Choral Music

Discussion

We've discussed all the various instruments that require some kind of amplification tool. The final instrument to discuss is our own voices. Humans have been singing since the beginning. It is our natural instrument. Vocal chords in our throat work the same as all the other instruments. Dr. Dan on YouTube provides a good explanation for how our vocal system works. In terms of recorded history, the earliest examples we have of singing comes from Ancient Greece and then from Medieval Europe. It really is fascinating how long it took to get to the more complex and organized musical structures we find in the 17th century. For almost one thousand years music in the European traditions (which were written down, which is why it makes it easier to explore and research), was based on organum, (Here is an example of early organum music, with its parallel perfect fifths (a big no no later on in Bach's time). As they had no musical notation at the time, nor could they figure out how to really notate until Guido d'Arezzo figured out to create a four line staff to help members of the choir to see where they should be singing. Before that neumes were written on blank paper with filled in squares going up or down with the hopes that singers understood how far up and down they should be going. 

Once the notation began developing into showing two or more notes being sung at the same time, music for singing became more complex. The next step was to diversify the music so it didn't always start on the same note. This birthed the church modes. The church modes began under Pope Gregory and are known as the Gregorian modes. The Wikipedia entry for Gregorian modes provides some of the historical detail. What we will discuss are how the modes work. Modes are numbered from 1 to 8. The first mode is Dorian. Its scale goes whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half, whole. In our modern notation system, Dorian is taking the C scale (all white keys, no sharps or flats), and starting on the D and going up the scale to the D. It is the minor scale, as we know it, with a raised sixth. The Dorian mode is the most commonly used mode in early organum and church music for about 700 years. The four modes on top, 1, 3, 5, and 7 are considered authentic modes, while the other four modes are considered plagal. The plagal modes are the perfect fourth below the authentic modes. 

In the 17th century, the Hypolydian mode became a preferred mode to use for instrumental music and became the basis of our modern major scale key. The Hypodorian became the minor key. The main reason for those was the use of the leading tone. In modal music, there is no leading tone. 

Highly Worthy Music for Your Listening and Research Pleasure

Hildegard von Bingen: Ordo Virtutum - composed around 1150, one of the first non-liturgical pieces. Here you can see the score, as well. 

Gregorian Chant: Mass for Christmas Day: Kyrie - commonly sung chant for Christmas.

Gregorian Chant: Mass for the Dead: Dies Irae - from the Mass for the Dead, the Dies Irae, which is used frequently later in classical music.

Bernart de Ventadorn: Can vei la lauzeta - troubador music from the 12th century.

Guillaume de Machaut: La Messe de Nostre Dame - Agnus Dei - from the 14th century. You can see the development of polyphonic lines.

Josquin des Prez: Motete. De Profundis clamavi ad te. Partitura - further development of multiple voices. 

Heinrich Isaac: Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen - further development, including with accompanying instruments.

Guillaume de Machaut: Motet: Helas! Ou Sera Pris Confors - one of many motets composed by Machaut.

Sumer is Icumen in - English rota from around 1300 or so.

Wiliam Cornysh: My Love She Mourned for Me - from the 16th century.

Emilio de Cavalieri: Dalle piu alte sfere - Madrigal from the 16th century.

Heinrich Schutz: Saul, Saul, was verfolgst du mich? (SWV 415) - approaching more of the kind of choral music we are familiar with.

Claudio Monteverdi: Ohimè dov’è il mio ben - Madrigal from the 1619. Montiverdi, by this time, had already composed the first opera, but madrigals were extremely popular during this time.

Henry Purcell: Dido and Aeneas: "Thy Hand Belinda", "When I am Laid", "With Drooping Wings" - from act III of his opera in the 1600s.

Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantata Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme BWV 140 - one of the earlier Bach pieces that starts the change to Baroque music styles. 

Discussion

The dividing line between Renaissance and Baroque music is not very clear, but the Baroque era begins somewhere around 1550 and goes for about two hundred years, ending abruptly with the death of Bach in 1750. The Classical era comprises roughly from 1730 to 1820. One of the defining features of the Classical era is the rise of the equal temperament system and the major/minor scales, shifting away from the church modes. Music also shifts to far more instrumental music with highly complex harmonic structures and forms. 

Highly Worthy Music for Your Listening and Research Pleasure

Claudio Monteverdi: Vesperae Virginis - from 1610

Claudio Monteverdi: L'Orfeo - one of the first operas, at least one that we still have music for. This opera format is what eventually led to instrumental music with ritornellos and then the symphony.

Henry Purcell: Hear My Prayer - polyphonic choral music from the 1600s.

Giacomo Carissimi: Jephte: Plorate filii Israel - from 1650.

Georg Friedrich Handel: Alexander's Feast - one of Handel's oratorios, for full baroque orchestra, full choir, and soloists.

Georg Friedrich Handel: Messiah - his most famous oratorio celebrating Jesus Christ.

Georg Friedrich Handel: Messiah: Halleluiah - here specifically the famous halleluiah from Messiah.

Johann Sebastian Bach: Mass in B minor - this is Bach's seminal choral work, showing off all the techniques that have been created by composers to this point.

Jean Baptiste-Lully: Passacaille from Armide - this selection isn't quite a choral piece, but it is a live performance with a dancer, showing what the audience experienced in Lully's day.

Jean Baptiste-Lully: Armide - the full opera from Lully.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Requiem - composed at the end of his life, and made famous with the movie Amadeus.

Discussion

Romantic era choral music did not change much from earlier styles and forms. Several composers crafted large oratorios and cantatas, as you can see below. Most of the changes fit in with overall changes in harmony and form found in the 19th and 20th centuries, drifting further toward atonality. You can see with the examples below how composers and performers explored all the possibilities with voice.

Highly Worthy Music for Your Listening and Research Pleasure

Ludwig van Beethoven: Missa Solemnis - Beethoven's mass from 1824.

Felix Mendelssohn: Elijah - Mendelssohn's massive oratorio about Elijah's life. 

Johannes Brahms: Ein deutsches requiem - Brahms' magnificent work

Franz Liszt: Requiem - one of his lesser known pieces, as he's more known for his piano works.

Antonin Dvorak: Stabat Mater - Dvorak's amazing choral work. 

Anton Bruckner: Te Deum - Bruckner composed a lot of motets and choral music. This is his seminal Te Deum.

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 - Beethoven included a choir for the first time in a symphony. The recording I linked to is of great importance. Leonard Bernstein, a composer himself and a fantastic conductor, got to conduct a combination of performers from both East and West Germany at Christmas in 1989 after the Berlin Wall came down in a celebration of freedom.

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 2 - conducted here, again, by Leonard Bernstein. Mahler also added a choir for his second symphony in one of the grandest finales ever. 

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 8 - for his eighth symphony, Mahler use of the full choir for the whole piece and not just the last movement. 

Sergei Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky Cantata - in the late 1930s, Prokofiev composed the film score for Sergei Eisenstein's tale about Alexander Nevsky, famous Russian hero. For this film, Prokofiev used a large orchestra and a large choir with a solo alto. He loved the music so much, he created a cantata out of it to highlight some of the music he composed. 

Gabriel Faure: Requiem - from the 1890s. The Sanctus in the middle is stunningly beautiful.

Maurice Durufle: Requiem - 20th century.

Bohuslav Martinu: The Epic of Gilgamesh - from the 20th century.

Carl Orff: Carmina Burana - cantata from the 1930s. 

Francis Poulenc: Gloria - from the 20th century.

Magnus Lindberg: Graffiti - composed in 2009.

Meredith Monk: Panda Chant - from the 21st century.

Eric Whitacre: Light and Gold - from the 21st century.

Osvaldo Golijov: "La pasión según San Marcos" - Argentinian composer from the 21st century.

Arvo Part: In Pricipio - from the 21st century.

Caroline Shaw: Partita for 8 Voices - she won the pulitzer for this composition.

Franz Schmidt: The Book of the Seven Seals - oratorio from the early 20th century.

Judith Bingham: First Light - choral piece from the 21st century.

BONUS: Adriano Celentano: prisencolinensinainciusol - one of the strangest things you'll ever come across.