Abendmusiken
Literally translated as “evening music,” the original meaning of Abendmusik was quite specific. The concerts were instituted by Franz Tunder (Buxtehude’s predecessor at St Mary’s church in Lübeck, Germany) as organ recitals to entertain businessmen awaiting the opening of the Lübeck stock exchange at noon on Thursdays, and were known informally as “stock exchange” concerts. Buxtehude brought these concerts much closer to the centre of musical activities at St Mary’s church (where he remained as organist for forty years after marrying Tunder’s daughter) by moving them to specific Sundays in the church calendar. Apart from his already-famous solo organ recitals, Buxtehude also included mixed programmes that featured vocal and instrumental solo and chamber works. The business community became the main source of funding for the Abendmusiken, and admission to these concerts was free.
Membra Jesu Nostri
Friday, 2 March 2007, 8 pm
Kampong Kapor Methodist Church [locate]
FREE ADMISSION
Programme
Membra Jesu Nostri, a seven-part passion meditation by Buxtehude, will be performed in its entirety for the first time in Singapore. This work consists of concerto-aria cantatas, focussed on seven different parts of Christ’s body as he suffered on the cross: feet, knees, hands, side, breast, heart and face. It is the only one of Buxtehude’s sacred cantatas set to a Latin text, drawn from the Rhythmica oratio, a devotional poem attributed to the twelfth-century Cistercian, St Bernard of Clairvaux. Buxtehude matches the intense quality of a form of religious devotion to music of a delicate, detached and sorrowful calm in this beautiful cycle of cantatas.
Out of respect for members of the audience, only concert patrons above 6 years of age will be allowed admission.
An Evening of Early Chamber Music
Saturday, 29 September 2007, 7.30 pm
Danish Seamen's Church, 10 Pender Road
TICKETS: $10 each, available by
Programme
G. Ph. Telemann (1681-1767)
‘Dolce’ from Suite in B flat major, TWV42:B2
Dieterich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
Cantata ‘Herr, wenn ich nur dich habe’, BuxWV38
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
from Nine German Arias, ‘Meine Seele hört im sehen’, HWV207
G. F. Handel
Sonata in D, Op. 5 No. 2
Adagio-Musette-Marche-Gavotte
D. Buxtehude
Cantata ‘Herr, wenn ich nur dich habe’, BuxWV39
Johann Joachim Quantz (1697-1773)
Trio Sonata in C major for Recorder, Flute and Continuo
D. Buxtehude
Solo Cantata No. 1 ‘Singet dem Herrn’, BuxWV98
D. Buxtehude
Toccata in F, BuxWV 157
