B

"Balm in Gilead" by Harry Thacker Burleigh

1919

As with most of Burleigh's works for chorus, Balm in Gilead was originally set for solo voice. He dedicated the solo arrangement to John Wesley Work of Fisk University, author of the treatise Folk Songs of the American Negro (1915). The SSA version, arranged for women's chorus by Burleigh, is inscribed to the Schumann Club, conducted by Percy Rector Stephens. Balm in Gilead was published in 1919 for solo voice, men's chorus, and women's chorus by G. Ricordi & Co., New York.

The text of this spiritual was inspired by the biblical passage: "Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?" (Jeremiah 8:22). Burleigh's setting alternates three nearly identical repetitions of the refrain with two verses. The refrain features a B-flat pedal tone in the piano accompaniment underlying a simple harmonization of the melody in sixths. In the final repetition of the refrain, the second alto part doubles the piano pedal tone.

Related Resources

• Balm in Gilead : Negro spiritual

"Barcarole, Op. 44" by Edward MacDowell

1892

This work is unique among MacDowell's choral works for its lush vocal richness and coloristic four-hand piano display. Frequent hemiolas, grace notes, trills, and triplet patterns in the piano partner with a lyric melodic breadth and sensitive harmonic progressions in the voices. The poem is by F. M. von Bodenstedt (1819-1892), a well-known German writer whose texts were also set by Brahms, Grieg, Liszt, and Meyerbeer, among others. MacDowell's rhymed and approximate translation is set below the German text in the score. The glow of the sun on ocean waves is a metaphor for the affection of his beloved. He asks that she understand his love and his song, which is also reflected in the sun, or leave him to continue dreaming. This may be one of McDowell's early works that was published much later. One could easily imagine MacDowell playing the piano part alongside his wife Marian.

Related Resources

• Barcarolle
• Barcarole für gemischten Chor und Clavier zu 4 Händen Op. 44

"Bedtime (1906)" by Dudley Buck

1906

from Five Three-Part Songs (1906)

"Bedtime" (1906) is the fifth of Five Three-Part Songs for women's or children's (the octavo specifies "boys'") voices with piano accompaniment. The text is by Burges Johnson, who published regularly in Harper's Magazine. The poem begins with the phrase, "Last year my bedtime was at eight, and ev'ry single night I used to wish the clock would wait, or else stay out of sight."

Buck's setting begins with eight chimes of the clock in the keyboard accompaniment, each chime labeled with a Roman numeral I through VIII. The mother scolds the child with a minor-mode admonition, "Why it's late! After eight! And it's time you were in bed." Buck uses the same chiming device before each succeeding verse of the strophic setting. In the coda, the chimes are sounded one more time, "sleepily dying away," but they extend the bedtime by a half hour, I-VIII (1/2).

Related Resources

• Five three-part songs. Bedtime

"Bethlehem, op. 24" by Amy Beach

1893

Amy Beach's "Christmas Hymn," Bethlehem, op. 24, was heard on December 24, 1893, at Boston's First Church Unitarian. Arthur Foote was the organist. He was also one of the composers included in a group called the Boston Six whose other members were Amy Beach, George Chadwick, Edward MacDowell, John Knowles Paine, and Horatio Parker.

The piece sets a text by George C. Hugg, a compiler of late-nineteenth-century hymnals. Beach's hymn enjoyed great popularity, receiving performances at the First Baptist Church, Boston, in 1893 and, a few years later, in Detroit and Minneapolis. Arthur P. Schmidt published and disseminated Beach's works, serving as an early champion of women composers. Beach also was an energetic promoter of her own music.

Related Resources

• Bethlehem

"Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind, op. 14" by Horatio William Parker

1862

While he lived in New York, Parker developed many relationships with fellow musicians that led to frequent performances of his compositions. One of these relationships was with Frank Van der Stucken, the conductor of the New York Arion Society male chorus. Van der Stucken's choir performed many of Parker's works for male chorus, and may have taken his part-song Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind, op. 14, on its first European tour in 1892. This setting of William Shakespeare's poem from As You Like It features effective word painting and text declamation, for example, the repetitive crescendos on the word "blow" and "freeze" and the descriptive snap rhythm of "holly" and "jolly." The ornamental piano accompaniment adds vivid color to the work's texture; its compound meter provides an unsettling contrast to the duple rhythm of the choral parts. Written in 1888, the octavo was not published until 1892 by G. Schirmer.

Related Resources

• Blow, blow, thou winter wind

"Bow Down Thine Ear" by Horatio William Parker

1862

After Parker moved to New Haven in 1893, he began several years of weekend commuting in order to continue his work as a church musician. He first commuted to Boston's Trinity Church until 1902, and next to New York's Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas until 1910. Parker's dedication to church music led to the composition of 29 anthems, two works of service music, and numerous hymn settings over the course of his career.

Parker composed the anthem Bow Down Thine Ear in 1890 during his tenure as organist and choirmaster at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Manhattan. The piece, subtitled "Anthem for penitential seasons," is a setting of Psalm 86:1-5 for mixed chorus and organ. Like many of Parker's early anthems, the structure of the work is in simple ternary form (ABA). Both A sections open with a strong unison statement of the melodic theme followed by the theme's imitative elaboration. The B section suggests the ad libitum use of soprano and bass soloists, followed by a solo quartet.

G. Schirmer published the piece in 1890. (Please note that in m. 44 the soprano's E-natural may have been intended to be an E-flat, as suggested by the doubling in the accompaniment.)

Related Resources

• Bow down thine ear : anthem for penetential seasons

"Breathe on Us, Breath of God" by Arthur Farwell

1918

Farwell wrote a large number of works intended for amateur community choruses, ranging from unison songs and arrangements to more complicated four-part settings. His New York Community Chorus met on Sundays in Central Park for massive "sings," attended regularly by more than eight hundred people. For these occasions Farwell prepared song sheets containing a potpourri of unison arrangements—everything from classics in English translation (such as Bach chorale melodies and songs by Schubert, Wolf, and Dvořák) to traditional folk songs. His four-part pieces, such as Breathe on Us, Breath of God, were probably intended for a smaller, more select group that rehearsed during the week and served as a core for the colossal Sunday gatherings. A good deal of Farwell's more challenging choral music is found within his large-scale community pageants, such as Caliban and the Yellow Sands. He composed that work for the tercentenary of Shakespeare's birth and conducted it with a cast of thousands in New York's Lewisohn Stadium.

Breathe on Us, Breath of God is a four-part, ecumenical hymn published in 1918 as part of a set titled Four Part Songs for Community Chorus, op. 51. Although the octavo's text attribution states "Poem Anonymous," the words are distinctly related to the hymn text Breathe on Me, Breath of God, written by Anglican minister Edwin Hatch (1835–89). Composed during World War I, when community singing frequently inspired feelings of unity and patriotism, Farwell's piece is a plea to God for inspiration and guidance.

Farwell's strophic setting (four verses followed by a brief "Amen") contains colorful harmonies and unexpected voice leading that beautifully embellishes the text. For example, the soprano's opening tritone leads to an unusual dissonance on the word "breath" resolving to an F-major triad on "God." The return of this striking chord at the end of each verse, as well as in the concluding "Amen," serves to unify this short anthem. Low octaves in the piano accompaniment (which otherwise doubles the vocal lines) add rich sonority, particularly at the beginnings and ends of phrases.

Related Resources

• Breathe on us, breath of God : chorus for mixed voices