Canon in D Major for String Quartet and Organ
Johann Pachelbel (1653 - 1706)
Johann Pachelbel baptized September 1, 1653 – buried March 9, 1706
was a German Baroque composer, organist and teacher, who brought the
south German organ tradition to its peak. He composed a large body of
sacred and secular music, and his contributions to the development of
the chorale prelude and fugue have earned him a place among the most
important composers of the middle Baroque era.

Pachelbel's music enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime; he
had many pupils and his music became a model for the composers of
south and central Germany. Today, Pachelbel is best known for the
Canon in D, the only canon he wrote - although a true canon at the
unison in three parts, it is often regarded more as a passacaglia, and
it is in this mode that it has been arranged and transcribed for many
different media. In addition to the canon, his most well-known works
include the Chaconne in F minor, the Toccata in E minor for organ, and
the Hexachordum Apollinis, a set of keyboard variations. ...

Pachelbel's Canon combines the techniques of canon and ground bass.
Canon is a polyphonic device in which several voices play the same
music, only enter one by one, each after a delay. In Pachelbel's
piece, there are three voices engaged in canon, but there is also
a fourth voice, the basso continuo, which plays an independent part.

And so Pachelbel's Canon merges a strict polyphonic form (the canon),
and a variation form (the chaconne, which itself is a mixture of
ground bass composition and variations). In this regard it is similar
to the 13th century round Sumer Is Icumen In. Pachelbel's skill in
constructing such complex polyphony and yet making the complexity
practically undetectable by unaided ear has been noted by scholars. ...
Wikipedia

 Organ Concerto in G minor, Op.7 No.11
Georg Fr. Handel (1685 – 1759)
Organ Concerto in g minor, Op. 7 No.11
Georg Fr. Handel (1685 - 1756)
Especially during the Baroque era, the most widely influential musical
innovations frequently occurred more or less by chance, as composers
used the materials at their disposal to best suit an immediate
practical need. Georg Frideric Handel's invention of the organ
concerto as a supplement to performances of his massive oratorios is
just such a case -- Handel was simply using his legendary skill at the
keyboard to keep his paying audience entertained while the singers
took their much-needed intermissions. And so history's first real
concertos for organ and orchestra appeared not to satisfy any
inevitable artistic purpose but rather as a simple commercial aid;
that the works are still so satisfying almost 300 years later is a
credit to the composer's unfailing creativity.

Three large groups of these organ concertos were published during or
immediately after Handel's lifetime: Op. 4 (HWV 289-294), which
contains six concertos composed between 1735 and 1736; Op. 7 (HWV
306-311), whose six concertos were written between 1740 and 1751; and
a group without opus number (HWV 295-300) that contains Concertos 13
and 14 and a handful of works arranged from some of Handel's concerti
grossi. ...

Handel was quite resourceful when it came to form, and in the case of
the organ concertos, no two works really follow the same pattern.
...The first work of the Op. 7 group is built around a massive,
two-movement chaconne. ...

By and large, the Op. 7 pieces are more polished works than those of
Op. 4, better balanced and frequently sewn of more complex material. A
particular delight is the Concerto in A major, Op. 7, No. 2, first
performed on February 5, 1743, at a performance of Samson. This
three-movement work opens with an Ouverture in regal dotted rhythms,
and then plunges headlong into an Allegro of unusually thick scoring.
Atypically, the organ doesn't venture out on its own until midway
through the movement, when it makes up for its previous reticence with
a most satisfying outburst of trills and -- if one chooses to play the
pseudo-cadenza that Handel composed but which for some reason never
found its way into the 1761 publication -- some electric left-hand
fingerwork.   ~ All Music Guide, All Music Guide

Ave Maria
Guiseppe Verdi(1813 - 1901)
From Verdi's opera, Otello, "Ave Maria", unlike the "Ave Maria"'s
made famous by Bach and Schubert, has a deeper, richer and more
lyrical quality. Verdi's opera music, especially toward the end
of his career, was known to contribute to the drama, never to outshine
it. The "Ave Maria" is a prime example of this. Sung by the character
Desdemonda in her final hour, the "Ave Maria" is a prayer for peace
from a world turned upside down by her jealous lover, Otello. Its
opening bars are quiet and breath-like, conveying Desdemonda's
desperation; slowly growing into a great plea, before ending with
a simple, exasperated "Amen."   Classical Music Forum

Lyrics: Ave Maria (in Dante's translation)
Ave Regina Vergine Maria (Hail Queen, Virgin Mary)
Piena Di Grazia: Iddio È Sempre Teco: (Full Of Grace: The Lord Is Always With You:)
Sopra Ogni Donna Benedetta Sia. (Above All Women, May You Be Blessed.)
E'l Frutto Del Tuo Ventre, (And Blessed Be The Fruit Of Your Womb,)
Il Qual Io Preco Che Ci Guardi Dal Mal, Cristo Gesù, (Christ Jesus, To Whom I Pray, That He May Keep Us From Evil,)
Sia Benedetto, E Noi Tiri Con Seco. (And Draw Us After Him.)
Vergine Benedetta, Sempre Tu (Blessed Virgin, Always)
Ora Per Noi A Dio, Che Ci Perdoni, (Pray For Us To God, That He Might Forgive Us,)
E Diaci Grazia A Viver Sì quaggiù, (And Give Us Grace So To Live Here Below)
Che'l Paradiso Al Nostro Fin Ci Doni. (That He May At The Last Welcome Us Into Paradise.)
Ave Maria, Ora Per Noi A Dio, Ora Per Noi. (Hail Mary, Pray For Us To God, Pray For Us.)
Posted by gemsofchoralmusic

 "Ah non Credea Mirarti" from La Sonnambula
Vincenzo Bellini (1801 - 1835)
In Bellini's opera "La Sonnambula", an innocent young lady's
engagement to her beloved farmer/fiancé is threatened by her habit of
sleepwalking. Bellini is quoted as describing the audience at the
opera’s premiere as not having a dry eye. His music soars and sighs
with the inner passions of the characters.

Ah,non credea mirarti
si presto estinto, o fiore;
passasti al par d'amore,
che un giorno sol(o) duro.

Potria novel vigore
il pianto mio recarti
ma ravvivar l'amore
il pianto mio, ah no, non puo.

Ah, non giunge uman pensiero
al contento ond'io son piena:
a miei sensi io credo appena;
tu m'affida o mio tesor.

Ah, mi abbraccia, e sempre insieme,
sempre uniti in una speme,
della terra, in cui viviamo
ci formiamo un ciel d'amor.

 Exultate Jubilate in F Major, K165
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)
A significant way that Mozart would heighten the drama of a musical
line was by his masterly manipulation of the tonic-dominant chord
progression. Particularly in his operas, he created moments of tension
followed by cathartic release by exploiting the polarization of the
consonant and dissonant intervals within these two chords, and also by
the shifting of key centers. Equipped with these new musical devices,
Mozart could explore the depths of the human psyche in ways that were
revolutionary for their time. He was, in some respects, the first
modern psychologist of opera, a master of creating mood, drama, and
atmosphere in his operatic works. The great facility and ease with
which Mozart fused music to mood was perhaps his most important
contribution to music.

Mozart's greatest compositions, sometimes written at breakneck pace,
contain passages of revelatory beauty. Albert Einstein once remarked
that while Beethoven composed his music, Mozart's music "was so pure
that it seemed to have been ever-present in the universe, waiting to
be discovered by the master."

The motet Exsultate, jubilate, K.165, was composed when Mozart was
just sixteen. Wolfgang and his father, Leopold, had travelled to Milan
in October 1772 for the premiere of the opera Lucio Silla. The famous
castrato Venanzio Rauzzini had sung the role of Cecillo in the opera -
'like an angel', according to Leopold. Precisely why Mozart composed
Exsultate, jubilate at that time, and why specifically for Rauzzini
and not a female soprano, is not known. The virtuosity of the piece
and its florid, coloratura style at least give us some idea today of
the quality of Rauzzini's voice. Exsultate, jubilate received its
first performance on January 17, 1773, in the Church of San Antonio,
Milan.

In this work Mozart combines the aria and recitative style of 'opera
seria' with the three-part form of the Italian symphony, the movements
of which have tempos that are fast, slow, and fast respectively. The
result is a miniature vocal concerto in three movements.

The work opens with an Allegro in F major, followed by a slower, more
lyrical Andante in A major that is preceded by a recitative. The
concluding movement, Molto Allegro in F major, is the brilliant and
famous Alleluia, a favourite of sopranos and concertgoers worldwide.
© ACS, December 2003

Exult, celebrate,
O you blessed souls,
exult, celebrate,
singing sweet songs;
in answering your singing,
the heavens sing out with me.

Friendly day is shining,
now fled are clouds and storms,
for the just an unexpected quiet has arisen.
Everywhere dark night was reigning,
come forth happy you who were afraid before,
and joyous for the fortunate dawn
give lilies and garlands with open hand.

You crown of virgins,
you give us peace,
you console our feelings,
whence our heart sighs.

"Alleluia."

 Sinfonia No.9 in C Major ("Swiss")
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
One of the second group of six string symphonies written by the
fourteen year old budding genius, the Sinfonia No. 9 in C, is
brilliant and in every respect an early symphony. Its immediate
predecessor, the Sinfonia No. 8 in D, combines Mendelssohn's nascent
originality with a healthy leavening of the influence of Mozart.
Rather than paying further tribute to Mozart, Mendelssohn opens this
work in Haydn-esque fashion, with a great ponderous introduction which
then bursts into a marvelous, animated first theme. It quickly becomes
something Haydn could never have written, with much greater harmonic
and rhythmic range and technical sophistications including a divided
part for the violas and a sudden shift to a marvelously effective
fugal passage at the seam between the exposition and development
sections of the first movement. It leaps a generation beyond Haydn and
is brilliant far beyond anything of Mozart's at the same age. The
piece also features a wondrous, pensive andante second movement and a
sparkling, thoroughly Mendelssohnian scherzo. The allegro vivace with
which the work concludes once again features brilliant counterpoint,
delightful wit, and thoroughly original melodic lines.

The work is significant as part of a set of thirteen early string
symphonies which the composer wrote, partly as exercises and partly as
an effort to spread his wings in the symphonic form. He had crafted
the first six of these as early as 1821 - when he was all of twelve
years of age - and at first they were purposefully patterned after the
Empfindsamkeit style of works by C.P.E. Bach. This was at the
direction of his first music tutor, Carl Freidrich Zelter. While the
first six were both derivative and imitative, the second group,
including this work, show signs of Mendelssohn kicking over the rote
mimicry in favor of a more modern and personal style. That the
youthful work seems influenced by Haydn in no way dims its brilliance.
~ Michael Morrison, All Music Guide