Word Painting in Bach's "Magnificat," Part 2 of 3

Johann Sebastian Bach
Painting by Elias Gottlob Haussmann, c1748
City Hall Museum, Leipzig

Movement 8: Deposuit

As we have seen in the first part of this three-part posting, Movement 7 of Bach's Magnificat leaves "the proud in their conceit" reposing royally in the key of D major. Bach does not allow them to posture there for long.  "Pride goeth before destruction," says Proverbs 16:18, "and an haughty spirit before a fall." Mary's hymn and Bach's musical setting observe this same moral logic. Movement 8 opens with a precipitous fall.

At the end of Movement 7 the resplendent trumpet's concluding flourish ends on an F-sharp, the note that defines its D chord as a major chord. Bach opens Movement 8 by giving the violins that same note, but this time as the platform for a plunging scale in F-sharp minor:

Notice that the violins' threatening downward sweep terminates in a jagged upward interval (bar 2). The interval is a "tritone," so named because it spans three whole tones. In the middle ages the tritone was judged so discordant that it earned itself the nickname of "the devil's interval."

A second downward sweep by the violins follows immediately, this time terminating (bar 4) with the four upward notes of a diminished chord—familiar to us from the previous movement where Bach has used it to disperse and diminish the superbos. We might note that the diminished chord is comprised of two dissonant tritones superimposed.

In the space of four vehement bars Bach has cast down the proud from their triumphant D-major chord.

The violins conclude the instrumental introduction with an upward sweep (bar 14), like a dismissive gesture of the Almighty hand:

Then, echoing the violins' opening pattern, the solo tenor introduces the text:

          Deposuit potentes de sedes, et exaltavit humiles.
          He hath cast down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.

After a downward plunge of deposuit, "he hath cast down," and a downward tumble of de sedes, "from their seats," the tenor paints exaltavit, "exalted," on a swirling and ever-ascending melisma climaxing on a high A (bar 27). The vocal line then descends gently on an A-major scale to humiles "the humble."

Following another upward-swirling exaltavit later in the movement (bars 43–47) the tenor again descends to humiles, this time with a surprise:

The cadence (1st beat of bar 48) is not the expected chord of A major but a genial modulation to D major. Thus Bach grants to the humiles, as their rightful due, the tonality that was fleetingly claimed by the superbos at the close of the preceding movement. Thereupon Bach slows his pace and paints humility's quality of patient endurance by having the tenor sustain the final syllable of humiles for three measures on a single note (bars 48–50).

The sustained note is an F-sharp, the resplendent trumpet's note that ended Movement 7 from which Bach hurled the superbos. But the sustained F-sharp of humiles is modest and unassuming, being two octaves lower than the trumpet's.

Above the tenor's sustained humiles the violins continue to recall the fall of the superbos with descending melodic lines. After a final exaltavit humiles the opening instrumental motifs return to bring the movement to a close.

Thus in Movements 7 and 8 Bach has dispersed, diminished, and deposed the conceited. In Movement 9 he will depict the humble. 

(Concluded in Part 3 of this posting)

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Reflections on Dying: A Brief Anthology

Note to family and friends:

This collection is not occasioned by any change in my life's circumstances.

I feel in robust health.

Albert

Comet Hale-Bopp

I am like a slip of comet,

Scarce worth discovery, in some corner seen

Bridging the slender difference of two stars,

Come out of space, or suddenly engender'd

By heady elements, for no man knows:

But when she sights the sun she grows and sizes

And spins her skirts out, while her central star

Shakes its cocooning mists; and so she comes

To fields of light; millions of traveling rays

Pierce her; she hangs upon the flame-cased sun,

And sucks the light as full as Gideon's fleece:

But then her tether calls her; she falls off,

And as she dwindles shreds her smock of gold

Amidst the sistering planets, till she comes

To single Saturn, last and solitary;

And then goes out into the cavernous dark.

So I go out: my little sweet is done:

I have drawn heat from this contagious sun;

To not ungentle death now forth I run.
          (Gerard Manley Hopkins, I Am Like a Slip of Comet)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail
Or knock the breast; no weakness, no contempt,
Dispraise, or blame; nothing but well and fair,
And what may quiet us....
          (John Milton, from Samson Agonistes)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Do not for ever with thy vailed lids
Seek for thy noble father in the dust.
Thou know'st 't is common; all that lives must die,
Passing through nature to eternity.
          (William Shakespeare, Hamlet 1.2.70–75)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Death is completion, fulfillment, consummation, returning.
          (Anonymous)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The mere cessation of existence is no evil to any one: the idea is only formidable through the illusion of imagination which makes one conceive oneself as if one were alive and feeling oneself dead. What is odious in death is not death itself, but the act of dying, and its lugubrious accompaniments: all of which must be equally undergone by the believer in immortality. Nor can I perceive that the skeptic loses by his skepticism any real and valuable consolation except one: the hope of reunion with those dear to him who have ended their earthly life before him. That loss, indeed, is neither to be denied nor extenuated. In many cases it is beyond the reach of comparison or estimate, and will always suffice to keep alive, in the more sensitive natures, the imaginative hope of a futurity which, if there is nothing to prove, there is as little in our knowledge and experience to contradict.

          (John Stuart Mill, The Utility of Religion)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

O God, you are my God,
   I seek you,
   my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
   as in a dry and weary land
   where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
   beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life
   my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live;
   I will lift up my hands and call on your name.
My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,
   and my mouth praises you with joyful lips
when I think of you on my bed,
   and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
for you have been my help,
   and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
My soul clings to you;
   your right hand upholds me.
          (Psalm 63:1–7)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I am quite clear that the time had come when it was better for me to die and be released from my distractions.
          (Plato, Apology, quoting Socrates)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Pass to thy Rendezvous of Light,
Pangless except for us —
Who slowly ford the Mystery
Which thou hast leaped across!
          (Emily Dickinson)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The earth was warm under me, and warm as I crumbled it through my fingers.... I kept as still as I could. Nothing happened. I did not expect anything to happen. I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want to anything more. I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep.
          (Willa Cather, My Antonia)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

O God, support us all the day long of this troublous life,
until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes,
and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over,
and our work done.
Then, in your mercy, grant us a safe lodging, a holy rest,
and peace at the last.  Amen.
          (John Henry Newman)

~~~~~~~

Death gathers us and sows us anew.
          (George Eliot, Daniel Deronda)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

...Lord of all kindliness, Lord of all grace,
your hands swift to welcome, your arms to embrace,
be there at our homing, and give us, we pray,
your love in our hearts, Lord, at the eve of the day.

Lord of all gentleness, Lord of all calm,
whose voice is contentment, whose presence is balm,
be there at our sleeping, and give us, we pray,
your peace in our hearts, Lord, at the end of the day.
          (Jan Struther, Songs of Praise)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Feel free to miss me; I hope you do.
But none need grieve for my dying.
          (Anonymous)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Well, really, Crito, it would strike an odd chord for a man of my age to resent having to face death.... The really important thing is not to live, but to live well.... And is it still agreed or not that to live well amounts to the same thing as to live honorably and justly?
         (Plato, Crito, quoting Socrates)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

My 80s will be my final Final
and then I graduate from Time.
          (Anonymous)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Think of me, when I'm gone, with love and cheerfulness.
           (Alexander von Humboldt)      

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I do not fear death. I had been dead
for billions and billions of years before I was born,
and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.
          (Mark Twain)

~~~~~~~

The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,
   and no torment will ever touch them.
In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died,
   and their going forth from us to be their destruction;
but they are at peace.
          (The Wisdom of Solomon 3:1–3)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lord, teach me so to number my days,
   that I may apply my heart to wisdom.
          (Psalm 39:4, translated by Thomas Ken)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Those who are worthy of Life are of Miracle, for life is Miracle, and Death as harmless as a Bee except to those who run.
          (Emily Dickinson, letter to Susan Dickinson)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I conclude my letter with a prayer for my dearest Father's benediction and preservation..., reverencing his virtues, admiring his attainments, and ardently desiring that health, peace of mind, and fulness of merited honors may crown his length of days, and prolong them to the utmost verge of enjoyable mortality.
          (Frances Burney, The Wanderer, dedication "To Dr. Burney")

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I suppose it is not unreasonable to say that we must not put an end to ourselves until God sends some necessary circumstance like the one which we are facing now.... Those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death.... I should only make myself ridiculous in my own eyes if I clung to life and hugged it when it has no more to offer.
          (Plato, Phaedo, quoting Socrates)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

when god lets my body be

From each brave eye shall sprout a tree
fruit that dangles therefrom

the purpled world will dance upon
Between my lips which did sing

a rose shall beget the spring
that maidens whom passion wastes

will lay between their little breasts
My strong fingers beneath the snow

into strenuous birds shall go
my love walking in the grass

their wings will touch with her face
and all the while shall my heart be

With the bulge and nuzzle of the sea

          (E. E. Cummings)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Looks like I'm going to make it all the way from dust to dust.
          (Anonymous)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Death is nature's way of slowing us down.
          (Anonymous)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Quiet consummation have;
And renownèd be thy grave!
          (William Shakespeare, Cymbeline 4.2.2679–80)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"There shall be time no longer," the angel of Revelation said. Time is no longer. Is that not what death is.... For since the world is known to us only through our experience of it, does its existence not, in some crucial way, come to an end when we do? And is not heaven, then, merely the fact of non-existence? The loss of the fear of loss, which haunts and casts its shadow over so much of human life.
          (Salley Vickers, The Cleaner of Chartres)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~       

I'm thinking that I may be ready for a little requiem aeternum.
          (Anonymous)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Since Nature's works be good, and death doth serve
As Nature's work, why should we fear to die?
Since fear is vain but when it may preserve,
Why should we fear that which we cannot fly?
Fear is more pain than is the pain it fears,
Disarming human minds of native might;
While each conceit an ugly figure bears
Which were not evil, well viewed in reason's light.
Our owly eyes, which dimmed with passions be,
And scarce discern the dawn of coming day,
Let them be cleared, and begin to see
Our life is but a step in dusty way.
Then let us hold the bliss of peaceful mind;
Since this we feel, great loss we cannot find.
          (Philip Sidney, Since Nature's Works Be Good)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A train went through a burial gate,
A bird broke forth and sang,
And trilled, and quivered, and shook his throat
Till all the churchyard rang;

And then adjusted his little notes,
And bowed and sang again.
Doubtless, he thought it meet of him
To say good-by to men.
          (Emily Dickinson)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I love living,
   and dying is part of living.
          (Anonymous)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Where death is, I am not.
Where I am, death is not.
Therefore death does not concern me.
          (Attributed to Epictetus)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

To die will be an awfully big adventure.
          (Peter, in J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I want death to find me planting my cabbages, but careless of death, and still more of my unfinished garden.... Go out of this world as you entered it. The same passage that you made from death to life, without feeling or fright, make it again from life to death. Your death is part of the order of the universe; it is part of the life of the world.
          (Michel de Montaigne, Essays)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

With death our past becomes our life,
   and our life becomes eternal.
          (Anonymous)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.
          (Oliver Sacks, My Own Life)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dear Cousins,
     Called back.
     Emily
          (Emily Dickinson's final letter)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

To set as sets the morning star, which goes
Not down behind the darken'd west, nor hides
Obscured among the tempests of the sky,
But melts away into the light of heaven.
          (Thomas Hardy, A Pair of Blue Eyes)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

So, fellows, we shall reach the gusty gate,
Early or late,
And part without remorse,
A cadence dying down unto its source
In music's course....

Always the flawless beauty, always the chord
Of the Overword,
Dominant, pleading, sure,
No truth too small to save and make endure.
No good too poor!

And since no mortal can at last disdain
That sweet refrain,
But lets go strife and care,
Borne like a strain of bird notes on the air,
The wind knows where;

Some quiet April evening soft and strange,
When comes the change
No spirit can deplore,
I shall be one with all I was before,
In death once more.
          (Bliss Carman, from Behind the Arras)

Nebula HH-222

*****

Bach, Mozart, Beethoven: Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall. Part 4 of 4.

On March 30, 2014, the Chancel Choir of Atlanta's Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church presented side-by-side performances of three lesser-known but superb Kyrie settings, by Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. Dr. Steven Darsey, Director of Music, invited me to present a brief commentary preceding each setting, and then a brief, more general comparison of the three composers. This four-part entry is a reworking of those commentaries. My sincerest thanks to Dr. Darsey for his invitation and to the Chancel Choir and accompanying instruments for their compelling performances on that evening.

Three great composers: who is the greatest of them all? Let's consult the experts.

Leonard Bernstein, the renowned conductor and music educator: "Beethoven is—let's face it—the greatest composer who ever lived."¹

Anthony Tommasini, music critic for the New York Times: "The winner, the all-time great is...Bach."²

Karl Barth, the most influential Calvinist theologian of the twentieth century:

If I should ever get to heaven, I would first of all seek out Mozart, and only then inquire after Augustine, St. Thomas, Luther, Calvin....³

(Note that Barth would seek out Mozart not only before other composers, but even before his favorite theologians, including his beloved Calvin.)

From these three contrasting opinions I think we have to conclude that consulting experts is not the best approach. A better approach is to ask a better question: What are strengths and limitations of each composer? Then we can venture some comparisons.

Bach
Strengths:

• The power of his stupendous craftsmanship
• The universality of his appropriation of musical styles, from all over the musical world that was known to him
• His religious dedication to his musical vocation

Limitations:

• The sometimes overpowering density of his musical elaborations. Robert L. Marshall of Brandeis University has written: "Bach intimidates us as no other composer does."⁴
• Lack of interest in opera or oratorio—though certainly Bach shows a flair for drama in his St. Matthew and St. John Passions.

Mozart

Strengths:

• Astounding universality of musical genres in which he composed, from opera to glass harmonica
• An apparent effortlessness in his music, as if he were simply channeling the Muse of Music. Mozart insists in his letters that he worked hard at composing. Yet Constanze Mozart said that at times her husband composed music "as if he were writing a letter."⁵
• Infallible stylistic elegance

Limitations

• Lack of compositions for solo organ, though himself an organist (What would Bach think!)
• Little musical wrestling with the depths of human turmoil and existential desperation

Beethoven

Strengths:

• Courageous innovation in musical architecture, expression, and drama
• Immediate and lasting influence on other composers
• Accessibility to a wide audience of human ears and hearts while remaining elevated and elevating

Limitations:

• Less than a master harmonist. Charles Rosen of Princeton University writes that Beethoven uses "the simplest elements of the tonal system as themes."⁶
• Sometimes fraught with self-absorption

Back to Experts

John Eliot Gardiner, the British conductor, makes a comparison that I find worthy of reflection:

Beethoven tells us what a terrible struggle it is to transcend human frailties and to aspire to the Godhead.... Mozart shows us the kind of music we might hope to hear in heaven.... Bach...gives us the voice of God—in human form. He is the one who blazes a trail, showing us how to overcome our imperfections through the perfections of his music: to make divine things human and human things divine.⁷

Karl Barth writes a thank-you letter to Mozart—in heaven. Barth's tone is whimsical ("Didn't you yourself write more than one odd letter during your lifetime? Well, then, why not me?"):

How things stand with music there, where you now find yourself, I have only a faint premonition. The hunch I cherish in this regard I once formulated in this way: I am not absolutely sure whether the angels, when they are engaged in the praise of God, play only Bach. I am sure, however, that when they are among themselves they play Mozart, and that then, indeed, the dear God listens in with special pleasure. Well, you know about this better than I do. I mention it only to intimate figuratively what I mean. And so, truly yours, Karl Barth.⁸

A Personal Preference

I believe that all genius is cloud-capped. We who are not geniuses may scale the slopes. But how can we say who rises highest when we cannot reach or even glimpse the summits?

Yet we are, I think, fully entitled to our own first loves. And so thought the Danish Christian author Søren Kierkegaard. Writing in 1843, Kierkegaard expresses his views precisely, and they are my views also:

Mozart joins that little immortal band...whose names, whose works, time will not forget because eternity recollects them. ...It makes no difference, once one is in that little immortal band, whether one ranks highest or lowest...since all rank infinitely high, and...it is...childish to argue about first and last place....

Yet I am still too much of a child.... I am infatuated...with Mozart, and I must have him rank in first place, whatever it costs.... I will beseech Mozart to forgive me that his music did not inspire me to great deeds, but instead has made me a fool who, because of him, lost what little sense I had....⁹

Why is Mozart my first love? Mozart's music does not urge messages of faith, as Bach's music does. Nor is it like Beethoven's music a confession of life.¹⁰ Mozart gladdens, uplifts, consoles, unburdens, restores, surprises, delights, refreshes. And I am in need of all these encouragements for keeping hope alive.

__________

1. Leonard Bernstein, "The Greatest Composer Who Ever Lived," YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZYn865RiRE&index=20&list=RDU14iJzdPtWI, viewed May 24, 2014.
2. Anthony Tommasini, "The Greatest," New York Times, January 21, 2011.
3. Karl Barth, "Bekenntnis zu Mozart," Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (William B. Eerdmans, 1986), p.8; my translation.
4. Robert L. Marshall, "In Search of Bach," New York Review of Books, June 15, 2000.
5. Robert L. Marshall, Mozart Speaks: Views on Music, Musicians, and the World (Schirmer, 1991), p.30.
6. Charles Rosen, The Classical Style (W. W. Norton, 1997), p.389.
7. John Eliot Gardiner, Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven (Alfred A. Knopf, 2013), p.558.
8. Karl Barth, "Dankbrief an Mozart," Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Theologischer Verlag Zürich, 2006), p.13; my translation.
9. Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or, tr. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong, alt. (Princeton University Press, 1987), pp.48–9.
10. See Hans Küng, Mozart: Traces of Transcendence, tr. John Bowden (William B. Eerdmans, 1993), p.21.

*****