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Requiem of the week: Fauré

Camille Saint-Saëns said of it, “Just as Mozart’s is the only Ave verum Corpus, this is the only Pie Jesu.”

This late 19th century piece, by composer Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924), is probably my second favorite requiem. My current choir has performed it at least twice, in 2005 and 2009. It runs about 35 minutes, and consists of seven movements; the linked audios are from sundry sources.

I. Introït et Kyrie (D minor)
II. Offertoire (B minor)
III. Sanctus (E flat major)

Yes, the call-and-response is important, but it’s the violin that makes it.
IV. Pie Jesu (B flat major) A lovely soprano aria, often used in films, etc. Camille Saint-Saëns said of it, “Just as Mozart’s is the only Ave Verum Corpus, this is the only Pie Jesu.”
V. Agnus Dei et Lux Aeterna (F major) – but it’s almost always the Agnus Dei that gets to me.
VI. Libera me (D minor) Wish I could sing like this baritone.
VII. In Paradisum (D major) Another popular work in other media.

Ah, here’s another In Paradisum

You can hear the whole thing, if you have the right media player, here.

The Beatles vs. the Four Seasons

The label, with pretty much only the songs from the Beatles Please Please Me album, repackaged it several times.

The Wife and I have been to two programs at Proctors Theatre in Schenectady in the last month, both enjoyable, though in quite different ways.

On Friday, February 24, we went to the GE Theatre and attended “Looking Through A Glass Onion”, a deconstruction of the Beatles white album presented by Scott Freiman. Actually, we were the perfect audience. I remember hearing the album for the first time in the basement of the Unitarian church in Binghamton, NY late in the fall of 1968. By contrast, my wife had probably never heard of more than a half dozen of the 30 songs on the album. Yet we both walked away learning things.

That bit Can You Take Me Back Where I Came From between Cry Baby Cry and Revolution 9 came from a take of the song I Will. The song Revolution 9 came from an iteration of Revolution 1, is one of FOUR versions of Revolution, including the single and the version that shows up on the Anthology video, which is my very favorite, as it rocks like the single, but has the doowaps of Revolution1.

The difference is that Frieman was able to provide music snippets showing these things in context. He also somehow separated some tracks so you could hear Paul sing the bass line in I Will, e.g. Quite entertainingly told. The only problem is that he only got through about 2/3s of the songs on the album, though he did also touch on the single Hey Jude.

Tuesday, March 6, we saw Jersey Boys, the story of the Four Seasons, at the main Proctors stage. The reason the show worked, besides solid performances, is the Rashomon nature of the story, with Tommy, Bob, Nick, and Frankie having different recollections of what took place. I knew this quartet far less well than I did the Fab Four, but learned a lot more about them. Unlike some “musicals” that throw a bunch of songs together so that it’s more a musical revue than a stage production, this actually had a narrative flow. There were also effective visual effects that enhanced the narrative. I thought the Nippertown review was spot on.

The Beatles and the Four Seasons were, for a brief time, on the same record label in the US, VeeJay. The label, with pretty much only the songs from the Beatles’ Please Please Me album, repackaged it several times; likewise, the Four Seasons had moved onto another label. Thus was born the most peculiar The Beatles vs. the Four Seasons collection.

Requiem of the week- Duruflé

My current church choir performed the Duruflé Requiem in 2006, but it didn’t entrance me as other requiems have.

From the Wikipedia: “The Requiem, op. 9, by Maurice Duruflé was commissioned in 1947 by the French music publisher Durand and is written in memory of the composer’s father… It exists in three orchestrations: one for organ alone, one for organ with string orchestra and optional trumpets, harp and timpani, and one for organ and full orchestra. At the time of commission, Duruflé was working on an organ suite using themes from Gregorian chants. He incorporated his sketches for that work into the Requiem, which uses numerous themes from the Gregorian ‘Mass for the Dead.’ Nearly all the thematic material in the work comes from chant.

I found the complete work performed by Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
Conducted by Robert Shaw. Music links to all parts, the first two together, with the Kyrie starting at about 3:59.

Introit (Requiem Aeternam)
Kyrie eleison “The plainchant influence is clearly evident, particularly in the bass lead to this section.”
Offertory (Domine Jesu Christe)
Sanctus – Benedictus
Pie Jesu
Agnus Dei
Communion (Lux aeterna)
Libera me
In Paradisum

My current church choir performed this requiem at some point, but it didn’t entrance me as other requiems have. Still, I must note it, in part, because when our church choir director and the director of Albany Pro Musica put together their lists of possible pieces of music for the funeral of Albert Wood on March 2 (which would have been Albert’s 58th birthday), both directors came up with the Kyrie from this piece. My church choir and APM performed it together that morning, and i discovered a new fondness, at least for that section.

H is for Help!, the Beatles albums

In the United States, Help! really was a SOUNDTRACK album. So the songs on the first side of the UK LP were spread onto the two sides, augmented by movie instruments written or arranged by Ken Thorne.

Help! was the second Beatles movie, after A Hard Day’s Night, but the first one I saw. When I watched it in a movie theater, back in 1965, I loved it! Viewing it again in 2009 on TV, with the Daughter, it really didn’t hold up, but it was nevertheless enjoyable for the music if nothing else. Here is the trailer to the 2007 video release. And here or here or here is the 90-minute film, in its entirety, or it was there, as of this posting.

But what I really wanted to talk about is the album. Or to be more precise the albums. In Great Britain, and other civilised places in the world, when the LP came out in 1965, the playlist was based on the wishes of the group, and looked like this:

Side one

1. Help!
2. The Night Before
3. You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away
4. I Need You
5. Another Girl
6. You’re Going to Lose That Girl
7. Ticket to Ride

Side two

1. Act Naturally
2. It’s Only Love
3. You Like Me Too Much
4. Tell Me What You See
5. I’ve Just Seen a Face
6. Yesterday
7. Dizzy Miss Lizzy

You can find the individual songs, I’m sure, on YouTube. Here is the whole album.

But in the United States, Help! really was a SOUNDTRACK album. So the songs on the first side of the UK LP were spread onto the two sides, augmented by movie instruments written or arranged by Ken Thorne.

Side one

1. Help! (preceded by a James Bondian instrumental intro)
2. The Night Before
3. From Me to You Fantasy (Lennon–McCartney; arranged by Thorne)
4. You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away
5. I Need You
6. In the Tyrol

Side two

1. Another Girl
2. Another Hard Day’s Night (Lennon–McCartney; arranged by Thorne)
3. Ticket to Ride
4. Medley: The Bitter End/You Can’t Do That (Thorne/Lennon–McCartney; arranged by Thorne)
5. You’re Going to Lose That Girl
6. The Chase

American ears, at least those of a certain age, had gotten used to a particular order of their songs, and while, for most albums, one could take the CDs (based on the British order) and rearrange the songs to suit our aural needs, there were those five instrumentals on the US Help! album that for a long time weren’t digitally available elsewhere. It was ALMOST reason enough to buy The Capitol Albums, Volume 2, which contains The Early Beatles, Beatles VI, the US version of Help! (with the instrumentals) and the US version of Rubber Soul.

What happened to the seven songs on Side 2 of the UK album? You Like Me Too Much and Tell Me What You See, rejected for the movie, ended up on Beatles VI, as did Dizzy Miss Lizzie. I’ve Just Seen a Face and It’s Only Love start Sides 1 and 2, respectively of the US Rubber Soul album; the US and UK Rubber Soul album have 10 common songs, with the other four UK songs ending up on the US Yesterday and Today. Yesterday and Act Naturally from UK Help also ended up on Y&T, which didn’t exist in the UK.

From Wikipedia: A few songs that were intended for the film were not used… because of The Beatles’ suggestions. Lennon and McCartney wrote If You’ve Got Trouble for Ringo Starr to sing, but the song was rejected…That Means a Lot was written for the film, but The Beatles were not satisfied with their performance of the song and they gave it to P.J. Proby, who released it as a single [The linked versions are from Beatles Anthology 2.]…Yes, It Is ended up being released as the B-side of Ticket to Ride and was also on Beatles VI.

ABC Wednesday – Round 10

Requiem of the Week: John Rutter

Go to The John Rutter YouTube channel.

The Requiem by British composer John Rutter (b. 1945) was completed and first performed in 1985. An orchestra, including a harp, accompanies the choir. My church choir at the time performed this perhaps a decade after its premiere, so it was still a rather new piece.

1. Requiem aeternam. Includes the Introit from the Tridentine Requiem Mass and the Kyrie. It starts off so slowly that you may not realize it has begun. But it moves from minor key to major, making it hopeful.

2. Out of the deep. Based on Psalm 130, it may be my favorite piece in the requiem. “It contains a prominent cello solo written in C minor.” Moreover, I think, if it were rearranged, it could almost be a blues piece.

3. Pie Jesu. A motet, primarily a soprano solo, “with only slight involvement of the chorus echoing the words ‘Dona eis requiem, Dona eis sempiternam requiem'”.

4. Sanctus – Benedictus. A “bright, lively, and exclamatory movement which is brightly orchestrated with bells, flute, and oboe and occasional timpani recalling the passage in Old Testament scripture in Isaiah chapter 6, and the worship of the six-winged seraphim in the heavenly throne-room of God.” Sonically, it almost sounds Christmasy.

5. Agnus Dei – as often in requiems, a pleading. Quite stirring musically, especially as it crescendoes.

6. The Lord is my shepherd. A moving rendition of Psalm 23. This “was originally written in 1976 as a separate anthem,” and does stand alone. Our choir performed it as such a couple of times.

7. Lux aeterna. Includes “words from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer Burial Service…and the communion chant from the Tridentine Requiem Mass.” A suitable ending.

The work lasts about 40 minutes.

I know the rap on the composer: “Rutter… is…hard to take seriously, because of the way in which his sheer technical facility or versatility leads to a superficial, unstable crossover style which is neither quite classical not pop, and which tends towards mawkish sentimentality in his sugarily-harmonised and orchestrated melodies.” That may be true of some of his other pieces, but I think this one works well.

Here is a recording of Requiem with Orchestra by St. Matthew’s Choir of Ealing.

Go to The John Rutter YouTube channel – search for Requiem for Rutter’s take on this piece.