The Schola Cantorum of Valparaiso University, The Men and Boys Choir of Trinity Church, New Haven

 

After a Christmas diet of Wyncote, Palace, Pickwick, and (last year) Pac-Man, my blog will probably be confused by today's offerings.  We'll be hearing the first sides of two custom-recorded efforts of a high-art nature.  Both showed up at the same Goodwill, and both have playable A sides but trashed flips.  What to do in such a situation?  Combine the two, of course--the material is too good not to post.  As for a "schola cantorum," it can be 1) a singing school, 2) "an enclosure designed for a choir and located in the center of the nave in early church buildings"--Merriam-Webster, 3) or the choir itself.  In the case of the Valparaiso (Indiana) Schola Cantorum, I'm fairly sure it's 3).  And, having attended small country churches for the past 30 years, "nave" was a new word to me, and it seems to have more than one meaning, though I think it typically refers to what we country mainline Protestants call the sanctuary--or, simply, the pews.  We keep things simple: The pulpit and the pews.  On the pulpit, you have the minister, the lectern, the organ, and (if you have a choir) the choir.  That's the economy version of your basic church arrangement.

The Valparaiso choir (mixed, unlike Trinity's) sings superbly, as we'd expect (it's a Lutheran school, after all), and we get some fancy and wonderful arrangements of In Dulci Jubilo and Martin Luther's deathless From Heaven Above (Vom Himmel Hoch--one of my favorite Luther hymns, with its Ein Feste Burg-esque closing cadence), plus modern fare like British composer John Joubert's Nowell, which presents a major change in moods following its jubilant opening, and Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly's gorgeous A Christmas Carol, for which a quick Google search reveals no date.  Sussex Carol gets the best treatment that I've ever heard, with Dale Wood evidently the arranger (he definitely didn't write it), and O Come All Ye Faithful (Fantasia on "Adeste Fideles" by Richard Wienhorst) is certainly different, and quite catchy, even if a bit mournful in tone.  (And "Fideles" is correctly spelled!).  Gorgeously performed, of course.  The choir is directed by Frederick Telschow, I should have mentioned, and I have no idea on the year of release, though I'm guess 1968-ish.  It's on the custom label Delta Records (of Chicago).

Those were the playable Schola Cantorum tracks, so we switch to the excellent 1955 mono sound of the men and boys of the Trinity Choir, who sing a wonderful program of carols and hymns, some olden and some not so (though I do need to keep in mind this is almost 2022...).  O Leave Your Sheep starts things out, and though the name doesn't ring a chord, I know I've heard this French carol someplace previously.  (I hope to Heaven the Trans-Siberian Orchestra hasn't desecrated it.)  One Winter Night, by the then-contemporary British composer Reg'nald Hunt, seems to be from 1932, and Christmas in the Wood is a carol by the "contemporary" American composer Mabel Daniels, and the notes tell us that it "differs from the carol in its greater formal freedom and less clearly marked symmetries."  So there.  I skipped some tracks (but circled back to them later), jumping to Spanish composer L.T. (typo?) DaVittoria's (1540-1608) motet Magnum Mysterium, whose superb polyphony veers between fluid counterpoint and something closer to (but not quite) parallel organum.  In the Bleak Mid-Winter, with its famous and incredibly touching 1872 text, is a hymn I find difficult to disconnect from the famous Gustav Holst tune, but this lovely setting may be even better.  More polyphonic mastery, courtesy of Michael Praetorius (1571-1621), with To Us Is Born Emmanuel, and then the very familiar Deck the Hall in its proper, singular title.  And several more fine tracks, including a superb setting of In Dulci Jubilo by W.J. Westbrook (1831-1894).

And we get Albert Schweitzer at the organ on track 19, performing the Bach Christmas choral prelude Gelobet seist Du, Jesus Christ (Praise Be to You, Jesus Christ)--tune by Martin Luther.  No idea on the recording date.  Albert does the music justice, of course.

DOWNLOAD: Schola Cantorum, Trinity Choir (1955 for the latter)

THE SCHOLA CANTORUM OF VALPARAISO UNIV.

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Carol of the Advent

In Dulci Jubilo

Nowell

From Heaven Above (Luther)

A Christmas Carol (Zoltan Kodaly)

Sussex Carol

A Christmas Wish (Dale Wood)

O Come All Ye Faithful (Fantasia on "Adeste Fideles"--Richard Wienhorst)

(Frederick H. Telschow, Conductor)

THE CHOIR OF TRINITY CHURCH (MEN AND BOYS)

O Leave Your Sheep

One Winter Night

Christmas in the Wood

O Magnum Mysterium (L.T. daVittoria)

In the Bleak Midwinter (Rossetti-Darke)

To Us Is Born Emmanuel (Michael Praetorius)

Deck the Hall

In Dulci Jubilo (Arr. W.J. Westbrook)

Hymn for Christmas Day

Choral Prelude: Gelobet seist Du, Jesus Christ (Praise Be to You, Jesus Christ) (Luther-Bach)--Albert Schweitzer, organ

The Morning Star Is Glowing (Michael Praetorius)

The Holly and the Ivy

There Was a Rosebud Bloomed in the Snow

Villagers All This Frosty Tide

Schola Cantorum of Valparaiso University, cond. Frederick H. Telschow, Organ: William F. Eifrig, Philip K. Gehring (Delta Records DRS78-805)

The Choir of Trinity Church, New Haven (Men and Boys), Choirmaster and Organist: C. Huntington Byles (Overtone OV. 11; 1955)

Lee