A posting that latches onto my posting from earlier today “Go revel ye Cupids, the day is your own” with Nahum Tate’s words (the final verse) for “While shepherds watched their flocks” —
All glory be to God on high
And on the earth be peace
Goodwill henceforth from heaven to men
Begin and never cease
— as set to the tune Sherburne. Joyous praise to God. Gloria in excelcis Deo, “Glory be to God on high”. Something to store up for future Joy albums of mine.
Joyous praise to God. In this vein, but not yet in an album, is this exulting carol by Jeremiah Ingalls, “Glory to God on High”, Andrew Parrott leading the Taverner Choir and the Taverner Consort (Warner, 1989), link here. And it has angels: give me angels (muscular angels, angels of power, not delicate or cute angels) or trumpets (equally powerful) or both, and I’m in (more on this theme in another posting). This short fanfare gives me goosebumps every time.
And then, also not in an album yet, but not because I overlooked it, but because it’s so big and omnipresent in the Joyously Praising God world: Handel’s “Hallelujah!” chorus, from Part II of Messiah (a number intended for Easter and the resurrection, now customarily performed in the Christmas season).
You might have forgotten just how many hallelujahs there are in the thing, each one of them sung like a trumpet blast or a tympani roll (some of them fortified by actual trumpets and tympani, of course) , so here’s the text:
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!The kingdom of this world
Is become the kingdom of our Lord
And of His Christ, and of His Christ
And He shall reign for ever and ever
And He shall reign for ever and ever
And He shall reign for ever and ever
For ever and ever, forever and everKing of kings (Forever and ever Hallelujah! Hallelujah!)
And Lord of lords (Forever and ever Hallelujah! Hallelujah!)
King of kings (Forever and ever Hallelujah! Hallelujah!)
And Lord of lords (Forever and ever Hallelujah! Hallelujah!)
King of kings (Forever and ever Hallelujah! Hallelujah!)
And Lord of lords (King of kings and Lord of lords)And He shall reign
And He shall reign
And He shall reign forever and ever
King of kings (Forever and ever)
And He shall reign (Hallelujah! Hallelujah!)
And He shall reign forever and ever
King of kings! and Lord of lords!
King of kings! and Lord of lords!
And He shall reign forever and ever
Forever and ever
Forever and ever
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah!
I can’t imagine how many thousands of times I’ve heard this in my life, but it still moves me, deeply.
Now, recordings, of which there are a zillion, most of them dismissible for my purposes, because they were made on the More is Better principle, with gigantic massed choruses, huge bloated assemblages of voices — when the work is chamber music, written so that you can appreciate the vocal lines in the score, not be swept away in a tsunami of sound.
So I started going through recordings by chamber ensembles, until I got to one that made me cry with pleasure. Not necessarily the best of all the recordings, but one that really really works, at least for me. By the Scholars Baroque Ensemble (Naxos, 1992), link here.
Joyous celebration of martial victory. Yet another category of joyous praise. Just one example, from Handel’s Dettingen Te Deum: the opening number, “We praise Thee, O God” (which I chose because it was playing on my Apple Music during one of my brief risings in the middle of the night yesterday).
From Wikipedia:
The Te Deum for the Victory at the Battle of Dettingen in D major, HWV 283, is the fifth and last setting by George Frideric Handel of the 4th-century Ambrosian hymn, Te Deum, or We Praise Thee, O God. He wrote it in 1743, only a month after the battle itself, during which Britain and its allies Hannover and Austria soundly routed the French.
… The Dettingen Te Deum is not a Te Deum in the strict sense, but a grand martial panegyric. It contains eighteen short solos and choruses, mostly of a brilliant, martial character, the solos being divided between the alto, baritone, and bass. After a brief instrumental prelude, the work opens with the triumphant, jubilant chorus with trumpets and drums (“We praise Thee, O God”), written for the five parts, the sopranos being divided into first and seconds, containing also a short alto solo leading to a closing fugue.
For a recording,I’ve chosen this fabulously bright performance (link here), the most satisfying of the ten I’ve listened to — but the performers and occasion of the performance aren’t identifed, and repeated requests by commenters for this information yielded only smart-assed responses. So it’s something of a mystery for a moment.
A hybrid category: joyous celebration of victory over death. A third category (both praise to God and a celebration of victory), exemplified by the air for bass from Part III of Messiah, “The trumpet shall sound”, performed by Bryn Terfel and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Sir Charles Mackerras (1997 DG recording): link here. (I chose Terfel because I like the timbre of his voice.)
It does seem to be Handel Day in this department.
The text:
The trumpet shall sound,
and the dead shall be raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption,
and this mortal must put on immortality.
(It all hinges on incorruptible.)
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