Shout out to the Lord, all the world

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Jauchzet dem Herrn, alle Welt , WoO 28, MWV B 45, is a setting of the 100th Psalm by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy for double choir a cappella . He wrote the motet in 1844. It is Mendelssohn's best-known setting of the Psalm, who also wrote a four-part motet in 1847 as part of the Three Motets , op. 69, whichwere intendedfor use in the liturgy of the Church of England and whichendwith a doxology . Another setting uses the verse form of Ambrosius Lobwasser , “You peoples on earth, all” in Seven Psalms , in which Mendelssohnharmonizesmelodies from the Geneva Psalter .

history

Mendelssohn was ready to compose pieces for different faiths. He was asked to set psalms to music for the inauguration of the new synagogue in Hamburg in 1844. The building was the first reform synagogue in Germany, operated by the New Israelite Temple Association. Psalms 24 , 84 and 100 were proposed, but only correspondence has survived containing questions about text and scoring, but no composition.

The sentence of Psalm 100 in Martin Luther's translation for double choir was written for the renewed liturgy at the Berlin Cathedral . Friedrich Wilhelm IV had appointed Mendelssohn as church music director of Berlin with the task of introducing a new liturgy. Mendelssohn finished the psalm composition on January 1, 1844; it was sung in public for the first time by the royal cathedral choir on the following Sunday after Epiphany , January 7, 1844 . The psalm was first published posthumously in 1856 by Emil Naumann in the collection of psalms on all Sundays and feast days of the evangel. Church year .

Text and music

The text is Psalm 100, also known as Jubilate Deo , in the German translation by Martin Luther .

Shout out to the Lord all the world.
Serve the Lord with joy.
Come before him with exultation.

Know that the Lord is God.
He made us, and not ourselves,
his people and sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanks,
and his courts with praise.
Thank him, praise his name,

for the Lord is kind
and his grace endures forever
and his truth for and for.

Mendelssohn set the text to music in one movement, in C major and 4/4 time. It consists of three sections at different speeds, at the beginning Andante con moto , in the middle section (“Go to his gates”) Poco lento , and finally (“For the Lord is friendly”) Andante . While the outer sections are four-part, eight voices are composed in the middle section, divided into a chorus of high voices and one of low voices, which first sing alternately and then with increasing density. This section is called Solo .

The first psalm verse ("Jauchzet ...") is set as a short fanfare. The second verse ("Serve ...") begins in contrast with the high voices in unison and is continued by all voices. The third verse ("Recognize ...") begins in all voices softly and in a lower register, slowly increasing to the word "God".

In the middle section (verse 4, "Go ...") the male choir begins, followed by an alternating chant with the high voices. The thought of thanking begins with two notes in the deepest bass, but then in all eight voices together.

The final part (verse 5, "For the Lord is kind ...") begins softly in the lower voices in homophony , heightened to the word "friendly", and further increased to "truth". At the end, this process is repeated with the soprano.

Recordings

On the occasion of Mendelssohn's 200th birthday in 2009, Carus-Verlag released recordings of all of his sacred music in twelve groups. The 100th Psalm is part of the 5th group, recorded in 1996 by the Stuttgart Chamber Choir , conducted by Frieder Bernius . One reviewer wrote that the work is varied, can be sung by amateur choirs, and has proven to be enduringly popular.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Michael Cookson: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847) / Complete Sacred Choral Music ( English ). musicweb-international.com, April 2009 (Retrieved February 7, 2019).
  2. ↑ Peter Mercer-Taylor (Ed.): The Cambridge Companion to Mendelssohn ( English ). Cambridge University Press , 2004, ISBN 978-0-52-153342-3 , p. 171.
  3. ^ A b c Klaus Rettinghaus: A "favorite institute" Mendelssohn. New sources on Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's work for the Royal Court and Cathedral Choir of Berlin . In: Mendelssohn Studies 16 (2009), pp. 125-138.
  4. ↑ Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy / Jauchzet dem Herrn (Psalm 100) . Carus publishing house . 1990. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
  5. ↑ a b c d Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy / Jauchzet dem Herrn (Psalm 100) . Carus-Verlag, 1990.
  6. ↑ Felix Mendelssohn / Psalm 100 ("Jauchzet dem Herrn, Alle Welt"), for chorus in C major . AllMusic , (Accessed March 11, 2019).