Baroque Forms: Motet

J.S. Bach - Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden, BWV 230

Bach wrote a collection of six motets, BWV 225-230, between 1723 and 1727 when he was director of music at St Thomas' Church in Leipzig. They were intended as occasional compositions for special occasions.

The English translation of BWV 230 is 'Praise the Lord, all ye heathen'. The text is taken from verses 1-2 of Psalm 117 of the New Testament. The full text and translation is as follows:


Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden,  
und preiset ihn, alle Völker!
Denn seine Gnade und Wahrheit
waltet über uns in Ewigkeit.
Alleluja!

Praise the Lord, all nations,
and praise Him, all peoples!
For His grace and truth
rule over us for eternity.


The motet is scored for four solo voices (SATB) with instrumental accompaniment, and is in a single movement.

My Response

At around only six minutes, this motet is shorter than many of the others, but even so, at only 20 words I was curious to see how this would possibly stretch for that length of time. Armed with the text of the Psalm, I listened intently, and realised that each line is repeated several times, for a minute or so each, before moving to the next. Each syllable is also often expanded on greatly, being drawn out and often comprising of many notes.

The four voices weave into and out of each other wonderfully, and I was surprised how much I enjoyed listening to this motet, as usually sacred choral works are not my cup of tea. A highlight for me was the changes of mood and character in the piece. The first two lines are brisk and spritely, but when we move to the next two lines there is a distinct change of pace, sounding more etheral as the text ponders on God's grace and truth. The mood becomes jubilant again for the final word of 'Alleluja!'. Having composed short extracts of SATB for music theory grades, I think this allows me to really appreciate the intricacy of this work.


Vivaldi - In furore, R.626

Vivaldi composed the group of three surviving solo motets for soprano contained in In furore iustissimae irae, RV626, in Rome on one of his visits to that city in the 1720s. The poetic text of the work is general in nature so that it was suitable as a repertory work capable of frequent repetition.

The motet is scored for violin, viola, basso continuo and viola. The text is sung in Latin, addressed directly to the heavens, and the stormy nature of the unisons and powerful chromatic descents of the instrumentals of the first movement perfectly compliment the words that deal with gods wrath of human misdeeds. This is followed by a very brief recitative with basic lute accompaniment which details a plea for God's mercy, then we have a second aria, which is much slower and more lyrical than the first, which is typical for the time. Here, the soprano begs God to make them remorseful of their sins. The final movement, the only text being 'Alleluia' returns to a more jubilant and exclamatory mood.

My Response

This motet by Vivaldi is different in many ways to the Bach piece looked at earlier. The Vivaldi is in four movements, whereas the Bach is in one, the Vivaldi has more instrumentation than the Bach, and more areas where there is no voice, and the Vivaldi is scored for solo soprano, where the Bach is scored for SATB. These notable differences within the same form I feel gave me a great opportunity for comparison.

I love the fiery opening to this motet, with the string players furiously hacking away at their instruments. It is easier to follow the text in this work due to the solo singer, but you don't have the interweaving intricacies you get with multiple voices. In this first movement the solo voice however is extremely agile, with some very quick semiquaver runs.

The lute was very pleasant to hear in the short recitative, and this movement gave the players (and listener!) and chance to recover from the hectic first movement, and offered a welcome change of pace. I enjoyed the purity of voice in the third movement, and with slower and lighter accompaniment it was able to stand out with ease. Like the Bach, in the fourth movement each syllable of 'Allelujah' is often drawn out and given many notes. It's quite amazing what can be done with only one word!

I enjoyed listening to this piece by Vivaldi, which is different to the music of his that I've listened to before. I think he is mostly known for his string works, but this piece shows that he is just as capable in the vocal arena as well.