Messa di Gloria (Tango Mass) and  Many Moods of Christmas

Messa di Gloria
The Tuscan composer, Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), is admired primarily because of his operas, at least eight of which are prominent in today’s repertory.  But his family’s musical dynasty– which extended back four more generations!– was anchored in church music. Obviously central to the community of Lucca, a modest-sized city (about half the size of Naperville, as of the 1940’s), was its cathedral– the Cattedrale di San Martino– with which all Giacomo’s musical forebears had been associated in one way or another: His great-great-grandfather had been maestro di capella there, and his father had the same title.  However, because Giacomo was only six at his father’s death, he did not automatically claim that heritage.  Nonetheless, he was directed toward a musical career, entering the local Pacini Institute at 15 for a six-year hitch.  His obvious talent was recognized and, in 1880, at 21, he went on to the conservatory in Milan, the center of musical knowledge for much of Italy.  He had already begun composing: A motet, Plaudite Populi, and a credo, written in 1877 and 1878, respectively, were performed in 1878 in Lucca, and the credo was later incorporated into what Puccini called a “Messa a Quatro” which was performed locally in 1880. This became the “Messa di Gloria”– a sobriquet attached by reviewers because of the extremely long “Gloria” section of the mass.  Despite favorable reviews, the Mass disappeared for over 70 years before its re-emergence in the 1950’s.

It is probably true, as suggested by other authorities, that Puccini had already made up his mind to concentrate on opera by the time he entered Milan, although he also wrote secular orchestral works while a student there, and, later, some songs. His father’s one attempt at opera composition had been unsuccessful, and he may have hoped to demonstrate that the previous generation had not lacked talent. At Milan, one of his teachers was Amilcare Ponchielli (often identified as a “one-hit wonder” for the opera La Gioconda, and composer of the much-parodied “Dance of the Hours” from that opus!), who encouraged Puccini’s efforts in that medium; the result was his first opera, Le Villi, which was successful enough that it landed him a publisher– Giulio Ricordi– who would champion his works for the rest of his career. Puccini’s next opera, Edgar, failed, but with Ricordi backing him, the third work, Manon Lescaut , hit the jackpot, and after that his fame was assured.  A prominent English music critic (GBS) observed, “…Puccini looks…like the heir of Verdi…”, and that opinion was widely shared.   In today’s operatic world, Puccini, Verdi, and Rossini account for most of the active Italian works, especially if one puts aside Italian operas by non-Italian composers such as Mozart and Handel.

Returning to the Messa di Gloria, we have already noted the dominance of the Gloria section; musically, there are  many dramatic flashes that hint at Puccini’s coming talent.  The mass is nonetheless a student work, and there are places where even unsophisticated singers notice harmonies and/or rhythmic patterns that seem too simplistic or too repetitive.  That said, the work ‘hangs together’ very well, and the overall effect is solid; the earliest newspaper critics remarked that it was “well harmonized and well developed”, and upon its revival in 1951-52, critics echoed those same sentiments.

The Chorus last performed the Messa di Gloria in December, 1994.

The Many Moods of Christmas, Suite 1
Beginning in the 1960’s, the late Robert Shaw and the noted arranger Robert Russell Bennett collaborated on a series of Christmas medleys, all of them pastiches of carols and seasonal tunes. This is the first in that series, and the Chorus last sang it in 2006. This work incorporates four carols, described below:

In Dulci Jubilo (Good Christian Men, Rejoice) This melody dates before 1305- one account has it sung by angels to the German mystic Heinrich Suso !–, and has accumulated various textual versions in many languages. Shaw and Bennett begin with a modern hymn version, “Good Christian Men, Rejoice”, which is a mid-nineteenth-century paraphrase by the English writer, John M. Neale. The melody has been arranged by many composers, including Bartholomew Gesius (1601), and J. S. Bach. The second verse here, which alternates Latin with English, follows a pattern established by the first English translator, John Wedderburn, about 1540.

Silent Night Almost everyone who has sung this beloved carol also knows of its genesis, at Christmas in 1818 at Oberndorf, in the Austrian Tyrol: Assistant priest Josef Mohr and acting organist Franz Gruber put it together for a Christmas Eve service, substituting guitar for the organ– which was aus gespiel! – and doing a duet. Mohr sang tenor lead and Gruber sang bass, while playing the guitar. The organ repairman, Karl Mauracher of Zillerthal, secured a copy and spread it around the Tyrol, calling it a volkslied; while it has a folksong character, it was not, of course, anonymous, and it was finally published in 1838 in Leipzig (although by that time it was being performed frequently by others). The version familiar to most Americans– and utilized here by Shaw and Bennett– is slightly different from the original version; the latter repeats the last line, and there are slight differences in the melody as well.

Pat-a-pan (Carol of the Fife and Drum) Perhaps surprisingly, this carol is of French (Burgundian) origin and may predate the eighteenth century; it appears in a 1701 collection by Gul Barozai, but has been ascribed to a contemporaneous collector, Bernard de la Monnoye, who is thought to have used local melodies. He may or may not have written words and/or embellished the music. “Pat-a-pan”, of course, is onomatopoeic for the drum, and “tu-re-lu-re-lu” represents the flute, or pipe. It has been pointed out that “Guillo” (Willie) and “Robin” are “stock characters” in French carols and are perhaps used to suggest an event in which the whole community is involved. The drum of that period is an elongated cylinder with a snare on the upper head, usually played with a single drumstick; the “fife” or pipe was a three-holed instrument, quite shrill. Such instruments were often used for folk dancing, and the rhythmic nature of this carol certainly suggests a dance.

Adeste Fidelis (O Come, All Ye Faithful) This hymn, dating from about 1743, is now thought to be the work of John Francis Wade, an Englishman long employed at the Catholic center in Douay, France. Wade was primarily a copyist, but apparently composed both words (four Latin verses) and music for this hymn, although the meter of the original was different from the rather martial version used today. The English translation dates from 1841 but there are numerous variations in wording among hymnals.

Angels We Have Heard on High
This is believed to be a French folk carol, both as to words and tune.  The tune was first published in 1855, but is believed to have originated nearly a century earlier; the words– in which there are, again, numerous variations due to translation– were first printed with this tune in 1862.

Panis Angelicus
The words to this hymn are part of a liturgy for the Feast of Corpus Christi (which is celebrated in late May or early June, e.g., May 26 in 2016); their author was St. Thomas Aquinas.  This setting was the work of Cesar Franck in 1872, and it has had wide circulation. ( A personal note: It brings me back to my boyhood church, where this music was frequently used as an organ offertory or postlude. I was beyond high school before I ever heard the words!)  Wikipedia notes that the hymn was performed at Robert Kennedy’s funeral in 1968, with Richard Tucker as the tenor soloist, and at his brother Edward’s funeral in 2009, with Placido Domingo and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

-Jim Fancher – 2015