IN DULCI JUBILO – ELLY Ameling, Bernhard MICHAELIS, Hans-Ulrich MIELSCH, Barry McDANIEL (Digital Download) ORPHEUS

THIS DOWNLOAD INCLUDES A BOOKLET WITH TEXTS AND NOTES

 Elly AMELING, Soprano – Bernhard MICHAELIS, Alto – Hans-Ulrich MIELSCH, Tenor – Barry McDANIEL, Baritone

Hans-Martin LINDE, Baritone, Recorder & Krummhorn

Ilse BRIX-MEINERT & Ulrich KOCH, Violas da braccio – Johannes KOCH, Viola da gamba
Walter GERWIG, Lute

One of the most “human’” festivals of the Christian year is Christmas, the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God, who comes to Bethlehem as a child to the poor and the weak, who begins his work of redemption among peasants, shepherds and artisans, a poor child before whom the mighty ones of the earth bow down, before whom tyrants tremble.

These were all signs of man’s awareness of himself, of his discovery of humanitarian resources, of a simultaneous humanising of political and social as well as of religious life. All hinged however on the birth of Christ; this brought to earth the pristine image of man, man became brother to the Son of God and thereby for the first time attained his full dignity.

Whereas the church of the first millennium set the ceremonial triumph of the Epiphany at the heart of the celebrations as the principal feast in the adoration of the newly manifested King, as the eastern Church does to this day, Christmas from late medieval times onward came to be more and more the festival at which the individual man could express himself. The endeavours during these centuries to achieve a renewal of religion, the Devotio moderna, which radiated from the Netherlands throughout the whole of Europe and which has survived till our own day in the “Imitation of Christ” of Thomas à Kempis, the German mysticism of Ekkehart and Tauler, principally however on the Reformation and Counter-Reformation — these were signs of man’s awareness of himself, of his discovery of humanitarian resources, of a simultaneous humanizing of political and social as well as of religious life. All hinged however on the birth of Christ; this brought to earth the pristine image of man, man became brother to the Son of God and thereby for the first time attained his full dignity.

But Christmas brought not only a personal encounter with the “man-born” God; it became a festival of the family, which could now regard itself as an image of the family at Bethlehem; it became a festival of brotherly Concord.

The events of the Holy Night as depicted by thee evangelists continued to bring into being new colors, values and sounds. The wealth of songs which sprang up in Germany is great indeed. The early song collections of the 16th century have all a family likeness, whether printed in Breslau, Hamburg, Königsberg or Cologne. Reformation and Counter-Reformation alike contributed harmoniously to the embellishment of these songs.

MICHAEL PRAETORIUS (1571-1621)
1 In dulci jubilo – 3 & 4 voices
from Musae Sioniae, Vol. 5, Wolfenbuttel 1607 (6:08)

BARTHOLOMÄUS GESIUS (ca. 1560-1613)
2 Christum wir sollen loben schon – 3 voices from Geistliche Deutsche Lieder, Frankfurt a. d. Oder, 1601 Text: German version of the hymn A solis ortus cardine (7:19)

MICHAEL PRAETORIUS
A solis ortus cardine – 3 voices
from Hymnodia Sioniae, Hamburg, 1611

BARTHOLOMÄUS GESIUS
3 Ein Kind geborn zu Bethlehem – 4 voices
from Geistliche Deutsche Lieder, 1601 (3:35)

MICHAEL PRAETORIUS
Ein Kind geborn zu Bethlehem – 2 & 3 voices
from Musae Sioniae, Vol. 5 Text: German version of Puer natus in Bethlehem

4 Es ist ein Ros entsprungen – 4 voices
from Musae Sioniae, Vol. 6 Text: Das alt Catholisch Christliedlein, Köln, 1599 (3:47)

JOHANNES ECCARD (1553-1611)
5 Ubers Gebirg Maria geht – 5 voices
from Ander Teil, Preussischen Festlieder, Königsberg, 1644 Text: Ludwig Helmbold (6:04)

JOHANN WALTER (1496-1570)
6 Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ – 4 voices
from Wittembergisch Geistlich Gesangbüchlein, 1551 Text: V. 1, prereformation; V. 2-5, Martin Luther (3:19)

ANDREAS REUSSNER (the Elder)
7 Uns ist ein Kindlein heut geborn – lute setting
from Musicalischer Lustgarten, Breslau, 1645 (2:53)

ADAM GUMPELZHAIMER (1559-1625)
8 Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her – 4 voices from Zwei schöne Weihenacht Lieder, Augsburg. 1618 Text: Martin Luther (3:25)

ARNOLT SCHLICK (ca. 1455 ca. 1525)
9 Maria zart – 3 voices
from Tabulaturen Etlicher Lobgesang und lidlein off die orgeln un lauten, Mainz, 1512 (4:35)