Rehearsals for our end-of-October, 500th Anniversary of the Reformation concert are going extremely well, and the cameo group of 16 is sounding fantastic. I sometimes liken conducting St. Martin’s Chamber Choir to driving a high performance luxury car (not that I’ve ever done that, but I can imagine what it’s like) – a highly responsive, feeling-one-with-the-road, sumptuous, guilty pleasure. I’m sometimes convinced that, though I’ve rather successfully done it for 23 seasons now, I am actually not qualified to be leading these fine professionals; but, since they continue to allow me to do it, I may as well continue to take advantage of it! 😉
Anyway, that was an aside. Here’s the program – a sort of cornucopia of musical treats, both sweet and savory:
A Mighty Fortress: Music of the Reformation
Founders
- Motet: Non moriar
Martin Luther (1484-1546) - Chorale: Jesus Christus unser Heyland
- Motet: Allein auf Gottes Wort
Johann Walther (1496-1570)
First Successors
- Chorale: Jesu, dein Seel’ lass heilg’n mich
Melchior Franck (1573-1639) - Motet: Wenn der Herr die Gefangenen
Heinrich Hartmann (1580-1616)
Seventeenth Century
- Chorale: Schmücke dich, O liebe Seele
Johann Crüger (1598-1662) - Motet: Verleih uns Frieden
Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672)
Eighteenth Century
- Chorale: Wer sich ein Vat’r erbarmet
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
[excerpt from Motet I: Singet dem Herrn] - Motet: Jauchzet dem Herrn [excerpt]
Gottfried August Homilius (1714-1785)
Nineteenth Century
- Chorale: Nun danket alle Gott
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
[fr. Symphony No. 2, “Lobgesang”] - Motet: Richte mich Gott “
Comparison of Two Settings of the same text
- Motet: Fürwahr, er trug unsere Krankheit
Carl Heinrich Graun (1704-1759) - Motet: Fürwahr, er trug unsere Krankheit
Hugo Distler (1908-1942)
Epilogue: Audience Sing-Along
- Chorale: A Mighty Fortress is our God
tune: Martin Luther; harmonization: J. S. Bach
The Chorale and the Lutheran Motet are Lutheranism’s greatest gifts to the musical world, so I alternate between them as we work our way forward in time. From Martin Luther himself, who was a musician and wrote many of the tunes and lyrics of the first Chorales, through Crüger, Schütz, Bach, and Mendelssohn (along with fabulous lesser lights like Hartmann and Homilius), I trace the annals of Lutheran music-making over the last 500 years. Each piece is literally a guilty pleasure to sing and conduct; and I had a difficult time deciding which pieces I would allow Michael Johnson, the conducting intern, to conduct, as I didn’t want to give any of them up!
Here are the concert dates and venues:
- Friday, Oct. 27, 7:30pm, St. Paul Lutheran Church, 1600 Grant St., Denver
- Saturday, Oct. 28, 7:30pm, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 2015 Glenarm Place, Denver
- Sunday, Oct. 29, 3:00pm, Holy Cross Lutheran Church, 4500 Wadsworth Blvd., Wheat Ridge
Come to one of the early performances, because I predict a goodly number of you will enjoy it so much you’ll want to return on a subsequent night to hear it all again in a different acoustic!
Purchase tickets in advance at www.stmartinschamberchoir.org/concerts, or call the office directly for assistance at (303) 298-1970. You won’t want to miss these concerts!
