{"id":83224,"date":"2020-11-11T12:22:28","date_gmt":"2020-11-11T10:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=83224"},"modified":"2020-11-11T12:34:49","modified_gmt":"2020-11-11T10:34:49","slug":"solo-prayer-in-8-voices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/solo-prayer-in-8-voices\/","title":{"rendered":"Solo Prayer In 8 Voices"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"83224","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":79834,"related_cahpter":"610","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"A new series - this time: Felix Mendelssohn \r\n\r\n","content":"

Felix Mendelssohn, Richte mich, Gott (Vindicate me, O God)<\/span><\/p>\n

Psalm 43 is an expansion or continuation of 42, and so it is interesting to compare how Mendelssohn deals with this psalm, in contrast with <\/span>its predecessor<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We indeed have been fortunate that a musical giant such as Mendelssohn (1809-1847) devoted quite a few of his vocal compositions to the Psalms, all of which are sung in German, some of which having been expanded in the spirit of a Baroque cantata, such as yesterday\u2019s Psalm 42.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mendelssohn, the young romantic, admired the vocal music of the past, especially Bach and Handel, and strove to write great vocal music like they did. Mendelssohn is also considered to be the \u201creviver\u201d of Bach\u2019s great work, <\/span>St. Matthew Passion<\/span><\/i>, which had been written a hundred years before his time. The admiration of the past is a central component of the romantic experience, and for Mendelssohn it was connected to melancholy, and longings for an unattainable world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This composition is much shorter than his piece for Psalm 42, both in it s verbal and musical extent. It is essentially one choral movement, written for an a cappella choir of eight voices. Psalm 43 is the prayer of an individual, and the work does not sound too far from an actual synagogue prayer (Reform). The men of the choir express the soul of the one who prays in unison, while the women answer polyphonically as a sort of response from on high. Each verse receives its own musical treatment, up until the song of praise, based on the concluding words of the psalm.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Look back at Psalm 42, and notice that the concluding verse (\u201cWhy so downcast, my soul, why disquieted within me? Have hope in God; I will yet praise Him, my ever-present help, my God\u201d) is identical in both psalms. Mendelssohn uses the same arrangement here that he used there – but this time, in a more serious and restrained manner, befitting the more modest dimensions of the current psalm. <\/span>Listen to both <\/span><\/a>and compare!<\/span><\/p>\n

Felix Mendelssohn Psalm 43, op 78 no 2 “Richte mich,Gott”
\n<\/span>Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir. Conductor Daniel Reuss. 2012.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ilzlxat4UFQ&feature=youtu.be","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"The Psalms In Classical Music","main_caption":"Solo Prayer In 8 Voices","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"A new series - this time: Felix Mendelssohn ","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ilzlxat4UFQ&feature=youtu.be","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83224"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83224"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83265,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83224\/revisions\/83265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}