Music Notes 12-15-24

John Rutter is a British composer, born in London in 1945, and one of the most recognized

composers of church music in the world. His work includes carols (both original and

arrangements of familiar carols), anthems (including All Things Bright and Beautiful, our anthem

for this week), choral works and larger musical compositions. He has written for the King’s

Singers and regularly records his music with his own chorus, the Cambridge Singers. Many of

his larger works, including his Gloria and his Requiem, are considered classics and are part of

standard repertoire (our choir sang the first movement of the Gloria on Easter morning this year).

He’s also known for having reconstructed and published the original version of the Faure

Requiem. Gabriel Faure originally wrote his Requiem orchestrated for a chamber orchestra, but

his publisher suggested that he re-orchestrate it for full orchestra so that it would become part of

standard concert repertoire, which he completed in 1900. The original 1893 version was lost

until Rutter found Faure’s original sketch books in a closet at Faure’s church, the Madeleine

Church (or, more formally, L'église Sainte-Marie-Madeleine). This week’s anthem, Candlelight

Carol, is probably his most popular Christmas piece and was written in 1984. It was

commissioned by John Romeri, who at the time was Director of Music at Church of the

Assumption in Bellevue, Pennsylvania. He requested a carol that celebrated the Virgin Mary,

and the carol focuses on describing the nativity of Jesus, and especially the love of Mary for her

son. Rutter drew inspiration from the 1490’s Dutch painting Nativity At Night by Geertgen tot

Sint Jans. It was first recorded by Rutter’s own chorus, The Cambridge Singers, and was

included on their 1987 album Christmas Night. It has since been recorded by numerous artists,

like Neil Diamond and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Tomas Luis de Victoria was the most famous Spanish composer of the Renaissance period. Born

around 1523, most likely in the town of Avila (his family’s primary residence at the time), he

came under the tutelage of his uncle, Padre Juan Luis de Vitoria and became a choirboy at the

Avila Cathedral. In 1565, he received a grant from Phillip II, King of Spain, and moved to

Rome, where he became cantor at the German College, founded by St. Ignatius Loyola. In 1574,

he was ordained a priest and continued his double life as priest and musician for the rest of his

life. He returned to Spain in 1587 and was appointed chaplain to the Empress Maria, daughter of

Charles V (the Holy Roman Emperor) and remained in that position for 17 years. He died in

1611 and was buried in the convent, although the location of his tomb has not, to this day, been

identified. He, along with Palestrina and di Lasso, are considered to be the most influential

composers of the late Renaissance. Along with his setting of Ave Maria, his setting of O

Magnum Mysterium is considered to be one of the most renowned examples of 16 th century

polyphony in history. The text muses upon the remarkable mystery of the fact that the birth of

the Savior of the world was witnessed by animals instead of heads of state or celebrities.

Away In A Manger has become one of the most beloved Christmas songs in modern repertoire.

Its origins, however, are murky. The text is commonly attributed to Martin Luther, and has even

been called “Luther’s Cradle Hymn”. However, there is no evidence at all that Luther had

anything to do with it. The earliest recorded version shows up at the end of the 1800’s (Luther

lived in the 1500’s). There is no text in Luther’s known writings that correspond to the carol,

there is no German text for the carol before 1934 (50 years after the first English publication)

and the German text is awkward, suggesting that it was translated, perhaps word for word, from

the English. One of the earliest appearances of the English text came in 1882 in an anti-Masonic

journal called The Christian Cynosure, and consisted of the first two verses we know. Another

early version was published in Little Pilgrim Songs, a book of Christian music for young

children, whose preface is dated November 10, 1883.  Little Pilgrim Songs includes a similar

claim that the song was written "by Martin Luther for his own children". The version of the

melody we know in the U.S. was first published, under the title "Luther's Cradle Hymn", by

James R. Murray in his collection Dainty Songs for Little Lads and Lasses (1887). Another

melody, which is common in the British Commonwealth (the U.K, Ireland, Canada, Australia,

etc.), was written by the American composer William J. Kirkpatrick, and was first published as

part of the collection Around the World with Christmas (1895), a "Christmas Exercise" for

schools featuring material representing various countries: Away in a Manger was included, under

the title "Luther's Cradle Hymn", as a representative of "The German Fatherland".