Sunday Playlist - 12/13/2020

From Derek:

Sending this tonight, because music keeps me grounded. It also helps me locate something greater even than the beautiful earth we walk on.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzrVlXh4mc1MblI6mBCbn8s6gzyGIobWO

This week, I’ve put together a selection of works about the annunciation and Mary—more than my usual five. Believe it or not, I did delete several pieces in hopes of leaving everyone wanting more.

We begin with the carol, “Gabriel’s Message.” Much as I’m trying to postpone Christmas carols for at least another week, this one is on message. Translated from a Basque carol by the Victorian Anglican priest Sabine Baring-Gould, it has the spectacular line, “His wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame.” I’ve followed it with a setting of Mary’s song from the gospel of Luke, the Magnificat, by an Estonian composer who will be familiar to anyone who has been following these lists since the beginning of the pandemic. Although Bach’s setting is greater, Pärt’s is my favorite. Mark the volume and force of “suscepit Israel…”

Next is an instrumental version of one of Hildegard’s many hymns to Mary, “Ave generosa,” performed on viola da gamba by Jordi Savall and his early music ensemble. And again this week, we have work from the Boston Camerata album. In the liner notes, Cohen tells us that the carols are English, while the tune is from an early American hymnal, Wyeth’s Repository.

Finally, I’ve included three settings of the Middle English lyric, “I Sing of a Maiden.” You can find the poem and a modernization here: http://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/i-sing-of-a-maiden/

Note how different each interpretation is from the other—the Hadley is so quiet and contemplative, and the Britten (from his Ceremony of Carols) is jubilant. The Bax is the perfect early-20th-century English anthem, with adventurous harmonies (notice the second verse) that always return to the tonic and give us peace.