- Hello, I'm David Rayl, Director of Choral Programs for the MSU College of Music.

And welcome to our performance of "Telling the Story" featuring excerpts from the Christmas oratorios of J.S.

Bach and Camille Saint-Saens.

The Bach Weihnachtsoratorium composed in 1734 consists of six cantatas, each of which was performed on one of the major feasts of the Christmas season in the churches of St. Thomas and or St. Nicholas in Leipzig.

We will perform all the choruses and chorales from the first three cantatas which cover the birth of Jesus, the angels' announcement to the shepherds, and the shepherd's visit to Bethlehem.

These choruses and chorales are woven together by the gospel narrative, sung by the evangelist.

Here performed by tenor Cole Harvey, a master student in the College of Music.

Our program opens with choruses from Saint-Saens's simple but beautiful "Oratorio de Noel" composed for midnight mass in the Church of the Madeleine in Paris in 1858.

We hope you enjoy the performance.

(instruments tuning) (audience applauding) Thank very much.

Thanks for being here this evening.

I thought it be helpful for me to say just a few words about the program this evening.

We're calling it "Telling the Story," 'cause that's exactly what happens in both of these pieces.

They both tell the story of the nativity.

Bach's "Christmas Oratorio" was written for the Christmas season of 1734 to '35, and it consists not of one piece that was intended to be performed in a single setting, but as six separate cantatas each of which was intended to be performed on one of the six major feasts of the Christmas season beginning with Christmas and ending with Epiphany 12 days later.

we're going to perform excerpts, most of the music from the first three cantatas.

So Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem, the child is born, that's the first cantata.

In the second cantata, the shepherds are watching their sheep and doing what shepherds do and angels appear to them.

And then in the third cantata, the angels journey to Bethlehem, to see this child that's been born that they just heard about from the angels.

As I said, we are singing, we're not doing any of the arias or duets.

We're singing only the choruses and the chorales or the hymns.

The narration is all tied together by the character of the evangelist, which will be sung by tenor Cole Harvey.

And he narrates the text, the nativity text from Luke.

And then that's all tied together.

That ties together the various choruses and chorales.

Sometimes the chorus is commenting on the situation.

Sometimes they're general choruses of praise.

Sometimes in one scene we're actually the angels singing glory to God in the highest.

In the next scene were the shepherds, and we say let's run to Bethlehem to see this thing that's happened there.

The Saint-Saens was written in 1858.

Saint-Saens was only 23 years old and he was appointed as organist and music director at the Church of the Madeleine in Paris.

That's the church that Faure later would be music director at, it's the church for which the "Faure Requiem" was written.

Saint-Saens was very, very much influenced by Bach.

And there are several aspects of his "Christmas Oratorio" that indicate that.

For one thing, we know that Saint-Saens studied the music of Bach as a small child, as a pianist, which was actually quite rare for somebody in France in the early part of the 19th century.

The first movement that you'll hear in the Saint-Saens is a prelude and he says in the style of J.S.

Bach.

So listen to that prelude and you will hear very, very similar music in the "Sinfonia" which begins the second cantata of the Bach.

It's very typical music that sets the scene of the shepherds.

It's in 12/8 time.

So compound triple meter.

♪ Dee, ba, da, dee, ba, da, dee, da, da ♪ They both have that similarity and they're both in the key of G Major, which is apparently the key that shepherds like to play their music.

(audience laughing) Saint-Saens also begins with narration, except that he uses not one soloist, like Bach the evangelist, he uses three different soloists who set the scene for us and tells us what's gonna happen.

And then the first chorus you'll hear is the angels singing, "Glory to God in the highest."

And finally, the last chorus is very much in the style of a Bach chorale, although as I said to some people earlier, clearly in the Roman Catholic Church in the Madeleine, in in Paris in 1858, we would not be singing Lutheran chorales.

So it's not a Lutheran chorale, but it is very much hymn like and very much in the style of a Bach chorale.

I'll leave you with one completely unrelated anecdote about Saint-Saens, but I'm so fascinated by this that I've now told this story three times.

So bear with me.

(audience laughing) Saint-Saens was an incredible child prodigy.

He was reading at like the age of three.

He was composing at the age of six.

He made his professional debut as a pianist at the age of 10, playing from memory a Mozart piano concerto and a Beethoven piano concerto.

And apparently at the end of the the program, he turned to the audience and he said, "I will be happy to play any of the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas from memory.

You just pick one."

- [Audience] Wow!

- Okay, so you can meditate on that as you listen to his very, very beautiful and charming "Christmas Oratorio."

(gentle pensive music) (gentle hopeful music) (gentle hopeful music continues) (hopeful music) (Cole singing in foreign language) (vocalist singing in foreign language) (Cole singing in foreign language) (vocalist singing in foreign language) (vocalist singing in foreign language continues) (vocalist singing in foreign language continues) (gentle music) (vocalist singing in foreign language) (vocalist singing in foreign language continues) (dramatic music) (choir singing in foreign language) (choir singing in foreign language) (choir singing in foreign language) (choir singing in foreign language) (choir singing in foreign language) (choir singing in foreign language) (choir singing in foreign language) (gentle music) (dramatic suspenseful music) (choir singing in foreign language) (choir singing in foreign language continues) (dramatic music) (choir singing in foreign language) (choir singing in foreign language continues) (choir singing in foreign language continues) (dark somber music) (choir singing in foreign language) (gentle music) (gentle hopeful music) (choir singing in foreign language) (choir singing in foreign language continues) (choir singing in foreign language continues) (gentle music) (bright hopeful music) (sweet gentle music) (gentle hopeful music) (gentle hopeful music) (choir singing in foreign language) ♪ Hallelujah, Hallelujah ♪ Hallelujah (gentle hopeful music) (choir singing in foreign language) ♪ Hallelujah, Hallelujah ♪ Hallelujah (gentle hopeful music) (choir vocalizing) ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ Hallelujah ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah (choir vocalizing) ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ Hallelujah ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ Hallelujah (choir singing in foreign language) ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah (gentle thoughtful music) (gentle thoughtful music continues) (choir singing in foreign language) (choir singing in foreign language continues) (choir singing in foreign language continues) ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah (choir singing in foreign language) ♪ Hallelujah (audience applauding) (audience applauding) (instruments tuning) (audience applauding) (dramatic music) (bright music) (bright triumphant music) (choir singing in foreign language) (choir singing in foreign language continues) (choir singing in foreign language continues) (dramatic music) (choir singing in foreign language) (choir singing in foreign language continues) (choir singing in foreign language continues) (gentle music) (Cole singing in foreign language) (Cole singing in foreign language continues) (Cole singing in foreign language continues) (choir singing in foreign language) (choir singing in foreign language continues) (dramatic music) (Cole singing in foreign language) (choir singing in foreign language) (triumphant music) (choir singing in foreign language) (triumphant music) (choir singing in foreign language) (triumphant music) (choir singing in foreign language) (triumphant music) (gentle swelling music) (thoughtful music) (light thoughtful music) (gentle music) (light thoughtful music) (dramatic music) (light hopeful music) (gentle music) (Cole singing in foreign language) (choir singing in foreign language) (choir singing in foreign language continues) (Cole singing in foreign language) (vocalist singing in foreign language) (Cole singing in foreign language) (choir singing in foreign language) (Cole singing in foreign language) (choir singing in foreign language) (choir singing in foreign language continues) (choir singing in foreign language continues) (choir singing in foreign language continues) (choir singing in foreign language continues) (choir singing in foreign language continues) (choir singing in foreign language) (gentle music) (choir singing in foreign language) (gentle music) (choir singing in foreign language) (gentle music) (choir singing in foreign language) (gentle music) (dramatic music) (choir singing in foreign language) (choir singing in foreign language continues) (dramatic music) (choir singing in foreign language) (choir singing in foreign language continues) (Cole singing in foreign language) (dramatic music) (choir singing in foreign language) (choir singing in foreign language continues) (Cole singing in foreign language) (Cole singing in foreign language continues) (choir singing in foreign language) (choir singing in foreign language continues) (Cole singing in foreign language) (Cole singing in foreign language continues) (Cole singing in foreign language continues) (choir singing in foreign language) (choir singing in foreign language continues) (Cole singing in foreign language) (choir singing in foreign language) (dramatic triumphant music) (choir singing in foreign language) (dramatic music) (choir singing in foreign language) (audience applauding) (audience applauding) (audience cheering) (audience applauding continues) (audience applauding) (audience cheering) ♪ Hallelujah ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah (choir singing in foreign language) ♪ Hallelujah (bright music)