"The Little Church Around the Corner"
One East 29th Street, New York
MUSIC NOTES:
Pentecost 19 - October 14, 2001
Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612) left his native Nuremberg at the age of 20 to study in Venice under the renowned Andrea Gabrieli. He brought the Venetian polychoral style back to Germany, where for the rest of his life he held prestigious musical posts, both secular and ecclesiastical. He was a prolific composer, especially in the genres of Latin and German motets, chorales, songs and instrumental music. The Passion Chorale (O Sacred Head Surrounded) is one of his compositions, and is a good example of his gift for melodic invention. The Missa Secunda blends this melodic inventiveness with the elaborate style of harmony and counterpoint learned from such teachers as Gabrieli, Lassus and Praetorius.
It is a great misfortune that so little of the music of Christopher Tye (c.1505-1573) has survived, for this composer is of the same caliber as his close contemporary Thomas Tallis. He was educated at King's College, Cambridge, where he read both Divinity and Music, taking doctoral degrees in both disciplines. The Mass Euge Bone, Tye's best-known composition, was his doctoral exercise in music. He was a member of the choir at King's when the famous chapel of that college had just been built, and later went on to become Master of the Choristers at Ely Cathedral. He was also a member of the Chapel Royal, and a music tutor to the young King Edward VI. Tye's music for the post-Reformation English rite is not extensive, but it is of great importance. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Tye did not abandon the magnificent sonority of pre-Reformation English church music, but rather found ways to mold these compositional techniques to the new standards established for church music. Thus, with Tye the style of the Eton Choirbook is carried forward into the Reformation, supplanting the severity and sparseness of Merbecke with a joyful, confident and rich choral texture that is nonetheless consistent with Archbishop Cranmer's directives.
Sebastian Bach's (1685-1750) Fugue in G Major (BWV 577, Gigue) is one of the great masterpieces of fugal keyboard composition. The Gigue is one of the four movements (usually the last) of the classic 18th-century keyboard suite, the other three being the Allemande, Courante, and Sarabande. All of these movements are derived from French classical dance. A typical Gigue will have a lively melody in compound triple-time with dotted rhythms. Extended fugal treatment of such music is particularly challenging, but in the hands of Bach, seems to present no difficulty at all. In typical baroque fashion, tonal and rhythmic forces combine to dramatic effect in the closing measures.
It is a great misfortune that so little of the music of Christopher Tye (c.1505-1573) has survived, for this composer is of the same caliber as his close contemporary Thomas Tallis. He was educated at King's College, Cambridge, where he read both Divinity and Music, taking doctoral degrees in both disciplines. The Mass Euge Bone, Tye's best-known composition, was his doctoral exercise in music. He was a member of the choir at King's when the famous chapel of that college had just been built, and later went on to become Master of the Choristers at Ely Cathedral. He was also a member of the Chapel Royal, and a music tutor to the young King Edward VI. Tye's music for the post-Reformation English rite is not extensive, but it is of great importance. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Tye did not abandon the magnificent sonority of pre-Reformation English church music, but rather found ways to mold these compositional techniques to the new standards established for church music. Thus, with Tye the style of the Eton Choirbook is carried forward into the Reformation, supplanting the severity and sparseness of Merbecke with a joyful, confident and rich choral texture that is nonetheless consistent with Archbishop Cranmer's directives.
Sebastian Bach's (1685-1750) Fugue in G Major (BWV 577, Gigue) is one of the great masterpieces of fugal keyboard composition. The Gigue is one of the four movements (usually the last) of the classic 18th-century keyboard suite, the other three being the Allemande, Courante, and Sarabande. All of these movements are derived from French classical dance. A typical Gigue will have a lively melody in compound triple-time with dotted rhythms. Extended fugal treatment of such music is particularly challenging, but in the hands of Bach, seems to present no difficulty at all. In typical baroque fashion, tonal and rhythmic forces combine to dramatic effect in the closing measures.
