In this year’s Christmas Number, jet-lag and other matters deprived this programme of our man of great goodwill, Rupert Kirkham’s, voice, at the last link. His fellow exec-types wish him all the best, a very happy Christmas and more fortunate New Year!
Track One:
Pastorale, Heinichen
This
is Classical Break on Somer Valley FM, and I’m Rupert Kirkham. Today’s programme was researched and written
by Mike Burrows, and is of Christmas music or music with a Christmas air.
We’ve
just heard a Pastorale per La Notte di Natale by the Leipzig composer,
Johann David Heinichen (1683-1729). A
Pastorale was a Shepherds’ Dance, usually in 6/8 time and heard as being in
an idealized rustic style. This one was
written for The Night of The Nativity, and would have evoked the joy of
Shepherds at the Adoration. In honour of
the occasion and their favoured forebears, in many parts of Europe,
Shepherds danced about a crib on Christmas Eve.
Now,
let’s hear the first part of Gerald Finzi’s short Christmas cantata for baritone, soprano, semi-chorus, choir and
orchestra, In Terra Pax, which sets a poem by Robert Bridges - Forth
I Fared Alone, with asides from The
Gospel According To Luke (in the King James Version). It is Christmas Eve, and the poet imagines
walking abroad on a snowy night and listening to the sound of church bells, seeing
and hearing something of the first Christmas of all. Thus Finzi’s choice of the accompanying words
from scripture Both Bridges and Finzi
were agnostics, powerfully inspired by story and tradition, and the beneficent
social effects of Christian ethics and morality. The orchestral introduction of In Terra
Pax is obviously leading up to something; uncertainty - and yet also
expectancy - are in the cold night air. As
the movement develops and the baritone-narrator enters, there are moments when the
imagination begins to glimpse what the intellect seeks, the vision to sweep
away chill complexities of unbelief in divinely-ordained comfort and the faith
and hope of another, ancient, more primitive age. There are hints of The First Nowell in
its quiet but, au fond, intent, course.
Something of the mighty solidity of earth stands under the evocation of bells,
far-flung stars and dark air, and the musings of the soloist. The orchestral dress is sombre, brightened by
chill glints of harp and high woodwind. Finzi
began the work when young and
head-over-heels in love with an aesthetic of polyphony, arioso and
Gloucestershire; when he completed it, he knew that he was dying. To a soul like his, death without afterlife
did not come easily. The semi-chorus has the last word: “And there were in the same
country, shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by
night.”
Track Two
In Terra Pax, Pt One, Finzi
Finzi
was not only a composer and editor of music and connoisseur of British
poetry. He devoted much time to the
cultivation of many rare British varieties of apple. The humble apple-tree was for many years the
source of cider and apple-jacks - dried apples - and accompaniment to meat and
sauce-flavouring, a foundation,
with honey and spices, of many a feast; fertility-rites – the wassail - took
place in propitiation of
the garth at the height of Winter. Here
is the carol Jesus Christ The Apple-tree, a Christianization of pagan
faith, its words taken from an 18th Century American book of Divine Hymns and
set by Elizabeth Poston.
.
Track
Three: Jesus Christ The Apple-Tree
Track
Four: Music under: Extract from Carol Symphony, 3rd Movt,
Hely-Hutchinson
Christmas
has inspired man to his best artistic efforts for two thousand years. It is true that many of what we think of as Christmas
traditions are more modern in adoption, or have been toned down; there was a
time when the popular celebration of Christmas was viewed with misgivings by
the authorities. Carols have been banned
from church, mince-pies from the table; carousings and free love from Twelfth
Night. Rectors have objected to the
ringing of church bells on Christmas morning.
The Church’s appropriation of the Winter Solstice from pagans has
resulted in many symbols’ and activities’ being carried over into the festival
of the Nativity and its forms of worship, as religious fundamentalists and
atheists alike delight in
telling us.
The
very story of the Nativity is bedevilled by apparent inconsistencies in those
scriptures that purport to tell us about the birth of our Lord - only two of
the four Gospels speak of it, and in them - Matthew and Luke - events and their
circumstances and significance require reading between the lines - a synthetic
cast of mind - to create a single narrative.
Every aspect of Christmas appears a moveable feast, its details
telescoped or omitted at will, except that we have the warm symbols of evergreen,
spiced, fire-lit life, feasting and riches in spite of material poverty,
greatness in spite of secular power, strange magic and licence in spite of
Wintry puritanism and rationalistic utilitarianism, generosity in spite of
everyday distrust and enmity. It is a time
when - thanks to St Paul, rather than the Gospel-writers - true love casts out
all fear. At its best, it may bear out Christ’s
injunctions to love God with all our hearts and minds and love
our neighbours as we do ourselves, and be a time of mutual seeking, peace and
happiness.
Track
4 Fades Out
Here
is the five-part Hodie Christus Natus Est of the Flemish polyphonist,
Jan-Pieterzoon Sweelinck (1562-1621).
Track
5: Hodie Christus Natus Est, Sweelinck
Really,
what matters is that God’s son, the King of Kings, was conceived by an
unmarried mother and born in a cattle shed:
the only shelter available to her.
If that doesn’t give us pause in these days of humbug, nothing
will. Add to that that Mary was very
likely a teenager and Joseph considerably older, and to some, the brew should
become toxic, if they are not hypocrites.
To whom was the conception announced?
Joseph (Matthew) or Mary (Luke)?
Why not both? One can admire
Joseph’s faith and tact (Matthew), and love the woman-centred meaning of Luke’s
poetry. The world needs its centuries of
Ave Marias and Magnificats.
Track
6: Ave Maria, Gregorian Chant
That was a
Gregorian Plain-Chant setting of Ave Maria.
Track 7: Magnificat,
A
Magnificat by Thomas Tallis, the great polyphonist and recusant survivor, whose
life and professional career extended through the contradictory religious
creeds and persecutions of much of the Sixteenth Century. A recusant, he died in his bed aged 85,
having served the church and four tyrannical Tudor monarchs to his utmost.
Was
there a Roman census in Palestine (Luke)?
Was the Babe laid in a manger, because there was no room for them in the
Inn, or was Mary visiting Elizabeth, a kinswoman blessed by late pregnancy, and
her husband, Zacharias (as in Matthew)?
After the birth of Jesus, was there a forewarned flight to Egypt and
massacre of first-born sons, when the Romans’ cat’s-paw, Herod, heard that a
rival King descended from David (Matthew and Luke) had been born to a carpenter
and his young wife?
The
shepherds on the night, according to Luke’s tale, or the wise men - or
magicians - somewhat later, according to Matthew - were convinced. They saw freedom, a gift greater than
material riches or fear of the boss - or even the shepherd’s care for his
flock, which is his pride and ever-called-on proof of his compassion: a love to tear down the authority of a king, an
occupying power and rotten priesthood:
a child whose face, glowing in the light of a lamp, held them with
focusing eyes: eyes that spoke of a love
and understanding, a capacity for compassion and logic that needed no speech to
awe with a sermon. They were eyes of
commonwealth, peace, liberty, equality and altruism: the King was one of us; the King, unelected,
told us why we had no need to elect him to be represented - God had come down
to live amongst
us not in the cool of a mighty palace rich in gold, ivory, silver, precious and
semi-precious tones, ebony, high-coloured
faience, peacock feathers, but as the son of a Nazarene carpenter.
Track
8: Nowell Tydynges Trew Be Cum New
(Instrumental)
Track 9: Coventry Carol (instrumental)
Tyrants
and good authorities were left for dead.
Simeon, Bethlehem’s old priest saw Jesus when he was brought to the
temple for circumcision and sang, “Lord, now letteth thy servant depart in
peace.” Here is Geoffrey Burgon's setting of the Nunc Dimittis, for voice, trumpet and strings.
Track
9: Nunc Dimittis, Burgon
Isn’t
that preferable to wood magic of evergreens, holly and mistletoe, tinsel and
fairy lights, turkey, mince pies, Christmas cake, wines, liqueurs and
innumerable hazarded gifts torn from pretty paper to be pristine for a day before
they leave a jealously guarded heap and before they join our other
possessions? Here is John Gardner’s setting
of Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day.
Track
10: Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day,
Gardner
You
could tell even a child that your love makes presents under the tree utter
trumpery: that your love is unreserved
and will last not for 24 hours but a life long; that you will serve and - if
called-upon - die for him or her, comfort and soothe at all hours; encourage it
and praise every wonderful development; never feel envy - and more, scold and punish
only what is wrong and never take out a bad day on one who has neither the wit
nor the desire to fight back. A child
will play happily with that thought - to be loved like that by a fallible
adult! Isn’t it as magical a thought of
physical objects that are brought out of nothingness?
“How the star
shines! Who am I and where am I?”
-
“You are a King in a world filled with kings -
You
live simply to die -
And
were born in a stable.”
“How
should I know of love, save that you devise?”
-
“I love you now and for your whole life long,
And
the love in our eyes
Beyond
death shall be well as one.”
(Poem
Copyright, Mike Burrows, 21/12/12)
This
was Classical; Break, and I’m Rupert Kirkham.
Today’s script was by researched and written by Mike Burrows, and he
joins me in wishing you a very happy Christmas and the best of New Years.
We
leave you with the second part of Finzi’s In Terra Pax: the second part, truly a revelation from the
angels. In a sense, the agnostic found
what he sought after all. He corrected
ages of bad Latin to point out that the correct translation of the angels’ song
was: On earth peace to all men of
goodwill! The entry of the soprano -
with the words, “Fear not!” – is unforgettable. At the hushed close of the piece, one is left
with the narrator’s awe and after-echoes of the wonder, Winter darkness, stars
and chill. A memory of hearing
bell-ringing on Christmas Eve gave us this beautiful work. However we feel
towards at best bogus Coalitions and complex Austerity, let’s make this Christmas
a joy for all who are of goodwill!
Goodbye.
Track
Eleven: In Terra Pax, Part Two, Finzi
The
Production Team at Classical Break – Somer Valley’s outing into the world of
classical music – wishes you a Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year. Listen to our programme on Saturdays at 9am
and Sundays at 8am and 3pm.
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