Program Notes: Haydn, Lauridsen, & Bernstein
Franz Joseph Haydn: Te Deum
Morten Lauridsen: Lux Aeterna
Leonard Bernstein: Chichester Psalms
The musical talents of Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) were recognized early. At the age of six, he was studying violin and harpsichord, and from the ages of eight to seventeen he sang in the choir at St. Stephan's. When his voice "broke", Haydn had several hard years trying to gain recognition and employment. In 1759, purely by chance, Prince Esterhazy heard a performance by Haydn and immediately offered him a job as music director at the Esterhazy estate. For the rest of his life, Haydn composed for the Esterhazys, who were avid music lovers and great patrons of the arts. At their estate, Haydn had immediate access to an orchestra, chorus, and theater. He quickly became one of history's most prolific composers, writing 104 symphonies, three oratorios, nineteen operas, fifty-two piano sonatas, fourteen Masses, and hundreds of works for various chamber music ensembles.
Te Deum was written for Empress Marie Therese. The empress was one of Haydn's admirers and had tried on several occasions to have him write works for her. Prince Esterhazy staunchly refused to allow it, but this Te Deum was apparently delivered to the empress over the objections of the prince. The first known performance was in 1800 on the occasion of a visit of Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton.
Morten Lauridsen (1943- ) has been a long-time professor and Chair of the Department of Composition at the University of Southern California and, since 1994, Composer in Residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale. This latter position is significant because it has provided a venue for highly-refined and sensitive performances of his music. As a result, he is perhaps one of the most frequently performed composers of choral music today.
Lauridsen proves through his writing that contemporary music can speak directly from and to the heart. It is music that is accessible to the audience upon first hearing, yet it is fresh, inspired, creative, and above all, human.
Lux Aeterna was first performed in April 1997. Lauridsen writes in the published score:
Each of the five connected movements in this cycle contains references to Light assembled from various sacred Latin texts. The piece opens and closes with the beginning and ending of the Requiem Mass with the central three movements drawn respectively from the Te Deum (including a line from the Beatus Vir), O Nata Lux, and Veni Sancte Spiritus.
The instrumental introduction to the Introitus softly recalls motivic fragments from two pieces especially close to my heart (my settings of Rilke's Contre Que, Rose from Les Chansons des Roses, and O Magnum Mysterium) which recur throughout the work in various forms. Several new themes in the Introitus are then introduced by the chorus, including an extended canon on et lux perpetua. In Te, Domini, Speravi contains, among other musical elements, the cantus firmus Herzliebster Jesu and a lengthy inverted canon on fiat misericordia. O Nata Lux and Veni Sancte Spiritus are paired songs, the former a central a cappella motet and the latter a spirited, jubilant canticle. A quiet setting of the Agnus Dei precedes the final Lux Aeterna, which reprises the opening section of the introitus and concludes with a joyful Alleluia.
The powerful emotions and the serenity of Lux Aeterna have been compared by some to Brahms' A German Requiem which the Mastersingers will be performing in March 2001. There perhaps is also a personal and profoundly human bond between the two works. The soprano solo of the fifth movement of the Brahms Requiem is associated with his mother's death, and Lauridsen's own mother died while he was writing Lux Aeterna.
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1991), born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, was a pianist, conductor, educator, and composer. His success as the conductor of the New York Philharmonic (1958-1969), the popularity of his “Young People's Concerts,“ and the greatly divergent nature of his compositions, ranging from the musical comedies On The Town and West Side Story to the Kaddish Symphony and his Mass, made him one of the nation's foremost musical personalities.
Chichester Psalms was commissioned for the Three Choir Festivals held in Chichester, England in 1965. Although it retains the eclecticism, drama, and intensity characteristic of the dramatic and flamboyant Bernstein, it is a very affirmative and straightforward expression of the text. The most dissonant passages, a triad with one added tone, occur in the opening of the first and third movements. The first movement begins with a dramatic declamation of text from Psalm 108 (Awake, Psaltery and Harp!). This is immediately contrasted with the complete Psalm 100 (Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord) which springs and bounds with joy through its irregular rhythms. The second movement contrasts a simple but unsentimental setting of Psalm 23 with a driving canon by the men from Psalm 2 (Why Do the Nations Rage?) The opening melody was orignally as the song “Spring Will Come Again“ for The Skin of Our Teeth. The middle section was originally intended for the “Prologue“ of West Side Story but is actually less dissonant and metrically more regular than the “Prologue“. The final movement makes a more consonant reference to the opening of the first movement but continues with one of the most sublime melodies Bernstein ever wrote.
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