Performance Materials for America’s Romantic Masterworks and a New Edition of Paine’s Mass in D
by
David P. DeVenney
Over the past two decades Ameri- They are central to a complete under- and parts for both the Mass and St. Peter, can choral music of the Romantic standing of the history of American but these are not satisfactory for mod- era has begun to be re-discovered, choral music, as the most eloquent ern performances as the full score is an reassessed, and heard in increasing and musically demanding works to be enlarged version of Paine’s manuscript, numbers of public performances penned during this era. with notations by other hands, missing 5 throughout the country. This includes Of the four principal works, only measures, and other critical problems. works by the so-called “Second New Hora novissima has been readily available Besides these seminal works, a England School,” composers like John to today’s performers, through reprint number of other important American Knowles Paine, Horatio Parker, and editions of the original score, parts, and Romantic oratorios and cantatas may Amy Beach, as well as composers not piano-vocal score.2 A piano-vocal score be readily found. Several have recently associated with that Boston group, of Beach’s Mass is also available,3 how- been made available in modern, critical like Edward MacDowell and Charles ever, there is no modern full score or set editions from A–R Editions in Madison, Martin Loeffl er. of instrumental parts available for it. It is Wisconsin. Among them are William The smaller works in this large possible to rent copies of the original Bradbury’s Esther, The Beautiful Queen, repertory are receiving increased hand-written score and parts housed George Bristow’s Oratorio of Daniel, attention, partly due to their ready ac- at the New England Conservatory of Amy Beach’s Sea Fairies and Canticle cessibility through new Web sources.1 Music. But these are diffi cult to read of the Sun, Dudley Buck’s complete These works have the added ad- and, according to one conductor who (shorter) choral pieces, George Root’s vantage of requiring few performing has performed and recorded the Mass, The Haymakers, and Paine’s The Nativity. resources other than choir and piano. they are riddled with errors.4 Recent email correspondence between But the most important works of Conductors and scholars may obtain this author and a doctoral candidate at the period are, without a doubt, the piano-vocal scores of the two Paine the University of Iowa has revealed a masterworks in the genres of mass works (both are available from the Pe- new thesis and future modern edition and oratorio. Of those, Paine’s Mass in trucci Music Library Web site,
CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 53 Number 4 55 Realm of Fancy. These are a wonderful the aim of this recently published, mod- was the fi rst notice of a performance resource to scholars studying this period, ern edition of the Paine’s masterwork, of any part of the Mass in D.9 Three but unfortunately less useful to conduc- has been to support that goal.8 further movements were performed tors who want to perform this reper- John Knowles Paine (1839–1906) on a fundraising concert at Harvard in tory, since performing parts (scores or was born in Portland, Maine, into a musi- March, 1866. A contemporary reviewer orchestra parts) are not published with cal family. He probably received his early was impressed with the “Confi teor” in them. The only orchestral parts available musical training from his uncle David. particular at this concert, considering it for the works discussed here are those More formal training was undertaken “learned, ingenious in treatment… [and] for Hymn of the West and the overture with Hermann Kotzschmar, a German free from what is commonplace, or dry, to Oedipus Tyrannus.6 Many of these immigrant who settled in Portland. or feebly sentimental.”10 The “Quoniam” scores (by Paine and others) are also Paine realized that he would need to was so favorably received that it had to available for download at the Petrucci continue his musical and compositional be repeated.11 Music Library. training in Europe so in 1859, at the age Paine took the Mass with him on Thirty years ago, it was diffi cult to of 19, he traveled to Berlin (Germany a second trip to Berlin (1866–67), obtain more than one or two of these was then the most common place for organizing and conducting a chorus works to study, let alone to perform. It American composers to study) to com- of 200 and a 50-piece orchestra at is gratifying to see that this rich vein of plete his musical education. His principal the Singakademie. This performance our American choral heritage is slowly teacher in Berlin was Karl August Haupt, marked the fi rst large-scale work by an emerging from neglect for scholars and with whom Paine studied organ, coun- American composer to be heard in a conductors to study, play and, more and terpoint, and composition. Haupt was a European musical center by a musically more frequently, to perform. Bach enthusiast and it was undoubtedly sophisticated audience. The Mass was under his guidance that Paine studied enthusiastically applauded and critically the Baroque master, the results of which acclaimed by the Berlin music press. Paine and the Mass in D infl uenced the fugal movements of the There is no evidence that a complete Of the four large, seminal works Mass and Paine’s many organ pieces. In performance of the work with orchestra identifi ed above, perhaps the most addition to his work with Haupt, he also occurred in the United States until the important and infl uential was Paine’s studied singing with Gustav Wilhelm Te- 1972 Festival of Americana at the New Mass in D. The Mass is one of the few schner and orchestration with Friedrich England Conservatory, when conductor nineteenth-century American choral Wilhelm Wieprecht. Gunther Schuller led a performance. works of the fi rst rank and was the sub- Returning to America in the spring Schuller later recorded the work with ject of my doctoral thesis.7 Undertaking of 1861, Paine was musically active in the St. Louis Symphony and Chorus for a performance of the work has been Boston, giving lessons, organ recitals and, New World Records. diffi cult because of the lack of adequate in 1863, a series of lectures on music The Mass in D (1865–66) was Paine’s performance materials. I have been able history at Harvard. He taught for some fi rst major composition. It is scored for to locate evidence of only seven perfor- time at the New England Conservatory SATB soloists, chorus, and orchestra mances since 1976, many of them with of Music and, in 1875, was appointed to and is ninety minutes long. Comprised only organ accompaniment. The paucity Harvard as the fi rst professor of music of eighteen movements, all but three of performances, in turn, has meant that in America. It was there for a celebration use chorus. The soloists are each given most conductors are unaware of the in 1865 marking the end of the Civil War only one movement to sing alone. The Mass’s high musical quality. The Mass in D that Paine led a varied program which in- fi ve fugues of the Mass are the most im- deserves to enter the choral repertory cluded a “rich ‘Gloria’ from a Mass which portant and exciting music in the work. of American choirs and orchestras, and Paine had recently composed.” This Of these, the monumental fugue at the end of the Credo (“Et vitam venturi”) stands at the center of the work and is one of the more muscular movements CChorTeachorTeach
56 CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 53 Number 4 Peter’s Way Tours 2013/2014 Festivals A tradition of promoting and drawing the most well attended concert venues!
choral accompaniment); the elegant “Et the Mass. Close study of the Mass will incarnatus est” for soprano soloist; and also reveal motives and ideas from one the restful, elegiac “Dona nobis pacem” movement which are re-used and trans- which concludes the Mass. formed in later passages. Furthermore, The angular and chromatic “Cruci- Paine often linked several movements •• BBeenneeddiicctt PPaarraaddee fi xus” fugue subject shows Paine’s close together harmonically and melodi- Rome and study of Bach and Baroque choral music cally, and indicated that they were to Vatican City (Figure 2). be performed without breaks between May 3 - 5, 2013 • June 6 - 8, 2014 Musical structure in the Mass is them. The clearest examples of this are straightforward and classically Germani- the Sanctus–Pleni sunt caeli–Osanna • “Europe and its Songs” cally conceived. Harmonic contrast is and the Agnus Dei–Dona nobis pacem International Folksong Choir Festival sequences which, while provided sepa- typically achieved through mediant Barcelona, Spain key relationships within and between rate numbers, are clearly meant to be Sept. 18 - 21, 2013 • Sept. 17 - 20, 2014 movements. Paine’s harmonic language performed without pause. is typical of his day, employing much • International Music chromaticism, and resulting in some- Choir Festival times surprising harmonic passages. One Sources for the Edition Rome and Vatican City contemporary commentator noted There are several primary sources July 19 - 22, 2013 • July 18 - 21, 2014 that Paine was a “born symphonist,” available for the Mass. My dissertation and his orchestration, while not always and this new edition were prepared • Festival Internazionale adventurous, is nonetheless skillful. Paine from a microfi lm copy of Paine’s score, di Musica e Arte Sacra had the ability to construct melodies obtained in 1987 from the Harvard By invitation only that could be developed and changed libraries. A copy of the manuscript is Orchestra in residence, without losing their impact or beauty, a also posted for perusal and download at Vienna Philharmonic quality amply demonstrated throughout the Petrucci Music Library
CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 53 Number 4 57 Recent examination of the Petrucci Wilhelm gedächtniskirche.12 Schuller had and parts of Beach’s Mass, although score has revealed several discrepancies new parts created from the score for his Barbara Jones has conducted it twice between it and the copy on microfi lm. 1970s performances. The G. Schirmer with the Stowe (Vt.) Festival Chorus For instance, several woodwind dou- rental score reproduces the Harvard and Orchestra. For her performance blings of “hidden” or diffi cult vocal parts microfi lm manuscript and one assumes and subsequent recording14 Jones used are missing. Similarly, in a short section the orchestral parts were produced copies of the original score and original in the “Gloria” the violins, which Paine from that. parts for the winds and brass, but had always uses to double the voices, are modern string parts prepared.15 Soon, noticeably absent. They enter in the one hopes, modern critical editions of middle of a later phrase, minus a brief Conclusions these seminally important American accompaniment fi gure that is, in fact, in It is my hope that this new edition works may also be available not only for the 1866 vocal score. It seems logical to of Paine’s Mass will encourage perfor- wider study, but for performance. conclude that the microfi lm version is mances of this exciting and demanding the fi nal version of the piece (since each work. The fi rst performance using the change makes the score considerably new edition took place in April, 2007, NOTES stronger), possibly re-written by Paine with the Reading Choral Society and after his Harvard performances and Orchestra, in Reading, Pennsylvania. The 1 Walton Music has published a number of before he took the work to Berlin to response from performers and audi- nineteenth-century American choral perform. More investigation is needed ence was overwhelmingly positive. The works, in cooperation with the Library to confi rm this. reviewer from the Reading Eagle noted of Congress. The Library of Congress Beyond the (apparent) two manu- that “Saturday’s concert ... revealed a has also recently teamed up with ACDA script sources, the other primary source sumptuous Mass—expansive, complex, to make available online, through the is a printed piano-vocal score, published and inspired.”13 Paine penned the fi rst Library’s Web site
58 CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 53 Number 4 First-class music. Real-world experience. 7 DeVenney, David P. “A Conductor’s Study of John Knowles Paine’s Mass in D.” DMA, University of Cincinnati, 1989. 8 Serenissima Music, 2011, No. Z8002. A piano-vocal score is currently available for purchase through Amazon.com. A choral score is also available, lacking the three solo movements without chorus and with the piano part substantially reduced in size, at a substantially reduced cost. A spiral-bound edition of the vocal score is also available for keyboard use. Several individual movements will be available shortly as octavos. A complete score and set of instrumental parts, as MASTER OF MUSIC in Choral Conducting well as a smaller study score, will be at Georgia State University available for purchase in the near future for purchase on Amazon and by rental Choral Ensembles: from Luck’s Music Library (lucksmusic. Georgia State University Singers com). Performances of ten movements Georgia State Women’s Chorus Georgia State Men’s Chorus of the Mass can be found on YouTube Choral Union by searching “Paine Mass.” Master Singers 9 Dwight’s Journal of Music, August 5, 1865. 10 Dwight’s Journal of Music, July 7, 1866. Courses Include: 11 The preceding paragraphs are taken in large Graduate Choral Literature part from Schmidt, John C., The Life and Graduate Conducting Seminar Works of John Knowles Paine. Ann Arbor: Choral Conducting Dr. Deanna Joseph UMI Research Press, 1980. Private Vocal/Instrumental Instruction Director of Choral Activities 12 Peter Eliot Stone, quoting in his liner notes Graduate assistantships are available for Fall 2013 that include full for the 1978 recording of the work tuition remission plus stipend. MM students in choral conducting (New World Records #80262-2), 13. are offered regular podium time with the Georgia State University 13 Susan Pena, “DeVenney’s fi nale proves Master Singers and other School of Music ensembles. sumptuous,” Reading Eagle, April 23, 2007. 14 Recorded live on January 22, 1995 by Albany Records, No. Troy 179. Stowe Festival Chorus and Orchestra, Barbara Jones, director. Margot Law, soprano, Martha Remington, mezzo-soprano, Ray Bauwens, tenor, and Joel Schneider, baritone. 15 From private e-mail correspondence.
Georgia State University School of Music (404) 413-5900 www.music.gsu.edu P. O. Box 4097, Atlanta, GA 30302 W. Dwight Coleman, Director • Robert J. Ambrose, Associate Director • Steven Harper, Graduate Director
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