The Hanukkah story comes from the Biblical books of First and Second Maccabees. If you don’t know the story, and have about three hours to spare, I’d highly recommend (besides reading these short books) going to a performance of George Frederic Handel’s “Judas Maccabaeus.” Unlike Handel’s “Messiah,” (which gets plenty of plays this month), this oratorio tells like a regular story with a plot. While it isn’t exactly fast-actioned, it does has dramatic elements – something which was easy for a composer of over 40 operas!
Today we’re going to have a very serious lesson in music. So sit down and open your notebooks and prepare to learn about something very deep and complex and difficult. Now, you may not understand it at first, but that’s to be expected – I, who am educated, and have read books with many polysyllablic words in them, can help you.
I’m ready. Bring it on.
Today’s musical lesson is about the form known as Theme and Variation. First, the composer presents a musical theme. Then, the composer varies the theme. These are called variations.
… that’s it?
Yes, that’s all.
… anything else?
Nope. A composer will vary the theme in any way s/he pleases. Sometimes it’s obvious, sometimes it’s not. If you like, you can analyze the ways the theme is varied, or you can just sit back and enjoy the music for what it is.
The death of a child is a difficult thing to experience. I have not lost any of my children, but I have had nightmares where I have. A dream like that is enough to keep me awake for the rest of the night.
19th century German poet Friedrich Rückert lost two of his children to scarlet fever. He dealt with his grief by writing a set of 428 poems on the death of children. Composer Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) selected five of these to set for voice and orchestra. This is the fifth of the set, titled “In diesem Wetter” (In this Weather). Mahler’s genius of composition lets you feel the blowing winds, the stinging raindrops, the anxiety of a parent whose child is lost forever, and, at the end, a sense of peace and acceptance.
In this weather, in this windy storm, I would never have sent the children out.
They have been carried off, I wasn’t able to warn them!
In this weather, in this gale, I would never have let the children out.
I feared they sickened: those thoughts are now in vain.
In this weather, in this storm, I would never have let the children out, I was anxious they might die the next day: now anxiety is pointless.
In this weather, in this windy storm, I would never have sent the children out. They have been carried off, I wasn’t able to warn them!
In this weather, in this gale, in this windy storm, they rest as if in their mother’s house:
frightened by no storm, sheltered by the Hand of God.
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