Music Notes for October 25, 2015

This Sunday morning’s prelude is the familiar setting of Ave Maria by Bach-Gounod, that’s Johann Sebastian Bach and Charles Gounod. Is this like George and Ira Gershwin, a setting of Ave Maria composed both by 17th c. German composer, JS Bach and 19th c. French Romantic composer, Charles Gounod? In a sense it is but clearly Bach and Gounod did not sit down together to compose the piece. Bach died in 1750 and Gounod was born in 1818. Originally published in 1853 as Méditation sur le Premier Prélude de Piano de S. Bach. the piece consists of a vocal melody especially designed by Gounod to be superimposed over the Prelude No. 1 in C major, BWV 846, from Book I of J.S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, written 137 years earlier. It was common practice in Gounod’s time for composers to use the Bach prelude as accompaniment to works for voice, solo instruments and even four-part choirs. Who don't really know how many works were produced from Bach’s Prelude No. 1 in C major. Clearly, Charles Gounod’s version made the repertoire of most sung songs!

The choir sings the lovely My eyes for beauty pine by Herbert Howells. Composed in 1925 just several years after the devastation of World War One, the text reveals that even in peace time (albeit only briefly) the sights and memories of war still occupied the fabric of England’s daily life. The poem calls for us to lift our sight above the earth where heaven’s celestial fire lights the world’s darkness and restores broken hearts.

- Douglas Starr