A concert of music by Michael Praetorius (1571- 1621) was performed on 21st October 2023 by 65 singers and players from across Cornwall, members of Truro Cathedral Choir, local singers and a ‘Renaissance Band', with MD Russell Blacker. The concert opens with a stately instrumental Passamezzo in 6 parts played by the full Band and which provided a suitable 'overture’.
** Video with full audio mix now available: • Michael Praetorius - P...
Concert Part One: • Music of Praetorious C...
Concert Part Two: • Music of Praetorious C...
PLAYLIST of tracks: • Music of Michael Praet...
Recorded at St. Mary's Church, Penzance, Cornwall: www.penleecluster.org.uk
In a year of preparation for the concert, Russell created new performing editions in which the parts had to be transcribed into modern clefs, note-values, and time signatures - the ranges of the original renaissance instruments ‘translated’ into their modern counterparts - the German and Latin texts all translated into English - and the vocal and instrumental forces ‘orchestrated’ as per Praetorius' instructions. This event followed previous concerts of music by Gabrieli and Monteverdi, both famous contemporaries of Praetorius.
Michael Praetorius (1571 - 1621) was an extraordinary figure: born plain Michael Schultze, the son of a Lutheran pastor, he studied divinity and philosophy at the University of Frankfurt, was fluent in a number of languages, became one of the foremost composers of the C17th century, was famous as an organist and designer of organs, and a music theorist whose writings had considerable impact on performance practice of the day - and today. His vast output ranges from simple 2 & 3 part pieces for small church ensembles right up to massive multi-choir settings of Lutheran chorales, drawing heavily on the ‘Venetian’ style of spatially separated ensembles. Although he regretted never travelling to Italy to visit his contemporaries Gabrieli and Monteverdi he passed his influence onto a generation of composers including the famous Heinrich Schutz with whom he collaborated for 4 years.
Praetorius’ output was prolific; 17 large volumes of music were published between 1605 and 1613, plus a further 9 volumes of chorales and vernacular music for the Lutheran service for 2 to 16 voices, and an extensive collection of Latin music for the church. At his death he was planning a further multi-volume collection of secular music of which the famous Terpsichore - a compendium of more than 300 instrumental dances - was the first. He was also planning a further volume of church music for up to nine choirs!
His letters reveal that he was constantly receiving commissions to compose, conduct, and perform which led to extensive travel across Europe. As a musical theorist he compiled an encyclopedic record of contemporary musical practices, he made refinements to figured-bass practice, he discussed the normal use of instruments and voices in ensemble, and the standard pitches of the day, as well as modal, metrical, and fugal theory.
His unfinished theoretical treatise, Syntagma Musicum, appeared in three volumes between 1614 and 1620. The first volume was written in Latin and examined the music of the ancients and of the church. The second, in German, discussed musical instruments and contains 42 woodcuts depicting instruments of the day, all shown to scale, whilst the third examined different genres of composition and the technical requirements for professional musicians. Sadly, a fourth volume on composition was planned but left incomplete at his death. His unfinished manuscripts were bequeathed to a friend but they all disappeared in the 30 years’ war which broke out a year after his death.
Praetorius allows for highly flexible orchestration so that the pieces can be performed by smaller ensembles or expanded to 12, 16, or 22 parts arranged in 2, 3, 4 or 5 choirs. He called this adaptation and arrangement. He instructed the choirs to be separated spatially: The instrumental choirs (strings, brass, recorders, bassoons etc) should be placed in a special position to one side - near to the vocal choirs - or, for variety, the placement can be arranged so that they are opposite to each other.
AMDG - Video © 2023 The Lighthouse. / @thelighthouse123
4 ноя 2023
