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Program notes - "Lo, How a Rose" |
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A Note from the Artistic Director The rose has been a beloved symbol in religion for thousands of years. From the Hebrew Rose of Sharon, through the Virgin Mary, to Jesus, and to many Christian saints and causes, the rose has been used to symbolize beauty, purity, life, pain (through the thorn), and blood (by way of its color). The title of the concert springs from the major work presented tonight, Hugo Distler’s Die Weihnachtsgeschichte ("The Christmas Story"), written in 1933. In this work, Distler uses the form of a Passion (hence, employing a narrator, soloists, and the chorus to tell a story – in this case, that of Jesus’ birth, rather than his suffering and death – and using a single Lutheran chorale tune to tie the work together, and give it contemporary applicability to the audience). The chorale tune used by Distler is the beloved 16th century melody "Es ist ein Ros entsprungen," usually translated as "Lo, How a Rose e’er blooming." It is most well-known in its harmonization by Michael Praetorius, and it will be sung that way just before the Distler begins (as well as in a canonic arrangement by Praetorius’ contemporary Melchior Vulpius); but through the course of Die Weihnachtsgeschichte it will be heard a total of six other times, in arrangements ranging from simple (it’s first and last appearance) to tender (with the Magnificat sung over it by Mary) to sleepy (sung as a cradle song), to complicated (sung in a thick double-choir canonic treatment to represent the shepherds joyful, and perhaps chaotic, singing) to celebratory (sung as the Wise Men depart from the stable back to their own country). Together with the other choruses, depicting the Shepherds, the Wise Men, Herod’s Scribes; and the soloists, depicting Mary, the Angel Gabriel, Elizabeth, Simeon, Herod and the all-important Narrator; the work tells the Christmas story in a way that, in my opinion, is without equal in the a cappella choral repertory. Combining the above with the historical realization that Distler was undergoing severe pressure from the Nazis regarding his so-called "degenerate art," which in part drove him to suicide in 1942, the poignancy of the work is augmented by real-life events. Timothy J. Krueger December 2004 © 2004 Timothy J. Krueger |