Dresden Eng 03

Music City Dresden Program # 3 „Gloria in Excelsis Deo“: A Century of Catholic Church Music at the Dresden Court Greetings from Bonn, Germany, for another program on the musical heritage of the city of Dresden. I’m Michael Rothe. It has taken sixty years for the Frauenkirche, the Church of Our Lady, to rise in new splendor from the rubble and ashes into which it sank during the infamous firebombing that consumed the entire city in February of 1945. 2005 is the year of the rededication of that glorious landmark, and we mark the occasion with this broadcast series from Deutsche Welle Radio, “Music City Dresden.“ Today we’ll survey a century of Catholic church music at the Dresden court, and we begin with this movement from an early 18th century setting of the Magnificat by Johann David Heinichen. Johann David Heinichen (1683-1729) Magnificat in A Major: 6th movement: Sicut erat in principio 1:50 Rheinische Kantorei, Das kleine Konzert Cond: Hermann Max LC 08748, Capriccio 10 557, (Track 20) The region ruled by the Saxon princes from the seat of their court in Dresden had long been Protestant. But around the turn of the 18th century, Catholicism found its way into the city, quietly, as if on tiptoes. That all had very much to do with the Saxon Elector Frederick Augustus I, who came to be known as Augustus the Strong. Augustus converted to Roman Catholicism in 1697. His entire family soon followed course. For the popular sovereign, who had a reputation as something of a skirt-chaser, it wasn’t a matter of religious fervor, but power politics. The Saxon elector had to become a Catholic to assume a second title as King of Poland. That title elevated the house of Wettin to a leading position in Europe and launched an era of glory for Dresden. Most local citizens held fast to their Protestant faith however, as did the population of Saxony. Internal religious strife was something Augustus wanted to avoid at all cost. The devastation of the Thirty Year War just two generations earlier had not been forgotten, so Saxony’s citizens were assured that they could follow their traditional religious practices. The first Catholics to be seen at court, Jesuits from neighboring Bohemia, went about their business rather inconspicuously. In fact, for some time Catholics had to make do with makeshift locales for their religious services, beginning with a hall in the palace, then a chapel at the hunting lodge of Moritzburg and eventually a converted former theater on a hillside near the court residence called -2- Taschenberg. Music for church services at these improvised sites was made by a few instrumentalists and solo singers imported from Bohemia. That state of affairs remained roughly the same for a decade. But in 1719, Augustus the Strong married a devout Catholic, the daughter of the Hapsburg emperor from Vienna – and she made church music her personal project. From 1721 on, important religious holidays were marked by performances of large-scale works of music, with participation of the court orchestra , by then world famous. It was the beginning of a golden age of Catholic church music in Dresden, an age marked by the composer Johann David Heinichen. We’ve already heard part of his Magnificat in A. Heinichen was a Protestant Saxon who’d received some early training at St. Thomas in Leipzig. Yet he had no difficulty writing music for Catholic masses in Dresden. When it came to great music, denominational differences were apparently no longer all that important. Before being called to the Dresden court in 1718, Heinichen had spent several years in Italy writing operas. Italian conventions and galant forms of expression thus entered into all his works, including those for the church. This combination of homegrown and imported Italian ingredients set a trend for sacred music in Dresden and gave it a distinct character for decades to come. And there was further ingredient, a Slavonic one, suggested by the connection to the Polish crown. That flavor became stronger after the death of Heinichen in 1729 and with the advent of a Czech composer in Dresden, Jan Dismas Zelenka. Here’s part of a late work by Zelenka from the 1740's, the Missa Dei Filii, or “Mass of the Son of God,“ a final chorus of the Gloria in the form of a grand fugue. Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745) Missa Dei Filii in C Major, ZWV 20: Gloria: Cum sancto spiritu (conclusion) 6:18 Dresden Chamber Chorus Dresden Baroque Orchestra Cond: Hans-Christoph Rademann LC 05068, Raumklang 9702, (Track 18) All the resources of contrapuntal art come to bear in this festive Gloria. The intensity and fervor border on the excessive, almost violent. Quite a contrast to the Italianate lightness of Heinichen! This is music that bears the unmistakable personal stamp of the composer Jan Dismas Zelenka, a name that should be written much larger in the annals of music history than it is. After the death of Heinichen, Zelenka aspired to the position of court Kapellmeister in Dresden, but never achieved it. His personality may have had something to do with that: Zelenka was something of a loner who didn’t get along easily with people, an introverted genius, and a deeply devout Catholic. The official post of Kapellmeister went in 1733 to a convert to the religion: Johann Adolph Hasse, the grand master of opera. Born in Hamburg, and like Heinichen, trained in Italy, Hasse solidified the Italian direction in church music in Dresden as well. Hasse, -3- his wife, the celebrated soprano Faustina Bordoni, and the outstanding and well-paid musicians of the court orchestra made the musical establishment of Dresden the toast of Europe. Church music at court was boosted further when plans for a fitting church were finally realized. In 1751 the Italian architect Gaetano Chiaveri finished a grand basilica between the royal residence and the bridge over the Elbe. He gave it a tall spire on the north side, separate from the central nave, which lent something like a final kick to the baroque silhouette of Dresden. The Hofkirche, or Court Church, survived the World War II bombardment, though not without severe damage, and is now the largest church in the state of Saxony. The vast interior, with a reverberation of nine seconds, has always presented a special challenge to composers. Johann Adolph Hasse had to contend with it at the dedication, for which he composed the Mass in D Minor. From this mass, here’s the Domine deus section of the Gloria. It’s been maintained that Hasse wrote the high vocal solo part for his wife, Faustina. But since women had no place performing music during religious services, the soprano and alto parts were actually sung by castrati. In this recording, however, we’ll hear soprano Maria Zadori. Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-1783) Mass in D Minor: Gloria: Domine Deus 3:30 Maria Zadori (soprano) Rheinische Kantorei, Das kleine Konzert Cond: Hermann Max LC 08748, Capriccio 10 570, (Track 5) Quite a difference from the music by Zelenka we heard earlier! In this attractive music with its virtuosic melodies, both elegant and emotional, a new style is emerging. The strict rules of baroque composition are loosened; something that we now call the pre- classical period is announcing itself here. Hasse remained in his post as Court Kapellmeister for three decades, until 1763, when he went back to Venice for good. His dismissal from Dresden was emblematic of the far-reaching effects of the Seven- Year War in Saxony. The war claimed a hundred thousand casualties throughout the realm. Bombardment by the armies of Prussia in 1760 caused severe destruction in Dresden. Natural disasters and famine added to the general misery. It was the end of a golden age at the Saxon court, where financial resources had grown scarce. But a tradition of religious processions and other devotional forms of expression lived on. By the final decades of the 18th century, religious services in the Hofkirche regained some of their former splendor. Music from the organ loft by chorus, soloists and orchestra became a sort of total work of art in a style unique to Dresden. It was an experience no visitor wanted to miss. In fact, the writer Heinrich von Kleist was so impressed by the ceremonies in Dresden’s Hofkirche that he was inspired to write his -4- novella, “Saint Cecilia or The Power of Music.“ Here’s a quote from another of the many enthusiastic contemporary accounts. It’s by the classical-era German painter Philipp Otto Runge: Quote: There’s something indescribably beautiful about the music in the Catholic church here. A new singer has been engaged, but one forgets singers, musicians and church and is instead carried away on pure sound. There’s a majesty in it that grasps one with irresistible force and makes one forget all the falderal of Catholicism. The congregation itself never sings, only the professional musicians, and so a truly perfect harmony is maintained at all times, especially if a priests sings his part who is endowed with a magnificent bass voice that seems to shake the whole edifice. So in the outgoing years of the 18th century it was church music, not opera, that gave Dresden its musical renown. And the man at the center of it was Johann Gottlieb Naumann, official music director since 1776. Naumann grew up not far from Dresden, but he too was a widely-traveled cosmopolitan. He studied in Italy and later established the first Swedish national opera. Naumann’s lifetime – he was born in 1741 and died in 1801 – falls into the period of Viennese Classicism.

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