John Tavener is best known for his glorious religious choral music. For Mother’s Day, this is his “Hymn to the Mother of God”. It is a transcendental experience to listen to it; like many things in the spiritual realm, it is simultaneously simple and complex.

The piece is scored for two choirs of approximately ten voices each. It’s harmonically driven (the melody isn’t particularly prominent or memorable), yet the harmony itself is simple – a choral hymn which doesn’t stray far from the home key. There are really only three phrases in the whole piece, and the third phrase is identical to the first. So what makes it sound other-worldly? First, each ten-voice choir is singing in a huge range in thick chords; second, each choir sings the same music three beats apart. The second choir ends up sounding like an echo of the first. This causes lots of notes to momentarily clash in dissonance, but then resolve to form a powerful consonance.

Short, simple, but wow does it pack a punch!

Hanukkah has ended.

Renaissance composer Salamone Rossi was a court musician in the important musical city of Mantua. During Rossi’s lifetime (and long after), many European Jews (including those in Mantua) were required to wear a yellow badge or hat, were often forced to live in a walled and guarded ghetto. 16th century Mantua was known as a city of relative cultural tolerance. Rossi’s skill as a violinist and composer earned him great renown in the city, and he was excused from wearing the yellow badge.

Like his contemporaries, Rossi’s output as a composer includes plenty of popular, secular court music that was all the rage in Italy: madrigals, dances, love songs. It’s good stuff. But what makes him stand out is his music for religious use in the Synagogue. The words were sacred, but the music was in the same style of the cultivated, aristocratic courts of Italy. It was a revolutionary step for Jewish religious music, similar to the musical revolution that had been happening in the European Christian churches at the same time.

The story ends as sadly as it began. Rossi and his sister, one of the first opera stars ever, were killed (probably) during a battle in Mantua in which the attackers destroyed the Jewish ghetto.

The song of praise “Adon Olam” isn’t specifically attached to Hanukkah; still, it is a beautiful and appropriate way to celebrate the holiday. Rossi set it in the style of the Italian Renaissance – there are multiple choirs, contrasting instrument ensembles, similar to this piece. The Hebrew text is set clearly so every word can be heard – very important, especially for those who view it as the Holy Language.

The story of Salamone Rossi and remains frighteningly relevant today, in all cultures, in all parts of the world. May we all be ever vigilant to crush hatred and prevent evil.

For some stores, the December Holiday season began before Halloween was over. For most people, “the Holidays” begins at Thanksgiving and ends at New Year’s Day. Whenever it officially began, we can agree that we’re pretty much in holiday mode now.

It’s this month that Christians celebrate Advent – which is far more than “getting ready for Christmas” – it is about preparing for the second, not the first, coming of Christ. For Johann Sebastian Bach, the hope for Christ’s second coming was deeply heartfelt. Baroque piety and emotion drip from his motet, “Komm, Jesu, Komm.” It is ornate and full of short motifs, woven into intricate patterns that are amazing and beautiful; the double-choir dialogue at 3:00 is simply gorgeous. Like many of his sacred compositions, it ends with a chorale (that’s just the German word for “hymn”) at 6:45.