Music for Advent and Christmas

[Wakefield]

Come on, guys! Although quite wildly secularized, Christmas is still a Christian celebration; therefore it would be useful to consider that framework. 

And this 2-for-1 reissue contains the motet and mass Hodie Christus natus est
[asin]B001EZ1H20[/asin]

Curiously, I was doing some research about this antiphon some days ago, when I listened to A Ceremony of Carols by Britten. This because the "Procession" (1st mov.) is based on this piece.

"Hodie Christus Natus Est" is the antiphon sung before and after the Magnificat (song of the Virgin Mary) in the monastic service of Vespers on Christmas Day. The text announces:
Hodie Christus natus est: / Hodie Salvator apparuit: / Hodie in terra canunt Angeli, / laetantur Archangeli / Hodie exsultant justi, dicentes: / Gloria in excelsis Deo. Alleluia.
Translated:
Today Christ is born: / Today the Savior appeared: / Today on Earth the Angels sing, / Archangels rejoice: / Today the righteous rejoice, saying: / Glory to God in the highest. Alleluia.

It's used in a lot of sacred music. This morning, for instance, I'm listening to this Schütz (Kleine geistliche Konzerte, SWV 315):

http://www.youtube.com/v/U6AF3NJD8Gk

About the performance: Not bad, all circumstances considered.

[HIPster]

Gordo - nice thread!  Thanks for starting it.

In heavy rotation here is this one, from Ensemble Organum:
[asin]B0046IGOAC[/asin]

I have a different edition than this one, but the music on this set is incredible!  A very moving listening experience.  Well worth the investment. . .

[Wakefield]

Tomorrow is the first Sunday of Advent. The first day of the liturgical year (New Year), both in Lutheran and Catholic tradition.

So it's mandatory a listen of my favorite Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland BWV 61, performed by Gardiner and his chorus and orchestra.

BTW, I'm talking about his 1st version of the early 90s (IMO, a lot better than the second one on SDG):

[asin]B00004YYPV[/asin]

[Wakefield]

In heavy rotation is this one, form Ensemble Organum:
[asin]B0046IGOAC[/asin]

I have a different edition than this one, but the music on this set is incredible!  A very moving listening experience.  Well worth the investment. . .

Wishlisted. 

[Marc]

A few baroque Magnificats:



http://www.amazon.com/Magnificat-3-Masaaki-Suzuki/dp/B00007GXJ3/

Medieval carols and motets:



http://www.amazon.com/Yoolis-Night-Medieval-Carols-Motets/dp/B00G2IK0RW/

And, being a chauvinist pig, carols and Dutch Christmas songs by Aafje Heynis:



http://www.youtube.com/v/Ddj2Y1w14uk

[prémont]

Do you know Rohmeyer´s other Bach-recording on the Marcussen organ in Dom zu Lübeck?
It is just as good as this one, and the organ is among Marcussen´s better creations.
I think an integral was intended. A pity it wasn´t realized, for Rohmeyer is a fine and authorative musician.

[Wakefield]

The excellent Collegium Marianum:

[asin]B002Q1LK0U[/asin]

[HIPster]

The excellent Collegium Marianum:

Looks excellent, Gordo! 

Thanks for bringing it to my attention. 

Now playing for thread duty:
[asin]B000000SCT[/asin]

[Wakefield]

Now playing for thread duty:
[asin]B000000SCT[/asin]

Excellent!

It's included here:

[asin]B000FQITXE[/asin]

Therefore, it has been added to the queue for the next week.

[Wakefield]

These days I have been listening to several versions of Bach's cantatas for Advent. As you probably know, liturgical tradition in Leipzig forbade the use of "figural music" after the First Sunday of Advent until Christmas. So there are not too many cantatas for this period of the year.

As I said yesterday, Gardiner 1 (Archiv) performs my favorite version of the cantata Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 61. Principally (but not only) because of the way how he manages the initial chorus (true core of this cantata: French overture plus German chorale), as a sort of vibrant announcement of the arriving of the Lion of Judah, the young king, the liberator. Exactly the opposite way chosen by Koopman, who is pompous, solemn and slow. As the announcement of the arrival of a fat and tired king.

[asin]B00004YYPV[/asin]

Gardiner 2 (SDG) is not remotely as good as his first try, starting with the lineup; particularly Anthony Rolfe Johnson, way better than Jan Kobow.

Closely after Gardiner 1, I like Harnoncourt (Teldec Edition, if you accept the young soprano), then Herreweghe and Suzuki. After them: Richter and Koopman.

Some additional recommendation, dear fellows? 

[Wakefield]

Tempus Festorum: Medieval music for the Nativity Season
Ensemble Anonymus
Bernatchez, Claude



http://www.analekta.com/en/album/?ensemble-anonymus-tempus-festorum-medieval-music-for-the-nativity-season.1365.html#

It includes these interesting notes:

The medieval calendar was well provided with a series of major religious feasts and the Christmas season, which brought a little warmth to the cold of winter, was especially well suited to celebration. As falling leaves, low temperatures and snow slowed many daily activities, peasants and townsfolk prepared to celebrate the birth of Jesus with the coming of the winter solstice. In a feudal society marked by the domination of the strongest and strict religious morals, in which war, crusades, and outbreaks of the plague and other epidemics were common occurrences, the Christmas tempus festorum was eagerly awaited, bringing as it did a message of redemption and new life.

[...]

The period between December 6 and Epiphany was, in the words of musicologist Pierre Aubry, the "annual time for rejoicing"1. The first feast of Advent was that of Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myre (died 325), the patron saint of sailors and also of children. His relics had been brought from Asia Minor to Bari, in southern Italy, in 1087, and he was venerated throughout Europe as the medieval ancestor of Santa Claus. Many liturgical dramas and polyphonic motets were composed in his honour, including the joyful three-part Psallat chorus attributed to Franco of Cologne that appears in several 13th-century manuscripts.

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which fell on December 8, inspired music that was either contemplative (Angelus ad Virginem) or richly ornamented (Dum sigillum summi patris), recalling the cult of the Virgin that was of particular importance betwen the twelfth and the fifteenth centuries. Christmas was a time of religious wonder and fervour, but also of popular rejoicing, and fiddles, hurdy-gurdies, bagpipes and flutes were all put to good use by the peasantry, as can be seen in the miniatures painstakingly illuminated by medieval monks and artists. Beginning in the 11th century, the shepherds guided by the Angel to the manger became the basis for sung dialogues and stage settings. These liturgical dramas were intended to "fortify the faith of the ignorant multitude and novices", as the Englishman Saint Ethelwold, a Benedictine monk, wrote around 965.

On Christmas Day itself, however, prayers were replaced by euphoria as the so-called "Feast of Fools" began, lasting in some places for over a week. It included Saint Stephen's Day (December 26), Holy Innocents' Day (December 28) and New Year's Day, despite its being the Feast of the Circumcision. In a manner reminiscent of the Saturnalia, nobles and paupers changed roles, the Mass was parodied in Church, and dancing was continued to the point of exhaustion. On December 28 children took their revenge for the Slaughter of the Innocents ordered by Herod by celebrating Mass in church, followed by the Feast of the "Boy Bishop".

In Beauvais and Sens, as ordained in the early 13th-century ritual of Pierre de Corbeil, Bishop of Sens, the donkey used for the Flight into Egypt appeared in church between Christmas and the New Year, to the delight of the congregation. Musicians took advantage of these extraordinary services to produce parodies of such venerable works as the Kyrie Cunctipotens, a masterpiece of the medieval repertory, or to insert vigorous calls of "Hez, Sire asne, Hez!" into a delicate Marial chant (Concordi lætitia) endowed, for the occasion, with new words (Orientis partibus). Despite the prohibition of these somewhat strange practices by the Bishop of Paris, Odon de Sully, in 1198, it was only after the Councils of Basle (1431) and Toledo (1473) that such outpourings of joy bordering on obscenity finally disappeared: "The Church (...) must be purged of these shameful things". It was therefore forbidden, in church, to introduce "larva and monsters, and to put on plays, (...) to shout, sing in verse, and use derisive language that disturbs the service and turns the spirit of the people away from piety".

Using period manuscripts and traditionally-based improvisations, the members of Anonymus have, in this recording, attempted to recreate the unbridled, yet pious atmosphere of the medieval festive season.

-- Irène Brisson, Music History and Art History professor at the Québec Conservatory

[HIPster]

These days I have been listening to several versions of Bach's cantatas for Advent. As you probably know, liturgical tradition in Leipzig forbade the use of "figural music" after the First Sunday of Advent until Christmas. So there are not too many cantatas for this period of the year.

As I said yesterday, Gardiner 1 (Archiv) performs my favorite version of the cantata Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 61. Principally (but not only) because of the way how he manages the initial chorus (true core of this cantata: French overture plus German chorale), as a sort of vibrant announcement of the arriving of the Lion of Judah, the young king, the liberator. Exactly the opposite way chosen by Koopman, who is pompous, solemn and slow. As the announcement of the arrival of a fat and tired king.

[asin]B00004YYPV[/asin]

Gardiner 2 (SDG) is not remotely as good as his first try, starting with the lineup; particularly Anthony Rolfe Johnson, way better than Jan Kobow.

Closely after Gardiner 1, I like Harnoncourt (Teldec Edition, if you accept the young soprano), then Herreweghe and Suzuki. After them: Richter and Koopman.

Some additional recommendation, dear fellows? 

Thank you for the extremely informative post, Gordo.   

I am unfamiliar with this Gardiner (1) - and (2) for that matter - but am curious to check it out after reading this. . .

In answer to your call for recommendations, I submit this one from Milnes and Montreal Baroque:
[asin]B001F1YC2K[/asin]

[Wakefield]

In answer to your call for recommendations, I submit this one from Milnes and Montreal Baroque:
[asin]B001F1YC2K[/asin]

I can listen to this via NML. Thanks for this recommendation! 

Today I found this new release of one of my favorite Baroque ensembles:

[kishnevi]

Completely forgot about this one when I posted suggestions the other day
[asin]B003OXILP6[/asin]

[kishnevi]

And this, which has a wider selection of music, and an alternate performance of the Tallis mass (although I think I prefer Stile Antico's recording for the mass itself)
[asin]B0000E3HIT[/asin]

[springrite]

There is no Boxing Day Cantata, is there?

[kishnevi]

The Thomaskirche does not seem to have included the Feast of All Boxes in its liturgical calendar,  but for the Second Day of Christmas, there are BWV numbers 40, 57, and 121, and of course the second part of BWV 248.

[prémont]

Tempus Festorum: Medieval music for the Nativity Season
Ensemble Anonymus
Bernatchez, Claude

I will consider a relisten- might be beneficial.

There is also this:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Feast-Fools-New-London-Consort/dp/B0018B7RSS/ref=sr_1_4?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1386203969&sr=1-4&keywords=philip+pickett

and a similar recording by René Clemencic on Harmonia Mundi, which I can´t find at the moment. It may be OOP.

[Wakefield]

I will consider a relisten- might be beneficial.

There is also this:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Feast-Fools-New-London-Consort/dp/B0018B7RSS/ref=sr_1_4?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1386203969&sr=1-4&keywords=philip+pickett

and a similar recording by René Clemencic on Harmonia Mundi, which I can´t find at the moment. It may be OOP.

That Pickett's disk looks enticing.

On the basis of your post, I found this:

La Fête de l'Âne - Traditions du Moyen-Age
Clemencic Consort - René Clemencic, dir.
http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/cds/hmu1036.htm



La Fête des Fous
Obsidienne - Emmanuel Bonnardot
Calliope CAL 9344
http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/cds/clp9344.htm



Both of them are OOP. 

[Wakefield]

There is no Boxing Day Cantata, is there?

I think the "Boxing Day" is not a German secular celebration, but I could be wrong. Anyway, this day matches with the Christian feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr.

On the Second Day of Christmas, the Lutheran Church in Leipzig celebrated Christmas and St. Stephen's Day in alternating years, with different readings:

- For Christmas:
Titus 3:4–7, God's mercy appeared in Christ
Luke 2:15–20, the shepherds at the manger
   
- For St. Stephen's Day:
Acts 6:8–15 and 7:55–60, Martyrdom of Stephen
Matthew 23:35–39, Jerusalem killing her prophets

The cantatas for the day are those pointed out by Jeffrey, but apparently they are not directly related to St. Stephen, excepting a reference in BWV 57.