Going Beyond Words, one of the longest running choral radio programs in the country will arouse your ear this week with A Romantic Lament by Johannes Brahms plus an engaging comprison on how Heinrich Schütz and Johann Sebastian Bach approached the same text “Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes” SWV 386 and BWV 76. This is same of the same text that Franz Joesph Haydn used for his famous “Creation”.
WHAT: Going Beyond Words
WHEN: Sunday, September 14, 2014, Central Time
WHERE: KVNO.ORG (University of Nebraska in Omaha) Just Click on “Listen”
AS YOU LISTEN REMEMBER TO MAKE PLANS TO SIGN UP FOR THE NATIONAL ACDA CONVENTION
IN SALT LAKE CITY FEB. 25-28,2015
WHAT WILL I HEAR?
Nänie, Op. 82 Johannes Brahms
Warsaw Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra Conducted by Antoni Wit
CD Johannes Brahms Music for Chorus and Orchestra NAXOS 8572694 (2012)
Nänie (Song of Lamentation) Op. 82 is one of the least known of Brahm’s Major Works and one of the most exquisitely beautiful in balance and repose. It is a setting of the Poem Nänie by Friedrich Schiller. The first sentence says it all, “Auch das Schöne muss sterben” Even the beautiful must die.
Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes SWV 386 Heinrich Schütz
Dresdner Kammerchor; Cappella Sagittariana Dresden; Hans-Christoph Redmann
CD Geistliche Chor-Music 1648 Complete Recordings (2CD’s)
CARUS RECORDS 83232 (2007) DISTRIBUTED BY NAXOS
Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes (The Heaven are Telling the Glory of God). This work is unaccompanied and is scored for
six choral Parts 2S, A, 2T, and Bass. It is dedicated to the choir of St. Thomas in Leipzig the church that Johann Sebastian Bach would finally dwell in almost 100 years later. With few exceptions most of the works in this 1648 collection were taken from
Luther’s Bible, especially the New Testement. It runs about 4.5 Minuets and might be a great selection to program along with Cantata 76 by Herr Bach if you have that opportunity.
Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes BWV 76 Johann Sebastian Bach
The Monteverdi Choir; The English Baroque Soloists; John Eliot Gardiner, Conductor
CD Bach Cantatas V.2″ SDG RECORDINGS SDG 165 (2010) DISTRIBUTED BY NAXOS
Could Bach have known the piece by Heinrich Schütz? His own Cantata #76 with that same name was the second to be performed after he took up his post as Kantor of St. Thomas Kirche. It was in the Summer of 1723 and first performed in June of that year.
The text is loosely based on the Gospel reading for the day from the 14th Chaper ot Luke. Conductor John Eliot Gardiner suggests that it is interesting to note that Bach chose to seize on the Liturgical time switch along with presenting himself to his new congregation in Leipzig in terms of his fundmental approach to the way music can interpret and intersect with Doctrine.
This work has 14 movements, solosits, Orchesta and runs about 33 minuets.
Please visit my blog at WWW.GOINGBEYONDWORDS.COM where you will encounter CD images and complete lists of music for all my shows during the last five years. If you have further comments or questions please write to
On September 21st look for another Choral Concert Live freaturing the talented musicians from the University of North Texas.
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