Photo credit: Parish church of St John the Evangelist, Toft, Cheshire, seen from the south by Parrot of Doom – own work, CC BY-SA 3.0
German Sacred music
VOICES
Tutor: John Butt
Location: St John the Evangelist, Toft, Knutsford
Reviewer: Marian Needham
German Sacred Music; workshop for singers
It was in a pleasant rural setting, with views across church gardens to fields beyond, that some 30 of us gathered in the hall of St John the Evangelist, Toft, to be taken through our paces by the eminent musicologist and Bach expert, John Butt, in vocal repertoire from Praetorius to J S Bach.
Professor Butt proved to be entertainingly informative, and unflaggingly energetic. He began the day with a vocal warm-up in the manner of musical training in the time of Schütz which included singing long, held notes with a cresc/dim shaping – otherwise known that day as the ‘dromedary hump’! His unforgettably idiosyncratic musical directions also included singing ‘Jauchzet’ like the resulting yowl from stepping on the cat’s paw, and pushing a plastic duck under water and releasing it, to get the feel of lightening the upbeat in triple time! Our warm-up included practising the appropriate German pronunciation of Latin vowels.
We were introduced to the influences on German church music of the 17th – 18th centuries, the liturgical context and Lutheran culture of the period and how music was meant to help bring about a change of attitude. We also considered in particular how both the Bach family of composers and Praetorius were influenced by the new operatic styles from Italy, and sought to introduce expression into German music, and ornamentation on the ‘white’ notes.
The church itself, the scene of the final run-through of music, has considerable charm. Although built in 1852 it has a series of beautiful modern stained glass windows along one side depicting Creation, Nativity, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension, and Pentecost, appropriately illuminating some of the themes of the music we were singing. The whole day was enjoyable and enlightening.
The pieces covered were:
Praetorius – En natus est Emmanuel
Schütz – Selig sind die toten (from 1648 collection)
Schütz – Psalm 100 (Jubilate)
Johann Christian Bach (1642 – 1703) – Lieber Herr Gott, wecke uns auf
Johann Michael Bach, d. 1694 – Furchtet Euch Nicht.
And finally, the great Johann Sebastian’s – Lobet den Herrn
Marian Needham
First published in October 2013 Newsletter.
