“What is this? Now there is something one can learn from!” That’s a huge compliment, especially as it was uttered by the arrogant Mozart when he heard the music of J. S. Bach.

The six motets of Johann Sebastian Bach are beautiful beyond measure, perfectly composed, and fiendishly difficult to sing. “Der Geist hilf unser Schwachheit auf” (The Spirit gives aid to our weakness) was composed for a funeral, but the text is equally perfect for the Christian day of Pentecost – the day the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples and the birthday of the Church. The piece begins with the double-chorus singing back and forth to each other, like the biblical “rush of wind” that occurred on the first Pentecost. A fugue follows, as a sort of response to the fiery opening section – listen for the constant hissing of different s’s, again, giving the effect of rushing wind, or perhaps speaking in tongues. The motet closes with a sweet setting of a hymn which Martin Luther wrote for Pentecost, and would have been well known by any 18th century German Protestant.

0:00 – double-chorus singing in dialogue
The Spirit gives aid to our weakness, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

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!

William Blake‘s famous poem, The Lamb, has been set many times to music. Most of these settings evoke a beautiful pastorale scene, much like what we heard yesterday. You know – green field, sheep bouncing around, flowers, happy little trees springing up in the background.

That’s all nice, but while the poem talks about ovines, it’s not exactly pastorale – it’s a little on the cryptic / mystical side. And then there’s Blake, who had religious visions and his own independent set of Christian-based beliefs, and hated the Church of England. This poem is not a Sunday-school rhyme for kids to recite. That’s why the winner of the “best setting of this poem award” goes to John Tavener.

If the next paragraph is confusing, don’t worry; you don’t need to understand it to enjoy the music. 🙂

Just like Blake’s poem, Tavener’s music has a simple exterior and a complex interior. It opens with a single voice melody which only uses four pitches. The second voice joins, singing the same melody, but inverted – so when voice 1 goes up a major third, voice 2 goes down a major third. The effect is a “mirror image” of the melody, and it’s haunting, especially as the texture is so transparent – there is no noisy accompaniment to cover up the strange sound. After this, a new musical phrase is introduced, now employing retrograde motion – the melody is split in half, and sings 7 notes forward, then reverses and sings 7 notes backwards. Then, naturally, voice 2 enters, singing the same phrase with retrograde motion, inverted to a mirror-image of voice 1.

Is your head spinning? Here, maybe this awesome graphic will help.

or maybe not …

The music continues with more of this mirror-image effects, just enough edge to make you listen closely, but not so much as to make you turn away. Finally, the last part of the poem is stated in very simple, traditional harmony, using a minimum number of pitches and harmony. And it’s chilling.