Christmas Stocking Stuffers

I. Nowell Sing we!—Advent and Christmas at New College (Choir of New College, Oxford/Robert Quinney).

Novum CD NCR1390.

This recording follows the trajectory of the last weeks of Michaelmas term at New College. On Advent Sunday (at the very end of November or just into December), the chapel is packed with members of college, alumni, families and visitors, for the annual Advent service. Over the following week we move at high speed—we haven’t the luxury of four weeks of Advent to explore its rich themes in much detail—and arrive in the second week of December, more-or-less in the season of Christmas. This artificial compression of proper liturgical time makes sense within the life and community of an Oxford college, since by the third week of December, almost all the students have gone down, and the fellows are deep into interviews and meetings for the admission of next year’s students. And, in any case, out in the ‘real world’ the Christmas decorations have been twinkling for weeks already…

II. Back before Bach: Musical Journeys (Piffaro).

Navona Records CDNV6106.

BACK BEFORE BACH, the latest Navona Records release from the Philadelphia-based ‘Renaissance band’ Piffaro, is an exceptional compendium of sixteenth and early seventeenth century German and Franco-Flemish music. As the album’s title suggests, the group of composers Piffaro features can be seen as the precedent for the luminaries of the German baroque era, specifically Johann Sebastian Bach. With BACK BEFORE BACH simultaneously drawing from a wide variety of genres, yet also focusing on a geographically and temporally limited group of composers, Piffaro succeeds wildly in presenting the musical foundation from which Bach and his contemporaries emerged.

Piffaro specializes in historical performance, and they bring a multidimensional approach to the works on this album. First, Piffaro showcases at least a half dozen different types of Renaissance-era instruments on BACK BEFORE BACH, from shawms and dulcians (early oboes and bassoons), to sackbuts (ancestors of the modern trombone), as well as recorders, krumhorns and bagpipes. Second, each set of pieces is arranged differently, sometimes homogenously but more often heterogeneously, featuring a mixture of the instruments described above. This flexible instrumentation is representative of consort-style performance, which defined instrumental music in the sixteenth century.

This is one way BACK BEFORE BACH is a persuasive time capsule; the other lies in the album’s programming, which illustrates many of the important trends in the era’s sacred and secular music. Consider the album’s dance pieces, for instance, especially Michael Praetorius’ “Volta.” Piffaro’s performance transports us to a noble court and through its driving rhythms and percussion accompaniment beckons us to dance. It is also particularly noteworthy that Piffaro includes a set of German popular songs on the album. Vernacular music from this period was rarely written down and, as a result, tends, unfairly, to be lost to history. The inclusion of these popular tunes is a rare and special treat for those who listen to BACK BEFORE BACH and adds valuable detail to Piffaro’s depiction of the musical world of sixteenth century Germany.

The works that most clearly demonstrate the lineage of German music leading up to Bach are the settings of Christ ist erstanden by seven different composers, including Bach himself. Curated brilliantly, these pieces clearly exemplify the evolution of European composers’ approach to harmony during the transition from the Renaissance era to the Baroque. Along these lines, the earliest of these works feature harmony as an important, yet incidental consequence of thick, contrapuntal webs, while—once we get to Praetorious and Bach—the central thematic material is treated with less rhythmic independence, resulting in a generally clearer, more vertically organized musical construction.

III. To Bethlehem: Carols and Motets for Christmas (Kantorei of Kansas City/Chris Munce).

Resonus CD RES10175.

Missouri-based choir Kantorei of Kansas City and their director Chris Munce return to Resonus Classics with a sparkling and sophisticated recording of carols and motets for Christmas entitled To Bethlehem.

With a compelling programme of Renaissance and contemporary works for the festive season, this impressive chamber choir presents and reflects on the Christmas story through the journey to Bethlehem, including a number of world premiere recordings. Kantorei explores rarely heard works by Renaissance composers such as Giovanni Bassano, Melchior Vulpius, Jakob Reiner and Blasius Ammon combined with contemporary composers including Matthew Culloton, Ivo Antognini, R. Douglas Helvering and Kim André Arnesen among others.