Weds 6th March - Magdalen College, Oxford

[DracoM]

It's a kind of edited Stations of the Cross for Lutherans?
BUT
Why in Latin?

[ardcarp]

JSB wrote the B minor Mass in Latin. I think it was more an abstract exercise for him (if you can call a towering masterpiece an 'exercise') and it had no liturgical purpose. Handel set Dixit Dominus during his sojourn in Rome, and he was a very staunch protestant. But when in Rome....

Still like to hear about Buxtehude tho'

[ardcarp]

Just been searching Magdalen College's websites, and neither they nor Daniel Hyde have any sort of email address posted up. So if anyone knows how to sneak a quick message to him about Membra Jesu Nostri, maybe he will tell us all about it. Maybe even join The Forum?

[Anna]

Is it worthwhile contacting Catherine Bott (she does post here) or even starting a thread about Buxtehude? I cannot search any more today but have found:
The poem became immensely popular throughout Europe in the seventeenth century, both in its Latin original and in vernaculars, especially in the German language. Paul Gerhardt based his O Haupt vollBlut und Wunden squarely on Arnulf's Latin poem. Each cantata as a whole becomes a basis for adoration, prayer, praise, and petition

More than two hundred extant choral works from Buxtehude's pen are in Latin poetry. Such practice indicates a daily use of Latin in his life, as was the case with Martin Luther and Johann Sebastian Bach. The use of Latin connotes the continuity of the church with its Western mother.
Which, of course, gets us no further forward!

[weston752]

Just been searching Magdalen College's websites, and neither they nor Daniel Hyde have any sort of email address posted up.

It's daniel.hyde@magd.ox.ac.uk - from the College website.

[Wolsey]

I have a CD recording of this work made by the Netherlands Bach Society in 2005. Pieter Dirksen's booklet notes say that the cantata cycle "is clearly not intended for liturgical use and dedicated to his friend Gustav Düben, must indubitably be seen as an expression of Buxtehude's own religious experience and personal devotion." Very much like Bach's B minor Mass, I imagine.

[ardcarp]

Thanks Wolsey and Anna for your info. And I will email DH right now.

[Anna]

Isn't this lovely? A thread about a programme in the Choral Evensong slot in which everyone is being polite and helpful; no carping about men and/or boys, vibrato or dodgy trebles or the inclusion of girls; no jibes about spoons being thrown in the Lady Chapel - it just goes to show what a Lutheran oratorio in Latin can do to unite one and all in the milk of Christian kindness!!

[ardcarp]

Yes it's all the way. But don't hold your breath.....

[Keraulophone]

JSB wrote the B minor Mass in Latin... and it had no liturgical purpose.

Maybe, but we lent it one last summer: one of the most memorable and life-affirming chuch services I have ever witnessed...

Sunday 10th June 2012
THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
11.00 Sung Eucharist with Truro Cathedral Choir and Orchestra
Introit Zadok the Priest Handel
Hymns Jerusalem Parry, orchestrated Elgar
All people that on earth do dwell arr Vaughan Williams
Cantata “Gloria in excelsis Deo”, BWV 191 Bach
Psalm 130
Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei (Mass in B Minor, BWV 232) Bach
Recessional Overture (Orchestral Suite No 3, BWV 1068) Bach

[MrGongGong]

JSB wrote the B minor Mass in Latin. I think it was more an abstract exercise for him

According to my offspring who is at University studying music
it was more of a "mash-up self-promotion gig"

Which seems to have worked for him as a marketing exercise

[ardcarp]

Wow. I can just imagine the impact...priest intoning, "evermore praising Thee and saying" and then that stunning opening of the Sanctus in glorious technicolour.

[cincinnatus]

I'm listening now and am delighted by the sound of the choir....trebles singing in a freely expressive style, a bit like their neighbours down the road. How very different from their sound only a few years ago.

I have not come across these Membra Jesu Nostri cantatas before. It is a very Catholic thing to venerate parts of Jesus' crucified body, and indeed they are Latin settings. Can anyone shed light on how this squares with Buxtehude's (presumably) Lutheran Church employment?

Ardcarp, Membra Jesu Nostri was the subject of Building A Library back in 2001. The recording chosen was by The Sixteen and Harry Christophers, still available on their Coro label.

[sturkel]

Talking about

their neighbours down the road.

I'm surprised that nobody has started a thread on New College's Tuesday Lunchtime concert of French baroque music. An excellent concert marred only by a couple of strange sonic glitches early on. Its available on the Iplayer until next week.

There's also an interesting piece on the New College Choir website by Edward Hiigginbottom here

http://www.newcollegechoir.com/1/pos...h-mustard.html

on the problems of teaching his choristers French vernacular pronunciation of Latin, to say nothing of Italianate pronunciation and Lateinisch.

[MrGongGong]

strange sonic glitches .

If that's your bag
this is essential IMV

http://www.barbican.org.uk/music/event-detail.asp?ID=14026

but, as you were