Show I i 1 Sacred Music Contrasted Contrast d 4 t Z 1 4 I St Str M Matthew Is I Leader e a 14 1 p cj 4 Cd 2 q j- j q 4 q Handel Bach Gr Greatest test i By Thomas Giles i now not come to tho giants of ot WE 1 W y oratorio or sacred music U Bach Bachand 1 and Handel both boti born In Tho rho former at Eisenach and the latter at atHalle Halle these two great treat lin kindred red spirits spirit so o In their thoughts their j mode of or living and arid their desires an and I both hOtl such great musicians musicians' The state stalo- r Bachs Bach's music 4 J ment has been made mada that J Sowing owing to his rell religiously devoted doL do- do L mc lifo Is of the typo type which Is re- re perspective while that of i his great contemporary is 1 l J the live and inflective inflective- One satisfied aUs him him- him I 2 3 r naif oU first fint and looked to tho the future for lor 0 tCo recognition while Ute the other the thc ll he I or ors ora and took tool as his models works worl s or of I the 1110 Italians alike in that thc they I They arc nrc both composed trul truly great sacred music S They were both born in tho the same year j j although they never nc met the they were wore operated C upon b by the same surgeon surgeon Lj and both became blind after ter ter tho the I I 5 cal o operations operation rations We shall sh consider J Bach first making one reer reference to to his instrumental ent 1 music II 1 Th Three Thre P Ion i i We have now no fc four ur oratorios from the tho I tf 1 pen of th the man whose work I is f. f as asP asI s I P Schumann chumann says the musicians musician's dailY dally I U three bread t bread three passion-oratorios passion and a at t Christmas oratorio certainly a StMark StMark St Mark Passion and most probably yet another has disappeared owing to the r c delinquencies o of Friedmann Bach atone whose o own n tine fine music cannot d for his sinful carelessness with re regard to shoals of oC his hs fathers father's manuscripts 4 Of ot the Pa Passion ion oj that Accord According b by Mendelssohn Men Men- en- en K ing to St St. Luke was regarded Accord I tt as spurious but It is now genuine but butI I as a n I t ry early work it is of oC hut but slight I Importance and demands little more moret t than historical mention I or Of the other two great works the St st. John Passion i Is the earlier dat- dat i from tram 1 1724 five years before I dat-I the i St. St Mathews is the more dramatic the lc less q reflective of oC the two the I flatter latter indeed includes es so dramatic a conception as the tho superb Thunders i rand r. r and L chorus but It can cant t t. t hardly anything to correspond J win db the tho exten extended cd and organically de developed developed developed de- de choruses chorused of Jew JeY and Roman j U soldiers o lers while in it the portions o of a purely y-purely contemplative character cha-acter arc are pure r c both more frequent and more subtly I than in the thc earlier Passion S1 i St C. C v v ras on 4 But in indeed ced it Is hard even If It were necessary to make comparisons beI be- be I iv these two magnificent works I j 1 the sincere outpourings of or the spirits I j ri 1 of oC great men as yet far too little t I I known known comes comes to lo a climax architectonic tonic movements like the first chorus I oC th the St Matthew Passion or unfathomably unfathomably un- un tr pathetic airs like r E barme dich from the same work worl I or orEs orEs Es 1st from front the St John Passion express in terms of oC perfect art Jut art a n. religious sentiment that is fully as as exalted cx a as the radiant m m of Palestrina and yet ret In a wa way more marc Intimate In- In and more human Still neither work ork is ig of steadily equal splendor I throughout and we should guard suard ourI ourselves our our- I es selves a against the too facile supposition supposition iti tion that because of or St. St Matthew Passion Pas- Pas jf sion has since Its virtual rediscovery ib by Mendelssohn been far tar more fre- fre performed than an any other of or composers composer's works It is r therefore the th-c unchallenged crown ori of or i them all I Leaving ing the B U minor Mass ass out of I the r-the 0 que question the one hundred and fIve Junet church cantatas each cach practIcally a n short oratorio the last o of which was anI only published In 1894 andr andI and I r Perhaps halt half as many a again aln have alas disappeared contain dozens dozen of or things U abat that can hold their own with anything I Hn In either of oC tho the Passions some day i perhaps we wo shall know them as we ought Six Sli S- S Cantata The Christmas oratorio the oratorio the title Is isiach's Bachs own own own-lIS IB really not a whole sing sing- vly ly work like each o of the lons but a collection of or six sep sep- arato rato cantatas written for or six s separate holl holidays beginning with Christmas Tand and ending with tIle the Epiphany but though the church cantata c. h is an art- art F form which ha has been purposely ex excluded ex- ex eluded from the tho present article as be- be like BIte the lIsh anthem a mere p Incident in an Ln ecclesiastical service yet the tho ho fact tact that Bach joined these six sly together and called caned the re revolt re- re volt ault an oratorio is corns to tu necessitate some omo no notice tine The work to which for tor practical purposes es we may refer in the singular number was written in 1734 17 five f years rears after the St. St Matthew Passion Pa the dramatic clement element is practically nonexIstent non non- exIstent the tho exquisitely beautiful pastoral laS laS- oral toral al music which Is hs heard both bolh u us a purely instrumental Intro introduction at tho beginning and in fra fragments rn in conjunction con con- junction with the chori chon chont U t th end of the he second of or the six l boIng bo- bo oIne o- o Ing Ine- the only portion which is not HO so HOlo soto to lo f speak mystical in out out- look Jook on the other othor hand though a good Rood many congregation chorales set cot more or less plainly aro arc Inserted the I lar large e choruses are arc none of I them hem founded on chorale melodies le as Is b Isso so fO often though very far from Crom In- In i the ease case In the purely Independent Inde lade pendent Pendent cantatas and there is an an Organic unity about the design of the oratorio which mal makes cs it il quite o for Cor us ue to lo imagine Ine that Bach lie viewing viewing- each of or the six divisions 0 o as Js to servo s as 81 a 5 separate pante work 1 by Itself nevertheless cn- cn that the thc six could be combined f necessary ry Into one ono balanced whole J ta- ta on fin In Mardi Murch Mu Ic Certainly it would woul be very difficult or or OB ns to Join to together six nix of tho the other hurch cantatas with anything like ike HO so 0 a result as u is iJ produced P by combination of th the six ix m co which go JO to make mako up op the Christmas 0 Oratorio rato rio Handels Handel's carl early essays on ecclesiastical music arc are however of or different qualIty qualIty quality ity the they lack indeed the maturity of oC technical handling that we wc see in the great English oratorios but as regards I at an any rate two of oC them we ma may perhaps perhaps perhaps per per- haps say that on tho the whole they show more strictly religious earnestness of oC purpose and that while we miss tho the spaciousness of or tho the latter works we miss also their careless convention convention- In In many ways both the St. St John Passion 1740 and the Passion set to toI I tho the used often poem of or 1713 are rc distinctly interesting works there are arc man many numbers that are arc far fal closer to Koiser's and Bachs Bach's methods than anything else Handel ever wrote Judged at al an any rate rale by quality of or output output output out out- I put English oratorio is one of oC the tho most successful ul branches of oC musical art yet Its original was entirely fortuitous It sprang full lull from rom the brain of ot a a. foreigner there foreigner there Is nothing nothing- in ex existence existence ex- ex that can by an any stretch of oC language be called an English oratorio oratorio ora ora- torio of lan language and It owed Its be beInS' beInS being being be- be ing InS simply and sole solely to a business speculation Handel Recover J Popularity Handel el arrived d In Engl England nd In 1710 and wrote noth nothing n In the nature of or a public oratorio for twenty three years Esther the first English ng-lish oratorio was In Indeed teed leed in 17 1720 0 but like lIko the Chandos anthems it was designed merel merely for private performance in tho the chapel at Cannous near Edgware the tho seat of oC Han Handel's Handels els el's patron the Duke of or Chandos During these years Handel devoted himself almost exclusively to Italian opera but with the increasing ever opposition of oC the rival rhal faction that his jealous adver adversaries had created he at last found hi his hi former popularity fast I disappearing and s set t about considering how he might best recover his old posH position Ion and I It was anticipated that today's I article would woul conclude the subject of oC oratorio but it Is not possible to leave Han Handel cl at present and to ignore Haydn Next Sunda Sundays Sunday's s article will treat the later works of Handel including Judas and the Messiah and a word concerning Mend Mendelssohn l sohn an and Sir Ed Edward ward Elgar |