From Heavenly Harmony
A Praetorius Christmas
by Ken Myers
Of the many recordings of Christmas music in my library (on vinyl, CD, or digital format), relatively few of them feature music by a single composer. Most are anthologies of works by a variety of composers and arrangers: carols, motets, chants, anthems, and extracts from Christmas cantatas or oratorios. But one composer stands out as a notable exception: Michael Praetorius. I have at least five recordings in my collection that concentrate on compositions and harmonizations of Christmas (and Advent) music by this great (if under-appreciated) late Renaissance composer.
Musicologist Walter Blankenburg expresses a consensus among his colleagues in proclaiming that Praetorius (1571–1621) was "the most versatile and wide-ranging German composer of his generation and one of the most prolific, especially of works based on Protestant hymns." In his first published work, Musae Sioniae (The Muses of Zion, in nine volumes, 1605–1610), Praetorius presented 1,244 compositions that explore various methods of setting Lutheran chorale melodies—the backbone of Protestant liturgical life. These and other works earned him the title, "Conservator of the Chorale." Conductor and scholar Peter Holman contrasts the achievements of Praetorius with those of the better-known Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672): "While Schütz was writing freely for an expert court ensemble in an idiom derived from Gabrieli, Praetorius devoted himself to marrying the Italian Baroque style to the Lutheran chorale, and to writing music that could be performed, if necessary, by the humblest village choir."
In Dulci Jubilo
You may not live in a village, but it's likely that you've experienced a church choir or even a congregation singing Praetorius's 1609 harmonization of the fifteenth-century German folk carol Es ist ein Ros entsprungen (variously translated as "Lo how a rose e'er blooming," "I know a rose-tree springing," "A spotless rose," etc.). The delicacy and quiet confidence of the harmonic movement in this work echoes the imagery of the Christ-child as a fresh and vulnerable flower.
Almost as familiar are his numerous settings of an even older (thirteenth century?) and more robust Christmas hymn, In dulci jubilo, a melody most associated with the words "Good Christian men, rejoice!" Praetorius's arrangements have been recorded by countless ensembles, some of them with intricately intertwined a capella voices, some with large choirs augmented by jubilant brass and organ.
A splendid example of the more intimate In dulci jubilo can be heard on a 1999 album entitled Praetorius: Puer natus in Bethlehem—Renaissance Christmas Music, sung by the ensemble Viva Voce. Their performance weaves together three different arrangements by Praetorius of this simple tune. The first stanza features three sopranos and a tenor, the three women's voices dancing around one another playfully, the tenor coming in every six or seven measures with a short statement of the text. The next two stanzas are sung by the tenor accompanied by a lute, while the final stanza is sung by four standard parts (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) accompanied by a small organ. As in the sixteen other pieces on this quietly delightful recording, the vocal clarity of this six-voice ensemble brings out the subtle harmonies Praetorius lovingly constructed.
The text of In dulci jubilo was traditionally believed to have been taught by angels (the muses of Zion) to a German Dominican monk named Heinrich Seuse (c.1295–1355). Herr Seuse had been a student of the great mystic Meister Eckhart, and in 1328 he published a book called The Little Book of the Eternal Wisdom, which contains numerous accounts of visionary experiences and visitations, in which the author always refers to himself in the third person as "the Servant." In one of these accounts, a group of angels in the form of a youth and his fellows visit the Servant, sent from God
to bring him heavenly joys amid his sufferings; adding that he must cast off all his sorrows from his mind and bear them company, and that he must also dance with them in heavenly fashion. Then they drew the Servant by the hand into the dance, and the youth began a joyous song about the infant Jesus, which runs thus: "In dulci jubilo," etc.
If the setting of In dulci jubilo sung by Viva Voce displays the quietly joyful capacities of Praetorius's versatile skills, the setting sung on the 1994 recording Praetorius: Christmette (Christmas Mass) reveals a composer who also imagined heavenly choirs in their most glorious and spectacular mode. Working from a 1619 score for four choirs, six trumpets, and drums, the Gabrieli Consort and Players, conducted by Paul McCreesh, have added strings, woodwinds, and organ to the mix. (This is in keeping with Praetorius's description of his composing "for choirs of voices, organs, and other instruments.") All the stops are appropriately pulled out for the final stanza of this hymn to the infant Jesus, understood not merely in the humble setting of a Bethlehem stable, but in a more cosmic context: "Where are joys more deep than heaven's are? In heaven are angels singing new songs, in heaven the bells are ringing in the courts of the King. O that we were there!"
Christmas Morning Mass
This thrilling performance is the final track on an album that McCreesh describes as "a selection of Praetorius's music as it might have been heard at a Lutheran mass for Christmas morning celebrated at one of the major churches in central Germany around 1620."
McCreesh's ambitious liturgical reconstruction begins in a much more austere register with an a capella processional, a four-part setting of Christum wir sollen loben schon("We now must praise Christ"),one of Martin Luther's many translations/paraphrases of pre-Reformation hymns. Based on the fifth-century A solis ortus cardine, traditionally sung at lauds on Christmas Day, this eight-stanza hymn appeared in the first Lutheran hymnbook in 1524. While Praetorius wrote at least two settings of this hymn, McCreesh has selected for this recording a score by the Lutheran pastor and theologian Lucas Osiander (1534–1604).
This processional is followed by an Introit, Praetorius's 1619 Puer natus in Bethlehem ("a Boy is born in Bethlehem"), an intricate three-choir arrangement of one of the most venerable of Christmas songs. Then we hear the Kyrie and Gloria from another work published in 1619, Praetorius's Missa gantz Teudsch ("Mass, completely in German"), in which the text of the ordinary of the Mass is presented (in good Lutheran style) in the vernacular.
Among the more traditional Christmas melodies in this "service" are Vom Himmel hoch, da komm' ich her ("From highest heaven I come to tell"), Quem pastors laudavere ("Shepherds sang their praises o'er him"), and Puer nobis nascitur ("Unto us a boy is born"). In case you're wondering, these are not arcane pieces known only to scholars and early-music buffs; all three are in the 1940 Hymnal used in my parish.
The Company of Heaven
Space prevents me from discussing Praetorius's treatises, in which he developed a sophisticated theology of music and liturgy, including a principled defense of the use of instruments in church services (a contested issue among heirs of the Reformation). Perhaps in a future column.
Meanwhile, make time during Advent and Christ-mastide to enjoy the gifts Praetorius has given the Church (which extend far beyond music for Christmas). Start with your church's hymnal, and then, in addition to the two recordings mentioned here, listen to albums from the Bremer Barock Consort, Apollo's Fire, and the Westminster Cathedral Choir, which are also worth your attention. Thanks to Michael Praetorius, you will soon find yourself joining in song the cherubim and seraphim and all the company of heaven.
Ken Myers is the host and producer of the Mars Hill Audio Journal. Formerly an arts editor with National Public Radio, he also serves as music director at All Saints Anglican Church in Ivy, Virginia. He is a contributing editor for Touchstone.
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