CMNW Presents the Oregon Bach Festival: Magnificat

Inspired by Bach’s 1723 move to Leipzig, the “imaginative and spontaneous” (The New York Times) Jos van Veldhoven leads the Oregon Bach Festival Period Orchestra and Chamber Chorus through a Baroque-era musical journey. Beginning with movements from Telemann’s celebratory nautical oratorio “Hamburg Admiralty Music,” the program includes cantatas from Graupner and Bach, and concludes with the joyous and transformative Bach Magnificat.

PRELUDE PERFORMANCE:
6:30pm | Young Artists Institute solo performances on the stage in Kaul Auditorium

Reed College, Kaul Auditorium
Saturday, 7/1 • 8:00 pm PT

Program

Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.

TELEMANN Hamburger Admiralitätsmusik, TWV 24:1

TELEMANN (1681-1767)
Hamburger Admiralitätsmusik, TWV 24:1 (8’)

I.  Overture
II. Unschätzbarer Vorwurf erkenntlicher Sinnen!

In 1723, Georg Philipp Telemann was asked to compose a celebratory cantata to mark the 100th anniversary of the city of Hamburg’s Admiralty. The resulting work, Hamburger Admiralitätsmusik, was performed at an all-night gathering of city officials, naval officers, and ordinary citizens. The jubilation of the occasion is clearly reflected in the glorious, majestic sweep of the Overture, and the florid prose provided by local author and professor Michael Richey: “O all—surpassing subject! Flaming tinder for a joyous beginning! O peace of many years! May this observance be accompanied with shouts of joy; enthuse our words, inspire our strings, lift up our voices, quicken our hands!”

—© Elizabeth Schwartz

GRAUPNER “Aus der Tiefen rufen wir,” GWV 1113/23a

GRAUPNER (1683-1760)
Aus der Tiefen rufen wir, GWV 1113/23a (14’)

I.  Aus der Tiefen Rufen Wir
I.  Wenn Aber Kommt Einmal
III. Brunnquell der Gnaden

Fate played a dirty trick on Christoph Graupner. In 1723, he applied for and was awarded the position of Cantor in Leipzig, but Graupner’s patron, Landgrave Ernst Ludwig, refused to release the talented composer from the remainder of his contract. A contemporary of Graupner’s, one J. S. Bach, took the job in Leipzig instead.

Best known for his 1450 surviving cantatas, Graupner composed approximately 2,000 works in virtually every genre, including operas, religious works, and a large body of instrumental music. Graupner’s music was well regarded by his contemporaries, including Bach and Telemann, but after his death his music languished in obscurity, due in large part to a legal dispute regarding ownership of his manuscripts. Beginning in the 1920s, scholars and historians began researching and rediscovering this overlooked Baroque master.

Graupner’s cantata Aus der tiefen rufen wir (Out of the Deep We Call to Thee) served as his audition piece for the Leipzig cantor’s position, and it was first presented there on the second Sunday after Epiphany in 1723. Expansive choral passages, enhanced by brass in some places, alternate with solo sections. Harmonically, Graupner’s setting features specifically modal rather than tonal moments, as in the setting of the word “Tiefen,” that recall earlier music.

—© Elizabeth Schwartz

J.S. BACH “Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe,” BWV 22

J.S. BACH (1685-1750)
Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe, BWV 22 (18’)

I.  Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe
II.  Mein Jesu, ziehe ich nach dir
III. Mein Jesu, ziehe mich
IV.  Mein alles in allem
V.  Ertöt uns durch dein Güte

Johann Sebastian Bach submitted Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe as one of his two audition cantatas for the post of Cantor in Leipzig; it was written to be performed on the final Sunday before Lent. The text describes Jesus summoning his disciples for the fateful journey to Jerusalem, while the disciples, unaware of the coming events, faithfully follow Jesus onward.

The tone of the music moves from one of prophetic sorrow to a redemptive joy, as Christians rejoice in the certainty of salvation. The music includes the standard elements of a Bach cantata: choruses, solos, chorale settings, virtuoso instrumental writing, and careful attention to presenting the texts so that the meaning of the words is amplified, rather than obscured, by the music.

—© Elizabeth Schwartz

J. S. BACH Magnificat in D Major, BWV 243

J. S. BACH (1685-1750)
Magnificat in D Major, BWV 243 (29’)

I.  Magnificat
II.  Et exsultavit
III. Quia respexit
IV.  Omnes generationes
V.  Quia fecit
VI.  Et misericordia
VII. Fecit potentiam
VIII.Deposuit
IX.  Esurientes
X.  Suscepit Israel
XI.  Sicut Locutus Est
XII. Gloria Patri

In 1723, Johann Sebastian Bach secured a position as Kantor of St. Thomas in Leipzig; he remained in that post until his death in 1750. Leipzig’s considerable musical resources and the busy church calendar afforded Bach the opportunity to compose his greatest choral works, including both the St. Matthew and St. John Passions, the Mass in B minor, the Christmas Oratorio, more than 250 church cantatas, and the Magnificat.

The Magnificat is part of the Vesper service, and takes its text from the Gospel of Luke. After Mary is informed by the Angel Gabriel that she will bear the Son of God, she declares, “My soul doth magnify the Lord.” Aside from the words of the Mass itself, the Magnificat has been set to music more often than any other liturgical text.

Bach wrote his Magnificat for the 1723 Christmas Vespers service. The original version, in the key of E-flat major, included Christmas-specific texts as well as the standard Magnificat liturgy. About ten years later, Bach revised the Magnificat, removing the Christmas sections so it could be used throughout the church year, and lowering the key to D major, a more trumpet-friendly key.

The Magnificat showcases Bach’s unparalleled ability to write spiritually uplifting music that can also create an experience of sacred intimacy. The expansive musical forces include a five-part choir, five vocal soloists, and a substantial orchestra with three trumpets, pairs of flutes and oboes, continuo, and strings. Trumpets herald the joyful news sung by the chorus: “My soul doth magnify the Lord.” Bach uses the chorus for the declarative extroverted sections, like “Omnes gentes” (all people), and scores the more introspective texts for solos and duets.

Bach indulged his penchant for text painting in several places: for example, the soprano soloist’s rising arpeggio on the words “Et exultavit,” (rejoicing), and the agitated downward spiral of the tenor soloist’s “Deposuit” (He has put down). In the closing verse, “Sicut erat in principio … Amen” (As it was in the beginning), Bach sets the text to the same music as the opening Magnificat, a musical pun for the attentive listener.

—© Elizabeth Schwartz

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