Now Spinning: hits of the 30s, 40s & 50s!

It is a very happy thing for me as a music lover, composer, etc. when a work that I admire on a technical, artistic and/or historical level is also one of those pieces that I enjoy coming back to again and again for the sheer pleasure of listening. Here's three that have been that way for me lately, coincidently spanning the decades from the 1930s to the 1950s. 

Epicedion Sofia Gubaidulina in Memoriam

Sofia Gubaidulina (1931-2025) was one of the first composers whose work I devoured–everything I could get my ears on. Moreover, she's one whose work I continue to adore–a true composer's composer. I particularly admire her conception that all her music is religious in nature, even if not intended for the church. In the wake of her passing this week plenty of folks have offered wonderful summaries of her life, work and contributions as composer. This li'l post is my own way of offering something without attempting to be comprehensive. 

Some of my favorite works of hers include her quasi-piano concerto Introitus (1978), with its fantastic formal windup and haunting glissando climax which as haunted my musical sensibilities ever since; her 2nd and 4th String Quartets (1987/1993), the first a Scelsi-esque meditation on a single pitch and the latter her own idiosyncratic take on the pre-taped quartet + quartet (complete with a fantastic rubber mallet on the string bouncing effect); the monumental Johannes-Passion/Johannes-Ostern (2000/2001), which in many ways has lodged itself in my mind as the sort of contemporary monumental sacred work I can't help but long to create; and the harp/viola flute trio The Garden of Joys and Sorrows, which I fondly recall tracking down on a rare CD  pretty early on in my journey as a composer.

Here is my own humble tribute, a sort of 11 voice mensuration canon of an improvisation inspired by Gubaidulina's retelling of her childhood experience of sitting under the family piano and hearing the unusual sounds, and how the limited range of the school pieces she was assigned made her want to be a composer so that she could write things that used more of the possible sounds...

She retells the story from 8:00 to 9:20 in this video

My favorite quote of Gubaidulina:

"...the aim of art is to redeem time, that is, art has a religious predestination…for us, the artists, it is absolutely necessary to experience this religious reunion with the highest essence of our souls. Without it we would be unable to work with such an inspiration. I understand the word 'religion' in its direct meaning: as re-ligio (re-legato), that is, a restoration of legato between me (my soul) and God. By means of my religious activity I restore this interrupted connection. Life interrupts this connection: it leads me away, into different troubles, and God leaves me at these times...This is unbearable pain: by creating, through our art, we strive to restore this legato."

- Sofia Gubaidulina

'The Eucharist in My Fantasy': Interview with Sofia Gubaidulina

Vera Lukomsky, Sofia Gubaidulina

Tempo, New Series, No. 206, Power, Politics, Religion.... And Music (Sep., 1998), pp. 29-35 (7 pages)

https://www.jstor.org/stable/945505

Five albums of contemporary classical music that had an outsized impact on me as a young composer

Presented in no particular order. Each of these albums had heavy rotation for me circa 2003-2013 and still resonates with me today. If I recall, they were almost all purchased at the record store in downtown Saint Petersburg, Russia, where I dragged my missionary companions as often as I could and picked the brain of the owner to help me connect the dots from the classical music I was familiar with to the music of today. In many cases, these albums were my first exposure to composers whose music, ideas and lives have inspired me ever since. 

Hymns for Christmas and the New Year

After my last post where I shared my latest Christmas hymn, I got the bug to share ALL of my Christmas/Winter/New Year hymns in one place. Some pleasant Christmas break hours later, I present to you:

To Us a Child of Hope is Born
Hymns for Christmas and the New Year

This FREE collection of 19 original hymn tunes can be downloaded here by clicking on the text above. 

I know that in the week of Christmas-New Years I always end up playing more at the piano. Perhaps these hymns could provide some musical moments of meditation for you as you celebrate the holidays and launch into 2023.

The collection should print out just fine on 8.5x11 (double sided) if you select 'fit to page'. As is, it is designed to print out at hymnal size on 6x9 paper which I custom cut for my own at-home copy. 

I did all the typography/design myself. My only wish is that I use that old fashioned bass clef from many old hymnals in my collection:

As a reminder, all of my currently available hymns can be found on this page: rmichaelwahlquist.com/hymns 

I say currently available because I've written over 80 new hymns since 2020 and there is a (big) lag between composing the hymn and typesetting them for posting on my site.

A Christmas Hymn 2022

Calm on the Listening Ear of Night

Sheet Music

Audio Demo

After a personal record 42 completed hymns in 2020 (thanks COVID), 2021-2022 have been somewhat fallow years for me as a hymnist. Nearly all of my compositional energy has gone to another (much, much larger) sacred project, my long-anticipated oratorio Redeemed from the Fall (which is going through finishing touches this holiday break). 

However, last Sunday I came across the text "Calm on the Listening Ear of Night" in one of my favorite hymnals, the oversize and gloriously illustrated A Treasury of Hymns (1953). 

In that hymnal, as apparently in many hymnals (see the pie chart at that link), it is sung to the tune ST. AGNES, which is far more commonly used as the tune for "Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee."

While there are a couple of other serviceable tunes out there for this text, I'm always on the lookout for a text in need of its own home/tune and so a day's labor at the piano later and I present to you my own humble (and probably still work-in-progress) tune for "Calm on the Listening Ear of Night."

The tune name is UKHO. As with nearly all of my hymn tune names, this is a transliterated Russian word from the text, in this case the word for 'ear.' The meter is CMD or Common Meter Doubled, eight lines alternating 8 and 6 syllables, meaning that indeed this tune would work for "Jesus the Very Thought of Thee" or any other text with a similar hymn meter. 

That said, I do feel I've achieved something of that elusive 'Christmasy' feel in the music appropriate to this text. I wanted to try for a bit of a lullaby feel in the first part and more of a choral sound in the second half. I hewed a bit more closely to the traditional voice leading rules in the four part writing than I normally do, but to paraphrase another worn-out author, "And now if there be [a voice leading] fault, it be the mistake of [a tired] m[a]n."

I did alter the penultimate line of text, which originally called for the inelegant contraction of Bethlehem into two syllables. (Bethl'hem?) Originally the final two lines read: 

And bright on Bethlehem's joyous plains  

Breaks the first Christmas morn.

I decided to go with:

And bright with joy o'er Bethlehem 

Breaks the first Christmas morn. 

Another advantage of this alteration is that it eliminates the duplicated reference to a 'plain' within the text. In line with this reasoning, I also altered the word 'hills' to 'vales' in the final verse: 

Instead of:

Light on thy hills, Jerusalem!

I have put:

Light on thy vales, Jerusalem! 

The text had already mentioned the hills of Palestine, and in a text so compact as a three-verse hymn I figured it could stand to be changed if I could find the right monosyllabic word. I quickly rejected the synonym "mounts." I considered "walls" since that is a feature I associate with Jerusalem, but it isn't a natural feature and the theme of the text seemed to be the repose of nature in the Holy Land, from the "silver-mantled plains" of Judea to "hills of Palestine" to the "blue depths of Galilee" to the waving palms of Sharon. So the poetic "vales" (short for valleys) seemed like a good inverse of hills and appropriate to the topography of the city and the heightened Victorian language of the poem.

So, I apologize, Edmund H. Sears (1810-1876)! If folks want to sing it your way they can! But here is another tune to maybe bring a bit more shelf life to your text, which has less often been included in hymnals since the 1940s. It will surely never rival the fame of your "It Came upon the Midnight Clear," but I am always happy to put a New Song into people's mouths whether or not it gets any traction across all Christendom. Hopefully it is enough that in sharing this tune I may wish everyone a Merry Christmas 2022!

 

Some Classical Christmas for your ears this year

It's been an odd Fall here in Rexburg, Idaho. Temperatures were pretty mild clear through mid November. I thought I had plenty of time to get the Christmas lights up on the house. Then abruptly the temperatures dropped through the floor, snow came, and I seem to have missed the window to get up on the roof and put lights on. So instead of lights I thought I'd at least share the light of some great Christmas music. 

Now, there's plenty of Christmas music out there. Some of it is even great! I've even written previously about some of my favorites here:http://michaelwahlquist.blogspot.com/2013/12/unique-christmas-music-you-should-add.html 

That 2013 post includes some of my enduring favorites which I turn to early each Christmas season: Ellington's big band arrangement of the Nutcracker, Britten's Ceremony of Carols for harp and children's chorus, and the album Snow Angels by Over the Rhine. But honestly, the last few years, the first Christmas music that I play (and share) is this little gem put together by a former student: It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, but it's the most ♪

And now if you need to get that out of your head, hear's my full Classical Christmas playlist:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLolvBA2NVD3-CKtIe-wkDJiMxWCFemnSn

A few highlights:

Symphony No. 49 "Christmas Symphony" (1981) by Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000). 

This piece for strings, by the prolific American-Armenian composer, manages to feel incredibly Christmas-y without sleigh bells or Bing Crosby. As the lyrical melodies churn throughout, bits of familiar Christmas hymns emerge like memories without feeling like a medley.

Twenty Polish Christmas Carols (1946/1984-1989) by Witold Lutosławski (1913-1994)

My theory students might be surprised that this modernist composer, whose music I have been known to spoon down their ears, was capable of writing such charming, traditional music. First arranged for soprano and piano by the composer shortly after WWII, when both his Bartok-like interest in Polish music and Stalinist enforcement of localized Socialist Realism were at a peak, the composer cared enough about the material to later spend several years in his last decade orchestrating them for soprano, female choir and orchestra. 

Oratorio de Noël (1858) by Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1931)

This delightful early work by the French master had escaped me until this year, when my wife played harp in it for the Anam Cara chamber choir on their Christmas concert. Sherlock might deduce from its Latin text, pervasive counterpoint and polished organ writing that the composer was a recent Paris Conservatory graduate working as a church organist. 

Quatre Motets pour le Temps de Noël (1952) by Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)

Another French Catholic composer, Poulenc has a great ear for harmony. These challenging (for the choir, not the listener) a cappella works are just a small part of his fabulous contributions to sacred classical music in the 20th century. 

And SO! MUCH! MORE! 

There's plenty more on the list: The Christmas-y first hour of Liszt's 3-hour Christus Oratorio, Menotti's televised Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors, Rimsky-Korsakov's Christmas Eve Suite, Elgar's A Christmas Greeting, Corelli's Christmas Oratorio and so much more!

The playlist caps off with a 2011 live congregational Christmas hymn in Düsseldorf-Oberkassel with an epic organ outro featuring the unusual spinning bells of the zimbelstern on the organ (see the star in the center of the organ on the picture below). 

The complete playlist for The Infinite Well, Vol. 1.

Just over a week ago I began a new, daily music recording project called The Infinite Well. It has been both fun and cathartic to create and share new music each day.

The Infinite Well Vol. 1 will wrap up once today's recordings are posted. It's going to end up being over 40 tracks and over three hours of original music created in just over a week. I've decided after all to give them all titles so that you can remember your favorites more easily.

For February I'll be posting a new series of character studies as part of the #28portraitchallenge, stay tuned for those!

Listen to the complete playlist of The Infinite Well Vol. 1 on Soundcloud, and let me know in the comments here which tracks are your favorite!

Be sure to follow my composer page on facebook: @RMichaelWahlquist  if you are interested in keeping up with my music!

Michael Wahlquist · The Infinite Well