Music for getting Lent under way

One of the texts you can't miss at this time of the year is Psalm 51, whether you hear it sung to the Allegri setting, or surround yourself with other music, such as Bach's passion settings.  It's one of those sign posts for the season.

This text has evoked many different responses from musicians, because it expresses some very deep emotion.  I remember being hauled over the coals by a very fissiparous soprano who felt degraded to be singing about being conceived and carried in sin (well, the translation was a little vivid!).  It is a psalm that seems to prod us very firmly into a personal response.

The chorale setting I'm sharing with you today is an organ transcription by J.S. Bach of a movement from a cantata of Dietrich (or Diderich) Buxtehude, where a chorale based on Psalm 51 formed one of the movements.  The melody is presented in the soprano in a solo stop, with an accompaniment of pulsing chords.  The text and translation is as follows:

Erbarm dich mein, o Herre Gott,
nach deiner großn Barmherzigkeit.
Wasch ab, mach rein mein Missethat,
ich kenn mein Sünd und ist mir leid.
Allein ich dir gesündigt hab,
das ist wider mich stetiglich;
das Bös vor dir mag nicht bestahn,
du bleibst gerecht, ob urtheilst mich.

Have mercy, Lord, my sin forgive;
For Thy long-suffering is great!
O cleanse and make me fit to live,
My sore offence do thou abate
With shame do I my fault confess,
Gainst Thee alone, Lord, have I sinned.
Thou art the source of righteousness,
And I the sinner just condemned.

You can hear the organ chorale HERE.  The recording was made at the Immaculate Conception Church in Hawthorn a couple of weeks ago.  For your interest, this was the registration:

Great: Open Diapason No. 2
Swell: Open Diapason, Stopped Diapason
Pedal: Bourdon, Swell to Pedal

Bach was a musician who learnt from almost everything that touched him.  His visit to Buxtehude is seen as a critical event in Bach's development, although I tend to regard it as the culmination of a period of his imbibing the northern style.  It's interesting to note that Bach transcribed a lot of music for the organ which also reflected the stylistic influences he was exploring at a given time.  Thus, we get the concerto transcriptions from when he was mastering Italianate style.  We get an aria from one of Couperin's viol suites which points to French influence.  Then we find responses to these styles in the organ music: for the French we get the Fantasy in G (Piece d'Orgue), the c-minor fantasia, and various chorale settings, such as An Wasserflussen Babylon from the 18 Chorales.  For the Italian we have the "Dorian" Toccata, and the F-major Fantasia, which combine concerto writing in the first movement with Stile Antico techniques for the fugues.  It's all very Monteverdi-esque, composing to satisfy the tastes of Venice and Rome.

So finding Bach transcribing music by Buxtehude is probably not a big surprise.  Perhaps a more interesting aspect of this is how it worked out in Bach's setting of the same text in the St Matthew Passion.  The aria, Erbarme Dich, has some affinities with the organ chorale.  You have the pulsing bass, restrained harmony, setting the melody in the upper voice (it simply couldn't have been a tenor or bass aria), and an obbligato line that floats off above the whole texture.

In the dramaturgy of the St Matthew Passion, this aria comes at an important turning point.  Peter has just made his third denial and the cock crows.  The point of the aria is Peter's realization that he has failed to stand by Jesus, having earlier declared that he would travel to the ends of the earth before denying his lord.  In an opera, this would have been the cavatina -- the song where the hero or some other important character pours out their grief at being ineffectual to prevent disaster, or lamenting their part in some outrageous betrayal.  (If you don't know the biblical text, you can find it here, or you can see the libretto in German and English for the whole piece here.)

So, to complement the organ setting, here's a heartrending performance by Andreas Scholl.