Classical Music - Esterhazy Choir

The Esterhazy Chamber Choir’s latest concert ‘Lobet Den Herrn’ is an exploration of the German motet from the 17th to the 19th century. “A motet,” says choir member Liz Webb “is a part song for a choir, a bit like a madrigal, but used in a liturgical context.” “They were common in medieval times,” she adds, “but were at their height when Bach was writing in the Baroque period.” The East German composer, as you’d expect, shifted the boundaries of what one could expect from a motet. “His works - he wrote five or six - were of startling complexity and general brilliance,” she says, “incorporating his trademark counterpoint, imitation and fugue. They are very demanding to sing, very long and complicated. But our new conductor David Thomas is working us very hard.”

Bach’s music drifted out of fashion in the 18th century (though Mozart learnt a lot from his work) but his memory was revived in the 19th through the music of composers such as Mendelssohn and Brahms, both of whom composed motets which the choir will perform this weekend. “Brahms was once bet that he couldn’t write a double canon at the ninth,” says Liz, “So he said ‘I can’, and he did.” We can hear the result, ‘Geistliches Lied’, at the concert. “The sopranos and tenors sing one line a ninth and four beats apart, and the altos and basses sing a different line a ninth and four beats apart. It sounds beautiful, and you wouldn’t know it was created from such a rigorous academic premise”. AG