Please turn your hymnals to number 120 and join with the clarinets in, “O Holy Spirit Enter In”.
Number: 120
First Line: O Holy Spirit Enter In
Name: WIE SCHöN LEUCHTET.
Meter: Irregular.
Tempo: With movement
Music: Phillipp Nicolai, 1556-1608
Adapted and harm. by J. S. Bach, 1685-1750
Text: Michael Schirmer, 1606-73
Tr. Catherine Winkworth
Please turn to Number 88 (Second Tune) and join with the clarinets in “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded”.
Number: 88 (Second Tune)
First Line: O Sacred Head, Now Wounded
Name: PASSION CHORALE.
Meter: 7 6, 7 6. D.
Tempo: With devotion
Music: Hans Leo Hassler, 1564-1612
Adapted and Harm. by J. S. Bach, 1685-1750
Text: Ascribed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux, 1091-1153
Paul Gerhardt, 1607-76
Tr. James Waddel Alexander, 1804-59 a.
So we covered that Paul Simon used the melody from a song by Hans Leo Hassler:
“The music for the German and English versions of the hymn is by Hans Leo Hassler, written around 1600 for a secular love song, “Mein G’müt ist mir verwirret”, which first appeared in print in the 1601 Lustgarten Neuer Teutscher Gesäng.”
But, really, Simon was probably stealing from J.S. Bach, who had stolen the tune for the hymn from Hassler via Cruger.
“The tune was appropriated and rhythmically simplified for Gerhardt’s German hymn in 1656 by Johann Crüger. Johann Sebastian Bach arranged the melody and used five stanzas of the hymn in the St Matthew Passion. He also used the hymn’s text and melody in the second movement of the cantata Sehet, wir gehn hinauf gen Jerusalem, BWV 159.[4] Bach used the melody on different words in his Christmas Oratorio, in the first part (no. 5).”
The Bach arrangement of the hymn is much closer to the tune Simon used than the original.
Hans Leo Hassler was an interesting, and important, German composer, who straddled the Renaissance and Baroque styles, bringing the innovations of Italian Baroque music to Germany and Europe.
Hassler is considered to be one of the most important German composers of all time.[4] His use of the innovative Italian techniques, coupled with traditional, conservative German techniques allowed his compositions to be fresh without the modern affective tone.[12] His songs presented a combined vocal and instrumental literature that did not make use of the continuo, or only provided it as an option,[12] and his sacred music introduced the Italian polychoral structures that would later influence many composers leading into the Baroque era.
Please turn to number 53 (Second Tune) and join with the winds in singing, “Brightest and Best”.
Number: 53
First Line: Brightest and Best
Name: LIEBSTER IMMANUEL.
Meter: 11 10, 11 10
Music: Himmels-Lust, Leipzig, 1675
Harm. J. S. Bach, 1685-1750
Text: Reginald Heber, 1783-1826
Something about Baroque Music always makes me think of Soprano Sax. I guess it is it’s similarity in tone to the English Horn and Oboe. Though, cough, really the Soprano Sax didn’t get invented until the 1840s. And the Clarinet didn’t exist in something like its current form until around the same time.
This is an older setting of this hymn (1675!), which has been tarted up a bit by that joker Johann Sebastian Bach.
Johann Sebastian Bach[a] (31 March [O.S. 21 March] 1685 – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He enriched established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Bach’s compositions include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the Mass in B minor, two Passions, and over three hundred cantatas of which around two hundred survive.[3] His music is revered for its technical command, artistic beauty, and intellectual depth.
This Hymn struck me as a little odd. It kind of doesn’t have a typical chord sequence, and it doesn’t end particularly satisfyingly. Took me a while to find the dynamics and also to get my mind around the tonal palette.
Since Baroque tunes are fairly busy, I didn’t double any except the Soprano/Melody part, which I played on both Soprano Clarinet and Soprano Sax. I added an Audacity “Medium Room” Reverb Effect.
Please turn to number 29 and join with the clarinets in “Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light”.
Name: Schop.
Meter: 8 7, 8 7, 8 8, 7 7.
Tempo: Joyously
Music: Johann Schop, cir 1600-65
Harm. J. S. Bach, 1685-1750
Text: Johann Rist, 1607-67
Tr. St. 1, composite
Tr. St. 2, Arthur Tozer Russell, 1806-74
Whew, another barn burner from that joker, J. S. Bach.
Like the last Bach arrangement, I stuck with the Soprano clarinets for this one, though I did multitrack the “Soprano” part several times.
But then I went back and added in the bass clarinet:
Which do you prefer?
These Baroque pieces are pretty challenging, at least compared to most of the hymns. Lots of counterpoint going on in the Tenor and Bass parts, often making those parts harder to play than the melody part.
