even morose, such as Death and the Maiden. Officially his death was attributed to typhoid fever.Of his sacred music, perhaps he is best known for his setting of Ave Maria:Mass in GI am particularly fond of the recordings of?his Mass in G. When I was living in Ord, Nebraska, I directed the choir of the United Methodist Church there. This mass is quite appealing and is within the reach of most well-prepared local choirs. My older children were then taking Suzuki violin lessons from Mischa Johnson, wife of Jim Johnson, who then directed the Hastings Symphony. I asked Jim?to put together a string quartet to accompany the choir in a performance of this mass, which he did. It was exciting to be able to bring such beautiful music to that small city in rural Nebraska .I found that if I was going to live in rural Nebraska and yet enjoy good music I would have to gather the resources and do it myself.?? Additionally, I have found that small church choirs can appreciate and perform good music and don’t have to feed on a “watered- down diet.”? Thereafter, I organized other choral productions with professional instrumental accompaniment and participation, including two different performances of Britten’s Ceremony of Carols with professional harpist, Harvey Griffin; and three performances of Messiah with small orchestras from the Hastings Symphony, in the last of which Jane Bunnell, contralto with the Metropolitan Opera, and her husband, bassist Mark Embree, who was born and reared locally in the Nebraska sandhill, were soloists.But, I am particularly drawn to the Benedictus of the Mass in G./KyrieAgnus DeiSanctus-BenedictusI especially appreciate the following sensitive, perhaps even sensual in the most naively positive sense, performance of the Credo by the Ocean Springs High School Choir and the string orchestra from the University of Southern Mississippi. I don’t know the conductor, but I like very much her interpretation and her direction:/Here is a laudable performance of the complete Mass in G in two parts, performed by the University of Michigan Residential College Singers: Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini (1801?–1835)Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini (1801 –1835) was one of many Italian opera composers who culminated an era of which “belcanto,” or “beautiful singing” was the rage. He was born in Catania, Sicily to a family of rich musical heritage. He, like so many composers of the age, was also a child prodigy, reputed to have been able to sing an aria at 18 months of age, to begin studying theory at two, the piano at three and playing well at five years of age. He is said to have composed five musical pieces by the time that he was six years of age. Whatever the truth of these claims, it is clear that his musical prowess was recognized at an early age, as was Mozart. When he was age 21, he studied at the conservatory in Naples, Italy where he studied the style there prevalent and the orchestral works of Haydn and Mozart. There, he wrote his first opera. His primary contributions to music are his operas, among which Norma and I Puritani may be the best known.Whereas he is primarily known for his operas, he also made significant contribution to the related genre of liturgical music, particularly the Mass, among which are his Mass in D Major, Mass in A Major, and Mass in G Minor.Petite Messe Solennelle Chailly in A minor – VI. Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris Messe Solennelle (Sanctus) Dei – Petite Messe Solennelle Messe Solennelle (Agnus Dei) Messe Solennelle – (Agnus Dei) from Petite Messe Solennelle in A: (Laudamus Te)Ave Maria Mendelssohn (1809 –?1847)Felix Mendelssohn (1809 – 1847) was a German composer of the Romantic era. Like Mozart, he was a child prodigy, but, unlike Mozart, his parents did not exploit that;?rather, they?encouraged him to be a child when he was a child. His mother, an amateur pianist, was his first piano teacher. His grandfather was the philosopher, Moses Mendelssohn, and his father, Abraham, was a banker. His father, a Jew, renounced the Jewish religion. Felix later embraced Christianity and became a Lutheran. He was very close to his sister, Fanny, who was also a great composer but, like Mozart’s sister, did not get the attention she deserved, that being?focused only upon Felix. He died young, as did Mozart. He championed the music of J.S. Bach, which was generally overlooked during Bach’s lifetime. He was very much influenced by Bach and by his contrapuntal style (see the organ fugue, below). To my ear, his music often bears stylistic resemblance to that of Mozart. He was a contemporary of Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner.Heilig – “Sacred Motet”“Verleih uns Frieden”CONCORSO MUSICA SACRA 2008 – SACRED MUSIC INT.L COMPETITION – Mendelssohn“If With All Your Hearts”, from Elijah“Lift Thine Eyes,”?from Elijah SSA choirCoro y Orq. Via Magna, Salmo 42 “Lobgesang” op.52, Symphony in B FlatOrganFugue in G Major, Opus 37, no. 2Orgelsonate III A-Dur,Happy and Blest Are They from St. Paul- Mormon Tabernacle ChoirThe 5 Psalm Cantatas, for mixed choir, solists and orchestraFor a fitting tribute to Felix Mendelssohn, see:Requiem for Fanny (Felix Mendelssohn) COMPLETERequiem for Fanny recreates the world of Felix Mendelssohn, to the musical accompaniment of his beautiful String Quartet No. 2. In a period setting, actors and dancers perform around and about the musicians, evoking the composer’s happy childhood and sophisticated milieu, as well as his close relationship with Goethe and his symbiotic relationship with his sister Fanny, herself a major composer.Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (1797 –?1848)Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (1797 – 1848) was roughly contemporary with Rossini and Bellini, and was also a composer of operas in the belcanto style. He wrote in both Italian and French. Among his best-known operas are The Elixir of Love, Lucia diLammermoor, Don Pasquale and Daughter of the Regiment.As with Rossini and Bellini, he is best known for his operas, but he also wrote liturgical music, primarily the Mass.Messa di Requiem (complete)“Requiem” – IngemiscoCompare his operatic style as in the following performance of Lucia di Lammermoor – “Mad Scene”I am particularly fond of Beverly Sills’ performance of the aria, because I was singing in the chorus of Opera Omaha when Beverly Sills performed this opera with us.? I stood at the foot of the staircase as she descended singing the mad scene.? When she took the last?step down, the chorus had an entrance.? In each performance, as she took that last step, she looked me, I froze.? Each time,?I was so stunned that she would look at me that I missed the entrance.? She was the most humble and gracious of the principals who sang with us.I am also partial to the Sextet of Lucia di Lammermoor: Fleming and Pavarotti, performing:Charles-Camille Saint-Sa?ns (1835?–1921)Charles-Camille Saint-Sa?ns (1835 –1921) was a French composer, organist, pianist, poet and playwright. He wrote extensively in a wide range of genre. As with some prophets, he was better known?and respected abroad than in France, his home. His creative output occurred earlier in life, when he was?prone to depression.Oratorio de NoêlOratorio de No?l: Tecum principiumChristmas OratorioPerformed by Unknown Choir In Three PartsThe Entire Oratorio Performed by the Chicago Chamber Choir“Ave Verum CorpusTollite Hostias (et adorate)Requiem, Op.54Organ WorksTu es Petrus“PRELUDEOrgan Symphony“Finale”?Tchaikovsky (1840 –?1893)Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 – 1893) was a Russian composer of symphonies, concertos, operas,?and chamber music. He remains a favorite of audiences. He is lesser known for his choral settings of the Russian Orthodox Divine Liturgy. His career began as a civil servant, but he received a Western musical education at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He attempted to?wed his Western education to his Russian folk roots. Folk purists might find fault with that effort, but from a Western perspective, his music is a culmination of Romanticism, steeped in?folk heritage.His music is well known and much loved. He tried marriage so that he might appear to be of “normal” sexuality, but that was a disaster. He wrote to his brother concerning it:There is no doubt that for some months on and I was a bit insane and only now, when I’m completely recovered, have I learned to relate objectively to everything which I did during my brief insanity. That man who in May took it into his head to marry Antonina Ivanova, who during June wrote a whole opera as though nothing had happened, who in July married, who in September fled from his wife, who in November railed at Rome and so on – that man wasn’t I, but another, Pyotr Ilyich.He was dogged with depression throughout his life. Yet his music is beautiful and much loved. Few would suspect, for example, that the Nut Cracker uite arose from such turmoil.Liturgy of Saint John ChrysostomLiturgy. Fragments. Vladimir Miller basso profundo“Hymn of the Cherubim9 Sacred Pieces No. 1 – Cherubic Hymn 19 Sacred Pieces No. 4 – To Thee We Sing9 Sacred Pieces No. 5 – It is truly meet9 Sacred Pieces No 6 – Lord’s Prayer9 Sacred Pieces No. 7 – Blesssed are they whom Thou hast chosen9 Sacred Pieces No. 8 – Let my prayer arise9 Sacred Pieces No. 9 – Now the powers of HeavenMale Choir of St. Petersburg: “The Lord’s Prayer” of the Cherubim – USSR Ministry Of Culture Chamber Choir?Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (1813?–1901)Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (1813 –1901) represents the height of Romantic?Italian opera. He probably is best known for his operas, La Traviata and Aida. He a wrote a Requiem Mass, which benefits greatly from his theatrical experience, and a few other smaller sacred pieces. It is?so theatrical and popular that there seems to be more YouTube videos of great performances of this mass than any other that I have researched to this point.RequiemBBC Prom 13 -BBC documentary , discussing the theatricality of the Requiem which threatened to lose official church sanction, and his inclusion of women that had to be hidden to obtain that sanctionPerformance with Margaret Price, Jessye Norman, José Carreras, Ruggero Raimondi, and Claudia AbadoPerformance with Karajan conducting La Scala Orchestra and Chorus of MilanPerformance with Leontyne Price, Fiorenza Cossoto, Luciano Pavarotti, Nikolai Ghiaurov“Dies Irae” from Requiem, conducted by Leonard BernsteinVerdi: Requiem-Bernstein-Arroyo-Veasey-Domingo-R.Raimondi?Gabriel Urbain Fauré (1845?–1924)Gabriel Urbain Fauré (1845 –1924) was a French composer, organist and teacher. He had great impact on French music and 20th-century composers. At age 9, he attended a music Institute in Paris, where he was trained to become an organist and choirmaster. He earned his living by teaching and playing organ and often had little time to compose. As a result, much of his music was composed later in his life, when he had earned some security to permit it.Fauré is considered to be a bridge the Romantic?era with the 20th century style, then known as Modernism.Requiem, op.48Requiem – Libera me, In Paradisum -?Pavel Grigorievich Chesnokov (1877 –?1944)Pavel Grigorievich Chesnokov (1877 – 1944) was a Russian composer devoted to choral works, mostly sacred works for the Russian Orthodox Church. He is most known in sacred choral literature as the composer of “Salvation Is Created and of “Old Lord God.” ?Salvation Is Created” is particularly interesting to me because it can be used effectively to celebrate Christmas, a time when Christians celebrate? Jesus’ birth “to bring salvation;” and it also can be appropriate for Easter, a time in which Christians celebrate Jesus’ “death and resurrection.”“Salvation is Created“O Lord God”?Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini (1858 –?1924)Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini (1858 – 1924) is the greatest opera composer in the Italian style to follow Verdi, developing his own Realistic style. He is perhaps best known for Madame Butterfly, La Bohème and Tosca. As with his predecessor, Verdi, Puccini’s sacred music benefits greatly from his opera experience. However, his sacred works don’t begin to challenge the special place in liturgical music possessed by Verdi’s Requiem.Messa di Gloria from Puccini’s Messa di GloriaREQUIEM?187Skip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to primary sidebarSkip to secondary sidebarSkip to footerLeos Janecek (1854 –?1928)Leos Janecek (1854 – 1928) was a Czechoslovakian composer and music theorist who was inspired by his native Slavic and Moravian folk music. He was also influenced by the music of Antonin Dvorak who, himself, was influenced by folk music not only of his homeland, but of other places that he lived, including America. Janecek used?local folk?melodies to develop his own original musical style.Although best known for his orchestral and piano compositions, he also wrote choral music. He is best known in liturgical music for his Glagolitic Mass, or, Slavonic Mass for soloists, double choir, organ and orchestra, completed in 1926. It is based upon?an Old Church Slavonic text, which differs from the Roman Catholic mass by omitting the “Dona nobis pacem.”Janá?ek was a strong supporter of pan-Slavism, and this mass has been viewed as a celebration of Slavic culture.Glagolitic Mass [1/8]Glagolitic Mass [2/8]Glagolitic Mass [3/8]Glagolitic Mass [4/8]Glagolitic Mass [5/8]Glagolitic Mass [6/8]Glagolitic Mass [7/8]Glagolitic Mass [8/8]For a beautiful example of a contemporary of Janacek, see Beati quorum via integra est [How blessed are faithful souls which undefiled are] (Psalm 119:1) – Charles Villiers Stanford?at ""&HYPERLINK ""utm_medium=emailHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheBibleAsMusic+%28The+Bible+as+Music%29HYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""utm_content=Yahoo%21+Mail?Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 –?1958)Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 –1958) was an English composer not only of symphonies, chamber music, opera and choral music, but also of film scores. During this era, many?composers were collecting folksongs of their native regions.? Vaughan Williams did likewise.??It?strongly influenced his arrangements and settings of hymn tunes and other larger?composition. The conductor, Stokowski, introduced Vaughan Williams to the American audiences, performing each of his six symphonies. He was a fellow student of Gustav Holst, who was perhaps best known for his orchestral suite, The Planets.Perhaps he is best known in the Protestant churches for his composition of “For All the Saints:”a cappella performance:with organ accompaniment: he will tellwith orchestra and organ accompaniment:Here’s a fascinating interpretation and transformation of the melody and choral parts:His Mass in G Minor:?Zoltán Kodály (1882 –?1967)Zoltán Kodály (1882 – 1967) was a Hungarian composer who, also, was?fascinated with the folk music of his country. Early in the 20th century he traveled throughout Hungary, visiting villages, and recording?their folk music?on recording equipment then available: the phonograph cylinder, precursor to the phonograph flat “record.”???He was a contemporary of Béla Bartok, and they collaborated in their studies of their native folksong, and the compositions of each reflect that.Kodaly was influential in the development of music education in his country. His method became known as the ” Kodály Method,” which was highly esteemed and adopted in music education of a number of different countries, including the United States.He wrote a couple of operas and a significant number of orchestral pieces. His best known religious music was Psalmus Hungaricus.Psalmus HungaricusFrancis Poulenc (1899 –?1963)Francis Poulenc (1899 – 1963) was born in Paris. His mother was an amateur pianist, who first taught him to play piano. He was introduced to the music of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel by a Spanish pianist friend, Riccardi Vi?es.? He also was introduced to a bookshop, the Maison des Amis des Livres, where, he met a number of avant-garde poets, whose poetry became a source of lyrics for various of his songs. In those early years, he was heavily influenced by the music of Debussy, Satie, Chabrie and Stravinsky, who, at that time, were considered among the members of “The Six,” a group of then popular French and French influenced composers. Stravinsky became a champion of Poulenc’s early music.Seeking solace after the tragic deaths of a number of his friends, including?fellow composer, Pierre- Octave Ferroud, in 1935, he retreated to?a monastic Benedictine community, high in the mountains overlooking a tributary of the River Dordogne. There he had a life-changing spiritual experience, which led to his composition of a number of sacred choral works in a more mature, less flippant style.During the Second World War, he joined the “Comité de Front National des Musiciens,” associated with the French Communist Party, and the French Resistance. He wrote for the piano, opera, ballet, orchestra, and instrumental chamber music (he was especially fond of wind instruments), including music for two pianos, film music, song cycles for solo voice, chansons, cantatas and other religious posers of the early 20th Century rebelled against what was considered to be the culmination and excesses of traditional, or “classical” music in late Romanticism, resulting in several waves?anarchical muical experiments, including atonalism, aleatoric?(or chance) music, music for “prepared piano” of John Cage (in which the strings of the piano are prepared with various devices to alter the normal, hammer driven, sounds, and the strings were activated by direct contact with fingers or other objects, resulting, toward the end Poulenc’s life, in further reaction to the resulting musical chaos in Minimalism. Through that time, Poulenc’s music remained fundamentally tonal, although he did experiment with some later works in 12-tone rows, or atonalism. Nonetheless, lyricism?remained a mark of his music.Gloria – IV. Domine filiUWL Choral UnionGloria 1Gloria 2Gloria 3Gloria 4Laudamus teQui Sedes Ad Dexteram Patris?Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (1882 –?1971)Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (1882 – 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who later composed in France and the United States, as well. His compositional style was first developed in his “Russian phase,”?when he pushed the bounds of music through his neoclassical phase. His ballet, ?Rites of Spring in Paris, shocked?its Parisian?audience and stirred a riot of sorts. Indeed, the subject of the ballet was, itself shocking:?it portrays a primitive spring rite?in which a virgin is prepared and sacrificed, hardly a common subject of prior music. Music pounds and is jarring as it whips up a feverish atmosphere which, according the audience, might be appropriate in the forest, but inappropriate?to the?concert hall. That was one of the early negative audience reactions?to “modern music,”? which defied many of the rules and assumptions of Romantic Era music which continued as the foundation of popular music, familiar to the public throughout the 20th century, Stravinsky certainly was revolutionary; but to say so risks understatement.Symphony of PsalmsNU Chorale & Symphonic Wind Ensemble April 21, 2007Pt 1Pt 2PortionsNU Chorale & Symphonic Wind Ensemble March 4, 20072/21st mvt2nd mvt3rd mvt1/22/2MassPart (1/2)Mass (2/2)KyrieGloriaCredoAgnus DeiRequiem Canticlespart 1/2part 2/2?Arthur Honegger:?(1892–1955)Symphony #3 “Liturgique” – I “Dies Irae” Allegro marcatoLa Danse des Morts (The Dance Of The Dead) PArt1IntradaFugue and Chorale for Organ“Cantate de Noel”Part 1 of 3Part 2 of 3Part 3 of 3Not liturgical, but . . .Jeanne d’Arc au B?cher II, 2/ -Cantique de P?quesJudith Bernstein (1918?–1990)He was one of the first American composers born and trained in the United States. Perhaps his best-known music is the musical, West Side Story. He was also well known as a pianist and a lecturer, He was one of the first conductors to perform the work of Charles Ives, who had composed some 50 years earlier.A Jew, he is perhaps best known in liturgical music for his Mass.Bernstein Mass – Interview with Marin Alsop“Sanctus-Agnus Dei-Things Get Broken-Secret Songs”Things Get Broken -Lords PrayerSimple SongGospel-Sermon: “God Said”“Epistle”“Sanctus”“Qui tollis peccata mundi”See, also,? Note/Sacred Harp?SingingI am aware that there is what I would call a folk tradition of religious music with a unique style of singing, called Shaped Note – Sacred Harp Singing. Historically, both whites and blacks have sung in that tradition and maintain it yet today.This is another area in which I am not familiar with the practices and I would welcome any contributions from those that are familiar with it.American Protestant Hymnody – Charles?WesleyMany American musical traditions and hymns were inherited from the British Isles, from the Lutherans and their chorales. John Wesley founded the Methodist church and established it in the United States. His brother, Charles contributed greatly to that effort in his composition of many hymns. In the latter part of the 19th century and early part of the 20th, many hymns took tunes from popular music of that time, such as the love songs. Some examples are “Oh How I Love Jesus” and “in the garden.”I intend to return to this particular post and expanded, with recorded examples. I also welcome any contributions to the subject.The Contribution and Influence of Black Song and?DanceUntil now, I have focused on the formal Western arts, which, quite frankly, is that of “elite, white Europeans.” However, in the United States blacks have contributed musical forms that were influenced by those arts, but which they reshaped and transformed through their experiences and expressive responses both as slaves and as “a free people” in the United States. We often see its melismatic and rhythmic influence in various renditions of the national anthem of the United States over the last 20 to 30 years. But, its influence is far more pervasive and profound than that. In this post we will consider early black music through its unique expressions of spirituals, work songs, shouts and otherwise indigenous music arising in black culture in the United States. In a subsequent post I will address their contributions of jazz and its stylistic expression in religious music.Black slaves, captured from throughout Africa and sold in the Colonies in the New World, would have brought with them their own individual cultural heritages from Africa, being captured from different tribes, the traditions of which would have been mixed with those of other tribes. American society, being predominantly Christian, acculturated the slaves to that belief system, its practices and its culture. However, living apart from white society and under great oppression, both physically and emotionally pained, brutalized, separated, and isolated, it was natural that they would adapt their experience of their white “masters’” religion to their own experiences. The melodies and rhythms of their spirituals and gospel songs arising from the cultural milieu of their “owners,” their inheritances through practice and oral tradition, and their shared experiences of slavery, all contribed to their own unique culture and music. As their cultural environment on the plantations changed, as did their experiences of freedom as well as segregation, so, too, did their culture, music, dance, and graphic arts. Music, being a “universal language” and requiring no materials other than a voice or a stick to pound out a rhythm on any sonorous object that might be found, even one’s hands, was most available of any of the arts to the black slaves. Moreover, not only did they live in their own communal settings, but they worked together with other slaves throughout the day. Likely, as individuals find humming natural, joyful or consoling, moaning or delighting, this time together both in their labors and in their limited areas and times of respite, it would be natural not only that individuals might find comfort from their own struggles and pain, through music, but that others, who either shared in those feelings or were sympathetic to them, might join them. Music was spontaneous, both individually and communally.See for the following description of early black music and its development:Frederick Douglass, a former slave wrote, “I did not, when a slave, fully understand the deep meaning of those rude and apparently incoherent songs. I was, myself, within the circle, so that I could then neither hear nor see as those without might see and hear. They breathed the prayer and complaint of souls overflowing with the bitterest anguish. They depressed my spirits and filled my heart with ineffable sadness…The remark in the olden time was not unfrequently made, that slaves were the most contented and happy laborers in the world, and their dancing and singing were referred to in proof of this alleged fact; but it was a great mistake to suppose them happy because they sometimes made those joyful noises. The songs of the slaves represented their sorrows, rather than their joys. Like tears, they were a relief to aching hearts.” In song, lyrics about the Exodus were a metaphor for freedom from slavery.Songs like “Steal Away (to Jesus)”, or “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” raised unexpectedly in a dusty field, or sung softly in the dark of night, signaled that the coast was clear and the time to escape had come. The River Jordan became the Ohio River, or the Mississippi, or another body of water that had to be crossed on the journey to freedom. “Wade in the Water” contained explicit instructions to fugitive slaves on how to avoid capture and the route to take to successfully make their way to freedom. Leaving dry land and taking to the water was a common strategy to throw pursuing bloodhounds off one’s trail. “The Gospel Train”, and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” all contained veiled references to the Underground Railroad, and “Follow the Drinking Gourd” contained a coded map to the Underground Railroad. The title itself was an Africanized reference to the Big Dipper, which pointed the way to the North Star and freedom.The above – referenced site also has available recordings of performances of black music from 1926 to the 70s.See for resources that one can click on to explore songs, history, singers, composers, and over 200 traditional spirituals, including books and recordings.Some slaves were permitted to attend the churches of their “masters.” My father served the First Hopkinton Seventh Day Baptist Church in Ashaway, Rhode Island for eighteen years from 1959. Our first year there marked the celebration of its 250th anniversary. Although American society generally considers the history of the slaves to be that of the South, nonetheless, early in that history of trading in human flesh the North also took advantage of it. The sanctuary of our church had a horseshoe shaped balcony with two rows of straight back benches, to which, as I understood it, the slaves were confined. It would not have been unusual for slaves to accompany their masters, although strict segregation would likely have been observed. There were several religious “awakenings” in American history when religious fervor swept the country or areas of the country. The Negro slaves likewise had their own awakening in the early part of the 19th Century. It may have been in addition to their peripheral experience of dominant white culture’s religion, or it might have been their own spontaneous gatherings as influenced by that religion. Many, perhaps most, not being literate, and having little or no opportunity for education, would not have been able to read lyrics or music notation. As in their daily work and domestic life their songs were spontaneous. Those that survived would have been passed on by oral tradition. Particularly in their own religious experience, shared with other slaves with similar experiences and aspirations, they often found solace and hope in the biblical stories of the Exodus of the Jews from slavery in Egypt. This theme recurs throughout history and is expressed in many different theological ways, just as it existed among the black slaves: thereafter it would reappear in Liberation Theology, which was prevalent in Third World countries throughout the latter part of the 20th century, and Minjung Theology of Korea during the Japanese occupation of that country. And so, drawing upon the tradition that had developed among the slaves of “work songs,” or “chain gang songs” they spontaneously sang the biblical passages that consoled and encouraged them, developed and improvised upon those, and passed them on. beautifully and articulately describes the origins and development of that music:But some “drivers” also allowed slaves to sing “quiet” songs, if they were not apparently against slaveholders. Such songs could be sung either by only one soloist or by several slaves. They were used for expressing personal feeling and for cheering one another. So, even at work, slaves could sing “secret messages”. This was the case of negro spirituals, which were sung at church, in meetings, at work and at home.The meaning of these songs was most often covert. Therefore, only Christian slaves understood them, and even when ordinary words were used, they reflected personal relationship between the slave singer and God. The codes of the first negro spirituals are often related with an escape to a free country. For example, a “home” is a safe place where everyone can live free. So, a “home” can mean Heaven, but it covertly means a sweet and free country, a haven for slaves.The ways used by fugitives running to a free country were riding a “chariot” or a “train”.The negro spirituals “The Gospel Train” and “Swing low, sweet chariot” which directly refer to the Underground Railroad, an informal organization who helped many slaves to flee.The words of “The Gospel train” are “She is coming… Get onboard… There’s room for many more”. This is a direct call to go way, by riding a “train” which stops at “stations”.Then, “Swing low, sweet chariot” refers to Ripley, a “station” of the Underground Railroad, where fugitive slaves were welcome. This town is atop a hill, by Ohio River, which is not easy to cross. So, to reach this place, fugitives had to wait for help coming from the hill. The words of this spirituals say,“I looked over Jordan and what did I see/ Coming for to carry me home/ A band of angels coming after me.”Here is an example of a negro spiritual and its covert meaning: THERE IS A BALM IN GILEADThis is a well-known negro spiritual, which has an interesting meaning.The “balm in Gilead” is quoted in the Old Testament, but the lyrics of this spiritual refer to the New Testament (Jesus, Holy Spirit, Peter, and Paul). This difference is interesting to comment. In the Old Testament, the balm of Gilead cannot heal sinners. In the New Testament, Jesus heals everyone who comes to Him.So, in the book of Jeremiah, several verses speak about Gilead. In chapter 22, v. 6 and 13: The Lord says (about the palace of the king of Judea) “Though you are like Gilead to me, like the summit of Lebanon, I will surely make you like a desert, like towns inhabited… Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, making his countrymen work for nothing, not paying them for their labour.”In the same book of Jeremiah, chapter 46, v. 2 and 11, “This is the message (of the Lord) against the army of Pharaoh Neco … Go up to Gilead and get balm, O Virgin Daughter of Egypt, but you multiply remedies in vain; here is no healing for you”.In the New Testament, the four Gospels say that Jesus healed many people whatever their conditions: he can heal the poor. A Christian who feels the Spirit must share its faith and “preach”, like Peter and Paul.Some question whether these spirituals had any significance beyond relieving the misery of the slaves and providing some limited solace and hope. I don’t know of the authenticity of such claims, but I do know that the spirituals were a musical response to the great oppression and misery of the Negro slaves. Upon emancipation, the Negro experience in church became more expressive and responsive to their life experiences which, at that time, would have included the oppression of segregation, of tenant farming, social exclusion, grossly limited educational and occupational opportunities, and cultural isolation. On the other hand, the cultural isolation also, while not justifying it, nonetheless, with freedom from slavery, permitted blacks to develop their own cultural identity, most frequently in their churches. Also, with release from the bond of slavery, they could attend funerals of their own, both to mourn the loss and to celebrate the memory and life of their loved ones. Out of that experience grew the roots of jazz. As I understand it, following the church funeral, a band would accompany the coffin to the cemetery, wailing their loss; however, upon the return from the cemetery the same band played joyously to celebrate that life and its meaning to those who survived.The immediately prior website has extensive information and auditory examples on the growth of black music arising out of slavery and responding to new conditions, both oppressive and liberating. I will hereafter post some sites giving auditory, and to the extent possible, visual, examples of black music. I may attempt to punctuate thatontent, but I cannot improve upon the substantive and detailed descriptions found there.For an excellent survey and a rich representation of recordings from early discographic history from the early and mid-Twentieth Century, see :“Amazing Grace”, performed by Elder Walter Avenues and the Little River Primitive Baptist Church c.1960“Been In The Storm So Long”, performed by the Fisk Jubilee Singers1956“Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray”, performed by the Tuskegee Institute Choir1975“Deep Down in My Heart”, performed by W. M. Givens in Darien, GeorgiaMarch 19, 1926“Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel?”, performed by the Howard Roberts Chorale/Alvin Ailey 1978“Go Down, Moses”, performed by Paul Robeson1965“Lay Down Body”, performed by Mrs. Bertha Smith (lead) and The Moving Star Hall Singers of John’s Island, South Caronlina 1960“Little David, Play Your Harp”, performed by Brother Claude Ely and the Cumberland Four 1953“My Good Lord Done Been Here”, performed by Aunt Florida HamptonMay 29, 1939“Pharaoh’s Army Got Drowned”, performed by unknown artistunknown“Roll the Old Chariot Along”, performed by unknown artist1920s“Soon I Will Be Done”, performed by Mahalia Jackson as “Trouble of the World” 1963“Steal Away to Jesus”, performed by Bernice Johnson Reagon1965“Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”, performed by Isadore Oglesbyunknown“Take My Hand, Precious Lord”, performed by Clara WardSee Alan Lomax Series on recording songs reflective of the history of black songsBoyd Rivers & Ruth May Rivers: Fire In My Bones (1978).I will present a general survey below, and later we will explore in greater depth black music and dance. Each is remarkable in its own way, including humor about a very difficult history.At this site you will find other links:Afroamerican Prison songLightning- Long John (Old song by a chain gang) audioPoor Boy – Lomax Prison RecordingGo Down Old Hannah.Texas Prison Camp Contemporary Black Religious MusicFCBC 2010 Black History Month 04 – Peace Be StillBLACK HISTORY PRAISE DANCE 2010“We Shall Overcome” – Black History – Martin Luther King Jr – Gospel Music“We Shall Overcome” Praise DanceSoul R&B Black Gospel Music: Hosanna“Wade in the Water”From a 2011 annual praise dance concert and worship experience produced by the Alvin Ailey Dance Troupe. Choreographed by Artistic Director, Errin Berry and Guest Choreographer, Amansu EasonI KNOW I BEEN CHANGED PRAISE DANCE“Ain’t got no shoes” Praise Dance This is remarkable, not only for the music, but the concept, choreography, dance, commentary and its hope. From a theological standpoint, I also see in it depth of forgiveness and redemption. I do not see forgiveness as saying “that’s okay,” because slavery was not okay. But I see forgiveness as refusing to be bound by the hurts of the past, permitting one to live in the present with the hope for the future. I am very grateful for this performance and its message of hope for me.For more contemporary black religious music, see:Harlem Gospel Singers – Go Down Moses:“When I Rose This Morning” – Mississippi Mass ChoirThe Contribution and Influence of Black Song and?DanceUntil now, I have focused on the formal Western arts, which, quite frankly, is that of “elite, white Europeans.” However, in the United States blacks have contributed musical forms that were influenced by those arts, but which they reshaped and transformed through their experiences and expressive responses both as slaves and as “a free people” in the United States. We often see its melismatic and rhythmic influence in various renditions of the national anthem of the United States over the last 20 to 30 years. But, its influence is far more pervasive and profound than that. In this post we will consider early black music through its unique expressions of spirituals, work songs, shouts and otherwise indigenous music arising in black culture in the United States. In a subsequent post I will address their contributions of jazz and its stylistic expression in religious music.Black slaves, captured from throughout Africa and sold in the Colonies in the New World, would have brought with them their own individual cultural heritages from Africa, being captured from different tribes, the traditions of which would have been mixed with those of other tribes. American society, being predominantly Christian, acculturated the slaves to that belief system, its practices and its culture. However, living apart from white society and under great oppression, both physically and emotionally pained, brutalized, separated, and isolated, it was natural that they would adapt their experience of their white “masters’” religion to their own experiences. The melodies and rhythms of their spirituals and gospel songs arising from the cultural milieu of their “owners,” their inheritances through practice and oral tradition, and their shared experiences of slavery, all contribed to their own unique culture and music. As their cultural environment on the plantations changed, as did their experiences of freedom as well as segregation, so, too, did their culture, music, dance, and graphic arts. Music, being a “universal language” and requiring no materials other than a voice or a stick to pound out a rhythm on any sonorous object that might be found, even one’s hands, was most available of any of the arts to the black slaves. Moreover, not only did they live in their own communal settings, but they worked together with other slaves throughout the day. Likely, as individuals find humming natural, joyful or consoling, moaning or delighting, this time together both in their labors and in their limited areas and times of respite, it would be natural not only that individuals might find comfort from their own struggles and pain, through music, but that others, who either shared in those feelings or were sympathetic to them, might join them. Music was spontaneous, both individually and communally.See for the following description of early black music and its development:Frederick Douglass, a former slave wrote, “I did not, when a slave, fully understand the deep meaning of those rude and apparently incoherent songs. I was, myself, within the circle, so that I could then neither hear nor see as those without might see and hear. They breathed the prayer and complaint of souls overflowing with the bitterest anguish. They depressed my spirits and filled my heart with ineffable sadness…The remark in the olden time was not unfrequently made, that slaves were the most contented and happy laborers in the world, and their dancing and singing were referred to in proof of this alleged fact; but it was a great mistake to suppose them happy because they sometimes made those joyful noises. The songs of the slaves represented their sorrows, rather than their joys. Like tears, they were a relief to aching hearts.” In song, lyrics about the Exodus were a metaphor for freedom from slavery.Songs like “Steal Away (to Jesus)”, or “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” raised unexpectedly in a dusty field, or sung softly in the dark of night, signaled that the coast was clear and the time to escape had come. The River Jordan became the Ohio River, or the Mississippi, or another body of water that had to be crossed on the journey to freedom. “Wade in the Water” contained explicit instructions to fugitive slaves on how to avoid capture and the route to take to successfully make their way to freedom. Leaving dry land and taking to the water was a common strategy to throw pursuing bloodhounds off one’s trail. “The Gospel Train”, and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” all contained veiled references to the Underground Railroad, and “Follow the Drinking Gourd” contained a coded map to the Underground Railroad. The title itself was an Africanized reference to the Big Dipper, which pointed the way to the North Star and freedom.The above – referenced site also has available recordings of performances of black music from 1926 to the 70s.See for resources that one can click on to explore songs, history, singers, composers, and over 200 traditional spirituals, including books and recordings.Some slaves were permitted to attend the churches of their “masters.” My father served the First Hopkinton Seventh Day Baptist Church in Ashaway, Rhode Island for eighteen years from 1959. Our first year there marked the celebration of its 250th anniversary. Although American society generally considers the history of the slaves to be that of the South, nonetheless, early in that history of trading in human flesh the North also took advantage of it. The sanctuary of our church had a horseshoe shaped balcony with two rows of straight back benches, to which, as I understood it, the slaves were confined. It would not have been unusual for slaves to accompany their masters, although strict segregation would likely have been observed. There were several religious “awakenings” in American history when religious fervor swept the country or areas of the country. The Negro slaves likewise had their own awakening in the early part of the 19th Century. It may have been in addition to their peripheral experience of dominant white culture’s religion, or it might have been their own spontaneous gatherings as influenced by that religion. Many, perhaps most, not being literate, and having little or no opportunity for education, would not have been able to read lyrics or music notation. As in their daily work and domestic life their songs were spontaneous. Those that survived would have been passed on by oral tradition. Particularly in their own religious experience, shared with other slaves with similar experiences and aspirations, they often found solace and hope in the biblical stories of the Exodus of the Jews from slavery in Egypt. This theme recurs throughout history and is expressed in many different theological ways, just as it existed among the black slaves: thereafter it would reappear in Liberation Theology, which was prevalent in Third World countries throughout the latter part of the 20th century, and Minjung Theology of Korea during the Japanese occupation of that country. And so, drawing upon the tradition that had developed among the slaves of “work songs,” or “chain gang songs” they spontaneously sang the biblical passages that consoled and encouraged them, developed and improvised upon those, and passed them on. beautifully and articulately describes the origins and development of that music:But some “drivers” also allowed slaves to sing “quiet” songs, if they were not apparently against slaveholders. Such songs could be sung either by only one soloist or by several slaves. They were used for expressing personal feeling and for cheering one another. So, even at work, slaves could sing “secret messages”. This was the case of negro spirituals, which were sung at church, in meetings, at work and at home.The meaning of these songs was most often covert. Therefore, only Christian slaves understood them, and even when ordinary words were used, they reflected personal relationship between the slave singer and God. The codes of the first negro spirituals are often related with an escape to a free country. For example, a “home” is a safe place where everyone can live free. So, a “home” can mean Heaven, but it covertly means a sweet and free country, a haven for slaves.The ways used by fugitives running to a free country were riding a “chariot” or a “train”.The negro spirituals “The Gospel Train” and “Swing low, sweet chariot” which directly refer to the Underground Railroad, an informal organization who helped many slaves to flee.The words of “The Gospel train” are “She is coming… Get onboard… There’s room for many more”. This is a direct call to go way, by riding a “train” which stops at “stations”.Then, “Swing low, sweet chariot” refers to Ripley, a “station” of the Underground Railroad, where fugitive slaves were welcome. This town is atop a hill, by Ohio River, which is not easy to cross. So, to reach this place, fugitives had to wait for help coming from the hill. The words of this spirituals say,“I looked over Jordan and what did I see/ Coming for to carry me home/ A band of angels coming after me.”Here is an example of a negro spiritual and its covert meaning: THERE IS A BALM IN GILEADThis is a well-known negro spiritual, which has an interesting meaning.The “balm in Gilead” is quoted in the Old Testament, but the lyrics of this spiritual refer to the New Testament (Jesus, Holy Spirit, Peter, and Paul). This difference is interesting to comment. In the Old Testament, the balm of Gilead cannot heal sinners. In the New Testament, Jesus heals everyone who comes to Him.So, in the book of Jeremiah, several verses speak about Gilead. In chapter 22, v. 6 and 13: The Lord says (about the palace of the king of Judea) “Though you are like Gilead to me, like the summit of Lebanon, I will surely make you like a desert, like towns inhabited… Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, making his countrymen work for nothing, not paying them for their labour.”In the same book of Jeremiah, chapter 46, v. 2 and 11, “This is the message (of the Lord) against the army of Pharaoh Neco … Go up to Gilead and get balm, O Virgin Daughter of Egypt, but you multiply remedies in vain; here is no healing for you”.In the New Testament, the four Gospels say that Jesus healed many people whatever their conditions: he can heal the poor. A Christian who feels the Spirit must share its faith and “preach”, like Peter and Paul.Some question whether these spirituals had any significance beyond relieving the misery of the slaves and providing some limited solace and hope. I don’t know of the authenticity of such claims, but I do know that the spirituals were a musical response to the great oppression and misery of the Negro slaves. Upon emancipation, the Negro experience in church became more expressive and responsive to their life experiences which, at that time, would have included the oppression of segregation, of tenant farming, social exclusion, grossly limited educational and occupational opportunities, and cultural isolation. On the other hand, the cultural isolation also, while not justifying it, nonetheless, with freedom from slavery, permitted blacks to develop their own cultural identity, most frequently in their churches. Also, with release from the bond of slavery, they could attend funerals of their own, both to mourn the loss and to celebrate the memory and life of their loved ones. Out of that experience grew the roots of jazz. As I understand it, following the church funeral, a band would accompany the coffin to the cemetery, wailing their loss; however, upon the return from the cemetery the same band played joyously to celebrate that life and its meaning to those who survived.The immediately prior website has extensive information and auditory examples on the growth of black music arising out of slavery and responding to new conditions, both oppressive and liberating. I will hereafter post some sites giving auditory, and to the extent possible, visual, examples of black music. I may attempt to punctuate thatontent, but I cannot improve upon the substantive and detailed descriptions found there.For an excellent survey and a rich representation of recordings from early discographic history from the early and mid-Twentieth Century, see :“Amazing Grace”, performed by Elder Walter Avenues and the Little River Primitive Baptist Church c.1960“Been In The Storm So Long”, performed by the Fisk Jubilee Singers1956“Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray”, performed by the Tuskegee Institute Choir1975“Deep Down in My Heart”, performed by W. M. Givens in Darien, GeorgiaMarch 19, 1926“Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel?”, performed by the Howard Roberts Chorale/Alvin Ailey 1978“Go Down, Moses”, performed by Paul Robeson1965“Lay Down Body”, performed by Mrs. Bertha Smith (lead) and The Moving Star Hall Singers of John’s Island, South Caronlina 1960“Little David, Play Your Harp”, performed by Brother Claude Ely and the Cumberland Four 1953“My Good Lord Done Been Here”, performed by Aunt Florida HamptonMay 29, 1939“Pharaoh’s Army Got Drowned”, performed by unknown artistunknown“Roll the Old Chariot Along”, performed by unknown artist1920s“Soon I Will Be Done”, performed by Mahalia Jackson as “Trouble of the World” 1963“Steal Away to Jesus”, performed by Bernice Johnson Reagon1965“Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”, performed by Isadore Oglesbyunknown“Take My Hand, Precious Lord”, performed by Clara WardSee Alan Lomax Series on recording songs reflective of the history of black songsBoyd Rivers & Ruth May Rivers: Fire In My Bones (1978).I will present a general survey below, and later we will explore in greater depth black music and dance. Each is remarkable in its own way, including humor about a very difficult history.At this site you will find other links:Afroamerican Prison songLightning- Long John (Old song by a chain gang) audioPoor Boy – Lomax Prison RecordingGo Down Old Hannah.Texas Prison Camp Contemporary Black Religious MusicFCBC 2010 Black History Month 04 – Peace Be StillBLACK HISTORY PRAISE DANCE 2010“We Shall Overcome” – Black History – Martin Luther King Jr – Gospel Music“We Shall Overcome” Praise DanceSoul R&B Black Gospel Music: Hosanna“Wade in the Water”From a 2011 annual praise dance concert and worship experience produced by the Alvin Ailey Dance Troupe. Choreographed by Artistic Director, Errin Berry and Guest Choreographer, Amansu EasonI KNOW I BEEN CHANGED PRAISE DANCE“Ain’t got no shoes” Praise Dance This is remarkable, not only for the music, but the concept, choreography, dance, commentary and its hope. From a theological standpoint, I also see in it depth of forgiveness and redemption. I do not see forgiveness as saying “that’s okay,” because slavery was not okay. But I see forgiveness as refusing to be bound by the hurts of the past, permitting one to live in the present with the hope for the future. I am very grateful for this performance and its message of hope for me.For more contemporary black religious music, see:Harlem Gospel Singers – Go Down Moses:“When I Rose This Morning” – Mississippi Mass ChoirSo Much More Than?Music!Until I had begun this part of my blog, The Bible through Artists’ Eyes, I had thought that the major contribution of blacks to American culture was music. In my research, I discovered the immense range and depth of the contribution of black people to the United States, indeed, to the world.I highly recommend the following site:Afro-American Contributions to American Culture ""&HYPERLINK ""pg=PA461HYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""lpg=PA461HYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""dq=traditions+of+American+sacred+or+church+musicHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""source=blHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""ots=wWmgj9XAUCHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""sig=cIaUf_ipWsQwDlhHYPERLINK ""IDHSmxHO9sOYHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""hl=enHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""sa=XHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""ei=oL0TUbqvG-GfyQGx2YC4AgHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""ved=0CDMQ6AEwATgK#v=onepageHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""q=traditions%20of%20American%20sacred%20or%20church%20musicHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""f=falseIt is generally common knowledge that George Washington Carver “invented” peanut butter as a protein source and encouraged the cultivation of peanuts as an alternative to cotton. He was so much more than that. Born at about the time of the Civil War, at a time that education was a limited opportunity for blacks, and then separate from privileged white universities in black universities, he obtained an education and became a scientist, botanist, inventor and educator. There is so much more to the story of the gifts of blacks, generally to American culture and achievement. I will attempt to summarize the content of the above site, in hopes that it might encourage readers to explore that and similar sites.I was not aware that certain areas of Africa were known for specific skills, such as raising cattle, dairy production, cultivation of rice, architecture, and so much more than either cuisine or music. We generally are aware of the stories of Uncle Remus, which have their source in Africa: Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox and Chicken Little originated there.Many of the black slaves were skilled in animal husbandry, including artificial insemination, agriculture, including the introduction to the United States of rice and its cultivation, the peanut, okra, black-eyed peas, kidney and lima beans, and herbal medicine.American culture considers cowboys to be uniquely American, but the very term, “cowboy,” finds its origin in reference to blacks who were “cow boys.” It is particularly ironic to me that, living in the Midwest of the United States, a term of derision (cow “boy”) would be adopted proudly for what has become perceived as a white activity or sport. After the Civil War, as the West continued to be developed, whites distinguished themselves from black cowboys by describing themselves as “cattlemen.” The word, “doggies,” is African in origin.The banjo was an African instrument which, blacks could proud of,?until, in 1840, it became part of the “Blackface acts” of minstrel shows. Certain words that are common to contemporary American culture are actually of African origin: OK (okay), bogus, boogie-woogie, bug (insect), guy, hippie, and phony.Long before black women risked their lives and health for me, black women had been not only caregivers to white children, but prior to the Civil War 90% of the white births?were attended by black midwives. African folk medicine discovered and used an inoculation for smallpox long before Western medicine developed it. The above site notes of that inoculation practice:. . . Africans knew that smallpox inoculation was done by simply taking some of the pus from the scalp and inoculating those who were not exposed. Smallpox was the most feared epidemic in Colonial America.With the Native American population, African doctors introduced white culture to holistic medicine. Many of the highly skilled professions generally associated with a moneyed class, such as architecture and engineering, were practiced by slaves in the colonies. Again, I quote from the above site:Enslaved artisans played a major role in the economic and physical development of the American South. Enslaved Africans were responsible for the design and construction of both the Plantation house and the slave quarters. . . .The slave quarters at Keswick, near Midlothian, Virginia, were constructed around 1750 and made with the African tradition of hand-made burnt clay bricks by plantation slaves. . . .For an excellent article on the influence of a larger range of black music upon American culture see have already noted my great debt to black women, and I have alluded to the debt of American culture to black people who were originally introduced into this country as slaves. The debt is indeed much deeper than I had recently acknowledged. Thank you, my friends.?So Much More Than?Music!Until I had begun this part of my blog, The Bible through Artists’ Eyes, I had thought that the major contribution of blacks to American culture was music. In my research, I discovered the immense range and depth of the contribution of black people to the United States, indeed, to the world.I highly recommend the following site:Afro-American Contributions to American Culture ""&HYPERLINK ""pg=PA461HYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""lpg=PA461HYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""dq=traditions+of+American+sacred+or+church+musicHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""source=blHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""ots=wWmgj9XAUCHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""sig=cIaUf_ipWsQwDlhHYPERLINK ""IDHSmxHO9sOYHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""hl=enHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""sa=XHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""ei=oL0TUbqvG-GfyQGx2YC4AgHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""ved=0CDMQ6AEwATgK#v=onepageHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""q=traditions%20of%20American%20sacred%20or%20church%20musicHYPERLINK ""&HYPERLINK ""f=falseIt is generally common knowledge that George Washington Carver “invented” peanut butter as a protein source and encouraged the cultivation of peanuts as an alternative to cotton. He was so much more than that. Born at about the time of the Civil War, at a time that education was a limited opportunity for blacks, and then separate from privileged white universities in black universities, he obtained an education and became a scientist, botanist, inventor and educator. There is so much more to the story of the gifts of blacks, generally to American culture and achievement. I will attempt to summarize the content of the above site, in hopes that it might encourage readers to explore that and similar sites.I was not aware that certain areas of Africa were known for specific skills, such as raising cattle, dairy production, cultivation of rice, architecture, and so much more than either cuisine or music. We generally are aware of the stories of Uncle Remus, which have their source in Africa: Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox and Chicken Little originated there.Many of the black slaves were skilled in animal husbandry, including artificial insemination, agriculture, including the introduction to the United States of rice and its cultivation, the peanut, okra, black-eyed peas, kidney and lima beans, and herbal medicine.American culture considers cowboys to be uniquely American, but the very term, “cowboy,” finds its origin in reference to blacks who were “cow boys.” It is particularly ironic to me that, living in the Midwest of the United States, a term of derision (cow “boy”) would be adopted proudly for what has become perceived as a white activity or sport. After the Civil War, as the West continued to be developed, whites distinguished themselves from black cowboys by describing themselves as “cattlemen.” The word, “doggies,” is African in origin.The banjo was an African instrument which, blacks could proud of,?until, in 1840, it became part of the “Blackface acts” of minstrel shows. Certain words that are common to contemporary American culture are actually of African origin: OK (okay), bogus, boogie-woogie, bug (insect), guy, hippie, and phony.Long before black women risked their lives and health for me, black women had been not only caregivers to white children, but prior to the Civil War 90% of the white births?were attended by black midwives. African folk medicine discovered and used an inoculation for smallpox long before Western medicine developed it. The above site notes of that inoculation practice:. . . Africans knew that smallpox inoculation was done by simply taking some of the pus from the scalp and inoculating those who were not exposed. Smallpox was the most feared epidemic in Colonial America.With the Native American population, African doctors introduced white culture to holistic medicine. Many of the highly skilled professions generally associated with a moneyed class, such as architecture and engineering, were practiced by slaves in the colonies. Again, I quote from the above site:Enslaved artisans played a major role in the economic and physical development of the American South. Enslaved Africans were responsible for the design and construction of both the Plantation house and the slave quarters. . . .The slave quarters at Keswick, near Midlothian, Virginia, were constructed around 1750 and made with the African tradition of hand-made burnt clay bricks by plantation slaves. . . .For an excellent article on the influence of a larger range of black music upon American culture see have already noted my great debt to black women, and I have alluded to the debt of American culture to black people who were originally introduced into this country as slaves. The debt is indeed much deeper than I had recently acknowledged. Thank you, my friends.? ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download