November 2016 – Underhill Lounge

066.WideOpenAreThyHands

Please turn to number 66 and join with the clarinets in “Wide Open Are They Hands”.

Number: 66
First Line: Wide Open Are Thy Hands
Name: LEOMINSTER
Meter: S.M.D.
Tempo: In moderate time
Music: George William Martin, 1828-1881
Arranged by Arthur S. Sullivan, 1842-1900
Text: Ascribed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux, 1091-1153
Tr. Charles Porterfield Krauth, 1823-83

Clarinet Arrangement: 066-wideopenarethyhands

Another one where when I was transcribing it, it seemed like it was going to be not all that exciting to play, but in execution I think it turned out pretty cool.

St. Bernard of Clarivaux was a very important guy in the Middle Ages.

Bernard of Clairvaux (Latin: Bernardus Claraevallensis), O.Cist (1090 – 20 August 1153) was a French abbot and the primary reformer of the Cistercian order.

After the death of his mother, Bernard sought admission into the Cistercian order. “Three years later, he was sent to found a new abbey at an isolated clearing in a glen known as the Val d’Absinthe, about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) southeast of Bar-sur-Aube. According to tradition, Bernard founded the monastery on 25 June 1115, naming it Claire Vallée, which evolved into Clairvaux. There Bernard would preach an immediate faith, in which the intercessor was the Virgin Mary.”^[1] In the year 1128, Bernard attended the Council of Troyes, at which he traced the outlines of the Rule of the Knights Templar,^[a] which soon became the ideal of Christian nobility.

…

After the Christian defeat at the Siege of Edessa, the pope commissioned Bernard to preach the Second Crusade. The last years of Bernard’s life were saddened by the failure of the crusaders, the entire responsibility for which was thrown upon him. Bernard died at the age of 63, after 40 years as a monk. He was the first Cistercian placed on the calendar of saints, and was canonized by Pope Alexander III on 18 January 1174. In 1830 Pope Pius VIII bestowed upon Bernard the title “Doctor of the Church“.

The text is pretty moving, as well.

1 Wide open are Thy hands,
Paying with more than gold
The awful debt of guilty men,
Forever and of old.

2 Ah, let me grasp those hands,
That we may never part,
And let the power of their blood
Sustain my fainting heart.

3 Wide open are Thine arms,
A fallen world t’embrace;
To take to love and endless rest
Our whole forsaken race.

4 Lord, I am sad and poor,
But boundless is Thy grace;
Give me the soul transforming joy
For which I seek Thy face.

5 Draw all my mind and heart
Up to Thy throne on high,
And let Thy sacred Cross exalt
My spirit to the sky.

6 To these, Thy mighty hand,
My spirit I resign;
Living, I live alone to Thee,
And, dying, I am Thine.

065.MySongIsLoveUnknown

Please turn to number 65 and join with the clarinets in “My Song is Love Unknown”.

Number: 65
First Line: My Song is Love Unknown
Name: RHOSYMEDRE.
Meter: 6 6, 6 6, 4 4, 4 4.
Tempo: Slowly and devotionally
Music: John David Edwards, cir. 1805-85
Text: Samuel Crossman, 1624-83

Clarinet Arrangement: 065-mysongisloveunknown

The first line of this hymn is so evocative, that the rest is, well, rather disappointing. Though, I do like the second to last stanza. Sounds like a verse from a blues tune.

My song is love unknown,
My Saviour’s love to me;
Love to the loveless shown,
That they might lovely be.
O who am I,
That for my sake
My Lord should take
Frail flesh and die?

He came from His blest throne
Salvation to bestow;
But men made strange, and none
The longed-for Christ would know:
But O! my Friend,
My Friend indeed,
Who at my need
His life did spend.

Sometimes they strew His way,
And His sweet praises sing;
Resounding all the day
Hosannas to their King:
Then “Crucify!”
is all their breath,
And for His death
they thirst and cry.

Why, what hath my Lord done?
What makes this rage and spite?
He made the lame to run,
He gave the blind their sight,
Sweet injuries!
Yet they at these
Themselves displease,
and ’gainst Him rise.

They rise and needs will have
My dear Lord made away;
A murderer they save,
The Prince of life they slay,
Yet cheerful He
to suffering goes,
That He His foes
from thence might free.

In life no house, no home,
My Lord on earth might have;
In death no friendly tomb,
But what a stranger gave.
What may I say?
Heav’n was his home;
But mine the tomb
Wherein he lay.

Here might I stay and sing,
No story so divine;
Never was love, dear King!
Never was grief like Thine.
This is my Friend,
in Whose sweet praise
I all my days
could gladly spend.

This setting is rather repetitious, I tried to mix it up a bit by playing with the dynamics a bit.

Amusing that the hymn is repetitious, as, according to the wikipedia article, “British rock band Coldplay has a song entitled “A Message”, released on the album X&Y, the lyrics and melody of which were inspired by this hymn.” I can’t think of many rock bands more repetitious than Coldplay.

064.InTheCrossOfChrist

Please turn to number 64 and join with the clarinets in “In The Cross of Christ”.

Number: 64 (First Tune)
First Line: In the Cross of Christ
Name: RATHBUN.
METER: 8 7, 8 7.
Tempo: Broadly
Music: Ithamar Conkey, 1815-1867
Text: John Bowring, 1792-1872

Number: 64 (Second Tune)
First Line: In the Cross of Christ
Name: CROSS OF JESUS.
Meter: 8 7, 8 7.
Tempo: In moderate time
Music: John Stainer, 1840-1901
Text: John Bowring, 1792-1872

Another really short hymn, though this time the different versions are in different keys and different meters.

This time I opted to play the First Tune, then the Second Tune, and finally return to the First Tune.

First Tune Clarinet Arrangement:064a-inthecrossofchrist

Second Tune Clarinet Arrangement:064b-inthecrossofchrist

Frankly, the lyrics to this one are kind of surreal and science fiction-esque.

“Towering o’er the wrecks of time,” could be from Dr Who or Alfred Bester.

In the Cross of Christ I glory,
Towering o’er the wrecks of time;
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round its head sublime.

When the woes of life o’er-take me,
Hopes deceive and fears annoy,
Never shall the Cross forsake me;
Lo! It glows with peace and joy.

When the sun of bliss is beaming
Light and love upon my way,
From the Cross the radiance streaming
Adds more lustre to the day.

Band and blessing, pain and pleasure,
By the cross are sanctified;
Peace is there that knows no measure,
Joys that through all time abide.

063.SweetTheMoments

Please turn to number 63, aka “Sweet the Moments”, and join with the clarinets.

Number: 63 (First Tune)
First Line: Sweet the Moments
Name: FREIBURG (ES LIEGT EIN SCHLOSS).
Meter: 8 7, 8 7.
Tempo: Slowly
Music: German Folksong, XVI cent.
Text: James Allen, 1734-1804
Walter Shirley, 1725-86
St. 4, Cook and Denton’s Church Hymnal, 1853

Number: 63 (Second Tune)
First Line: Sweet the Moments
Name: BATTY (RINGE RECHT).
Meter: 8 7, 8 7.
Tempo: Quietly
Music: Thommen’s Christen-Schatz, 1745
Text: James Allen, 1734-1804
Walter Shirley, 1725-86
St. 4, Cook and Denton’s Church Hymnal, 1853

This is a really short hymn and both versions are in the same key and time signature, so instead of doing both apart, I combined them. I started with a reversed “Amen” from the First Tune, played the first tune, played the second tune, and finished with the “Amen” from the second tune. Turned out pretty well.

First tune:063a-sweetthemoments
Second Tune:063b-sweetthemoments

Doubled each part. Audacity “Large Room” Reverb Effect.

062b.OChristOurKing

Please turn to Number 62 and join with the clarinets in, “O Christ, Our King”.

Number: 62 (Second Tune)
First Line: O Christ, Our King
Name: GRACE CHURCH
Meter: L.M.
Music: Ignaz Joseph Pleyel, 1757-1831
Text: St. Gregory, 540-604
Tr. Ray Palmer, 1808-87

I did continue my experiments with velocity in the above version, not to mentions a bit of a crazy saxhouse coda. Despite how it sounds, I did not speed it up with editing effects, but there are about 8 soprano sax parts screaming together at the very top of their range, along with 4 clarinet parts. In any case, you may have better luck singing along with this version:

Clarinet arrangement: 062b-ochristourking

I found a whole article just about this hymn, “O Christ, Our King, Creator, Lord”

In his Table Talk Luther called the Latin hymn on which ours is based “the best hymn of all.” For theological and poetic richness Ray Palmer’s translation may be unequaled among Good Friday hymns. But the very multiformity of its riches makes it hard to set to music. Since every stanza of a hymn is sung to a single repeated melody, good hymn-poets, anticipating the limitations of this strophic approach, try to structure their stanzas similarly so that one size will fit all. We then can select a tune to make the most of any parallels, such as when climactic words occur in the same place from stanza to stanza. If Palmer consciously sought such parallels, he settled for parallels of the paradoxical sort. How can anybody compose a musical gesture to fit both “yield up thy breath” and “by thy mighty power defend” (line 3 in the last two stanzas)? Or “the world grew dark as shades of death” and “reign through ages without end” (line 4 in the last two stanzas)? The best tune, in addition to realizing the usual ideals of singability and distinctiveness, must employ gestures capable of bearing opposite meanings.

Which commentary, I suppose, requires me to include the text, originally by St. Gregory, aka “Gregory the Great”.

O Christ, our King, Creator, Lord,
Savior of all who trust thy word,
to them who seek thee ever near,
now to our praises bend thine ear.

In thy dear cross a grace is found
(it flows from every streaming wound)
whose pow’r our inbred sin controls,
breaks the firm bond, and frees our souls.

Thou didst create the stars of night;
yet thou hast veiled in flesh thy light,
hast deigned a mortal form to wear,
a mortal’s painful lot to bear.

When thou didst hang upon the tree,
the quaking earth acknowledged thee;
when thou didst there yield up thy breath,
the world grew dark as shades of death.

Now in the Father’s glory high,
great Conqu’ror, nevermore to die,
us by thy mighty pow’r defend,
and reign through ages without end.

Oh, uh, yeah, Gregory the Great, as in “Gregorian Chant”!

Pope Saint Gregory I (Latin: Gregorius I; c. 540 – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great,^[1] was pope of the Catholic Church from 3 September 590 to his death in 604. Gregory is famous for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome to convert a pagan people to Christianity.^[2] Gregory is also well known for his writings, which were more prolific than those of any of his predecessors as pope.^[3] He is also known as the Great Visionary of Modern Educational System, for his writings and contribution to the school system of education instead of apprenticeships based learning. The epithet Saint Gregory the Dialogist has been attached to him in Eastern Christianity because of his Dialogues. For this reason, English translations of Eastern texts will sometimes list him as Gregory “Dialogos” or the Latinized equivalent “Dialogus”.

…

The mainstream form of Western plainchant, standardized in the late 9th century,^[44] was attributed to Pope Gregory I and so took the name of Gregorian chant. The earliest such attribution is in John the Deacon’s 873 biography of Gregory, almost three centuries after the pope’s death, and the chant that bears his name “is the result of the fusion of Roman and Frankish elements which took place in the Franco-German empire under Pepin, Charlemagne and their successors”.^[45]

062a.OChristOurKing

Please turn to number 62 (First Tune) and join with the clarinets in “O Christ, Our King”.

Number: 62 (First Tune)
First Line: O Christ, Our King
Name: CROMER.
Meter: L.M.
Tempo: With breadth, slowly
Music: John Ambrose Lloyd, 1815-74
Text: St. Gregory, 540-604
Tr. Ray Palmer, 1808-87

First, I was unaware that Ray Palmer, The Atom, during one of his time travel jaunts, moolighted as a hymn translater. Well, good on hymn, and way to keep busy.

Second, well, I suppose, I am not playing this slowly. My idea, which I started with anyway, was to “Zorn” the Mother, and I first attempted playing it at 200 bpm. That proved a bit beyond me, so I slowed it down for this attempt to 100 bpm. Still, not exactly “With breadth, slowly”. But whatever. Interestingly, John Ambrose Lloyd kind of had a thing for syncopation, which makes this hymn pretty fun to play, slow or fast.

I did only play it on Soprano Clarinet. I am not quite so dexterous on the bass clarinet.

Here’s the clarinet arrangement: 062-ochristourking

061b.SingMyTongue

Please turn to Number 61 (Second Tune) and join with the clarinets in “Sing, My Tongue”.

Number: 61
First Line: Sing, My Tongue
Name: ST. THOMAS (Hollywood).
Meter: 8 7, 8 7, 8 7.
Tempo: Slowly and majestically
Tune: Traditional Melody, 18th Cent.
Text: Venantius Fortunatus, 530-609
Tr. John Mason Neale, 1818-66 a.

Now this is a sort of funny hymn to find in a Lutheran Hymnal, it is, apparently, VERY Catholic, in fact, part of the Liturgy of the Catholic Church. From the wikipedia article on Venantius Fortunatus.

Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus (c. 530 – c. 600/609 AD) was a Latin poet and hymnodist in the Merovingian Court, and a Bishop of the Early Church. He was never canonised—no saint was canonised till Saint Ulrich of Augsburg in 993^[1]—but he was venerated as Saint Venantius Fortunatus during the Middle Ages.^[2]

…

Fortunatus is best known for two poems that have become part of the liturgy of the Catholic Church, the Pange Lingua Gloriosi Proelium Certaminis (“Sing, O tongue, of the glorious struggle”), a hymn that later inspired St Thomas Aquinas‘s Pange Lingua Gloriosi Corporis Mysterium. He also wrote Vexilla Regis prodeunt (“The royal banners forward go”), which is a sequence sung at Vespers during Holy Week. This poem was written in honour of a large piece of the True Cross, which explains its association also with the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The relic had been sent from the Byzantine Emperor Justin II to Queen Radegund of the Franks, who after her husband Chlotar I‘s death had founded a monastery in Poitiers. The Municipal Library in Poitiers houses an 11th-century manuscript on the life of Radegunde, copied from a 6th-century account by Fortunatus.

…

In his time, Fortunatus filled a great social desire for Latin poetry. He was one of the most prominent poets at this point, and had many contracts, commissions and correspondences with kings, bishops and noblemen and women from the time he arrived in Gaul until his death. He used his poetry to advance in society, to promote political ideas he supported, usually conceived of by Radegunde or by Gregory, and to pass on personal thoughts and communications. He was a master wordsmith and because of his promotion of the church, as well as the Roman tendencies of the Frankish royalty, he remained in favour with most of his acquaintances throughout his lifetime.

I should also point out that we have now passed into the Lenten season, the most solemn of Christian seasons.

Lent (Latin: Quadragesima: Fortieth) is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends approximately six weeks later, before Easter Sunday. The purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer through prayer, doing penance, repentance of sins, almsgiving, atonement, and self-denial. This event is observed by Christians in the Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, Methodist, and Roman Catholic Churches.^[1]^[2]^[3] Some Anabaptist and evangelicalchurches also observe the Lenten season.^[4]^[5] Its institutional purpose is heightened in the annual commemoration of Holy Week, marking the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the tradition and events of the New Testament beginning on Friday of Sorrows, further climaxing on Jesus’ crucifixion on Good Friday, which ultimately culminates in the joyful celebration on Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In Lent, many Christians commit to fasting or giving up certain types of luxuries as a form of penance. Many Christians also add a Lenten spiritual discipline, such as reading a daily devotional, to draw themselves near to God.^[6] The Stations of the Cross, a devotional commemoration of Christ’s carrying the Cross and of his execution, are often observed. Many Roman Catholic and some Protestant churches remove flowers from their altars, while crucifixes, religious statues, and other elaborate religious symbols are often veiled in violet fabrics in solemn observance of the event. Throughout Christendom, some adherents mark the season with the traditional abstention from the consumption of meat, most notably among Roman Catholics.^[7]

Lent is traditionally described as lasting for forty days, in commemoration of the forty days Jesus spent fasting in the desert, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Markand Luke, before beginning his public ministry, after which he endured temptation by the Devil.^[8]^[9]

Here’s the clarinet arrangement of the hymn: 061-singmytongue

Back to the usual doubling of all parts, three times through. Audacity “Large Room” Reverb Effect applied.

061a.SingMyTongue

Please turn to number 61 (First Tune) and join with the clarinets on “Sing, My Tongue”.

Number: 61 (First Tune)
First Line: Sing, My Tongue
Name: PANGE LINGUA.
Meter: 8 7, 8 7.
Tempo: In unison
Music: Plainsong Melody, Mode III
Arr. Ernest White
Text: Venantius Fortunatus, 530-609
Tr. John Mason Neale, 1813-66 a.

One of these days, I have to figure out this whole Plainsong and Mode thing. And I guess today is the day.

Plainsong is based on the whole notes of the C Major scale. Mode III, means the scale used for the piece starts on the third whole note of the C Major scale, E. the scale looks like this: E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E

So, untransposed, “Sing, My Tongue”‘s melody is composed of only those notes in varying combinations.

This is also called, “Phrygian Mode”.

Transposed, it ends up in the key of D, or two sharps.

Here’s the clarinet music: 061-singmytongue

The phrasing, though, and the harmonies are a bit difficult, since the meter of the piece doesn’t quite follow modern conventions. The piece starts in 6/8, moves to 5/8, and finishes in 7/8. Not only that, but the different parts don’t really follow the same phrasing or meter. It makes it kind of tough to find a sensible way through.

I’ve struggled with these pieces before and think I am finally beginning to find my way to make them interesting, by using accents where the phrasing of the different parts align.

In any case, this time I elected to multiply the piece’s depth, rather than length. I only played through once, but I recorded each part 4 times. Soprano Clarinet only. Audacity “Large Room” Reverb Effect. Hey! It’s a Gregorian Chant, fer cripes sake, it should have some reverb!

060.HowBlessedFromTheBondsOfSin

Please turn to number 60 and join with the clarinets in “How Blessed From the Bonds of Sin”.

Number: 60
First Line: How Blessed From the Bonds of Sin
Name: RELEASE.
Meter: C.M.D.
Tempo: Broadly
Music: Danish Melody
Text: Karl Johann Phillipp Spitta, 1801-59
Tr. Jane Borthwick, 1813-97

Another “folky” hymn, the last in the section of hymns for “Septuagesima to Lent”.

I had to look up “Septuagesima”, as I don’t remember it being covered in Lutheran Confirmation classes.

Septuagesima (in full, Septuagesima Sunday) is the name for the ninth Sunday before Easter, the third before Ash Wednesday. The term is sometimes applied also to the period commonly called Shrovetide (the Pre-Lenten Season) that begins on this day and ends on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, when Lent begins.

The other two Sundays in this period of the liturgical year are called Sexagesima and Quinquagesima, the latter sometimes also called Shrove Sunday. The earliest date on which Septuagesima Sunday can occur is January 18 (Easter falling on March 22 in a non-leap year) and the latest is February 22 (Easter falling on April 25 in a leap year).

Old dogs, learning new tricks.

Clarinet Arrangement:060-howblessedfromthebondsofsin

All clarinets, this time. Doubled each part, twice through. Audacity “Medium Room” Reverb Effect applied.

059.HarkTheVoiceOfJesusCrying

Please turn to number 59 and join with the Saxophones in, “Hark! The Voice of Jesus Crying”.

Number: 59
First Line: Hark! The Voice of Jesus Crying
Name: JESU.
Meter: 8 7, 8 7. D.
Tempo: In moderate time
Music: Gustaf Düben, 1671-1730
Text: Daniel March, 1816-1909

You would think, from the first line that Jesus would be sad about something, but actually it is more of a shout or call.

Hark! The voice of Jesus Crying,
‘Who will go to work today?
Fields and harvests waiting,
Who will bear the sheaves away?’
Loud and long the Master calleth,
Rich reward he offers free;
Who will answer gladly saying,
‘Here am I; send me, send me?’

If you cannot speak like angels,
If you cannot preach like Paul,
You can tell the love of Jesus,
You can say he died for all.
If you cannot rouse the wicked
With the judgement’s dread alarms,
You can lead the little children
To the Savior’s waiting arms.

Let non hear you idly saying,
‘There is nothing I can do,’
While the souls of men are dying,
And the Master calls for you:
Take the task he gives you gladly,
Let his work your pleasure be;
Answer quickly when he calleth,
‘Here am I; send me, send me.’

Kind of a weird, inspirational, aspirational, aphorism of a hymn.

Anyway, for some reason, I felt like this tune was more of a “Saxophone” kind of tune, than a clarinet kind of tune. Something about the harmonies.

Sax arrangement: 059-harkthevoiceofjesuscrying

Doubled each part, two times through. Audacity “Medium Room” Reverb Effect.