Praetorius Mass for Christmas Morning (McCreesh)

Normally in this blog I do not dedicate posts to a specific CD or performance.
Here, however, is a CD so outstanding
(It gets the best overall rating (4.9, from 26 reviewers) at amazon.com
I have ever seen!)
I am making an exception to that policy:


a “Mass For Christmas Morning”
conducted by Paul McCreesh, leading the Gabrieli Consort & Players.


How impressive are the musical accomplishments
of our 16th and 17th century ancestors!
And how fortunate are we that we can hear
how they raised their voices in praise to the Lord!

There are lists of the contents of the CD
at Amazon.com and
at ArkivMusic (in a different order from that on the disc).

There is a very informative and detailed set of slides on this work
including texts and English translations
in “The Heritage of Lutheran Worship: Mass for Christmas Morning, 1620”,
a "Lecture/Demonstration" by Dave Kriewall,
at prezi.com here.
You can step through the slides by using the arrows at the bottom of the bar,
or jump directly to the slide (of the 132) that you want.

Pulling the audio and the slides together,
here is a table with three objectives:

1. To list the works and readings in the service;
2. To provide click-to-play links into the music;
3. To provide a cross-reference between the music and the slides,
   using time within the video to specify the music
   and slide number to specify the slide.

Michael Praetorious et al., Mass for Christmas Morning (c. 1620)

#	Slide #	Composer	Item	Performer	Time offset plus slide number/word (Click to play)
Note: “Slide #” refers to the slide number in the Prezi presentation (“Lecture/demonstration”) “The Heritage of Lutheran Worship: Mass for Christmas Morning, 1620” by Dave Kriewell. (Sadly, I have not figured out how to link directly to those slides, or even if that is possible.)
1	7	Martin Luther	Processional: "Christum wir sollen loben schon" - Arranged By Michael Praetorius Har. Lucas Osiander	Anders Engberg-Pedersen Gabrieli Consort Gabrieli Players	0:00 8/Christum 0:42 9/Der 1:17 10/Die 1:54 11/Er 2:31 12/Lob
2	15/20	Michael Praetorius	Introit: Puer natus in Bethlehem - Ein Kind geborn zu Bethlehem	Susan Hemington Jones Gabrieli Consort Gabrieli Players Roskilde Cathedral Boys' Choir	(3:12) 4:00 20/Puer 4:30 21/Singet 4:44 22/Reges 5:13 23/Singet 5:26 24/Hic 5:49 25/Singet 6:00 26/Mein (6:28) 6:44 27/Ein 7:02 28/Die 7:21 29/Hie 7:43 30/In 8:09 31/Singet 8:23 32/Laudetur 9:01 33/Singet 9:12 34/Mein (9:42) 9:58 35/Für 10:16 36/Lob
3	37/39	Michael Praetorius	Kyrie (Missa: gantz Teudsch) - Polyhymnia caduceatrix (1619)	Tom Phillips (Tenor), Tessa Bonner (Soprano), Sarah Pendlebury (Soprano), Angus Smith (Tenor) Gabrieli Consort, Gabrieli Players	(10:40 Kyrie) 10:57 39/Kyrie (11:40 Christe) 12:02 40/Christe (13:01 Kyrie) 13:30 41/Kyrie
4	42/44	Michael Praetorius	Gloria (Missa: gantz Teudsch) - Polyhymnia caduceatrix (1619)	Julian Podger (Tenor), Simon Grant (Bass), Tom Phillips (Tenor), Sarah Pendlebury (Soprano), Angus Smith (Tenor), Robert Horn (Tenor), Tessa Bonner (Soprano), Stephen Charlesworth (Bass)	15:12 44/Glory 16:06 45/Wir 17:23 46/Herr Gott 18:06 47/Herr Sohn 19:38 48/Der 20:47 49/Denn
5	50	Michael Praetorius	Collect: "Der Herr Sei Mit Euch"	Gabrieli Players	22:47 50
6	53	Anonymous	Epistle: "So schreibt der heilig Propheten Jesajas"	Raimund Nolte	23:56 53
7	54	Anonymous	Organ prelude: Praeambulum "Vom Himmel hoch"	Timothy Roberts	25:58 54
8	55/59	Michael Praetorius	Gradual hymn: "Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her" - Musae Sioniae V (1607)/ Urania (1613)	Donald Greig (Baritone), Simon Grant (Bass) Gabrieli Consort, Gabrieli Players, Roskilde Cathedral Boys' Choir	27:06 59/Vom 27:34 60/Euch 27:59 61/Es 28:24 62/Er 28:50 63/So 29:16 64/Des 29:43 65/Ach 30:07 66/Davon 30:35 67/Lob
9	68	Anonymous	Gospel: "So schreibt der heilige Lukas"	Raimund Nolte	31:07
10	69/71	Martin Luther	Credo: "Wir glauben all an einen Gott" (1524)	Raimund Nolte	34:59 71/Gott 36:20 72/Christ 38:38 73/Geist
11	74	Anonymous	Organ Prelude: "Resonet in laudibus"	Timothy Roberts	40:11
12	75/77	Michael Praetorius	Pulpit Hymn: "Quem pastores laudavere" Discussion, Latin text, and translation into English	Lasse Overgaard Nielsen, Gabrieli Consort, Gabrieli Players, Roskilde Cathedral Boys' Choir	41:20 77/Quem 41:40 78/Den 41:57 79/Heut 42:18 80/Große 42:49 81/Ad 43:09 82/Zu 43:28 83/Ein 43:49 84/Liegend 44:20 85/Christo 44:40 86/Lobet 44:59 87/Die 45:19 88/Da
13	89	Johann Hermann Schein	Offertory: Sonata: Padouana a 5 - Banchetto musicale (Leipzig, 1617)	Gabrieli Players	45:53
14	89	Anonymous	The Lord's Prayer: "Vater unser, der du bist im Himmel" Words Of Institution: "Unser Herr Jesus Christus"	Raimund Nolte	49:00
15	90/96	Michael Praetorius	Sanctus Motet: "Jesaja dem Propheten das geschah"	Simon Grant (Bass), Mark Le Brocq (Tenor), Donald Greig (Baritone), Sarah Pendlebury (Soprano), Constanze Backes (Soprano), Angus Smith (Tenor), Susan Hemington Jones (Soprano), Tessa Bonner (Soprano), Gabrieli Consort, Gabrieli Players	51:36 96/Jesaja 52:25 97/Es 53:13 98/Gegnander 53:31 99/Heilig 56:30 100/Von 56:52 101/Das
16	102	Samuel Scheidt	Organ Prelude: "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern"	Timothy Roberts	58:02
17	104	Michael Praetorius	Communion Motet: "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern" - Polyhymnia caduceatrix (1619)	Susan Hemington Jones	59:37 105/Wie 1:00:24 106/Du 1:01:15 107/Lieblich
18	108	Michael Praetorius	Communion Motet: "Uns ist ein Kindlein heut geborn"	Sarah Pendlebury (Soprano) Hannelore Devaere (Harp), Gabrieli Consort, Gabrieli Players	1:03:02 109/Uns 1:03:45 110/Was 1:04:27 111/Freu
19	112	Michael Praetorius	Post-Communion: "Der Herr Sei Mit Euch"	Gabrieli Consort	(1:05:14) 1:05:37
20	114	Michael Praetorius	Benediction: "Der Herr segne dich und behüte dich"	Gabrieli Consort	1:06:33
21	116	Michael Praetorius	Final Hymn: "Puer nobis nascitur" - Musae Sioniae VI (1609)	Congregational Choir Of Roskilde Cathedral	(1:07:34) 1:07:49 117/Puer 1:08:04 118/Uns 1:08:21 119/In pra 1:08:36 120/In ein 1:08:52 121/Hinc 1:09:07 122/Kön’g 1:09:24 123/Qui 1:09:39 124/Der 1:09:56 125/Nos 1:10:11 126/Drum
22	127	Michael Praetorius	Organ Voluntary: "Nun lob mein Seel"	Timothy Roberts	1:10:32
23	128	Michael Praetorius	Recessional: "In dulci jubilo" - Polyhymnia caduceatrix (1619)	Tessa Bonner (Soprano), Mark Le Brocq (Tenor), Susan Hemington Jones (Soprano), Gabrieli Consort, Gabrieli Players, Roskilde Cathedral Boys' Choir	1:13:36 129/In 1:14:37 130/O Jesu 1:15:31 131/O Patris (1:16:11 Ubi) 1:16:51 132/Ubi 1:17:47 ???

Too bad a video was not made of that performance!
Now that would be something to treasure.

Full information on the recording, including full list of choristers,
from the MusicWeb web site:
Lutheran Mass for Christmas Morning
Anders Engberg-Pedersen, Lasse Overgaard Nielsen, Asser Oppfeldt, Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen (trebles);
Susan Hemington Jones, Constanze Backes, Tessa Bonner, Sarah Pendlebury (sopranos);
Angus Smith, Tom Phillips, Robert Horn, Julian Podger, Mark Le Brocq (tenors);
Donald Greig (baritone);
Simon Grant, Stephen Charlesworth (basses);
Boys’ Choir and Congregational Choir of Roskilde Cathedral
(directors: Kristian Olesen, Finn Evald);
Timothy Roberts (cathedral organ)
Gabrieli Consort and Players/Paul McCreesh
rec. October 1993, Roskilde Cathedral, Denmark. DDD.
Texts and translations included
ARCHIV PRODUKTION 439 250-2 [79:00]


A NYT review of a 1999 performance in New York City.

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Here is a reprint of
the loving and detailed review by Dan Morgan at MusicWeb International,
dated 2007-11-07:

A refreshing antidote to all those unimaginative festive compilations,
this beautifully presented disc demands your attention this Christmas.


Most seasonal CDs probably end up as coasters
or gathering dust on a shelf somewhere
but this is one festive disc that can be played all year round.
As the cover points out it’s a reconstructed Lutheran Christmas service
‘as it might have been celebrated around 1620’
and it includes contributions from Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654)
and Johann Hermann Schein (1586-1630).
But it was the prolific and talented Michael Praetorius (born Michael Schulze)
who single-handedly produced much of the Lutheran church music
heard in northern Germany in the early 17th century.

What Paul McCreesh has achieved here is remarkable.
He chose Roskilde Cathedral

because it provides the ideal setting
for this collection of hymns (chorales) and polychoral motets;
the choirs and instrumental groups are arrayed on the ground floor and galleries,
the congregation gathered in the nave.
This attention to detail pays off handsomely,
producing a realistic and airy soundstage
that is as deep as it is wide.
Couple this with committed playing and singing
and the result is nothing short of revelatory.

The opening Processional: ‘Christum wir sollen loben schon’
is based on a melody by Luther himself,
and begins with the distant treble of Anders Engberg-Pedersen,
soon joined by the choir.
It sounds magical,
as if heard from across the fields on a still and frosty Christmas morn.
The unaccompanied choir is rich but not too resonant
and the Introit: ‘Puer natus in Bethlehem’ brings in the congregation –
very much at the centre of the Lutheran service – as well.
It is gravely beautiful music
and the transition from one segment of the mass to the next appears seamless,
a striking characteristic of this performance as a whole.

The soloists are very well recorded and the cathedral organ
(apparently close to the sound Praetorius would have known)
is powerfully felt yet always discreetly played.
Surprising, perhaps, is the animation – even jollity – that this music conveys;
it’s more bright-eyed and apple-cheeked
than one might expect from this Reformed liturgy.
Indeed, the congregation and organ
really raise Roskilde’s vaulted roof
with their lusty singing.

As with the Introit the Kyrie and Gloria are taken from
Praetorius’s Polyhymnia caduceatrix & Panegyrica of 1619;
they mark a change of emphasis,
employing just the instrumentalists, organ and soloists.
Austere it may seem but McCreesh ensures the rhythms are always supple,
the balance between players and singers carefully judged.
And for those sceptical of period performance
this disc demonstrates – in abundance –
just how revealing such an approach can be
when it comes to detail, rhythm and overall lucidity,
yet without sacrificing warmth and body
(just listen to the full-blooded ‘Amen’ that ends the Gloria).

The Collect and Epistle are intoned from afar
with responses from the organ and choir.
It’s at moments like these that
the spatial effects McCreesh strives for are most clearly audible.
There is just the right amount of resonance to the voice,
echoing throughout the vaulted space,
and in the organ prelude that follows
Timothy Roberts adds real splendour and weight to the service
without turning his brief solo into a showpiece.

The Gradual hymn ’Vom himmel hoch da komm ich her’
has a robust contribution from baritone Donald Greig
and some warm, full-bodied singing from the congregation.
What a palpable sense of celebration there is at this point,
the organ underpinning it all with such authority.

After the intoned Gospel comes Scheidt’s Credo ‘Wir glauben all an einen Gott’,
again based on a melody by Luther.
As the very core of the mass the Credo is sung with a deep sense of devotion,
the largely unaccompanied prayer rising and filling every last corner of the cathedral.
After the gentle organ prelude the congregation and organ launch into
the rousing Pulpit hymn ‘Quem pastores laudavere’.
As before there is a highly effective antiphonal ‘dialogue’
between the distant trebles and those gathered in the nave.

Johannes Hermann Schein’s Sonata: Padouana a 5 for cornetts, sackbuts and organ
has a strange, ethereal quality, no doubt heightened by
the distinctive timbres of these instruments playing together.
It is reflective, a perfect precursor to
the intoned Lord’s Prayer and Words of Institution that follow.
Again one is struck by how expertly McCreesh weaves
these disparate threads into the overall tapestry.

The Sanctus motet: ‘Jesaja dem Propheten das geschah’,
culled from the Polyhymnia caduceatrix,
has some bright, crystal-clear singing from the sopranos in particular,
aided and abetted by the flutes, recorders
and, for emphasis, that magisterial organ.
The motet ends in a great panoply of sound from all the assembled forces.
Quite a contrast compared with the ensuing organ prelude and Communion motets:
‘Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern’ and ‘Uns ist ein Kindlein geborn’,
which are on a much smaller, more intimate scale.
Sarah Pendlebury’s still, pure soprano is ideal in the serene second motet,
the harp adding an aura of warmth to both singer and choir.

The intoned Post-Communion: ‘Der Herr sei mit euch’ and the Benediction: ‘Der Herr segne dich und behüte dich’ –
the latter with a sustained and radiant ‘Amen’ for choir over organ –
signals the service is near its end.
The congregation joins all the various forces
for the ebullient final hymn ‘Puer nobis nascitur’
and the organ voluntary – with its appropriate bell-like figures –
heralds the start of the Recessional: ‘In dulci jubilo’.
This is the musical high point of this magnificent performance,
the raised trumpets and thunder of drums
bringing a distinctly martial air to the proceedings.
The sopranos and organ add to the jubilant mood
and the mass ends in a blaze of affirmation.

This is a disc that certainly won’t be filed away once the festivities are over.
Indeed, it’s one of those rare recordings in which
one seems to be eavesdropping on a live occasion,
such is the warmth and spontaneity of the music making.
The engineers must be commended for ensuring
it all sounds so natural in terms of balance and blend;
ditto Paul McCreesh and Robin A. Leaver,
whose scholarly notes put the music into its historical context.

A refreshing antidote to all those unimaginative festive compilations,
this beautifully presented disc demands your attention this Christmas.
And at just £6-£7 it’s not just a cracker it’s also a steal.

Dan Morgan

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As of 2013-12-06, this CD had been reviewed by 26 reviewers at amazon.com,
24 giving it five stars, and 1 each for four and three stars,
for an average rating of 4.9.

Here is the "Editorial Review" from amazon.com
and some of the rapturous customer reviews:

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This exhilarating disc is arguably the most important record Paul McCreesh has made. Praetorius, the first great composer of Lutheran church music, wrote countless pieces based on popular Lutheran chorale tunes, ranging from simple harmonizations to flamboyant fantasias for multiple choirs with instruments. He also provided detailed instructions regarding various performance options--including ways to involve the congregation. Here, for the first time, McCreesh puts these instructions into practice, reconstructing an extravagant Christmas service. We hear elaborately scored Mass movements, simple harmonizations, the Creed (with Luther's own music), lusty congregational singing, and spirited organ improvisations. Many of the Christmas chorales Praetorius used are still well-known today, including Wachet auf (Sleepers wake) and In dulci jubilo, which gets a magnificent setting with trumpet-and-drum fanfares. --Matthew Westphal

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38 of 39 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Unique, Excellent November 13, 1998
By holmmd@aristechchem.com
Format:Audio CD
If this is what music was like in the 1600's, we are all living in the wrong century! My eleven-year-old has started to hum tunes from this recording.
Paul McCreesh has reconstructed a Lutheran Mass for Christmas Morning as it might have been celebrated around 1620 using music by Praetorius, Scheidt and Schein. Performed in Roskilde Cathedral, Denmark with soloists, choirs, original instruments and organ, the music ranges from the most delicate (single boy soprano) to all stops pulled out. I have never heard anything like it. The lyrics are all in German and Latin, but good translations are in the notes. The music is unique (though some of the hymns are still common in Churches today). Performance is tightly controlled, and flawless. Dynamics go all the way from ppp to FFF, sometimes quite suddenly.

Some of the hymns alternate German and Latin verses. Evidently this was common in northern Germany back then. The last hymn, In Dulci Jubilo, (Good Christian Men Rejoice) will blow your socks off, and perhaps blow out your windows if you don't watch the volume control. Those 17th century Lutherans were really joyous on Christmas morning.

This is my favorite recording.

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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Enthusing! February 7, 2004
By Manfred Mornhinweg
Format:Audio CD
I wonder what kind of tool McCreesh used to conduct this performance? Was it a magic wand? No other of the 20+ CDs purchased lately has been able to produce such a riveting effect on me!
What McCreesh has done here is an imaginative reconstruction of a late Renaissance Mass, based mostly on collections by Praetorius (such as Polyhymnia caduceatrix et panegyrica, Musae Sioniae, Missodia Sionia, Urania, and the Puericinium), but also including some works of Samuel Scheidt, Johann Hermann Schein, and Lucas Osiander. And this compendium is performed with forces that combine the refined with the massive: The singers of the Gabrieli Consort include such "secret tip" names as Rodrigo del Pozo, while the choir forces range from a favoriti choir over a fine boychoir all the way to a massive choir built up by the already mentioned groups plus the congregational choir and several amateur choirs. All this is supported on period instruments, which include a chamber organ and the truly marvelous organ of Roskilde Cathedral, which is so authentic that it uses hand-blown bellows!

These ample forces are employed in a highly varied way. A solo treble (Anders Engberg-Pedersen) opens the performance with a faraway processional. Soon later, in the introit, the full choir sets the other end of the dynamics scale. In the gradual hymn each of its nine verses is performed with a different array: Baritone solo for the first, congregation and instruments with cathedral organ for the second, choirboys, strings and harpsichord for the third, and so on, until the last verse is performed with all hands, in twelve voices.

From the Puericinium, a collection of music for boy's voices, we get to hear the "Quem pastores laudavere", one of Praetorius' better known works, commonly referred to in Lutheran tradition as "the Quempas". Four trebles alternate with the full choir and ensemble in an enthusiastic rendering.

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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Performance December 22, 2004
By David A. Wend TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this CD on the strength of the reviews posted at Amazon. I have several recordings of the Gabrieli Consort and Players but my choices have been exclusive to Venetian music. The music on this disc, the Lutheran Mass for Christmas Morning, is equally inventive and interesting as Italian music of the same period. Certainly, Lutheran services were as musical as those of Venice. This is due to Michael Praetorius.

As the disc begins, the Introit (Puer natus in Bethlehem) is a stunning example of Praetroius' versatility. The piece is scored for vast forces that include soloists, a choir, a boys choir, organ sackbuts, strings, harpsichord, records, shawms, cornett and harp. For this disc, Paul McCreesh has reconstructed a mass that might have been heard on a Christmas morning in the 1620s. Along with music by Praetorius, there are hymns by Martin Luther and instrumental works by Samuel Scheidt and Johann Herman Schein. There is a variety of music from plainchant, organ preludes, hymns sung by choirs wrapped around the traditional layout of the mass: Introit, Kyrie, the Gloria. The instrumental music is beautifully performed and the venue of this recording, the Roskilde Cathedral in Denmark, is simply superb.

If you are familiar with the recordings of the Gabrieli Consort, this disc will be a welcome addition to your collection. For people new to this period of music, I recommend they first heard "A Venetian Coronation." This award winning disc will acquaint new listeners to the group with an appealing mass centered on the coronation of the Doge.

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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars If Lutheran worship still sounded like this... June 11, 2002
By Clinton D. Davis
Format:Audio CD
This CD absolutely blew me away. It truly is a religious experience, and should do a lot for us church musicians who want to expand our repertoire into exciting but still traditional areas. The music is, well, heavenly. It still sounds as fresh, exciting and liberating as the day it went into the choir loft, and I can only imagine that worship like this was what really sent the Reformation raging through Europe even long after Luther was gone. For example, Praetorius' setting of the old Lutheran Sanctus "Isaiah the prophet": well, let's just say, when it gets to the line "and all the house was filled with billowing smoke", you just have stand up or you'll wet your pants, no joke. Paul McCreesh did a wonderful job of making this feel like you are sitting in church, not in a concert hall, and the worship experience leaves you hungry for more. It really feels like Christmas eve. Hey ELCA bishops, listen to this disc and learn a thing or two about what it REALLY means to be Lutheran...bring on the long blacks and ruffles, bring on the chorales, bring it all on, ELCA, and some of us Episcopalians of Scandinavian descent might just come back...

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5.0 out of 5 stars Simply the best..., August 9, 2012
By Craig A. Manning (Sydney) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) This review is from: Praetorius: Mass for Christmas Morning (Audio CD)
Everywhere I go online in looking at this disc, people are in absolute awe of it, which is totally unlike any other disc I can think of. The importance of this disc is apparent when one looks at the myriad of 'recitals' of the Praetorius Mass that have been, or are going to be, held somewhere in the world since it was released. And, while one can raise an eyebrow at the poetic license taken by McCreesh in his choice of instrumentation, and the fact that, as someone somewhere pointed out, Praetorius never actually wrote a Mass, the finished product is something that Praetorius would endorse unquestionably.

I cannot speak about the use of crumhorns, etc, on this recording, not having enough knowledge about the music of that time (in spite of the fact that I have 2 volumes of Praetorius' 'Syntagma Musicum'), so I defer to others of greater knowledge. But as to the other point, Praetorius never composed a Mass as he simply used the order of service that was current - in this case, the 1569 Wolfenbuttel order of service. So that objection collapses under it's own weight.

I should point out that I am biased in favor of this disc at the outset, sharing the same religious presuppositions as the composers on this disc. As such, I bought this as soon as it came out in 1994, and it has been my constant companion ever since. The most salient point to make about that is that it sounds just as fresh today as it did way back 18 years ago now. Further, it seems obvious in the light of this recording that technology has advanced only minimally in terms of recording - you won't find a live disc that sounds any better than this.

In closing, as others have pointed, The Church is faring far worse today than it was at the time of Praetorius - we are clearly in a time of apostasy. The quality of music in our Lutheran, and by extension other, Churches is utterly deplorable - it echoes the complete lack of solid orthodox theology coming from the Pulpit. However, unlike Praetorius, I am a postmillenialist, which means I have an optimistic view of the Church's future. Listening to this for the millionth time, I'm convinced that when we start to hear a return to the kind of order of service shown forth in this disc, it will be an indicator that apostasy is reaching its end, and we are in a time of renewed (or Reformed) Christian faith and life.

The bottom line: this disc is utterly priceless - whatever you have payed or will pay for it, it isn't enough.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars It cannot get better than this, December 13, 2009
By Peter T. Wolf "Gilded Age Lover" (lake forest, ca United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) This review is from: Praetorius: Mass for Christmas Morning (Audio CD)
I think I wrote a review of this before, but what the heck. It's Christmas Time !! I own a lot of classical music, especially music of this period, but this recording floats to the top every time I want to be knocked out off my feet by sonic grandeur. Everything came together for this performance; the recording technology, the performers, the selections, and the wonderful echo and reverberations from Roskild Cathedral in Denmark. Iv'e been in this cathedral and can assure you that McCreesh could not have selected a more fitting location for this performance, both historically and acoustically. Not only is it historically accurate to the period, but Praetorius was north German and in the early 17th century that part of Germany was owned by Denmark. So it all comes together wonderfully in this masterpiece recording.
I know teenage head bangers who have listened to this recording and have gone out and bought it.

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Here are some personal notes by the author of this blog:

I have always enjoyed listening to
the religious music of the Renaissance and Baroque eras.
The music is so beautiful, simply qua music.
But I could not fully appreciate it, because without knowing the texts,
the words that were being sung
(and since I am only fluent in the English language,
I could not recognize the words (generally in either German or Latin)),
I could not see how the musical effects the composer had produced
related to the words.
I.e., I was only getting half the effect, that produced by the music,
without understanding what it was intended to accompany and represent.

As an example, I, like many others, much enjoyed listening to
Paul McCreesh’s recording of “Mass for Christmas Morning,”
simply enjoying the music,
without having access to the word (some in German, some in Latin).

Thus it was a great step forward when I came across (in December 2013)
the set of slides produced by Dave Kriewall
which contain the texts for all the music on that recording,
both in original language (either German or Latin) and in English translation,
together with some discussion of the music and the composers.

To get the most out of the music/text combination,
starting with this web page in one window,
bring up both the music and Kriewall’s slide show each in its own window.
I like to make the music window as narrow as possible, just showing the time,
down on the lower left.
Then place this web page, with its index of all 23 parts of the service,
to its right.
Finally, let the slide show showing the text run across the top,
with sufficient vertical height that
you can click to advance the slides while listening to the music.
Then, while the music and service plays,
you can advance through the slides so that
you are always viewing the text that is being sung.
The only parts of the service whose words are not shown
are those that are pure scripture readings, without music.
You can use the correlation (in the table) of time in the video with slide number
to keep track of
which slide shows the text for the music to which you are currently listening.