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Bach wrote motets!
Plus Margaret Lattimore and more choral stuff
BY DAVID WEININGER

At a time when every note written by J.S. Bach is treated as musical treasure — and rightly so — it seems strange that we don’t hear his motets performed more frequently. Even in this chorus-heavy town, these remarkable works take a back seat to the cantatas, Masses, and Passions. Perhaps because the latter have extensive solo and instrumental writing, they’re held to be more interesting than the motets, all of which are strictly choral compositions.

Whatever the reason, it’s a shame, because these works are every bit as marvelous as their better-known brethren. The six authentic motets that have come down to us — there are other motet-like works that have survived as well — form a kind of summa of Bach’s choral writing, exploring every kind of musical texture, from double-choir antiphonal writing to solid, block-like chorales to intricate fugues that rival in complexity anything in the master’s output. They’re also extraordinarily compact, compressing enormous changes of mood into relatively brief spans. All of which means they form a striking, if unintentional, counterpart to the two volumes of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. In each case, the entire range of expressive and compositional possibilities for a single instrument is exhaustively explored.

The motet was actually in decline by Bach’s time. It had its heyday in the Renaissance, when it was perhaps the most popular form of polyphonic sacred music. Since motets had to stick closely to liturgical texts, Baroque composers found that cantatas, which made extensive use of religious poetry, were a more effective way of reaching a congregation. Even Bach seems to have been content with using the motets of his predecessors, preferring to concentrate his energies on cantatas and writing motets only for special occasions.

What’s surprising is that most of those occasions seem to have been funeral services. That Bach’s devotional world view brought with it a serenity and trust in the face of death is shown by the straightforward joy of Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden ("Praise the Lord, all Nations") and Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied ("Sing to the Lord a New Song"). Of a more funerary nature are the tender and intimate Komm, Jesu, komm ("Come, Jesus, Come") and the solemn Jesu, meine Freude ("Jesus, My Joy"). This last is also one of the most tightly constructed of all Bach’s works. Its 11 movements are laid out with precise symmetry; the keystone is the sixth movement, a five-voice fugue on Paul’s dictum that "You are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit."

That the motets could still offer something of value to later composers is shown by a famous story about Mozart. During a visit in 1789 to St. Thomas in Leipzig — the church where Bach spent his mature years — Wolfgang heard the opening bars of Singet dem Herrn being sung. "What is that?" he cried out. He listened with rapt attention, and at the end he said delightedly, "Now, there is something one can learn from!"

And if it was good for Mozart, you can be sure it’s good for you. A chance to hear the motets live is a rare treat and ought to be seized whenever possible. Next Saturday Musica Sacra, veterans of the Boston choral scene, will offer five of them — those mentioned above, plus Fürchte dich nicht ("Fear Not"). Music director Mary Beekman conducts. That’s March 15 at 8 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 11 Garden Street in Harvard Square. Tickets are $15 and $20; call (617) 349-3400.

OTHER VOICES. Vocal music is the order of the day, at least for next weekend. Also on Saturday March 15, at 8 p.m., local mezzo-soprano Margaret Lattimore offers a FleetBoston Celebrity Series recital at Jordan Hall, the program traveling from Henry Purcell to William Bolcom and Ricky Ian Gordon. Tickets go for $25 to $35; call (617) 482-6661. Back on the choral side of things, the Newton Choral Society unlocks Rachmaninov’s beautiful Vespers on Sunday March 16 at 3 p.m. at Our Lady Help of Christians Church in Newtonville. Tickets are $20; call (617) 527-7464. And at exactly the same time, Boston Cecilia and Coro Allegro will be tackling Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem at Jordan Hall. Tickets for that one are $15 to $60; call (617) 232-4540.

Issue Date: March 6 - 13, 2003

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