My maiden post on Sing 4 Harmony (yay). I'd like to clarify though, that I am no 'musicologist' as Yeshamiel said in an earlier post haha.
Anyway, let's skip the burger bun and get to the juicy meat.
Most young Singaporean choristers are familiar with contemporary choral works of Asian nature, and do know a few classcial works - and probably have sung them before - such as Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus. And we are all too familiar with the refrains of Handel's Hallejujah chorus and Beethoven's Ode to Joy.
And then there are other composers who we have heard of before but never knew much about their musical output. Honestly, before listening to Brahms' choral works i thought Brahms composed mainly for piano (having played one of his Hungarian Dances and Rhapsody in G minor) and other chamber works - small scale compositions for a few instruments. In fact, he composed quite a large proportion of choral works and songs (lieder) as well.
Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem, or A German Requiem, was composed after his mother's death, which could have inspired the composition. The lyrics to the symphonic choral work were taken from the German Luther Bible - one would find it intriguing that it is not set to traditional Latin verses instead. The Requiem omits Christian references, as Brahms intended the Requiem to be for just about anybody.
Two other facts about A German Requiem: it was Brahms' first large-scale success as a composer and it affirmed his position as an important German musician. More recently, the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Kurt Masur, performed it for a September 11th memorial concert days after the attack and was broadcasted live on American televsion.
Personally, I do enjoy listening to Brahms' a cappella choral works. Beautiful yet simple melodies, lush harmonies, with instances of polyphony, which I feel even choristers who are less familiar with classical works can listen to. For example, Op. 62 No. 2 Von Alten Liebeslieder.
Anyway, let's skip the burger bun and get to the juicy meat.
Most young Singaporean choristers are familiar with contemporary choral works of Asian nature, and do know a few classcial works - and probably have sung them before - such as Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus. And we are all too familiar with the refrains of Handel's Hallejujah chorus and Beethoven's Ode to Joy.
And then there are other composers who we have heard of before but never knew much about their musical output. Honestly, before listening to Brahms' choral works i thought Brahms composed mainly for piano (having played one of his Hungarian Dances and Rhapsody in G minor) and other chamber works - small scale compositions for a few instruments. In fact, he composed quite a large proportion of choral works and songs (lieder) as well.
Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem, or A German Requiem, was composed after his mother's death, which could have inspired the composition. The lyrics to the symphonic choral work were taken from the German Luther Bible - one would find it intriguing that it is not set to traditional Latin verses instead. The Requiem omits Christian references, as Brahms intended the Requiem to be for just about anybody.
Two other facts about A German Requiem: it was Brahms' first large-scale success as a composer and it affirmed his position as an important German musician. More recently, the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Kurt Masur, performed it for a September 11th memorial concert days after the attack and was broadcasted live on American televsion.
Personally, I do enjoy listening to Brahms' a cappella choral works. Beautiful yet simple melodies, lush harmonies, with instances of polyphony, which I feel even choristers who are less familiar with classical works can listen to. For example, Op. 62 No. 2 Von Alten Liebeslieder.
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Of the Requiems, I personally prefer Mozart's. But hey, everyone's entitled to his or her own opinions ;)
ReplyDeleteHi, not using Latin in the German Requiem is not intriguing at all: Luther was one initiator of the Reformist Churches, wanted, among others, to brake down the language barriers for the masses. Hence non-Catholic songs and choirs never use Latin at all by default. Lutheranism is quite strong in Germany btw.
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