KSKS55 AQA: GCE Music Unit 4 AoS3a – English choral music in the 20th century
by Hugh Benham Hugh Benham has written principally on John Taverner (d1545) and other music in England from c1460 to INTRODUCTION 1575, but also on Baroque music, Ralph Vaughan AQA’s Area of Study 3a concerns ‘the development of English choral music in the 20th century with reference Williams, and topics to: connected with anthems and mass settings GCE A level music. He is an organist, oratorios and other orchestral settings of words. choir director, senior examiner and Composers… might include: Elgar, Walton, Britten, Howells, Vaughan Williams.’ composer.
In this present article, we briefly consider Elgar’sThe Apostles rather than the relatively well-known Dream of Specification, pages 19–20: see here. Gerontius. There are also sections on Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast and Britten’s War Requiem, and references For questions to other pieces from the categories listed in the bullet points above. from the 2014 examination, see here. Comments below concern context first and foremost, to help supply essential background. Extended remarks Consult also A on musical features are necessarily limited, but should provide some stimulus to further research. References level Music Unit4 to various printed and online resources also point the way to additional investigation. (MUSC4) Core Study here, which has the following remarks on Listening to any music selected for study is vital. All works referred to below are readily available online page 3: ‘teaching (eg via YouTube or from iTunes), and/or from CDs, BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM. Some students may have should focus on the opportunitues to perform as well as listen, in choral societies, church choirs, or at school or college. musical features of each [work]’; ‘it is not necessary to For concise definitions of unfamiliar musical vocabulary, see for exampleRhinegold Dictionary of Music in do every movement Sound by David Bowman (Rhinegold Education, 2002), volume 1. of each piece – be selective’, and ‘context is also important’. Works listed in this Core Study document are: ANTHEMS AND MASS SETTINGS Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, Walton’s Anthems Belshazzar’s Feast and Britten’s War Requiem. Some An anthem is a piece of sacred music for choir, perhaps with some solo writing, and most commonly with organ analytical notes are accompaniment. Anthem texts are usually from the Bible, hymns or religious poetry, and they are generally in identified. English.
Similar pieces with Twentieth-century anthems were normally composed for church services. Most commonly this meant the Latin text are usually Church of England service of Evensong. In fact, The Book of Common Prayer (1662) expects an anthem to be termed motets. sung after the prayer ‘Lighten our darkness’ (the third collect).
Particular anthems are not prescribed in the Prayer Book. Instead, they are generally chosen to suit the season of the church’s year and/or the prescribed Bible readings.
Some anthems were composed with small amateur church choirs in mind, while others were intended to command the attention of the most prestigious cathedral choirs (and to benefit from the wonderful acoustics References to and fine organs associated with cathedrals). For practical reasons, 20th-century anthems are rarely extended specific works and composers pieces (unlike some earlier examples, such as Handel’s Chandos Anthems). do not imply that these must be taught – see again the specification requirements.
1 Music Teacher September 2015 For more information on 20th-century English anthems, see
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie, (Macmillan, 2/2001) – hereafter referred to as Grove (2001). (For Grove Music Online, see here.) The account of the English anthem from ‘c1890 to the present’ is useful, but note the starting date and the references to motets by Stanford and Bax.
Twentieth Century Church Music by Erik Routley (Herbert Jenkins, 1964) – well worth consulting, but clearly does not cover the last third of the century.
Choral Cathedral Music in the Church of England: An examination into the diversity and potential of contemporary choral-writing at the end of the twentieth century by Georgina Clare Luck (see here). This has useful references to anthems by composers active in the later years of the 20th century such as John Tavener (1944–2013), Jonathan Harvey (1939–2012), Judith Weir (b1954) and Alan Ridout (1934–1996).
The following anthems give some idea of the variety of scale and mood achieved in the mid 20th century: ‘O taste and see’ by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) and ‘God is gone up’ by Gerald Finzi (1901–1956).
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: ‘O TASTE AND SEE’ ‘O taste and see’ was composed for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953. It was performed in the same service as Parry’s ‘I was glad’ (originally written for Edward VII’s coronation in 1902) and Handel’s celebrated ‘Zadok the Priest’, and one might have expected something equally magnificent from Vaughan Williams. However, ‘O taste and see’, a setting of a single verse (Psalm 34, verse 8) lasting not much more than one minute, is remarkable for its simplicity and restrained dynamics.
After a brief organ introduction, a treble soloist sings the complete verse unaccompanied to the following pentatonic melody:
4
O taste and see how gra- cious the Lord is:
blest is the man that trust- eth in him.
At the Coronation, the choir consisted of boys (trebles) and men (altos, tenors and basses). In some recent performances women or girls have sung the treble part.
All the trebles repeat this melody, altos, tenors and basses entering in fugal style. The treble soloist re-enters with a new (higher) phrase with words from the second half of the verse. Full trebles (accompanied by altos) repeat this new phrase, slightly varied and extended, followed a bar later by tenors and basses.
Music Teacher September 2015 2 The structure is reminiscent of, for example, Elgar’s short motet ‘Ave verum corpus’, Op. 2, no. 1 (1886–7, revised 1902), but Vaughan Williams achieves greater subtlety with his overlapping of sections.
The music has a one-sharp key signature, and no accidentals at all. Tonal interest lies in the G major–E minor ambiguity inherent in the pentatonic melodic material: the notes G A B D E can represent G major, or E minor with a modal (Aeolian) D natural instead of a tonal D sharp.
For two online performances, visit here (the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge), and here (the Cambridge Singers – without the organ introduction, but with the score displayed).
The complete poem FINZI: ‘GOD IS GONE UP’ is available here. Finzi’s ‘God is gone up’ was specially composed for a St Cecilia’s Day Service at St Sepulchre’s Church, Finzi set only two stanzas, and not in Holborn, in 1951 with a text from Sacramental Meditations by Edward Taylor (c.1646–1729). It is sometimes the original order. used as an anthem for Ascension.
The organ has an important and varied role. Reeds are prominent in the introduction to depict ‘a triumphant shout’ and ‘sounding Trumpets’ melodies’, but there is much more delicate writing for manuals only just before the choral entries on ‘Methinks I see’. Major tonality prevails, and there are exciting shifts of key, particularly between E major and A flat major – notably near the end where a fortissimo chord of F flat major in second inversion becomes, through enharmonic change, Ic in E major (B–E–G sharp) at ‘Glory’. ‘Divisions’ occur where two (or The ternary structure is effective, with similar, largely exultant outer sections enclosing the quieter ‘Methinks I more) notes occur simultaneously in the see’. Vocal textures are mostly homophonic, with the most triumphant words set in syllabic style for maximum same voice part. clarity, but imitative writing provides relief and variety. Some ‘divisions’ give additional vocal fullness (as at ‘Sing Praises out’) or brightness (divided sopranos and altos only at ‘Methinks I see Heaven’s sparkling courtiers fly’).
26 Sing Prais es- out, sing Prais- es out, Sing Prais es- out, sing Prais- es out, Sing Prais es- out, sing Prais- es out, Sing Prais es- out, sing Prais- es out,
3 Music Teacher September 2015 Mass settings
For full Latin mass A mass setting normally involves all or most of the following Latin texts from the Roman Catholic Mass: Kyrie texts, and English eleison; Gloria in excelsis; Credo in unum Deum; Sanctus with Benedictus; and Agnus Dei. Walton’s Gloria translations, see, for (1960–61) is a rare example of the extended setting of a single text. example, here.
The term ‘mass setting’ can be extended to See for example Settings of the corresponding English texts from the Anglican Holy Communion – sometimes referred to ‘Masses of Requiem’ in The Catholic as the Mass or Eucharist. For example, Herbert Howells (1892–1983) composed An English Mass (1955). Encyclopedia, vol. Settings of the Requiem Mass (the Mass for the Dead). Twentieth-century settings by English composers 12 (Robert Appleton may include additional texts that do not belong to the Latin Requiem. These are usually sacred (eg Psalm Company, 1911) here. For full Latin 23 appears both in Howells’s unaccompanied Requiem (1932) and the Requiem (1985) by John Rutter), but Requiem texts, and Britten’s War Requiem (see below) incorporates poems by Wilfred Owen. English translations, see, for example, Howells’s Hymnus Paradisi (1938, revised 1950) for soloists, chorus and orchestra, draws on the Requiem, here. using texts from the opening of Requiem aeternam, Sanctus (but not Benedictus) and the closing phrase of the Agnus Dei.
The BBC Proms 2012 performance of Howells’s Hymnus Paradisi is available here.
If a Mass setting is sung during a celebration of the Mass or Holy Communion, the movements are separated by prayers, readings and other parts of the liturgy. A composer may, however, intend or allow concert performance, in which case the movements are likely to be performed in immediate succession.
The number of important mass settings by 20th-century English composers is small.
For an excellent summary of 20th-century mass settings (general – not restricted to England), see Grove (2001), ‘Mass, §III, 5.’ Note that Delius’s A Mass of Life, completed 1904–05, is not a mass setting at all, but, with its text from Nietzsche’s Also sprach Zarathrustra, ‘a choral celebration of the Will to say Yea! to life’ (see Eric Fenby’s note for the CD ‘British Composers: Delius, Howells, Hadley (EMI Classics, 50999 0 95405 2 1)).
As well as the two settings by Britten selected for comment below, and Howells’s English Mass, the following are particularly remarkable: Mass in G minor (1920–21) by Vaughan Williams – for unaccompanied voices (double choir) with four soloists. There is a debt to 16th-century vocal polyphony, but note traits characteristic of Vaughan Williams, including previously forbidden parallelisms, and a modal idiom influenced by folk music. Requiem (1932, but released in 1980) by Howells. Major writings on Britten include The African Sanctus (1972) by David Fanshawe (1942–2010), for soprano soloist, SATB choir, instrumental Music of Benjamin ensemble and pre-recorded tape, uses much of the traditional Latin text (not always in the normal order) and Britten by Peter incorporates recordings of traditional African music. Evans (Clarendon Press,1996), and The Cambridge Companion to See the extended introductory note in the vocal score (Chappell Music Ltd, 1977). Benjamin Britten, edited by Mervyn Cooke (Cambridge University Press, Two mass settings by Benjamin Britten (1913–76) are particularly significant: theMissa brevis in D, Op. 63, 1999). and the War Requiem.
Music Teacher September 2015 4 MISSA BREVIS Britten composed his Missa brevis (literally ‘Short mass’) for Westminster (Roman Catholic) Cathedral in 1959, where, at hardly more than ten minutes in length, it was eminently suitable for its intended use in the liturgy. The work’s brevity is due partly to Britten not setting the Credo.
Missa brevis is scored for three groups of treble (boys’) voices, with organ – Britten had previously heard and admired the sound of the Westminster Cathedral choristers in his A Ceremony of Carols.
Britten exploits the apparently limited vocal forces (the total range of the three treble parts being about two octaves) with characteristic resourcefulness. As well as employing a little solo writing (in the Gloria and Benedictus), he uses the voices all together in unison (eg Gloria, bars 5–8). in harmony, in homorhythm (ie all sharing the same rhythm) – eg Gloria, bar 9 to close a phrase, or more persistently in the Kyrie, to end each section (see below). in counterpoint (notably at the start of the Sanctus, with trebles III imitating trebles I by inversion). successively, as at the start of each section of the Kyrie.
9 I, II Ky - rie e-i le - - son. III Ky - rie e-i le - - son.
Find other examples of the vocal textures listed above. Comment on Britten’s use of dynamics (eg in the Gloria, from ‘Domine Deus, Rex caelestis’ to ‘Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis’).
Britten’s treatment of melodic material and his approach to tonality and harmony both repay close attention.
The ostinato in the Gloria, a version of the plainsong phrase used for the opening words, is present almost throughout the movement, but is rested sufficiently to avoid overuse. It is commonly in 7/8 time with quaver groups either of 3, 2, 2 or 2, 2, 3. It is abbreviated (in 5/8 time) when the ‘Amen’ begins.
The five-note ostinato heard untransposed throughout the Agnus Dei in the organ pedals is gloomily insistent, as suits a movement marked ‘slow and solemn’, but the transpositions in the voices, the varied dynamics, and the growing density of the organ part allow the music to grow and develop.
Bar 2 of the Sanctus reveals Britten’s fascination with the principle of 12-note serialism without recourse to atonality. All twelve notes of the chromatic scale are used (eg in the organ, right hand), and are emphasised by ostinato-style repetition in a way alien to the serial technique of Schoenberg and his disciples.
For detailed discussion of tonality in Missa brevis, see Evans, pages 436–39.
5 Music Teacher September 2015 WAR REQUIEM Principal sources of information The War Requiem, composed in 1961-1962 for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, juxtaposes on Britten’s War the Latin Requiem Mass and English poems from one of the principal poets of World War I, Wilfred Owen Requiem online (1893–1918), with passionate anti-war intent. include this and this. Note also Britten’s War Requiem by Mervyn Cooke (Cambridge Explore the relationship between a selection of the Latin texts University Press, and Owen’s poems in one or more of the following sections 1996) and its review of Britten’s War Requiem: the opening of the Dies irae; the by Peter Evans in Offertorium (from ‘Quam olim Abrahae’); the Agnus Dei. Music & Letters, lxxviii/3 (August 1997), pages 466–468). The War Requiem is on a grand scale, lasting nearly one and a half hours. It is one of the last and greatest monuments of the British choral society tradition founded on such works as Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s The Creation and Mendelssohn’s Elijah.
The two contrasting textual elements are projected by different vocal and instrumental forces, which only come together at the end of the work:
Requiem text (Latin) Owen’s poems (English) Mixed chorus (SATB) Boys’ choir (with small organ), preferably at a distance from the other performers Soprano soloist Tenor soloist Baritone soloist Full orchestra Chamber orchestra (with a different conductor)
Music Teacher September 2015 6 The following tabular presentation shows how this works in the first movement (Requiem aeternam), and provides a broad summary of events.
Text Rehearsal Forces Musical material number in score ‘Requiem SATB preceded by, and yy S and T begin alternately by singing aeternam’ alternating with, full ‘Requiem aeternam’ on a monotone orchestra. (F sharp), with bells (F sharp). yy A and B repeat, but on C, thus establishing the C–F sharp tritone crucial to this work. yy Full orchestra (‘tutti’) is independent of the tritone, with an initial melody that suggests D minor (with F natural), and a bass A (dominant pedal in terms of D minor). ‘Requiem 1 As before, but with yy Bass F in orchestra further contradicts the F …Domine’ more overlapping and sharps in S and T. integration of forces yy It anticipates the F that is a tonal centre at rehearsal no. 3, and also the movement’s final ‘resolution’ onto an F major chord. ‘et lux 2 SATB finally sing yy Bass A ‘dominant pedal’ returns. perpetua…Requiem together, with yy Singers no longer always limited to a …Domine’ homorhythm at monotone – both notes of the (falling) tritone ‘Requiem…’ appear in each part at ‘et lux’. ‘Te decet hymnus’ 3 Boys’ choir, with strings yy Strings slowly alternate between high octave from full orchestra Cs and F sharps. (‘always pp’). The boys yy Against this the boys sing a new melody are divided into two (beginning C–F and underpinned by an F (higher and lower) groups chord in second inversion in the organ). yy This melody includes all but one of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale (there is no G): it spans the tritone C to F sharp. yy There follows an inversion (from F sharp to C). yy Organ right hand doubles vocal melody – a practical touch typical of Britten (given the possible threats to intonation in a highly chromatic melody). yy Organ left hand has triads (major or minor) mostly incorporating principal notes from the vocal melody. ‘ad te omnis’ / 7 Final phrases sung by ‘Requiem…’ the boys overlap with start of a modified repeat of earlier material for choir and full orchestra ‘What passing bells…’ 9 Tenor solo with chamber yy C–F sharp tritone now presented as C–G orchestra flat in the harp. (Do these notes represent distant passing bells?) yy Key signature of five flats – B flat minor rather than D flat – repeated Fs can he heard as dominant pedal. yy Opening vocal phrase expands from C up to G flat before ending on G flat an octave below. yy References to the boys’ melody from rehearsal no. 3 at 13 (prompted by text ‘Not in the hands of boys’) and at 15. ‘Kyrie 16 SATB with divisions in A yy Much parallelism, including parallel 5ths, eleison…’ and B and doublings of most of them perfect. S by T and A by B. With yy The final resolution on to a pppp F major bells (C–F sharp tritones) chord.
7 Music Teacher September 2015 Investigate the melodic content of the vocal passages at rehearsal nos. 4 (see example below), 5 and 6.
4 Et ti bi- red de-- tur vo- tum, vo tum- in Je- ru sa-- lem:
Why do you suppose the first pitches at 13 are D flat, G flat, F flat, A and D rather than C, F, E, A D as at 3 and 15? What chord is heard in the second bar of 15, and why is it significant?
ORATORIOS AND OTHER ORCHESTRAL SETTINGS OF WORDS
Oratorios
An oratorio, as generally understood in 20th-century Britain, was a large-scale work for soloists, choir and orchestra on a religious (most commonly Biblical) theme.
Handel’s oratorios (including Messiah) established the genre in Britain in the early 18th century. Influential later works included Haydn’s The Creation and Mendelssohn’s Elijah.
Important 20th-century English oratorios include three by Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius (1900), The Apostles
(1902–03) and The Kingdom (1906). Vaughan Williams composed Sancta civitas in 1923–25. A Child of Our NB: The oratorios Time (1939–41) by Michael Tippett (1905–98) is unusual in being largely secular, although the spirituals are of Hubert Parry from the Christian tradition. (1848–1918) and Charles Stanford (1852–1924) were Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast (1930–31) is sometimes classified as an oratorio, but, at less than 40 minutes, is composed in the perhaps better described as an extended cantata. 19th century.
For a useful ELGAR: THE APOSTLES introduction to The The Apostles was the first part of a planned trilogy, with The Kingdom as the second. Elgar composed little of Apostles see here. the final part – The Last Judgement.
Elgar took the text from the Bible, having been stung by some critics’ reactions to the (Catholic) theology of The Dream of Gerontius, whose words came from Cardinal John Henry Newman’s poem of that name. However, his approach was not quite what people might have expected.
See extended comment in an article by Byron Adams in The Cambridge Companion to Elgar, edited by Daniel M Grimley and Julian Rushton (CUP, 2004), (especially pages 95–99).
The Apostles is most remarkable for the prominence given to Judas Iscariot and to Mary Magdalene (who was not an Apostle). With considerable imagination and inventiveness Elgar puts words from various scriptural sources into their mouths to suit the roles he has given them.
Music Teacher September 2015 8 Elgar may well have sympathised with these two ‘outsiders’, being something of an outsider himself in the narrow-minded society of his day, as a Roman Catholic and as the son of a piano tuner and shopkeeper.
Further, Mary’s ‘tower of Magdala’ has no Biblical basis, and there is no evidence that she witnessed the storm during which Peter attempted to ‘come unto [Jesus] upon the waters’. Mary Magdalene is a penitent sinner who remembers the now shameful delights of her previous life in the aptly entitled ‘Fantasy’ section at rehearsal no. 86. Elgar owes a considerable debt to parts of Wagner’s Tannhäuser and Parsifal here and in the ‘In Capernaum’ section.
The influence of Wagner had already been strong in The Dream of Gerontius (1900). The Apostles again relies heavily on recurring leitmotifs, but, with its seven ‘scenes’ or tableaux (‘The Calling of the Apostles’, ‘By the Wayside’, etc), its structure is less continuous than that of Gerontius. Nevertheless, it is still quite different from traditional oratorios (as composed by Handel, Haydn and Mendelssohn) with their clear division into recitatives, arias and choruses.
For detailed investigation of the Elgar-Wagner connection, see Elgar as post-Wagnerian: a study of Elgar’s assimilation of Wagner’s music andmethodology (2008) by Laura Meadows, Durham theses, Durham University.
Among the leitmotifs are those widely known as: ‘The Spirit of the Lord’ (at the start of the Prologue):
largamente ______Lento = 56 solenne
‘Christ, Man of Sorrows’ (6–7 bars after rehearsal no. 2). The melody G flat–A flat–B flat is heard over a B flat pedal. A distinctive dissonance arises from the chromatic descent in the ‘tenor’ from B flat through B double flat to A flat. ‘Comfort’ (first heard at rehearsal no. 5) ‘Church’ (at rehearsal no. 7)
9 Music Teacher September 2015 ‘The prayer of Christ’ (at rehearsal no. 15):
Poco più mosso ( = 56 ) 15 mistico
‘Christ’s loneliness’ (six bars after rehearsal no. 19):
A tempo = 50 molto tranquillo
Some of these leitmotifs demonstrate the adventurousness of Elgar’s harmonic language in terms of contemporary English music.
The striking semitonal dissonance in ‘Christ, Man of Sorrows’ suggests sorrow, even agony. ‘The prayer of Christ’ begins with arresting juxtapositions of root-position chords a tritone apart, the first of each pair major, the second minor (E flat major and A minor, F major and B minor). ‘Christ’s loneliness’ has some truly remarkable parallelism (including parallel perfect 5ths) in a succession of half-diminished 7th chords, descending by semitones and producing complete chromatic saturation.
The work is richly scored, for large orchestra with choir and six soloists. The soloists are soprano (representing the Angel and the Blessed Virgin Mary), contralto (Mary Magdalene and briefly Narrator 2), tenor (St John and Narrator 1), and three basses (St Peter, Judas and Jesus).
Byron Adams (The Cambridge Companion, page 96) comments that ‘the Saviour is reduced to a mere bystander at the drama of the apostles unfolding around Him. Elgar is clearly more interested in the human sufferings and doubts of the apostles than in the supernal travails of their Master’. How far do you agree with this? Elgar, practical as always in both The work provides considerable variety and many rewards for a large choral society. vocal and orchestral writing, allows the altos to double The opening chorus (from rehearsal no. 2) begins with slow and quiet unison writing (and ends with a varied the tenors rather repeat of this, to be sung even more quietly (ppp). The climactic passage two bars after rehearsal no. 8 is also the sopranos if unison (reaching ff five bars later with some very high writing for altos andbasses). necessary.
The rest of the chorus has some four-part homophony, and further contrast comes from use of reduced textures (unison S and A at rehearsal no. 5 and S only two bars after rehearsal no. 7).
Music Teacher September 2015 10 Some contrapuntal passages are found later in the work (as at rehearsal nos 40 and 130). The most striking vocal textures involve: divisions (notably with sopranos divided into three after rehearsal no. 89) use of chorus with soloists (as at 133) use of semi-chorus. At 217 a semi-chorus of women’s voices, plus the remaining sopranos and altos, represent the scene ‘In Heaven’, while four soloists’ parts and those of the choral tenors and basses are labelled ‘On Earth’. See here for more information. As a general introduction TIPPETT: A CHILD OF OUR TIME to the work, read Composition of A Child of Our Time (1939–41) was prompted by an incident in 1938, and its dreadful aftermath. Tom Service’s article from the BBC Proms Herschel Grynszpan, a young Jewish man, assassinated a German diplomat in Paris; this led to ‘Kristallnacht’, Music Guide. with its concerted violent attacks on Jewish businesses and synagogues. Tippett himself compiled the libretto.
A Child of Our Time is in some respects more of a traditional oratorio than Elgar’s The Apostles. It is not indebted to the Wagnerian leitmotif principle, and Tippett himself considered that its three-part structure was similar to that of Handel’s Messiah. It is much shorter than Messiah, however, at about an hour overall, and few individual items are really extended.
There is no regular alternation of recitatives and large-scale arias, but the two types of movement are clearly represented. The Narrator’s items are related to Handelian secco recitative, no. 4 even beginning with the conventional first-inversion chord (see below), the most overtly neoclassical touch of all:
Tempo commodo quasi parlante ( = c. 60 ) Bass solo Now in each na- tion there were
Keyboard Strings reduction
4 some cast out by au-i thor - ty- and tor- men - ted,
ten. No. 2 (‘The Argument’) is a short aria, with (for example) some text repetition to aid clear projection, expressive melisma and motivic working (largely of a two-note figure, ascending or descending by step and beginning with an offbeat crotchet).
Inclusion of five spirituals (arranged by Tippett for soloist(s) and chorus) recalls Bach’s incorporation of chorales in his Passions and cantatas: familiar words and music, with which the audience can immediately relate, are used to conclude major sections and the entire work.
11 Music Teacher September 2015 However, Tippett notes in the vocal score that ‘the spirituals should not be thought of as congregational hymns, but as integral parts of the Oratorio’. Each spiritual comments on the foregoing dramatic and emotional situation in ‘Our [continent and] Time’ from the perspective of another persecuted community (African-Americans in the southern USA).
The music of the other choruses is entirely Tippett’s own. Some of these movements provide general, distanced commentary on the events that prompted the work’s composition. Nos 1 and 3, for instance, begin ‘The world turns on its dark side’ and ‘Is evil then good?’ – like the recitatives and arias they do not allude explicitly to the events that prompted the work. The name of Grynszpan is never used, for example – he is always ‘the boy’ (as in No. 12).
Some choruses represent groups of people in the drama, again without any names – notably in the ‘Double Chorus of Persecutors and Persecuted’ (no. 11) and ‘Chorus of the Self-Righteous’ (no. 13).
The choruses demonstrate considerable textural variety, from imitative counterpoint (as in no. 5 ‘Chorus of the Oppressed’ and at ‘We are as seed’ in no. 3) to more homophonic styles (especially in the spirituals). In no. 28 (the scena for bass solo and chorus) sopranos are doubled by tenors an octave below, and altos (with different material) by basses, giving an essentially two-part texture – a kind of halfway house between unison and full four-part harmony.
Other orchestral settings of words
Other word settings include cantatas (which are, generally speaking, structurally similar to oratorios but on a smaller scale). They can be sacred or secular, although the majority are sacred.
However, Vaughan Williams’s cantata Dona nobis pacem and oratorio Sancta civitas are very similar in length. Perhaps the distinction rests in the fact that the text of the latter is sacred throughout.
Examples of cantatas by Vaughan Williams include In Windsor Forest (text by Shakespeare, 1930), Dona nobis pacem (text from a variety of sources, sacred and secular, 1936) and Hodie (Christmas cantata, 1953–54). The 2012 performance from Britten composed several works that he described as cantatas, notably Saint Nicolas (1949), Cantata the BBC Proms is available online academica (1959), Cantata misericordium (1963) and Phaedra (one of his last works, 1975). here, preceded by a short recorded A few ‘orchestral settings of words’ belie their titles – notably A Mass of Life (1904–05) by Delius (see above, interview with the composer. under ‘Mass settings’), and the same composer’s Requiem (1913–14) with a text by Heinrich Simon. For additional background see WALTON: BELSHAZZAR’S FEAST here. Belshazzar’s Feast, a BBC commission, was composed in 1930–31.
It is lavishly scored, with a large orchestra (including an alto saxophone in E flat and much percussion) augmented by two brass bands, one on each side of the conductor.
The only soloist, a baritone, sings with the chorus in parts of the setting of Psalm 137 and in two important recitatives. The mixed choir is sometimes divided into choruses I and II, as at rehearsal no. 20; elsewhere there are frequent part-divisions. A semi-chorus has an important role, as at rehearsal nos 8 and 60–64, and at 65 two semi-choruses sing together.
Music Teacher September 2015 12 The choral writing, chiefly homophonic, is demanding, for example with many high notes for the sopranos, sometimes sustained for several bars (as at rehearsal no. 71). But notice how use of two choruses allows repeated sustained top A flats without too much strain on the same set of singers:
SOPRANO parts from CHORUSES I and II 71 Al le-- lu ------ia, (lu) - ia, Al - le -lu - ia, A l l e-
5 Al- le - lu - lu -----ia,
9 - ia, Al- le - lu ----ia,
The text was ‘arranged from Biblical sources by Osbert Sitwell, chiefly from Psalm 137, Revelation, chapter 18, and Daniel, chapter 5’.
Daniel, chapter 5 has an account of the sacrilegious banquet that gave the work its name. While the Israelites were in exile in Babylon (Psalm 137), their Temple in Jerusalem having been plundered, the king and his courtiers used the sacred vessels for drinking to various pagan gods – an outrage that resulted in divine vengeance. Sentence was passed by means of a mysterious message that appeared on the palace wall.
A dramatized audio reading of Daniel, 5 is available here (but note that Sitwell and Walton disregarded the roles of the queen and of Daniel).
The work ends with the Israelites’ rejoicing at length at the overthrow of Belshazzar, the destruction of Babylon, and their deliverance.
13 Music Teacher September 2015 Belshazzar’s Feast can be viewed simply as a setting of a particular Biblical incident, but Byron Adams in Grove (2001) sees an implied parallel between ‘the excesses and downfall of the Babylonian monarch [Belshazzar] and the opulence and eventual implosion of Edwardian society’. Further, Walton may have sympathised with the exiled Jewish people as ‘powerless outsiders forced to serve an oppressive society’ – the composer having been a ‘Lancastrian outsider at Oxford and in London’. Rather pointedly, a ‘parody of Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance marches’ accompanies the pagans’ praise of their idols (at rehearsal no. 27).
The work falls into three main sections, after a menacing introductory choral recitative for tenors and basses (‘…Thy sons…shall be taken away…’).
1) ‘By the waters of Babylon’ (Psalm 137), from seven bars before rehearsal no. 1 to rehearsal no. 14.
The melancholy mood of the opening words is captured in quiet and sombre music. The introduction is just for lower strings, without the brighter sound of violins. Divided violas have prolonged tremolos (F and A) under which cellos and basses play a rather gloomy melody with just four pitches – the notes of a D minor triad and a B flat. The gloom persists with the introduction of a lengthy D tonic pedal (beginning in cellos and double basses).
Trace the development and expansion of the cellos’ and basses’ melody as far as rehearsal no. 5. Do you consider that there is a connection between the three-note motif in the double basses at rehearsal number 2 and the four-note motif at rehearsal no. 15? How does the reprise of the opening music at rehearsal no. 10 differ from the original statement?
Readers may find the following resources useful starting-points for discussion and further study:
A university essay on word-painting in the work
Elissa Hope Keck’s Master’s thesis (University of Tennessee, Knoxville) which focuses on orientalism.
2) ‘Babylon was a great city’ (just before rehearsal no. 15), labelled quasi recit. ad lib., with text closely based on Revelation 18: 12-13), is followed by the account of the banquet (‘In Babylon, Belshazzar the king’), the writing on the wall (rehearsal no. 51), and (briefly but graphically) the death and downfall of Belshazzar (from rehearsal no. 53).
The descending four-note motif at rehearsal no. 15 (E flat–D–A–D), which is instrumental, never sung, is important in the opening of the main section (from rehearsal no. 15 to the end of 19). At rehearsal no. 24 it accompanies – fortissimo – the immense choral prolongation of ‘King’ (‘[Thus spake the] King’), the E flat clashing aggressively with the E naturals in the first alto and second tenor parts.
Where else in the second section do we hear the descending four-note motif? Is it ever transposed from its original pitch? What other motifs are important in the banqueting section?
The fortissimo Lombardic rhythms (or Scotch snaps) in some parts – demisemiquaver and dotted quaver – that follow the chorus’s shouted ‘Slain!’ (from rehearsal no. 54) have in common with the opening of the four-note motif a descending semitone (here D flat to C). The D flats, although brief, clash violently with quaver Cs elsewhere.
Music Teacher September 2015 14 3) ‘Then sing aloud to God our strength’ (Psalm 81: 1–3) at rehearsal no. 54 (Allegro giocoso) and ‘While the Kings of the earth lament’ (verses from Revelation 18) from rehearsal no. 62.
The third major section begins with an orchestral prelude in a quick 3/4 time that owes its lively and somewhat jazzy character to its prominent syncopations (eg after rehearsal no. 54). The four-note motif, with its potential for bitter dissonance, is abandoned: perhaps the descending (and ascending) octave leaps are purged remnants of it? The tonality is F (major) – as at the end of the work.
But note how the final Fs (after rehearsal no. 78) are coloured by rapid contrary-motion off-key approaches (the whole-tone C flat, D flat, E flat series in the upper parts with C flat, B flat and A flat below).
15 Music Teacher September 2015