Dietrich

BUXTEHUDE

Vocal Music • 2

Johan Reuter, Bass

Copenhagen RoyalChapel Choir

The Dufay Collective

Ebbe Munk

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Ebbe Munk

Ebbe Munk has been the conductor of the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir since 1991, a year after the choir hadwon the first prize at the Concours International de Chant Choral in Narbonne. Munk was himself a chorister andlater read musicology at Copenhagen University. After studying choral conducting in Dresden, Munich, Budapestand the United States, he founded the Chamber Choir Vox Danica, specialising in modern choral music. The manyCDs he has made with this choir, especially of Danish choral music, have received considerable acclaim both inDenmark and abroad. He has performed at many concerts in Europe and the United States with both Vox Danicaand Sankt Annæ Gymnasiekor which he conducted from 1982 to 1991. It is, however, primarily as the conductor ofthe Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir that Ebbe Munk has performed in concert halls and cathedrals all over theworld. With this choir he has also conducted a number of major works in the choral repertoire together with leadingDanish orchestras, and is involved in the production of many CDs of Danish choral music from the eighteenthcentury to the present. Since 1991 Ebbe Munk has also been choirmaster of Copenhagen Cathedral, often appearingat choir festivals and seminars in Denmark and abroad.

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The Dufay Collective

The Dufay Collective was formed in 1987 to explore the rich and varied repertoire of the Middle Ages and theRenaissance. The highly successful years since its formation have taken The Dufay Collective on tours throughoutmost of Europe as well as much further afield. They have toured extensively in the Middle East, India, Hong Kong,Australia, the United States and Latin America. At home The Dufay Collective has appeared in numerous concertseries and festivals around the country, and has given sell-out concerts at London’s main concert halls. Highlightsof recent years have included performances in the monastery of Montserrat, Early Music Network tours in Holland,Norway and the United Kingdom, the Tallinn Festival in Estonia, the Festival de Fez in Morocco, and regularconcerts in Spain. A return to Australia as part of the Sydney Festival was well received, as was a series of concertsin Singapore. They have taught popular workshops and concerts at Dartington Summer School for the past elevenyears. The Dufays featured live on BBC2’s ‘Perfect Day’ and have collaborated with The Orlando Consort onseveral occasions and have performed at Sadlers Wells with the Richard Alston Dance Company. Concerts inEngland include the York Early Music Festival, Leamington and Warwick, Lichfield, Poole, Ross-on-Wye,Birmingham Early Music and Cambridge Summer Festivals. The group’s work in Spain includes a number ofperformances in Burgos and they were the first to perform in the new festival in Rueda. The group has broadcast onmany radio and television networks around the world as well as working on a number of television and film projects,including Zeffirelli’s feature film Hamlet, the Affair of the Necklace, A Knight’s Tale and Harry Potter. Their CDshave all met with critical acclaim, releases for Chandos Records including a range of repertoire from medievalEurope, the early Spanish renaissance and popular music from seventeenth-century England. The Dufay’s recordingof Cancionero was nominated for a Grammy Award 2003, and was voted one of the CDs of the year in TheGramophone magazine. Their recording, Music for Alfonso the Wise, which includes the famous Cantigas d’Amigoof Martín Códax, was released on Harmonia Mundi in 2005 and also received excellent reviews.

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1 Das neugeborne Kindelein, BuxWV 13 7:14(Scored for Chorus, 3 Violins and Basso Continuo)

2 Der Herr ist mit mir, BuxWV 15 8:09(Scored for Chorus, 2 Violins, Violone and Basso Continuo)

3 Fürwahr, er trug unsere Krankheit, BuxWV 31 12:34(Scored for Bass solo, Chorus, 2 Violins, 2 Viola da gamba, Violone and Basso Continuo)Choir soloists: Jes Boeg and Morten Pilegaard Jespersen, Sopranos; Jense Radamacher, Countertenor;Søren Tidmand, Tenor; Jakob Bloch, Bass

4 Alles, was ihr tut, BuxWV 4 14:21(Scored for Bass solo, Chorus, 2 Violins, 2 Viola da gamba, Violone and Basso Continuo)

APPENDIX

5 Magnificat anima mea, BuxWV Anh. 1 (doubtful authenticity) 8:45(Scored for Chorus, 2 Violins, 2 Viola da gamba, Violone and Basso Continuo)Choir Soloists: Jens Rademacher, Countertenor; Adam Riis, Tenor; Lasse Ryberg, Bass

Johan Reuter, BassCopenhagen Royal Chapel Choir (Københavns Drengekor)

The Dufay Collective Nicolette Moonen, Sharon Lindo and Naome Rogers, Baroque Violin;

Giles Lewin, Baroque viola and Viola da gamba; Susanne Pell, Viola da gambaRichard Campbell, Bass Violin; Peter Skuce, Continuo

Ebbe Munk

Harpsichord by Rasmus Manley after Elbedo Gregori • Organ by Henk Klop, Nederlands • Tuning a’ = 440Hz

Dietrich Buxtehude (1637–1707)Vocal Music • 2

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Johan Reuter

Born in Copenhagen, since 1996 the bass-baritone Johan Reuter has been a member of the Royal Danish Opera,where his rôles have included Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Masetto (Don Giovanni), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte),Belcore (L’elisir d’amore), Kilian (Der Freischütz), Heerrufer (Lohengrin), Don Prudenzio/Don Alvaro (Il viaggioa Reims), Tomsky (Pique Dame), Olvier (Capriccio), Henrik (Maskarade), Alex Bloch (I-K-O-N, by JohnFrandsen), Mandryka (Arabella), Wotan and Donner (Das Rheingold), and Pantalone (L’amour des trois oranges).He sang in the first performance of Poul Ruders’ Kafka’s Trial and took the title rôle in Verdi’s Macbeth. JohanReuter has appeared in oratorios and opera performances in concert with all the important Danish orchestras andworked with conductors including Ulf Schirmer, Marek Janowski, Peter Schreier and Marcello Viotti. He hasappeared at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Staatsoper Hamburg, in Frankfurt and in Essen. In 2005 he made his débutat the Paris Opéra-Bastille, followed by his début at the Salzburg Festival and performances in Madrid. 2006 broughtappearances at Covent Garden in the title rôle of Wozzeck and further engagements in a busy international career.His recordings include Kunzen’s Holger Danske with Thomas Dausgaard for Dacapo/Marco Polo, (U.S. Grammynomination), Nielsen’s Maskarade with Ulf Schirmer and the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra for Decca(Grammy Award), songs with orchestra by Delius conducted by Bo Holton with the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra,and C.E.F. Weyse’s Sovedrikken, as well as Schubert’s Winterreise in Danish.

Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir

The Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir was founded in 1924 by Mogens Wöldike to perform choral music written forboys’ and men’s voices from the Middle Ages to the present. In 1929 the Copenhagen City Council established aChoir School for the boys, the present Sankt Annæ Gymnasium. Until 1959 the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choirwas permanently connected with Christiansborg Slotskirke (the Chapel of Chistiansborg Castle), but since then thechoir has throughout the main season been giving regular concerts every Friday evening in Copenhagen Cathedral.The boys also sing at High Mass and Vespers in the Cathedral. With a comprehensive repertoire ranging fromcommissioned works by the leading composers of our time to the earliest polyphony the choir has over the yearsgained a reputation for being one of the finest of its type and has received several distinctions. The choir has givenconcerts in all parts of the world and has taken part in radio and television productions and recordings both inDenmark and abroad.

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Although Buxtehude never held a position that requiredhim to compose vocal music, he left over 120 vocal worksin an extremely wide range of texts, scorings, genres,compositional styles, and length. Texts, almost entirelysacred, are found in four languages, and performing forcesrange from one voice with one instrument and continuo tonine voices with fifteen instruments and continuo, dividedinto six choirs. Few of these works can be consideredliturgical music for the Lutheran church, which was in anyevent the responsibility of the cantor. They were probablyperformed under Buxtehude’s direction from the largeorgan at St Mary’s in Lübeck during the distribution ofcommunion at the morning service, during vespers, orperhaps in concerts, such as the Abendmusiken.

Buxtehude inherited well-established traditionsregarding the musical settings of the texts that he chose.German composers of the seventeenth century typicallytransformed biblical prose into sacred concertos andstrophic poetry into songs or arias. If the poetry was achurch hymn associated with a well-known melody,however, they usually incorporated this chorale melodyinto a sacred concerto.

The German sacred concerto, whether for few ormany voices, was established early in the seventeenthcentury in the works of Praetorius, Schütz, Schein, andScheidt. It was often described by theorists of the time asa piece in which vocalists and instrumentalists contendwith one another, and indeed one of its most salientcharacteristics is the tossing of musical motives associatedwith a phrase of text from one performer to another. Itsform is usually through-composed, consisting of a numberof sections delineated by contrasting metre, texture, andperhaps scoring, each reflecting the nuances of itsparticular portion of the text.

The word “aria” is the only vocal genre designationthat Buxtehude is known to have used himself. His ariatexts always consist of strophic poetry, usually newlywritten, and their musical settings may be in purelystrophic, strophic variation, or through-composed form.An instrumental ritornello usually articulates the divisionsbetween strophes. In contrast to the concerto, the aria’stexture tends to he more homophonic, its phrase structuremore regular, and its style more unified, placing moreattention on an overall affect than on single words.

Buxtehude’s treatment of chorale melodies rangesfrom rather simple harmonizations with instrumentalinterjections to elaborate concerted settings. Choraleconcertos differ from those composed to biblical texts inone important respect: it is normally the chorale melodyrather than the phrase of text that generates the musicalmotives.

While these genres remained quite distinct earlier inthe century, in the hands of Buxtehude and hiscontemporaries they began to merge. In Buxtehude’sworks, the meeting of concerto and aria occurred in twodistinct ways. On the one hand he juxtaposed these genresas separate movements within a larger work, which wenow call a cantata, retaining most of the stylistic featuresassociated with each genre, including their different texts.On the other hand, he extended each single genre bybringing into one or more sections of a work stylisticattributes associated with the other, such as concertatoinstrumental interjections between the phrases of an ariaor aria-like sections within a concerto.

The text of Das neugeborne Kindelein, BuxWV 13,published by Cyriacus Schneegaß in 1588, appeared innumerous seventeenth-century hymnals with variousmelodies, but Buxtehude disregarded them all and chose

Dietrich Buxtehude (1637–1707)Vocal Music • 2

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Uppsala. In its intense and expressive setting of thepassion theme it is reminiscent of the cantata cycleMembra Jesu nostri, BuxWV 75, which Buxtehudededicated to Gustav Düben in 1680.

Alles, was ihr tut, BuxWV 4, may have beenBuxtehude’s most popular vocal work during his lifetime,since it alone is preserved in three independentmanuscripts, one copied in Lübeck under Buxtehude’ssupervision, one copied partially by his friend GustavDüben at the Swedish royal court, and one at the ducalcourt of Holstein-Gottorf. It maintains that popularitytoday, due largely to its direct and ingratiating style. It isone of only four of Buxtehude’s vocal works that combinethree distinct stylistic types – the sacred concerto set to abiblical text, the aria with a strophic text, and the setting ofa chorale text to its preexisting melody – into what wenow call a cantata. The compilation of the text reflects thework ethic of the Lübeck business community, beginningwith the admonition from Colossians to do everything inthe name of Jesus and closing with the undertaking of thework to which God had destined [the citizen] in hisvocation and class in society. The concerto at thebeginning, “Alles, was ihr tut,” opens inuncharacteristically homophonic style, followed by amore contrapuntal texture at the word “danket”. The aria“Dir, dir Höchster” is not for solo voice, as one mightexpect, but for all four voices in strict homophony. Set toa poem by an unidentified author, perhaps evenBuxtehude himself, its three strophes are articulated by alively ritornello, with shorter instrumental interludesbetween phrases. The second biblical text, “Habe deineLust”, is set for bass solo in arioso style and introduces theclosing chorale, strophes 6 and 7 of the hymn “Aus meinesHerzens Grunde” by Georg Niege, with an anonymoussixteenth-century melody. Buxtehude set it in his mostcharacteristic chorale style, homophonically with

instrumental interludes separating each phrase, first forsolo voice and then for chorus, drawing the individual intothe community for a most satisfying conclusion.

AppendixEarly in his career, Bruno Grusnick found an attractiveanonymous setting of the Magnificat in the DübenCollection at Uppsala and published it as a work ofBuxtehude in 1931, arguing that other works ofBuxtehude were preserved anonymously at Uppsala.Many years later, while making an extensive study of theDüben Collection as a whole, he discovered that themanuscript source of this work had come from CentralGermany, and thus could not have been composed byBuxtehude (see Svensk tidskrift för musikforskning 48(1966): 148, note 153). In Georg Karstädt’s catalogue ofBuxtehude’s works, it is listed among the doubtful worksas BuxWV Anh. 1. In the meantime, however, several othereditions of the work had appeared under Buxtehude’sname, and many still believe it to have been composed byhim, even though no evidence supports this claim. Itsmusical style is much less sophisticated than even themost straightforward of Buxtehude’s authentic works;compare, for example, its opening ritornello with theritornello of the aria in Alles, was ihr tut, BuxWV 4.Furthermore, although the Magnificat was regularlyperformed as part of Sunday vespers at St Mary’s inLübeck, these performances fell within the responsibilitiesof the cantor, and the choir library contained 36 settings ofthe Magnificat by German and Italian composers.Buxtehude had little reason to compose liturgical vocalmusic, but he left two magnificent organ settings, theMagnificat Primi Toni, BuxWV 203, and Te Deum,BuxWV 218.

Kerala Snyder, 2001

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to set these four strophes as a through-composed aria forfour voices and instruments. This piece offers an excellentexample of Buxtehude’s integration of elements from theconcerto into the aria. Each strophe of the poem consistsof four eight-syllable lines, and his setting of the first threelines of the first strophe totally reflects this poeticstructure, as is the case throughout the aria “Dir, dirHöchster” in Alles, was ihr tut. After that, however, theregular phrases cease, and the fourth line is extendedthrough contrapuntal interchange and repetition. One isstill aware of the integrity of the poetic line, however, andthe strophe is set off by a ritornello, as one expects of anaria. The concertato elements are much more pronouncedin the second strophe, including a metre change within it,but the ritornello returns, this time in the dominant, toremind us that this is still an aria. Some regular phrasesreturn in the third strophe, but numerous instrumentalinterjections assert the concerto’s continued presence, asis the case with the fourth strophe, which follows in a newmetre after a second ritornello. The great advantage of thethrough-composed concerto is its ability to reflect everynuance of the text; we see this, for example, in the strongcontrasts drawn in the third strophe between thereconciliation and friendliness of God reflected in theadagio chords of the first line and the opposition to thedevil shown in the sharp, quick, and repeated setting of theword “trotz” in the third. This hybrid work also has a morewidely ranging tonal plan than is the case with most ofBuxtehude’s arias.

Der Herr ist mit mir, BuxWV 15, is one ofBuxtehude’s most homogeneous and accessible sacredconcertos, intended perhaps, like Alles, was ihr tut, toappeal to a broad spectrum of the Lübeck citizenry. Its textcomprises two psalm verses, each beginning with thesame phrase, “Der Herr ist mit mir” (The Lord is withme), which Buxtehude set with a sharply profiled andfrequently recurring rhythmic motive, first heard at the

very beginning of the instrumental introduction. To this hejuxtaposes the opposing phrase at the end of the first verse– “what can man do unto me?” – with strongly contrastingadagio chords. The second major section, correspondingto the second verse of the text, has a gentler character,prompted perhaps by the text “to help me”; it is in triplemetre, which serves to soften the rhythm of the “Der Herrist mit mir” motive, and this change in character is furtherunderlined by an initial shift to the major mode.Throughout these two sections the text is the generatingforce and is clearly comprehensible; the texture is mainlyhomophonic, and there is little change in voicing. Themusic takes over in the concluding “Alleluia” section,however, a ciacona consisting of nineteen variations overa two-measure ostinato bass. Here Buxtehude introducesvaried voicing, instrumental and vocal virtuosity, andcounterpoint to bring the work to a brilliant conclusion.

The dramatic nature of Fürwahr, er trug unsereKrankheit, BuxWV 31, is apparent from the first measuresof the opening Sinfonia, with its stark dynamic contrastsand abrupt rests. Two sections for solo voice carry themain burden of the text of this sacred concerto, the bass inconcertato style with the full corpus of instruments and thesoprano in a dramatic recitative accompanied by gambas,whose parts are marked “tremulo” for an especiallyexpressive effect. Buxtehude dramatically renders theresponse of the community to Isaiah’s suffering servant bylifting one line of text, “Yet we esteemed him as one whowas afflicted…,” and repeating it in rondo fashion and inever increasing intensity, from duet, to trio, to the entireensemble. The close imitative counterpoint of the tuttirefrain and of the final phrase, “and with his wounds weare healed,” contrasts strongly with the block homophonyto the words “that we might have peace.” This remarkablework, one of the finest examples of the late sacredconcerto, is preserved in Buxtehude’s only survivingautograph manuscript score in the Düben Collection at

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Uppsala. In its intense and expressive setting of thepassion theme it is reminiscent of the cantata cycleMembra Jesu nostri, BuxWV 75, which Buxtehudededicated to Gustav Düben in 1680.

Alles, was ihr tut, BuxWV 4, may have beenBuxtehude’s most popular vocal work during his lifetime,since it alone is preserved in three independentmanuscripts, one copied in Lübeck under Buxtehude’ssupervision, one copied partially by his friend GustavDüben at the Swedish royal court, and one at the ducalcourt of Holstein-Gottorf. It maintains that popularitytoday, due largely to its direct and ingratiating style. It isone of only four of Buxtehude’s vocal works that combinethree distinct stylistic types – the sacred concerto set to abiblical text, the aria with a strophic text, and the setting ofa chorale text to its preexisting melody – into what wenow call a cantata. The compilation of the text reflects thework ethic of the Lübeck business community, beginningwith the admonition from Colossians to do everything inthe name of Jesus and closing with the undertaking of thework to which God had destined [the citizen] in hisvocation and class in society. The concerto at thebeginning, “Alles, was ihr tut,” opens inuncharacteristically homophonic style, followed by amore contrapuntal texture at the word “danket”. The aria“Dir, dir Höchster” is not for solo voice, as one mightexpect, but for all four voices in strict homophony. Set toa poem by an unidentified author, perhaps evenBuxtehude himself, its three strophes are articulated by alively ritornello, with shorter instrumental interludesbetween phrases. The second biblical text, “Habe deineLust”, is set for bass solo in arioso style and introduces theclosing chorale, strophes 6 and 7 of the hymn “Aus meinesHerzens Grunde” by Georg Niege, with an anonymoussixteenth-century melody. Buxtehude set it in his mostcharacteristic chorale style, homophonically with

instrumental interludes separating each phrase, first forsolo voice and then for chorus, drawing the individual intothe community for a most satisfying conclusion.

AppendixEarly in his career, Bruno Grusnick found an attractiveanonymous setting of the Magnificat in the DübenCollection at Uppsala and published it as a work ofBuxtehude in 1931, arguing that other works ofBuxtehude were preserved anonymously at Uppsala.Many years later, while making an extensive study of theDüben Collection as a whole, he discovered that themanuscript source of this work had come from CentralGermany, and thus could not have been composed byBuxtehude (see Svensk tidskrift för musikforskning 48(1966): 148, note 153). In Georg Karstädt’s catalogue ofBuxtehude’s works, it is listed among the doubtful worksas BuxWV Anh. 1. In the meantime, however, several othereditions of the work had appeared under Buxtehude’sname, and many still believe it to have been composed byhim, even though no evidence supports this claim. Itsmusical style is much less sophisticated than even themost straightforward of Buxtehude’s authentic works;compare, for example, its opening ritornello with theritornello of the aria in Alles, was ihr tut, BuxWV 4.Furthermore, although the Magnificat was regularlyperformed as part of Sunday vespers at St Mary’s inLübeck, these performances fell within the responsibilitiesof the cantor, and the choir library contained 36 settings ofthe Magnificat by German and Italian composers.Buxtehude had little reason to compose liturgical vocalmusic, but he left two magnificent organ settings, theMagnificat Primi Toni, BuxWV 203, and Te Deum,BuxWV 218.

Kerala Snyder, 2001

8.570494 4

to set these four strophes as a through-composed aria forfour voices and instruments. This piece offers an excellentexample of Buxtehude’s integration of elements from theconcerto into the aria. Each strophe of the poem consistsof four eight-syllable lines, and his setting of the first threelines of the first strophe totally reflects this poeticstructure, as is the case throughout the aria “Dir, dirHöchster” in Alles, was ihr tut. After that, however, theregular phrases cease, and the fourth line is extendedthrough contrapuntal interchange and repetition. One isstill aware of the integrity of the poetic line, however, andthe strophe is set off by a ritornello, as one expects of anaria. The concertato elements are much more pronouncedin the second strophe, including a metre change within it,but the ritornello returns, this time in the dominant, toremind us that this is still an aria. Some regular phrasesreturn in the third strophe, but numerous instrumentalinterjections assert the concerto’s continued presence, asis the case with the fourth strophe, which follows in a newmetre after a second ritornello. The great advantage of thethrough-composed concerto is its ability to reflect everynuance of the text; we see this, for example, in the strongcontrasts drawn in the third strophe between thereconciliation and friendliness of God reflected in theadagio chords of the first line and the opposition to thedevil shown in the sharp, quick, and repeated setting of theword “trotz” in the third. This hybrid work also has a morewidely ranging tonal plan than is the case with most ofBuxtehude’s arias.

Der Herr ist mit mir, BuxWV 15, is one ofBuxtehude’s most homogeneous and accessible sacredconcertos, intended perhaps, like Alles, was ihr tut, toappeal to a broad spectrum of the Lübeck citizenry. Its textcomprises two psalm verses, each beginning with thesame phrase, “Der Herr ist mit mir” (The Lord is withme), which Buxtehude set with a sharply profiled andfrequently recurring rhythmic motive, first heard at the

very beginning of the instrumental introduction. To this hejuxtaposes the opposing phrase at the end of the first verse– “what can man do unto me?” – with strongly contrastingadagio chords. The second major section, correspondingto the second verse of the text, has a gentler character,prompted perhaps by the text “to help me”; it is in triplemetre, which serves to soften the rhythm of the “Der Herrist mit mir” motive, and this change in character is furtherunderlined by an initial shift to the major mode.Throughout these two sections the text is the generatingforce and is clearly comprehensible; the texture is mainlyhomophonic, and there is little change in voicing. Themusic takes over in the concluding “Alleluia” section,however, a ciacona consisting of nineteen variations overa two-measure ostinato bass. Here Buxtehude introducesvaried voicing, instrumental and vocal virtuosity, andcounterpoint to bring the work to a brilliant conclusion.

The dramatic nature of Fürwahr, er trug unsereKrankheit, BuxWV 31, is apparent from the first measuresof the opening Sinfonia, with its stark dynamic contrastsand abrupt rests. Two sections for solo voice carry themain burden of the text of this sacred concerto, the bass inconcertato style with the full corpus of instruments and thesoprano in a dramatic recitative accompanied by gambas,whose parts are marked “tremulo” for an especiallyexpressive effect. Buxtehude dramatically renders theresponse of the community to Isaiah’s suffering servant bylifting one line of text, “Yet we esteemed him as one whowas afflicted…,” and repeating it in rondo fashion and inever increasing intensity, from duet, to trio, to the entireensemble. The close imitative counterpoint of the tuttirefrain and of the final phrase, “and with his wounds weare healed,” contrasts strongly with the block homophonyto the words “that we might have peace.” This remarkablework, one of the finest examples of the late sacredconcerto, is preserved in Buxtehude’s only survivingautograph manuscript score in the Düben Collection at

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Johan Reuter

Born in Copenhagen, since 1996 the bass-baritone Johan Reuter has been a member of the Royal Danish Opera,where his rôles have included Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Masetto (Don Giovanni), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte),Belcore (L’elisir d’amore), Kilian (Der Freischütz), Heerrufer (Lohengrin), Don Prudenzio/Don Alvaro (Il viaggioa Reims), Tomsky (Pique Dame), Olvier (Capriccio), Henrik (Maskarade), Alex Bloch (I-K-O-N, by JohnFrandsen), Mandryka (Arabella), Wotan and Donner (Das Rheingold), and Pantalone (L’amour des trois oranges).He sang in the first performance of Poul Ruders’ Kafka’s Trial and took the title rôle in Verdi’s Macbeth. JohanReuter has appeared in oratorios and opera performances in concert with all the important Danish orchestras andworked with conductors including Ulf Schirmer, Marek Janowski, Peter Schreier and Marcello Viotti. He hasappeared at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Staatsoper Hamburg, in Frankfurt and in Essen. In 2005 he made his débutat the Paris Opéra-Bastille, followed by his début at the Salzburg Festival and performances in Madrid. 2006 broughtappearances at Covent Garden in the title rôle of Wozzeck and further engagements in a busy international career.His recordings include Kunzen’s Holger Danske with Thomas Dausgaard for Dacapo/Marco Polo, (U.S. Grammynomination), Nielsen’s Maskarade with Ulf Schirmer and the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra for Decca(Grammy Award), songs with orchestra by Delius conducted by Bo Holton with the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra,and C.E.F. Weyse’s Sovedrikken, as well as Schubert’s Winterreise in Danish.

Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir

The Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir was founded in 1924 by Mogens Wöldike to perform choral music written forboys’ and men’s voices from the Middle Ages to the present. In 1929 the Copenhagen City Council established aChoir School for the boys, the present Sankt Annæ Gymnasium. Until 1959 the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choirwas permanently connected with Christiansborg Slotskirke (the Chapel of Chistiansborg Castle), but since then thechoir has throughout the main season been giving regular concerts every Friday evening in Copenhagen Cathedral.The boys also sing at High Mass and Vespers in the Cathedral. With a comprehensive repertoire ranging fromcommissioned works by the leading composers of our time to the earliest polyphony the choir has over the yearsgained a reputation for being one of the finest of its type and has received several distinctions. The choir has givenconcerts in all parts of the world and has taken part in radio and television productions and recordings both inDenmark and abroad.

8.5704943

Although Buxtehude never held a position that requiredhim to compose vocal music, he left over 120 vocal worksin an extremely wide range of texts, scorings, genres,compositional styles, and length. Texts, almost entirelysacred, are found in four languages, and performing forcesrange from one voice with one instrument and continuo tonine voices with fifteen instruments and continuo, dividedinto six choirs. Few of these works can be consideredliturgical music for the Lutheran church, which was in anyevent the responsibility of the cantor. They were probablyperformed under Buxtehude’s direction from the largeorgan at St Mary’s in Lübeck during the distribution ofcommunion at the morning service, during vespers, orperhaps in concerts, such as the Abendmusiken.

Buxtehude inherited well-established traditionsregarding the musical settings of the texts that he chose.German composers of the seventeenth century typicallytransformed biblical prose into sacred concertos andstrophic poetry into songs or arias. If the poetry was achurch hymn associated with a well-known melody,however, they usually incorporated this chorale melodyinto a sacred concerto.

The German sacred concerto, whether for few ormany voices, was established early in the seventeenthcentury in the works of Praetorius, Schütz, Schein, andScheidt. It was often described by theorists of the time asa piece in which vocalists and instrumentalists contendwith one another, and indeed one of its most salientcharacteristics is the tossing of musical motives associatedwith a phrase of text from one performer to another. Itsform is usually through-composed, consisting of a numberof sections delineated by contrasting metre, texture, andperhaps scoring, each reflecting the nuances of itsparticular portion of the text.

The word “aria” is the only vocal genre designationthat Buxtehude is known to have used himself. His ariatexts always consist of strophic poetry, usually newlywritten, and their musical settings may be in purelystrophic, strophic variation, or through-composed form.An instrumental ritornello usually articulates the divisionsbetween strophes. In contrast to the concerto, the aria’stexture tends to he more homophonic, its phrase structuremore regular, and its style more unified, placing moreattention on an overall affect than on single words.

Buxtehude’s treatment of chorale melodies rangesfrom rather simple harmonizations with instrumentalinterjections to elaborate concerted settings. Choraleconcertos differ from those composed to biblical texts inone important respect: it is normally the chorale melodyrather than the phrase of text that generates the musicalmotives.

While these genres remained quite distinct earlier inthe century, in the hands of Buxtehude and hiscontemporaries they began to merge. In Buxtehude’sworks, the meeting of concerto and aria occurred in twodistinct ways. On the one hand he juxtaposed these genresas separate movements within a larger work, which wenow call a cantata, retaining most of the stylistic featuresassociated with each genre, including their different texts.On the other hand, he extended each single genre bybringing into one or more sections of a work stylisticattributes associated with the other, such as concertatoinstrumental interjections between the phrases of an ariaor aria-like sections within a concerto.

The text of Das neugeborne Kindelein, BuxWV 13,published by Cyriacus Schneegaß in 1588, appeared innumerous seventeenth-century hymnals with variousmelodies, but Buxtehude disregarded them all and chose

Dietrich Buxtehude (1637–1707)Vocal Music • 2

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8.5704947

The Dufay Collective

The Dufay Collective was formed in 1987 to explore the rich and varied repertoire of the Middle Ages and theRenaissance. The highly successful years since its formation have taken The Dufay Collective on tours throughoutmost of Europe as well as much further afield. They have toured extensively in the Middle East, India, Hong Kong,Australia, the United States and Latin America. At home The Dufay Collective has appeared in numerous concertseries and festivals around the country, and has given sell-out concerts at London’s main concert halls. Highlightsof recent years have included performances in the monastery of Montserrat, Early Music Network tours in Holland,Norway and the United Kingdom, the Tallinn Festival in Estonia, the Festival de Fez in Morocco, and regularconcerts in Spain. A return to Australia as part of the Sydney Festival was well received, as was a series of concertsin Singapore. They have taught popular workshops and concerts at Dartington Summer School for the past elevenyears. The Dufays featured live on BBC2’s ‘Perfect Day’ and have collaborated with The Orlando Consort onseveral occasions and have performed at Sadlers Wells with the Richard Alston Dance Company. Concerts inEngland include the York Early Music Festival, Leamington and Warwick, Lichfield, Poole, Ross-on-Wye,Birmingham Early Music and Cambridge Summer Festivals. The group’s work in Spain includes a number ofperformances in Burgos and they were the first to perform in the new festival in Rueda. The group has broadcast onmany radio and television networks around the world as well as working on a number of television and film projects,including Zeffirelli’s feature film Hamlet, the Affair of the Necklace, A Knight’s Tale and Harry Potter. Their CDshave all met with critical acclaim, releases for Chandos Records including a range of repertoire from medievalEurope, the early Spanish renaissance and popular music from seventeenth-century England. The Dufay’s recordingof Cancionero was nominated for a Grammy Award 2003, and was voted one of the CDs of the year in TheGramophone magazine. Their recording, Music for Alfonso the Wise, which includes the famous Cantigas d’Amigoof Martín Códax, was released on Harmonia Mundi in 2005 and also received excellent reviews.

8.570494 2

1 Das neugeborne Kindelein, BuxWV 13 7:14(Scored for Chorus, 3 Violins and Basso Continuo)

2 Der Herr ist mit mir, BuxWV 15 8:09(Scored for Chorus, 2 Violins, Violone and Basso Continuo)

3 Fürwahr, er trug unsere Krankheit, BuxWV 31 12:34(Scored for Bass solo, Chorus, 2 Violins, 2 Viola da gamba, Violone and Basso Continuo)Choir soloists: Jes Boeg and Morten Pilegaard Jespersen, Sopranos; Jense Radamacher, Countertenor;Søren Tidmand, Tenor; Jakob Bloch, Bass

4 Alles, was ihr tut, BuxWV 4 14:21(Scored for Bass solo, Chorus, 2 Violins, 2 Viola da gamba, Violone and Basso Continuo)

APPENDIX

5 Magnificat anima mea, BuxWV Anh. 1 (doubtful authenticity) 8:45(Scored for Chorus, 2 Violins, 2 Viola da gamba, Violone and Basso Continuo)Choir Soloists: Jens Rademacher, Countertenor; Adam Riis, Tenor; Lasse Ryberg, Bass

Johan Reuter, BassCopenhagen Royal Chapel Choir (Københavns Drengekor)

The Dufay Collective Nicolette Moonen, Sharon Lindo and Naome Rogers, Baroque Violin;

Giles Lewin, Baroque viola and Viola da gamba; Susanne Pell, Viola da gambaRichard Campbell, Bass Violin; Peter Skuce, Continuo

Ebbe Munk

Harpsichord by Rasmus Manley after Elbedo Gregori • Organ by Henk Klop, Nederlands • Tuning a’ = 440Hz

Dietrich Buxtehude (1637–1707)Vocal Music • 2

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Dietrich

BUXTEHUDE

Vocal Music • 2

Johan Reuter, Bass

Copenhagen RoyalChapel Choir

The Dufay Collective

Ebbe Munk

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Ebbe Munk

Ebbe Munk has been the conductor of the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir since 1991, a year after the choir hadwon the first prize at the Concours International de Chant Choral in Narbonne. Munk was himself a chorister andlater read musicology at Copenhagen University. After studying choral conducting in Dresden, Munich, Budapestand the United States, he founded the Chamber Choir Vox Danica, specialising in modern choral music. The manyCDs he has made with this choir, especially of Danish choral music, have received considerable acclaim both inDenmark and abroad. He has performed at many concerts in Europe and the United States with both Vox Danicaand Sankt Annæ Gymnasiekor which he conducted from 1982 to 1991. It is, however, primarily as the conductor ofthe Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir that Ebbe Munk has performed in concert halls and cathedrals all over theworld. With this choir he has also conducted a number of major works in the choral repertoire together with leadingDanish orchestras, and is involved in the production of many CDs of Danish choral music from the eighteenthcentury to the present. Since 1991 Ebbe Munk has also been choirmaster of Copenhagen Cathedral, often appearingat choir festivals and seminars in Denmark and abroad.

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Playing Time51:02

Dietrich Buxtehude was one of the chief figures in North German music of his time.Although he never held a position that required him to compose vocal music, he left over120 vocal works featuring an extremely wide range of texts, scorings, genres, andcompositional styles. This second volume of the Naxos re-issue edition of the complete vocalmusic recorded by Dacapo (Volume One is available on Naxos 8.557251) includes suchmasterpieces as Alles, was ihr tut, Buxtehude’s most popular cantata during his lifetime, andone of the finest examples of the late sacred concerto, the dramatic Fürwahr, er trug unsereKrankheit, an intense and expressive setting of the passion theme which is remarkable forits stark dynamic contrasts and rests.

DietrichBUXTEHUDE

(1637–1707)

Johan Reuter, Bass *Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir • The Dufay Collective

Ebbe Munk

Recorded at Vejleå Church, Ishøj, Denmark from 12th to 14th June, 2000Producer: Morten Winding • Engineer: Maibritt Sune Andersen

Booklet Notes: Kerala J. Snyder • Previously released on Dacapo 8.224160Please see page 2 of the booklet for a more detailed track list

Cover Picture: The Descent of the Holy Spirit, 1594-95 by Hans Rottenhammer (1564–1625)(Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Kassel, Germany / Bridgeman Art Library)

1 Das neugeborne Kindelein, BuxWV 13 7:14

2 Der Herr ist mit mir, BuxWV 15 8:09

3 Fürwahr, er trug unsere Krankheit, BuxWV 31 * 12:34

4 Alles, was ihr tut, BuxWV 4 * 14:21

5 Magnificat anima mea, BuxWV Anh. 1 8:45(doubtful authenticity)

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