Some of the best Christmas music I have ever heard has come from churches of every denomination. on December 14, I ventured out on a frigid 5° afternoon to St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Evanston to hear the Bella Voce Chorus led by Artistic Director Andrew Lewis. They were joined by the accomplished Madison Bach Musicians led by Artistic Director Trevor Stephenson. the program was titled “Christmas with the Baroque Masters,” featuring music by Georg Frideric Handel, Heinrich Schütz, Isabella Leonarda, and others.
There was an in-depth preconcert talk with Lewis and Stephenson. Lewis is an alumnus of Northwestern University and studied with Daniel Barenboim and Asher Fisch. He received his Master’s from the Eastman School of Music and is a scholar of the Baroque, having both sung and conducted.stephenson is also a scholar of the baroque, with a Doctorate from Cornell in Historical Performance and 18th-century music.
They spoke of the intricacies of Baroque music,concentrating on Heinrich Schütz’s compositions “Hodie Christus Natus Est”,SWV 456,and “Ein Kind Ist Uns Geboren SWV 384. Both pieces are motets that date to the end of the Thirty Years’ war (1618-1648) between Catholics and Protestants in Europe. This is meaningful as Germany lost 50% of its population, and Schütz’s music reflected the sorrow and longing for peace. He created music with the fourth held over into the next measure, voices overlapping, and counterpoint. There are variations in tempo and parts between the upper and lower voices, layered over each other.
The discussion also emphasized the difficulties faced by women composers in that era. Women were not educated; rather, they were trained to be wives.They were given music lessons to entertain in the parlor. The only education available for women was to join a convent. Fanny Mendelssohn’s music was published under her brother Felix’s name. Isabella Leonarda joined the Ursuline Order when she was sixteen and received an education, where she was free to compose music. Leonarda’s “Magnificat,” Op.19, sets music to one of the best-known prayers attributed to Jesus’s mother, Mary. I considered it the most beautiful piece of the concert: intricate and beautifully composed, with flowing voices reaching high notes and balanced by the lower voices.
Leonarda is the second nun I have come across from the Baroque period. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was a Hieronymite nun in colonial Mexico. Her poetry and music inspired Amos Gillespie’s “Shadow Effect” at the Ear Taxi Festival with the KAIA String Quartet.
Throughout the concert, gorgeous christmas music filled st. Luke’s Episcopal Church. The Madison Bach Musicians played Handel’s Concerto in B-Flat Major for Organ and Strings, Op 4 No 6, with Stephenson on his own hand-built harpsichord brought from Madison for the occasion. Handel is perhaps best known for The Messiah, but he was also a virtuosic organist who wrote many other instrumental works. The Madison Bach Musicians played beautifully with strings that included a bass and two recorders. The program listed flutes, but…