Last week we visited the first of Vivaldi’s Seasons, a celebration of Spring (Primavera) followed by, among others, Resphigi’s musical ‘interpretation’ of Botticelli’s Primavera, Stravinsky’s picture of pagan Russia in the Rite of Spring and to complete the vernal atmosphere, there were a few cuckoos dotted about the place courtesy of Rimsky-Korsakov, Delius and Britten.
It is, perhaps, not such a big step from the pagan celebration of the resurrection of the Earth in Springtime to the Resurrection of the Christian body/soul in the church’s major Spring festival of Easter (according to the Venerable Bede, Ēostre was a Saxon goddess of Spring).
Moving as its text does from Incarnation to Crucifixion to Resurrection, it’s mostly in the Credo of their Mass settings that composers get to celebrate that Spring-like rebirth.
Here are a few examples, ranging from Josquin Desprez…
… through Palestrina …
… Bach …
… Haydn …
00:00 Kyrie
06:20 Gloria
18:50 Credo
28:48 Sanctus
31:10 Benedictus
37:17 Agnus Dei
… Mozart …
… and Schubert.
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Pontarddulais!
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