Brad's Music Room

We “Ode To Joy” is the final movement of Beethoven’s Ninth and last Symphony. The German composer spent seven years working on this symphony. He started the work in 1818 and finished in 1824. The symphony is one of the best known works of the Western classical repertoire. Importantly, Scholars consider it one of Beethoven’s masterpieces.

At the time it was a novel idea to use a chorus and solo voices in a symphony. Therefore it is also called the “Choral” symphony. Beethoven, in fact, had serious misgivings about portraying the music’s message with actual words. Even after the premiere, he apparently came very close to replacing all the vocal lines with instrumental ones.

The words, which are sung by four vocal soloists and a chorus, emanate a strong belief in mankind. They were taken from a poem written by German writer Friedrich Schiller in 1785 and revised in 1803, with additions made by Beethoven.

Beethoven was completely deaf when he embarked on this masterpiece. Tragically he never heard a single note of it, except inside his head. At the end of the symphony’s first performance, Beethoven, who had been directing the piece was facing the orchestra. Consequently, the contralto Caroline Unger had to turn him around around so he could see the audience’s ecstatic reaction. Amazingly he had been unaware of the tumultuous roars of applause behind him.

via Ode To Joy by Ludwig Van Beethoven Songfacts.

I think Joy is a pretty good word to describe the people in this video.

While Handel’s “Messiah” rightly holds its place as this country’s classical musical soundtrack for the holiday season (quibble if you will about its Easter message;  there’s nothing wrong
with talking about Easter at Christmas – just ask Bach!), it’s J.S. Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio” that rings through concert halls throughout Europe at this time of the year.

Johann Sebastian Bach wrote the Christmas Oratorio, for the Christmas season of 1734.

The oratorio is in six parts, each part being intended for performance on one of the major feast days of the Christmas period.

1. The first part (for Christmas Day) describes the birth of Jesus.
2. The second (for December 26) the annunciation to the shepherds.
3. The third (for December 27) the adoration of the shepherds.
4. The fourth (for New Year’s Day) the circumcision and naming of Jesus.
5. The fifth (for the first Sunday after New Year) the journey of the Magi.
6. The sixth (for Epiphany) the adoration of the Magi.

While Christmas today is considered one of the primary holidays of the Christian faith, it was not always this way. During medieval times, Christmas was a much more solemn affair. It was a day of prayer and reflection, and was observed primarily with a special mass – the “Cristes Maesee,” or the “Mass of Christ.”

By the Middles Ages (the 1200s), most people had lost interest in celebrating Christmas altogether.

This was changed by St. Francis of Assisi when, in 1223, he started his Nativity Plays in Italy. The people in the plays sang songs or ‘canticles’ that told the story during the plays. Sometimes, the choruses of these new carols were in Latin; but normally they were all in a language that the people watching the play could understand and join in! The new carols spread to France, Spain, Germany and other European countries.

Twelfth Night

The biggest celebration of the season during the Renaissance, was Twelfth Night, the night before Epiphany. It was held that the Epiphany marked the date, twelve days following Christmas, when the Magi found the newborn Christ child and presented him with gifts. The modern custom of exchanging gifts at Christmas is generally believed to be a continuance of the tradition started by the three Wise Men.

The so-called “Twelve Days of Christmas” began at sundown on December 24th and lasted until Epiphany, on January 6th. During the Renaissance, Twelfth Night marked the ‘official’ end of the Christmas (or winter) holiday season and was the traditional day for taking down Christmas decorations.

From Twelfth Night During the Renaissance

Christmas Music Hits the Streets

During the Renaissance music was taken outside the walls of the church and into the streets. Christian music was translated from Latin to the language of the common people.

What other important change do you notice when you compare Renaissance music with the music of the medieval ages? Enter your observations below.

One of the earliest and best-known carols of the Renaissance era is “In dulci jubilo.” It is a traditional Christmas carol whose name means “In sweet rejoicing.” In its original setting, the carol is a macaronic (mixed language) text of German and Latin dating from the Middle Ages. Subsequent translations into English, such as J.M. Neale’s arrangement “Good Christian Men, Rejoice” have increased its popularity, and Robert Pearsall’s 1837 macaronic translation is a mainstay of the Christmas Nine Lessons and Carols repertoire. J.S. Bach’s chorale prelude based on the tune (BWV 729) is also a traditional postlude for Christmas services. (Wikipedia)

In dulci jubilo

Good Christian Men, Rejoice