I will confess - in the days of streaming, I rarely listen to a whole new album at once, but mix it up with other songs and thus take days (or weeks) to hear the whole track. But in the past week, I've made two exceptions.
This unique album is one of my favorite Christmas albums.
Jana Mashonee sings each of the ten songs in a different Native American language. For example, it starts with "O Holy Night" sung in Navajo; later on, there's an Apache translation of "Joy To The World."
For those like me who love Christ centered Christmas albums without the Santa/Rudolph/Frosty type songs, you'll enjoy the selection of songs. "Winter Wonderland" is the sole Seasonal song. It closes with a song I don't associate with Christmas: "Amazing Grace."
While in Native American languages, the music style is as traditional as the song selection. There is a Native American orchestra accompanying the songs.
I highly recommend this album.
No, I'm not Roman Catholic. No, I don't attend Mass. Yes, I absolutely love listening to Classical Masses. No, I don't understand Latin. But I love the reverence in the music.
For those who are unfamiliar with a Classical Mass, they typically have six movements (named after the first word of the movement): Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei. On albums, it's not unusual for the Gloria and Credo to be divided into different segments, sometimes upping the number of tracks on the vinyl to eleven.
One person describing Bruckner says most of his music, either choral or his instrumental, are strongly flavored with his Catholicism, listing his fourth symphony (aka the Romantic Symphony) as being more secular. That makes me smile, because 1) I am not astute enough to detect the Catholicism in his symphonies, and 2) I can sense the power of God very clearly in the first movement of that symphony.
Bruckner is known for his large, dramatic symphonies. Yet, unlike other musical radicals, Bruckner had humility concerning his compositions. For example, he composed four versions of the Romantic Symphony. One of my favorite compositions period is the third movement of the later versions of that symphony; that hunting horn scherzo was not in the first version. The finale was finalized (sorry, I couldn't resist) in the third version, and the fourth added piccolos and cymbals.
His three masses written in the 1860's were respectively in the keys of D minor, E minor, and F minor (most masses were written in major keys, though probably the best known Mass was Johann Sebastian Bach's in B minor). Wikipedia mentions he wrote four other masses previously.
The first CD of this set starts with the E minor Mass (#2), which was composed for mixed choir and a small group of wind instruments. Some say it was to appease a conservative group known as the Cecilians, who preferred aca pella church music.
Following the mass is Bruckner's Te Deum. Like the D minor and F minor masses, this was written for performance and composed for mixed choir, soloists, orchestra, and organ.
There are a few compositions that
blew me away on first listen, and the Te Deum is an example. It starts
with an energetic opening of strings and organ.
The second disc starts with the F minor Mass (#3). This mass is unique among Bruckner's masses is that the first lines of the Gloria and Credo were orchestrated for music; in the previous masses, those segments began with a tenor solo intoning those lines as a priest would.
Like most masses, the Kyrie is solemn and the Gloria is joyful, but the same excitement shows up in the Credo. I love that the section dealing with the creed - that is, the belief system - is sung with such exuberance. Are we that excited about theology and the truth of God's Word? (Okay, I'll stop preaching and return to reviewing.)
This project concludes with five motets, which were composed for soloists and organ.
Have you ever listened to a Classical Mass?
Since I became a fan of classical music, my favorite composer as I grew older, from Beethoven to Dvorak to Bruckner to Berwald and now Mendelssohn.
Some of you aren't into classical music, and may tell me you've never heard of Mendelssohn's music. I will kindly shake my head and ask you to turn in your hymnal to "Hark The Herald Angels Sing." You'll see Charles Wesley's name on the left for the words, and on the right you'll see the composer for the music identified as - you guessed it - Mendelssohn. It makes me smile that the brother of John Wesley wrote words that would be set to music by a Reformed Messianic Jew who wasn't born when Charles was promoted to hymn writing in heaven.
 | |
| Felix Mendelssohn by Eduard Magnus, 1846 |
Above, I've pictured volume three of the collection "Mendelssohn in Birmingham". Mendelssohn visited Britain ten times during his short life (1809-1847). The first three volumes, which feature his symphonies (each also starts off with an overture), have a sketch done by Mendelssohn of Birmingham. (Each volume has a different ink color). Not only does it show that the composer was a talented artist, but it also showed some humor: Notice the large bird in the drawing? And in the forefront was the luggage of Mendelssohn and his two traveling companions.
The first two volumes feature four of his five symphonies, saving the longest for this volume. This symphony, designated as the second (though it was either his fourth or fifth that he wrote) is titled Lobgesang, which means hymn of praise. Like Beethoven's 9th, the symphony starts with three instrumental movements and then brings in a choir for the end. However, there are distinct differences. Beethoven's choral finale was a symphony movement with singing. The choir part of Lobgesang more resembles the Messiah than Beethoven, taking up the majority of the time of the symphony, and is usually divided into several parts. In fact, some modern music critics don't consider this a symphony but more of a sacred choral work.
One reason I am looking at this rendition instead of just the symphony is that this includes the English translation of the lyrics, which Mendelssohn authorized (the original was in German).
I'm not a professional music critic, but allow me to pretend to be one. The symphony starts off with horns playing a melody in a low key, echoed by the orchestra, not unlike a songleader singing a line from a song with the choir or congregation echoing that line back. There is no break between the minuet of the 2nd movement and the slow 3rd movement. The fourth starts with the orchestra playing the beginning of the theme from the first movement.
One interesting note is this was composed for a choir, a pair of sopranos, and a tenor. There is one short segment where the sopranos sing together.
When I listen to this symphony, the theme runs through my head, with the English words taken from Psalm 150: "Let all that has life and breath praise the Lord."
This volume starts off with an overture titled "Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage." I'll admit it's not my favorite Mendelssohn composition. It starts off very quietly, and sometimes if I don't put the volume on the stereo loud enough I miss the first couple of minutes of this overture.
Who is your favorite classical composer? What music helps you worship?
