Tag: Lent

Please join with the clarinets on number 70, “O Lamb of God Most Holy”.

Number: 70
First Line: O Lamb of God Most Holy
Name: O LAMM GOTTES.
Meter: 7 7, 7 7, 7 7 7.
Tempo: Slowly
Music: Nikolaus Decius, 1541
Text: Nikolaus Decius, 1541
Tr. Arthur Tozer Russell, 1806-74 a.

Clarinet Arrangement: 0070.OLambOfGodMostHoly

Hm, apparently, writing hymns for the church is more dangerous than I previously suspected. Girolamo Savonarola was hung and burned, while Nikolaus Decius is suspected to have been killed by poisoning just after he wrote this hymn.

Nikolaus Decius (also Degius, Deeg, Tech a Curia, and Nickel von Hof;^[1] c. 1485 – 21 March 1541^[2] (others say 1546^[3]) was a German monk, hymn-writer and composer.

He was probably born in Hof in Upper Franconia, Bavaria, around 1485. He studied at the University of Leipzig and obtained a master’s degree at Wittenburg University in 1523 and became a monk.^[4] Although a monk, he was an advocate of the Protestant Reformation and a disciple of Martin Luther.^[4] He was Probst of the cloister at Steterburg from 1519 until July 1522 when he was appointed a master in the St. Katherine and Egidien School in Braunschweig.^[2][5] He wrote in 1523 for Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr, adapted by Luther in 1525, a German paraphrase of the Latin Gloria.^[6] Decius’s version was first sung on Easter Day at Braunschweig on 5 April 1523.^[7] Decius’s Low German version first appeared in print in Gesang Buchby Joachim Sluter, printed in 1525.^[7]

In 1526, Decius became preacher at the Church of St. Nicholas in Stettin at the same time as Paulus von Rhode was appointed preacher at St. James’s in Stettin.^[2] In 1535 he became pastor of St. Nicholas and died there in March 1541 after a suspected poisoning.^[2] Shortly before his death he wrote the hymn “O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig” (O Lamb of God, innocent) sung on a tune from the 13th century. Decius’s version was first published in Anton Cornivus‘s Christliche Kirchen-Ordnung in 1542.^[4]Johann Sebastian Bach used it as a cantus firmus in the opening chorus of his St Matthew Passion. It was translated into English by Arthur Tozer Russell in the 19th century.^[4]

Please turn to number 69 and join with the clarinets in “Jesus, Refuge of the Weary.”

Number: 69
First Line: Jesus, Refuge of the Weary
Name: O DU LIEBE MEINER LIEBE.
Meter: 8 7, 8 7. D.
Tempo: With movement
Music: Johann Thommen’s Christenschatz, 1745
Text: Girolamo Savonarola, 1452-98
Tr. Jane Francesca Wilde, 1826-96

Clarinet Arrangement: 0069.JesusRefugeOfTheWeary

The author of this hymn’s text was quite an interesting fellow!

Girolmo Savonarola from the wikipedia.

Girolamo Savonarola (Italian: [savonaˈrɔːla]; 21 September 1452 – 23 May 1498) was an Italian Dominican friar and preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He was known for his prophecies of civic glory, the destruction of secular art and culture, and his calls for Christian renewal. He denounced clerical corruption, despotic rule and the exploitation of the poor. He prophesied the coming of a biblical flood and a new Cyrus from the north who would reform the Church. In September 1494, when Charles VIII of France invaded Italy and threatened Florence, such prophesies seemed on the verge of fulfillment. While Savonarola intervened with the French king, the Florentines expelled the ruling Medici and, at the friar’s urging, established a “popular” republic. Declaring that Florence would be the New Jerusalem, the world center of Christianity and “richer, more powerful, more glorious than ever”,^[1] he instituted a campaign of extreme austerity, enlisting the active help of Florentine youth.

In 1495 when Florence refused to join Pope Alexander VI’s Holy League against the French, the Vatican summoned Savonarola to Rome. He disobeyed and further defied the pope by preaching under a ban, highlighting his campaign for reform with processions, bonfires of the vanities, and pious theatricals. In retaliation, the Pope excommunicated him in May 1497, and threatened to place Florence under an interdict. A trial by fire proposed by a rival Florentine preacher in April 1498 to test Savonarola’s divine mandate turned into a fiasco, and popular opinion turned against him. Savonarola and two of his supporting friars were imprisoned. Under torture, Savonarola confessed that he had invented his visions and prophecies. On May 23, 1498, Church and civil authorities condemned, hanged, and burned the three friars in the main square of Florence.

Savonarola’s devotees, the Piagnoni, kept his cause of republican freedom and religious reform alive well into the following century, although the Medici—restored to power in 1512 with the help of the papacy—eventually broke the movement.

Please turn to number 68 (Second Tune) and join with the clarinets in “Christian, Dost Thou See Them”.

Number: 68 (Second Tune)
First Line: Christian, Dost Thou See them
Name: ST. ANDREW OF CRETE.
Meter: 6 5, 6 5. D.
Tempo: Thoughtfully
Music: John Bacchus Dykes, 1823-76
Text: Andrew of Crete, cir. 660-732
Tr. John Mason Neale, 1818-66

Clarinet Arrangement: 068b.ChristianDostThouSeeThem

I love a good minor dirge, and the first part of this tune is really pretty great. Unfortunately, half way through, the hymn switches keys, and from minor to major, at the same time as the text starts expressing sentiments of smiting, girding, battle, sorrow, and triumph.

Someone was very literal minded in their music arrangement.

So, I, uh, took some liberties with the arrangement.

The first section gets played twice at regular (slow) time, and the second in (appropriately) military double time. I also finish by returning the final chord to minor, as a sort of protest.

Please turn to number 68 (First Tune) and join with the clarinets in “Christian, Dost Thou See Them”.

Number: 68 (First Tune)
First Line: Christian, Dost Thou See Them
Name: GUTE BAUME BRINGEN.
Meter: 6 5, 6 5. D.
Tempo: With energy
Music: Praxis Pietatis Melica, Frankfurt, 1668
Text: Andrew of Crete, cir. 660-732
Tr. John Mason Neale, 1818-66

Clarinet Arrangement: 068.ChristianDostThouSeeThem

I had an urge to take this one slowly, with a melancholy feel. The text is kind of depressing and reminds me of the things I like least about Christianity. Lots of smiting, girding, battles, and intolerence for other faiths.

1 Christian, dost thou see them
on the holy ground,
how the pow’rs of darkness
rage thy steps around?
Christian, up and smite them,
counting gain but loss,
in the strength that cometh
by the holy cross.

2 Christian, dost thou feel them,
how they work within,
striving, tempting, luring,
goading into sin?
Christian, never tremble;
never be downcast;
gird thee for the battle,
watch and pray and fast.

3 Christian, dost thou hear them,
how they speak thee fair?
“Always fast and vigil?
Always watch and prayer?”
Christian, answer boldly,
“While I breathe I pray!”
Peace shall follow battle,
night shall end in day.

4 Hear the words of Jesus:
“O my servant true:
thou art very weary –
I was weary too;
but that toil shall make thee
some day all mine own,
and the end of sorrow
shall be near my throne.”

“Praxis Pietatis Melica” was a German Hymnal:

Praxis pietatis melica (Practice of Piety in Song)^[1] is a Protestanthymnal first published in the 17th century by Johann Crüger. The hymnal, which appeared under this title from 1647 to 1737 in 45 editions, has been described as “the most successful and widely-known Lutheran hymnal of the 17th century”.^[2] Crüger composed melodies to texts that were published in the hymnal and are still sung today, including “Jesu, meine Freude“, “Herzliebster Jesu” and “Nun danket alle Gott“. Between 1647 and 1661, Crüger first printed 90 songs by his friend Paul Gerhardt, including “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden“.

Andrew of Crete was an early Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Saint.

Saint Andrew of Crete (Greek: Ἀνδρέας Κρήτης, c. 650 – July 4, 712 or 726 or 740), also known as Andrew of Jerusalem, was an 8th-century bishop, theologian, homilist,^[1] and hymnographer. He is venerated as a saint by Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christians.

…

Today, Saint Andrew is primarily known as a hymnographer. He is credited with the invention (or at least the introduction into Orthodox liturgical services) of the canon, a new form of hymnody. Previously, the portion of the Matins serrains inserted between the scripture verses. Saint Andrew expanded these refrains into fully developed poetic Odes, each of which begins with the theme (Irmos) of the scriptural canticle, but then goes on to expound the theme of the feast being celebrated that day (whether the Lord, the Theotokos, a saint, the departed, etc.).

Please turn to Number 67 (First Tune) and join with the clarinets in “Jesus, Name All Names Above”.

Number: 67 (First Tune)
First Line: Jesus, Name All Names Above
Name: NAME OF JESUS.
Meter: 7 6, 7 6, 8 8, 7 7.
Tempo: Quietly
Music: Ralph Alvin Strom, 1901-
Text: Theoctistus of the Studium, cir. 890
Tr. John Mason Neale, 1818-66 a.

Here is the pdf of the clarinet arrangement:067a-jesusnameallnamesabove

This setting is pretty modern sounding in its harmonies. Each part doubled, twice through. Audacity “Medium Room” Reverb Effect applied.

Naturally, “Theoktistus” I cannot resist researching a great name.

“Theoktistus was a monk at the great monastery of the Studium in Constantinople, circa 890. John Neale called him a friend of St. Joseph. Theoktistus’ only known work is Suppliant Canon to Jesus, found at the end of the Paracletice or Great Octoechus, a volume in eight parts, containing the Ferial Office for eight weeks.”

This is the full text of the Canto John Mason Neale translated:

Ἰησοῦ γλυκύτατε.

Jesu, Name all names above,
Jesu, best and dearest,
Jesu, Fount of perfect love,
Holiest, tenderest, nearest;
Jesu, source of grace completest,
Jesu purest, Jesu sweetest,
Jesu, Well of power Divine,
Make me, keep me, seal me Thine!

Jesu, open me the gate
That of old he enter’d,
Who, in that most lost estate,
Wholly on Thee ventur’d;
Thou, Whose Wounds are ever pleading,
And Thy Passion interceding,
From my misery let me rise
To a Home in Paradise!

Thou didst call the Prodigal:
Thou didst pardon Mary:
Thou Whose words can never fall,
Love can never vary:
Lord, to heal my lost condition,
Give—for Thou canst give—contrition;
Thou canst pardon all mine ill
If Thou wilt: O say, “I will!”

Woe, that I have turned aside
After fleshly pleasure!
Woe, that I have never tried
For the Heavenly Treasure!
Treasure, safe in Home supernal;
Incorruptible, eternal!
Treasure no less price hath won
Than the Passion of The Son!

Jesu, crown’d with Thorns for me,
Scourged for my transgression,
Witnessing, through agony,
That Thy good confession!
Jesu, clad in purple raiment,
For my evils making payment;
Let not all Thy woe and pain,
Let not Calvary, be in vain!

When I reach Death’s bitter sea
And its waves roll higher,
Help the more forsaking me
As the storm draws nigher:
Jesu, leave me not to languish,
Helpless, hopeless, full of anguish!
Tell me,—”Verily I say,
Thou shalt be with Me to-day!”

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 Frenchabbot 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.

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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.