Mein Gläubiges Herze 15:21 comes from Johann Sebastian Bach’s (1685-1750) Cantata 68, “Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt” (1725) for Whit Monday. BWV 68, with text written by Christiane Mariane von Ziegler, was the seventh collaboration out of nine between Papa Bach and Frau von Ziegler in the spring of 1725. It was their last collaboration because despite von Ziegler’s text possessing a “deep religious understanding with a graceful command of language,” Bach was dissatisfied with it and altered most of her poetry beyond recognition in his musical settings. In 1728, three years later, von Ziegler published her nine librettos the way she had intended them, and never worked with Bach again. Mein Gläubiges Herze is one of two arias – soprano and bass – in “Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt”. Both of these arias contain material Bach had already used in one of his early Weimar secular cantatas, BWV 208 (1713). Mein Gläubiges Herze expresses the joy and happiness for springtime and May festivals. Although utilized in both a secular and sacred cantata, Bach’s music in the aria hardly changed, demonstrating his stylistic consistency that was not necessarily connected to the thematic material. (Source: bach-cantatas.com)
Today’s arrangement of Mein Gläubiges Herze is unusual; instead of hearing a piano reduction of Bach’s original orchestration, you hear selected orchestral parts in the piano along with a viola da gamba playing the low bassline originally labeled in Bach’s score as “continuo”, and which would have been played by a combination of supporting instruments - a keyboard instrument with a bowed bass instrument.
My believing heart,
Exult, sing, make merry;
Your Jesus is there!
Away, lament; away, torments;
To you I wish to say only:
My Jesus is at hand.
Translation: Michael Marissen and Daniel R. Melamed, from vmii.org
If You Only Knew 20:20 by Reverend Alfred Henry Ackley (1887-1960) was published in 1963 in the hymnal “Bit of Heaven Song Book”. Some of you have heard this hymn utilized by me as prelude music before Sunday morning services. I hope the text enhances your experience of this hymn. His Love Controls It All 24:33 by Harry Dixon Loes is another hymn heard by most members of the congregation, as I have used it in my musical selections approximately 3,482,377 times.
If you only knew His love for you,
You’d fly to Him on wings of light,
And rest your weary soul within His heart,
To find the ecstasy of heaven’s pure delight.
If you only knew His love for you,
His pow’r to save from all that harms,
A father’s pity and a mother’s care,
Are found perfected in the shelter of His arms.
If you only knew His love for you,
The awful price He had to pay,
The great affection Calvary reveals.
You would arise and follow Christ the King to day.
If you only knew His love for you,
You’d love Him, too, you’d love him too.
If you only knew his love for you,
You’d love Him, if you only knew.
By: A.H.A
The shadows of life are but shadows indeed,
The clouds cannot drive out the sun;
The love of my Lord draws the map of my life,
I’ll see it when this day is done.
His love controls it all,
Unseen by my eyes,
Yet my faith to Him flies,
His love controls it all.
The clouds are beneath and the storm is below,
I peacefully live by His grace;
The heavens are bright and the sun warms my soul,
His love shows His wonderful Face.
His love controls it all,
Unseen by my eyes,
Yet my faith to Him flies,
His love controls it all.
By: Herbert G. Tovey
Quanto sia lieto il giorno 27:45 comes from Philippe Verdelot’s 1541 I madrigali a tre voce. Verdelot was a Frenchman who spent the majority of his life in Florence, Italy. Under his supervision, a set of part-books – including Quanto sia lieto il giorno – were assembled and gifted to the court of King Henry VIII in the mid 1520s. His chosen text is, in contrast to those of Monteverdi, a light-hearted decree for the celebration of love. The imagery includes forest nymphs and shepherds frolicking together in happy celebration.
How happy is the day
in which ancient things
Are now by you shown and celebrated:
One sees because around us,
all friendly people
are assembled here:
We who spend our lives
in these woodlands and groves,
have also come here,
I, nymph, and we, shepherds,
and we sing together of our loves.
By: Niccolò Machiavelli
Translation. Allen Garvin
In quali…Mi tradi quell’alma ingrata 31:14 comes from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s (1756-1791) 1788 opera Il dissoluto punito, ossia il Don Giovanni, or simply put, Don Giovanni. Without going into the details of the plot, the libretto – written by Mozart’s friend and frequent librettist, Lorenzo Da Ponte, tells the story of Don Juan, or Don Giovanni, the legendary Spanish libertine. The opera is a drama giocoso, which translates to funny drama, although Mozart himself considered the work to simply be an opera buffa - a comedy. Regardless of how the work was labeled, the mixture of comedy with tragedy creates a humorously dark retelling of Don Giovanni’s punishment.
In this aria, you are hearing an internal conflict within Donna Elvira, one of the women who fell for Don Giovanni’s antics. The aria consists of two halves – recitative and aria. There are two types of recitatives – recitativo secco (dry recitative) and recitativo accompagnato (accompanied recitative). The recitative you hear is a piano reduction of an accompagnato recitative, meaning the orchestra accompanies this recitative as opposed to harpsichord. Orchestrally accompanied recitatives typically contained more dramatic and emotionally powerful transitions within the character’s arc. In this case, Donna Elvira expresses her disgust and hatred for Don Giovanni, but halfway through she feels pity for herself as she realizes that despite hating Don Giovanni, she still loves him. His upcoming eternal damnation is both relieving and saddening to her.
In what abysses of error, into what dangers,
Thy reckless path pursuing,
Have guilt and folly brought thee!
The wrath of heaven will surely overwhelm thee,
It is swift to destroy.
The lightning flash of retribution impendeth,
It will soon be upon thee!
Eternal ruin at last will be thy doom. Wretched Elvira!
What a tempest within thee, thy heart divideth!
Ah, wherefore is this longing? These pangs of sorrow?
Cruel heart, thou hast betray'd me,
Grief unending upon me he cast.
Pity yet lingers, I'll not upbraid thee,
Ne'er can I forget the past, the happy past.
When my wrongs arise before me,
Thoughts of vengeance stir my bosom,
But the love that at first he bore me,
Binds my heart to him at last.
Lorenzo da Ponte
Translation. opera-arias.com
Beautiful Dreamer 39:33 (1864) is a parlor ballad by Stephen Foster (1826-1864). Most of Foster’s music after 1860 is classified as parlor ballads, containing sentimental or narrative text. In this case, Beautiful Dreamer resembles a lullaby sung to a sweetheart.
Beautiful Dreamer, wake unto me,
Starlight and dewdrops are waiting for thee;
Sounds of the rude world heard in the day,
Lull’d by the moonlight have all pass’d away!
Beautiful dreamer, queen of my song,
List while I woo thee with soft melody;
Gone are the cares of life’s busy throng
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!
Beautiful dreamer, out on the sea,
Mermaids are chaunting the wild lorelie;
Over the streamlet vapors are borne,
Waiting to fade at the bright coming morn.
Beautiful dreamer, beam on my heart,
E’en as the morn on the streamlet and sea;
Then will all clouds of sorrow depart,
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!
By: Stephen Foster
Rendezvous in the Mist 43:18 (2015) is a standalone song by Luciano Gomez, a France-based composer. An early work for Gomez, the song was conceived in 2015 when Gomez first visited Paris and met a young woman while riding on the metro. The song tells a hopeful story of what could have been following their encounter. Rendezvous in the Mist is Gomez’ only piece composed in English, both music and text.
In the gloomy night
I chase the sound of your voice
That leads me to the mystic fog
I hear the chanting of the night
Caressing my chest
Like the width of the night
Like a little bird.
I close my eyes
And your voice in the distance begins to emerge
If life brought us together once
It will bring us together again
I walk through the mist
To only find out
There’s no one there yet.
By: Luciano Gomez
Both Im wunderschönen Monat Mai 50:38 and Ich grolle nicht 53:19 are from Robert Schumann’s (1810-1856) 1840 song-cycle Dichterliebe, op. 48 (A Poet’s Love). With a total of sixteen songs, all based on Heinrich Heine’s (1797-1856) Lyrisches Intermezzo (1822-3), this cycle tells the story of a poet who falls in love, gets his heart broken (of course), and decides to throw out all the horrible things associated with his love. He specifies that he will need two giants to carry these things for him, as there is so much bitterness that he can’t carry it all himself. They are then to be thrown into the ocean, an homage to Franz Schubert’s narrator from Die schöne Müllerin, who threw himself into the brook.
You will hear two selections, no.1 and no.7. Im wunderschönen Monat Mai tells us that the poet has confessed his love for his sweetheart in the magic month of May. Ich grolle nicht has crossed the threshold of sweet love and expresses a fit of passive-aggressive forgiveness of his beloved for having a heart of darkness, festering with serpents.
In May, the magic month of May,
When all the buds were springing,
Into my heart the burning
Bright arrow of love came winging.
In May, the magic month of May,
When all the birds were singing,
I told her of my yearning,
My longing and heart-wringing.
By: Heinrich Heine
Translation. Hal Draper
I bear no grudge, though my heart is breaking,
O love forever lost! I bear no grudge.
However you gleam in diamond splendour,
No ray falls in the night of your heart.
I’ve known that long. For I saw you in my dreams,
And saw the night within your heart,
And saw the serpent gnawing at your heart;
I saw, my love, how pitiful you are.
I bear no grudge.
By: Heinrich Heine
Trans. Richard Stokes
Cor mio, mentre vi miro 56:33 and La piaga c’ho nel core 1:08:36 both come from Claudio Monteverdi’s (1567-1643) 1603 Il quatro libro de madigali a cinque voci (The fifth book of madrigals for five voices). The collection was published the same year as the peak of Monteverdi’s conflict with Artusi, which revolved around the importance of word-setting in music. Monteverdi’s madrigals in the fifth book demonstrate his focus on word painting and the Second Practice. His chosen texts illuminate a multi-layered depiction of love through the different facets of madrigalian love poetry he sets, featuring a wide range of affects all evolving from love.
Oh my heart, while I watch you,
I am patently transformed in you,
and, once transformed,
in a single breath I exhale my spirit.
Oh, mortal beauty,
Oh, vital beauty,
because a heart quickly lives again
for you; and for you, if alive, it dies.
By: Giovanni Battista Guarini
Trans. Rubina Mazurka
Erbarme dich, mein Gott 59:36 comes from J.S. Bach’s Matthäus-Passion, with the translation of Psalm 51 from the 1524 publication of Enchiridion Oder eyn Handbuchlein used as the text. The melody is similar to that of “Es woll’ uns Gott,” composed by Johann Walter (1496-1570), so it is most likely a musical quotation used by Bach. “As Martin Luther’s friend and his musical adviser, Walter helped Luther to construct a new liturgy and composed tunes for many Lutheran hymns. He also pioneered the ‘dramatic’ musical setting of the Passion in German.” (Source: bach-cantatas.com)
In adherence to the dramatic, you will hear an arrangement for piano, violin, and voice, with a full tone from all three to create a similar effect to that of Bach’s orchestration.
Have mercy, my God,
For the sake of my tears!
Look here, heart and eyes
Weep bitterly before you.
Have mercy, have mercy!
Trans. Pamela Dellal, courtesy Emmanuel Music Inc, from vmii.org
La piaga c’ho nel core
The wound that is in my heart,
woman, where you are happy,
your eyes are to blame, mine are to blame.
My eyes will look at you.
Your eyes will hurt me,
but how does it happen
The fault is common and only my pain? (to bear)
By: Aurelio Gatti
Trans. Rubina Mazurka
Calvary 1:12:35 by Paul Rodney (1864-1910) was copyrighted in 1895, but published officially in 1900. Calvary is a passionate, sacred setting of Henry Vaughan’s poem.
The pilgrims throng thro’ the city gates
While the night is falling fast;
They go to watch on Calv’ry’s hill
Ere the twilight hours are past;
Though dark be the way, with eyes of faith,
They gave on His Cross above;
And, lo! From each heart,
The shadows depart,
As they list to his words of love,
As they list to His words of love.
“Rest, rest to the weary,
Peace, peace to the soul;
Tho’ life may be dreary,
Earth is not thy goal,
O lay down thy burden,
O com unto me,
I will not forsake thee,
I will not forsake thee,
I will not forsake thee,
Tho’ all else should flee.”
Far, far, away, o’er the dream of years
They hear the voice of the King,
Where, O Grave, where is thy victory,
And where, O Death is thy sting?
Captive He leads them forevermore;
While weary pilgrims rejoice;
For looking on high to the Cross He bore,
The faithful shall hear His voice,
The faithful shall hear His voice.
By: Henry Vaughan
The last piece on the program, The Lord’s Prayer 1:18:29 (1935), by Albert Hay Malotte (1895-1964), is a musical setting of the Lord’s Prayer. Dedicated to John Charles Thomas, Malotte was unable to get the song published or even taken seriously by publishers until Thomas introduced it to the public by performing it on the radio.
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from the evil one.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
Duetto buffo di due gatti 1:22:54 consisting of material borrowed from Gioachino Rossini’s 1816 opera Otello depicts a philosophical conversation between two cats.
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