Christmas 2017, 1. Works by Hubert Waelrant and a few others (16th - 19th century)

To set the mood, let's look to some composers who had anniversaries this year, some we had a chance to explore earlier in the year and some we did not. Where possible, I'll feature music in keeping with the season.

   - First up is Hubert Waelrant (c. 1517-1595), a Flemish composer, teacher, and music editor of the Renaissance.

        He, like many musicians from the Low Countries, probably spent some time in Italy, possibly studying with Adrian Willaert (c. 1490-1562). His work shows influence from mid-16th century Italian techniques, and he was published in Girolamo Scotto's (c. 1505-1572) 1565 collection of canzone napolitane.

        He was active in Antwerp, first as a singer at the Antwerp Cathedral (1544-1545) and as a teacher in the mid-1550s. From 1554 to 1558 he collaborated with Jean de Laet (c. 1524-1566/67) on sixteen books, including several of his own, a.o. handling financial and sales operations for the printing press. ⁽¹⁾

        He was careful in his teaching, manuscripts and print editions to make all details as clear as possible with annotations to performers, aligning notes and syllables, using accidentals, and devising a new method of solmization for his students.

        Waelrant lived in a religiously turbulent time. The response to the strong Calvinist movement in Antwerp alternated between religious persecution (1550-1566) and religious freedom (1566-1567 and 1577-1585). ⁽²⁾ Waelrant was a Catholic with probable Protestant sympathies, since at least some of his settings are in the Flemish and French vernacular languages. ⁽³⁾

        Not much is known of Waelrant's life after 1558 other than that he continued to compose and edit music, and was a consultant for the Antwerp Cathedral church bells. In 1584 he collaborated on a collection of music of Flemish polyphonists, a.o. Cornelis Verdonck (1563-1623) who may have been Waelrant's student and Andreas Pevernage (1542/43-1591) who fled from Kortrijk to Antwerp in 1577/78 to escape the Calvinists. In 1585 he published a well-received book of Italian madrigals "Symphonia angelica" which included some of his own madrigals, a.o. the one we're about to hear. He was buried in the Antwerp Cathedral.

        Waelrant composed in many genres: sacred and secular, vocal and instrumental. His motets were the most progressive, somewhere between the imitative style of Nicolas Gombert (c. 1495 - c. 1560) and the chromaticism and clear textures of Orlande de Lassus (1530/32-1594). At times he used text-painting, and his harmonic language, like that of Lassus, already points to the Baroque era.

        - Let's listen to Wij vyeren heden (Today we celebrate), a vocal composition for Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra (modern-day Demre in Turkey), whose relics have traveled far and wide and whose life is the subject of many different legends and stories. In the Low Countries Sinterklaas is celebrated on the evening of December 5th or the morning of December 6th. The Santa Claus who comes on Christmas Day grew out of the historical Saint Nicholas, the Dutch Sinterklaas, and the English Father Christmas.

           Lyrics are by Joannes Stalpaert van der Wiele (1579-1630). The music is Stalpaert's arrangement of a tune by Hubert Waelrant. In 1584 Waelrant included it in a Dutch setting Als ick u vinde (When I find you) for voice and lute in the edition Pratum musicum (Emanuel Adriaenssens (1540/55-1604), 1584), and in 1585 as an Italian madrigal Vorria morire (I want to die) in Symphoniae Angelica.



   - Next, from the eighteenth century, comes Sinfonia in D major Pastorale Op. 4 No. 2 by the Bohemian composer Johann Stamitz (1717-1757), founder of the Mannheim School. It is in four movements (1. Presto, 2. Larghetto, 3. Menuetto, 4. Presto).

It is a very late work that is saturated with the closing strain of a Bohemian Christmas carol. The pastorella tradition, particularly cultivated in Bohemia, encouraged some musical or dramatic expression of the Nativity scene to demonstrate the Christmas Eve Gospel. Stamitz's symphony may have sounded in the court chapel at Mannheim on Christmas Eve 1755 or 1756.⁽⁴⁾

        Let's listen to the winds and the crescendos, so characteristic for the Mannheim School, and the beautiful pastoral moments.



   - The Danish composer Niels Gade (1817-1890) wrote a number of beautiful works for Christmas, both instrumental and vocal.

        Barn Jesus i en krybbe laa (Baby Jesus lay in a manger) (1859) with text by H. C. Andersen is here beautifully performed in an arrangement by Rasmus Thaarup.



        Children's Christmas (Børnenes Jul), Op. 36 (1859) for piano includes five pieces: 1. Jule-Klokkerne (Christmas Chimes) in F major, 2. Indgangsmarch (Entrance March) in A major, 3. Drengenes Runddans (Boys' Merry-Go-Round) in A minor, 4. Smaapigernes Dans (Maidens' Dance) in E major, and 5. Godnat! (Goodnight!) in F major.



        Det flagrer mod Bondens Rude (It flutters against the farmer's pane), Julekvæld (Christmas Eve) comes from Seasonal Pictures (Aarstidsbilleder), Op. 51 (1859) with text by Carl Andersen (1828-1883). It is set for soloists (soprano, alto and tenor), female choir and 4-hand piano or orchestra.



        Fra Himlen højt kom Budskab her (A message comes from Heaven) (no date) for organ exists in two versions. We hear both.





   - Another highly regarded organist and composer hails from France. Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély (1817-1869) 'played a major role in the development of the French symphonic organ style and was closely associated with the organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, inaugurating many new Cavaillé-Coll organs.'⁽⁵⁾

        We hear two Christmas: Venite adoremus (O come, let us adore Him) for harmonium in three movements (1. Harmonium, 2. Adeste, 3. Allegretto) and Noël varié – Offertoire pour le Jour de Noël (Christmas variations - Offertory for Christmas Day), a theme and seven variations.





   - Henry Brinley Richards (1817-1885), a British composer from Wales who also used the pseudonym Carl Luini and the bardic name Pencerdd Towy, composed a lovely set of Variations On The Beautiful Air Of "What Bells are Those?" for piano.



   - We conclude this section of early Christmas music with Julsång (Christmas Song) from the Swedish Gunnar Wennerberg (1817-1901), composer of a very good collection of student songs and later politician.


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⁽¹⁾"Theory (English) and Lehre (German) versus Téori (Indonesian)." International Musicological Society. Congress
EDT srl, 1990, p. 243. (https://books.google.com/books?id=n4HGVGEEVRcC&lpg=PA243&ots=Oo_wDvusDc&dq=hubert%20waelrant%2BItaly&pg=PA243#v=onepage&q=hubert%20waelrant+Italy+Laet&f=false (12/18/2017))
⁽²⁾ Andrew Pettegree, "Calvinism in Europe, 1540-1620." Cambridge University Press, 07/13/1996, p. 143. (https://books.google.com/books?id=i5-WLG9URbUC&lpg=PA143&ots=h82xNHG21j&dq=Antwerp%2016th%20century%20Calvinists&pg=PA143#v=onepage&q=Antwerp%2016th%20century%20Calvinists&f=false (12/18/2017))
⁽³⁾ Although Waelrant is not mentioned in the list of Antwerp's martyrs (1522-1585), Waelrant's printing partner Jan de Laet is mentioned on one occasion as 'under investigation for a forbidden print publication (04/29/1566),' and de Laet's widow is on the list of 'condenmed in Antwerp (period 1567-1573).' (http://www.theologienet.nl/documenten/Antwerpen%20Martyrol%201522-1585.pdf (12/18/2017)) There also is evidence that some of Waelrant's settings in Dutch were confiscated by Catholic church authorities at Kortrijk.
⁽⁴⁾ Daniel Heartz, "Music in European Capitals: The Galant Style, 1720-1780." New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 2003, p. 509. (https://books.google.com/books?id=Sq7rU0BGyREC&lpg=PA508&dq=stamitz%20mass&pg=PA509#v=onepage&q=stamitz%20mass&f=false (12/18/2017))
⁽⁵⁾"Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély." Wikipedia entry. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_James_Alfred_Lef%C3%A9bure-W%C3%A9ly (12/18/2017))