Music Notes - The Fifth Sunday in Lent, Year C

Our final Sunday in Lent (next being Palm Sunday) sees 16^th-century England meet 21^st-century Britain by way of a short stop in 19^th-century England.

Further representing our Music Ministry’s support and inclusion of underrepresented composers, this week’s prelude is a continuation of our Women’s History Month celebration with a composition by the first ever British composer to become a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire!

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Dame Ethel Mary Smyth (1858-1944), a staunch member of the women’s suffrage movement and renowned (if overlooked) composer of songs, chamber music, operas, and piano, choral, and orchestral works. Her father’s opposition to her career choice as a musician, and the oppression faced by women at this time, made it difficult for Smyth to get a strong footing as a composer. To illustrate this, consider that her last hour-long work, The Prison, was first performed in 1931 but only first recorded in 2020. However, she was able to study in Germany and connected with such well-known figures as Dvořák, Grieg, and Tchaikovsky.

First published in 1913, having been composed in 1882-1884, her Short Chorale Prelude on Du O Gott, du frommer Gott (Tr. “Oh God, you righteous god”) is a work in two halves: a typical ornamented prelude setting, and a canon on the same. In the former, listen for Smyth’s use of harmonic progression, in conjunction with a significant pedal line, in support of the melody. In the second “canon” section, listen for Smyth’s use of the melody in both the uppermost voice, and in that of the pedal (heard on a reed stop/sound).

Bonus Fact: Smyth had several romantic affairs, including with librettist her work The Prison, Henry Bennet Brewster (1850-1908), who may have been her only male lover. She was besotted by Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) and Smyth's relationship with Violet Gordon-Woodhouse (1872-1948) is depicted satirically in Roger Scruton's (1944-2020) opera, Violet.

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Christopher Noel Rawsthorne (1929-2019) was a renowned British organist (both liturgical and concert) and composer for both his instrument and choir. He studied with the unparalleled Marcel Dupré (1886-1971) in Paris, and in Italy with Fernando Germani (1906-1998), famous for his pedagogical methods for organ.

Rawsthorne was instrumental in the refurbishment of the Rushworth and Dreaper organ in the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool and received an honorary doctorate from the same city’s university.

A man with a simple career but good career, his composition Like as a Hart is Rawsthorne’s paraphrase of Psalm 42.

Fun Fact: Though this piece, like many of his, demonstrates Rawsthorne’s serious composition, he is also capable of great humour. Click here to listen to his Hornpipe Humoresque, a tongue-in-cheek composition on a The Sailor’s Hornpipe in a variety of styles; you can’t miss the “hornpipe”!

Bonus Nerdy Fact: Rawsthorne uses a harmonic progression known as a tertiary modulation. This is where a common note between two keys is used as a pivot tone. This is simpler than it sounds. For example, in this piece a chord of G Minor (notes G, Bb, D) shares a note with Bb Minor (Bb, Db, F). You can hear this in the text “my tears have been my meat day and night”. End of my geeking out (for this work at least…)!

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With its text by Phineas Fletcher (1582-1650), an English poet and clergyman, Orlando Gibbons’ (1583-1625) Drop, Drop Slow Tears is an example of economic compositional style. Measure for measure (Shakespeare was a contemporary of Gibbons) this is a piece worth many times its 21 measures and 3 verses in poetic and musical beauty.

Gibbons was a master of the English Madrigal and Virginalist (a type of keyboard instrument) Schools and despite his short life, he is seen as an important transitional figure from the Renaissance to the Baroque periods of style. Along with his choral output, Gibbons is well regarded for his pioneering keyboard works, and was the youngest composer to be included in the first publication of English Keyboard Works, Parthenia.

Bonus Fact: Despite little being known about his persona, we do know that there is a complaint reported in 1620 that Henry Eveseed, a yeoman of the vestry, assaulted Gibbons, stating that Eveseed "did violently and sodenly without cause runne uppon Mr Gibbons took up and threw him doune uppon a standard... and withall he tare his band from his neck" (This British guy had to read it a couple of times, too!).

Cantate Domino!

Tyrone Whiting
Director of Music
[email protected]