Classical Music Forum banner

Song of Songs

4K views 14 replies 11 participants last post by  Eschbeg 
#1 ·
I'm interested in knowing which composers have set the Bible's own erotic poem, and in what ways.

Monteverdi set some of its lines in his Marian Vespers, because of their traditional symbolic association with her.


Stravinsky, on the opposite side of the spectrum, used words from the same source for his first piece using a 12-tone row. Not terribly erotic...
 
#4 ·
What a timely thread—I was looking for some fresh compositional inspiration, and I think I found it! Something avante-garde would do nicely.

I can see it now, fresh off the press..."Your Breasts Are Like Two Fawns" for sprechstimme, ondes Martenot, and tam-tam. I'll get to work right away!
 
#7 ·
Quite a few groups have produced Song of Songs themed albums:

Stile Antico - Song of Songs
Les Voix Baroques - Canticum Canticorum
Singer Pur - Das Hohelied der Liebe
Laudibus Ensemble - Song of Songs
Movimento - Lied der Liebe: The Song of Songs in German Baroque
Orchestra of the Renaissance - Canticum Canticorum: Spanish polyphonic settings from the song of songs

It's interesting how popular the text was with musicians in the renaissance and baroque but how it seemed to fall out of fashion after that only to have a revival amongst modern composers. A few big name composers to use some of the text include: Bruckner's motet Tota pulchra es, Vaughan Williams' suite for viola and wordless choir Flos Campi and Penderecki's disquieting Canticum Canticorum Salomonis.
 
#10 ·
To be fair it usually works better as an allegory to the church. If you've ever thought to compare your loved one's hair to goats you'll probably realise that kind of thing doesn't go down so well.

Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn,
which came up from the washing;
whereof every one bear twins,
and none is barren among them.
Here's another modern composer's take on the Song of Solomon, well kind of:

 
G
#11 ·
Someone already mentioned it, but Stile Antico's album "Song of Songs" is a collection of various renaissance composers' settings of the Song of Songs, and the album is very good.

I agree that at some levels it works as an allegory of Christ's love for his church. But at some points, that allegory turns creepy when the author gets a little too excited about breast sizes. I don't know how it is handled in other churches, but in mine, there are not a great deal of scriptures cited from this book (actually, I have never heard it cited).
 
#13 ·
It's Laetare Sunday - fourth in Lent. It's called this after the Introit - "Laetare Jerusalem" ("O be joyful, Jerusalem"), (from Isaiah 66:10, masoretic text) . The full text is

Laetare Jerusalem: et conventum facite omnes qui diligitis eam: gaudete cum laetitia, qui in tristitia fuistis: ut exsultetis,et satiemini ab uberibus consolationis vestrae. Laetatus sum in his quae dicta sunt mihi: in domum Domini ibimus.

The modern Catholic liturgy no longer uses this an introit and the verse is used an an entrance antiphon - or rather not used (to avoid embarrassment).
 
#15 ·
I'm partial to John Dunstable's setting:



As tame as the music may sound, Dunstable seems to have been much more interested in the human rather than the divine interpretations of the text. Unlike other motets, Dunstable does not use arcane isorhythmic relationships as secret metaphors of the divine. Instead, he uses realistic rhythms (i.e. mimicking the correct pronunciation of human speech) on the humanist words: "dearest," "breasts," "come, my beloved," etc.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top