1. Analysis

Introduction

largo / Homophonic choral writing with orchestral reitornello and solo entries in first half of the motet. A rather extensive fugue ends the work.

Broad Description

Type/Genre Label - Motet

Practical Concerns

Difficult solo line for the alto. Decisions regarding piano reduction or string accompaniment with continuo.

Are the technical challenges appropriate for the target age group or level? This is appropriate for a good high school choir

Describe the quality of the transcription or arrangement. - The arrangement published by Concordia can only be sung in Latin - the English translation does not work.

Is text age-appropriate

yes

Background Questions:

About the composer: Giovanni Martini was a brilliant writer about music and composer of music. But most of all he was a teacher beyond compare. The 20 year-old Mozart wrote to him: I never cease to grieve that I am far away from that one person in the world whom I love, revere and esteem most of all.’

Consummate teacher: combined warm personality with great knowledge. Taught primarily counterpoint. Wrote over 1500 pieces that we can’t find now. One of the most famous figures in 18th century music in Italy.

This work was written for the church probably in Bologna, Italy. Excellent example of his work combining many common baroque techniques in a powerful manner.

Additional Choral Questions to Consider

English translation is clumsy.
If the text is written by a famous poet or writer then research the author and poem to determine its historical/cultural significance. Biblical text What story or mood does the text tell or create? calling for help or assistance from the Lord.

Is this edition historically accurate?
Can you check it against a more authentic version of the piece in a collected edition? no

Translation: Lord, toward helping me, make haste. Glory to the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, and for ages of ages. Amen

What story or mood does the text tell or create?
religious supplication

Elements of Music

Form - The piece is in a large binary form with an introduction and several short sections with soloists in the first half.

Rhythm - What are the prevalent patterns? Dotted eighth followed by sixteenth / triumphant sixteenth note pattern in the second half are important.

Melody - The melody is mainly step wise in the first half of the piece and uses skips on important ideas of subject and counter subject in the second half. It is mainly in harmonic minor with sections in the relative major.

Harmony - The harmony changes nearly always at the half bar. More harmonic movement as one approaches the cadence. It stays in the minor with occasional movement to the relative minor, dominant or mediant. Suspensions play an important part in the opening introduction and at many phrase endings.

Timbre - What are the colors in the piece? Even though it is in a minor key the mood is one of anticipation. The homophonic sections are always important to the Is it primarily bright or dark and what instrumentation or voicing creates the colors? How does the timbre reflect the text, title, or mood?

Texture - Is this piece primarily homophonic and polyphonic. The overall texture is varied from a solo line to 4 part polyphony. He also uses the ritornello in the orchestra in unusual ways by
changing the length of the returning idea.

Expression - Phrase length is always changing in subtle ways by adding or subtracting a measure. The fugal entries are clearly stated the first time, but each time the subject or countersubject are changed ever so slightly.

The Heart

The heart of the piece is the interplay between voices and/or voices and orchestra (piano). Sometimes this is stated by declaiming the text in solo writing, sometimes in a homophonic fashion, other times it is stated in a fugal manner.

2. Outcomes

Skill outcomes

Knowledge Outcomes: Homophony, polyphony, suspension, stretto, contrapuntal techniques, ornamentation of the solo writing of the Baroque, solo/ensemble treatment, understanding subject, understanding counter subject, how melody and accompaniment figures are explored, comparison of baroque architecture to the intricacies of the music, understanding of real and tonal musical answers, basso continuo functions,

Affective Outcomes - comparison of baroque architecture to the intricacies of the music, understanding of real and tonal musical answers and how communication changes between people causing stress (stretto) when interrupted, yet also causing action.

3. Strategies

LESSON 1

Show the opening text on little sheets -”Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina’. Discuss briefly the meaning of the text-’Lord, towards helping (encouraging, sustaining) me, make haste (hurry)’. Then speak the text with the correct inflection and with hand gestures-do this as a call and response until the text is second nature. Then break up into groups of four (for no more than two minutes) and speak the text in a creative manner with a steady quarter note pulse....unison, in random manner, with different dynamics, with one voice moving independently of the other voices (20 seconds max). Always insist on the correct inflection of the text as this propels the music. Finish this brief independent work with mini performance of text inflection by each of the groups. Talk about how Martini, a great 18th century Italian teacher and composer, found these words captivating also and set them in many different ways.

Domine ad adjuvandum me feSTIna

LESSON 2-beginning of class

Reminder of the text and meaning by setting up a game-sing the Latin word-sing back the English word then the other way around as a warm-up. Sing the opening measure without the music in hand-then sing it in English. Continue the warm up with exercises using suspensions. Use the soprano and bass parts on the opening page to musically sense the tension and release. Have them physically experience it as well with isometric pulling and pushing with musical examples of bass and soprano parts from the first page. Take out the music-sing the bass and soprano parts-no text, then play the alto while they sing the soprano and bass-add the alto. Do the same with the tenor-but only sing the bass-This time staccato while playing the tenor. Add isometrics back in as soon as the music is secure-memorize as quickly as possible/ practice with different vowels on each part, different length of notes for each part, have secure parts hum, reinforce weaker parts with piano if needed. Finally add text. Leave them with the question about what does this opening page do-what do you think is going to happen musically, does it feel complete, where does it want to go?

LESSON 3-middle of class

Review the opening page-encourage memory, work on getting more involvement of body, hands etc. Move to page 6-focus on the bass part. Speak it first, have them circle the important syllables and speak again with added emphasis and with a hand gesture as well to further emphasize the line. Have them put a double circle around the syllable that gets the most stress in the whole line. Have them speak again with the part being played while they speak. Tenors and sopranos speak the tenor part while the basses sing theirs, tenor is played. The soprano part is played while tenors and basses sing-sopranos and altos sing soprano in unison octaves. The alto part is played while the sopranos and basses sing. Soprano and basses hum while the alto part is sung in octaves by the altos and tenors. Finally have them sing there own part. As soon as this is solidified play the bottom of page 8-ask them what they hear. Have them turn to page 8 bottom system. Ask them what they see-how is it similar, what is different about this? Have the sopranos sing the melody on p. 6-7 then the altos on page 8-9. Compare the tenor from p. 6 to the soprano p. 8. Compare the bass parts-basso continuo discussion. Sing both sections.

LESSON 4-middle of class

Review lessons 1, 2, and 3. Play a section of the piece and see if they can identify where it is from. Play it again and have them sing along mentally with the text-yell freeze and have them sing the word or syllable for that moment in time. Play the section again-yell ‘now’, they take over and finish the phrase. They begin and then you come in with the answer-set this up at the half phrase to make musical sense. Go back to the beginning of the allegro-play the introduction and ask how this relates to the piece. Sing through the first 8 pages-have those that are adventuresome sing the solo lines.

LESSON 5-beginning of the class

Page 18-introduce the fugue subject. Start with the melody-sing it for them with no text. Then have them pulse the quarter note. Have them tap the rhythm of the melody. Have them walk the quarter pulse. Have them walk the quarter pulse and tap the rhythm of the subject (if they are not ready for this - do one or the other). Finally have them stand in place and sing the subject, then sing and tap the subject. Then moving to the subject without any singing. Finally add text trying to keep the inflection-first half the group on text (every other person), then finally all on text. It is imperative through this that is always done with the sense of line and real rhythm so that the vertical and horizontal nature of the theme is felt.

LESSON 6-beginning of the class

Review lesson 5. Introduce the counter subject as well in a similar manner as lesson 5. Add text to the counter subject in a similar manner. Divide the group in half and have half on the subject, half on the counter subject. Finally have them take their music out and mark all of the subjects with S and counter subjects with CS from page 18 to the end-have them work in groups if needed so every individual score is marked.

LESSON 7-end of the class

Review lesson 5 and 6. Finally go the end of the piece and have them experience the pedal point. Hold the F#-play the harmony at the end of the piece and have them feel where and how the composer uses the pedal point to build tension-state it in slow motion-see if they can sense the suspension and how the pedal point moves from bass to alto. Play up to the resolution-have them sing the resolution. Have them discuss what they felt without the resolution. How was the tension increased? Talk about dialogue vs. argument-differences..lead into stretto (musical stress) of m. 110-interrupting each other. Speak the alto, tenor and bass parts while they are played. Have everyone sing the alto part-what’s different-why? Talk about tonal vs. real subjects. Sing all three parts together up to m. 112. Look at the soprano and alto parts-m. 113-115-what’s different about this stretto? Is this a bigger or lesser argument. Look at m. 114-116-soprano, tenor and bass-countersubject-discuss this counter subject stretto. Sing what you can from pick up to m. 110-end.

LESSON 8

Return to p. 18-brief review of lesson 5-7. Learn and mark one additional musical idea with a V-for variation on figures like alto part m. 93-95 (have them experience it physically first, then sing, then mark). Then have volunteers sing from p. 18 to end, others tap the quarter pulse or the rhythm of their part depending on their ability-they decide. Have them discuss what are the problem spots within the section. Try it again with one leader in the middle of each section keeping the rhythm and everyone trying to sing it without text. Again go through the same procedure of developing ownership for the piece by having the leaders briefly discuss problems (1 minute). A sectional may be necessary, but many problems will be solved.

LESSON 9-near the beginning of a lesson

Introduce measures 68-73. Have they heard this before? Where? How many times have they seen this figure. m. 74-81. Now what’s different-play it/ have them discuss it. Clap the rhythm-use dynamics-stand up and sit down when it is louder, sit when it is softer. Experience the new rhythmic figure and then mark all of the dotted eighth sixteenth figures-’cipio’ (because they are confusing in the score). Speak through while clapping the rhythm. Finally sing the section and lead directly into the fugue.

LESSON 10-end of class

Review p. 6-7. Have them look at p. 12-compare and contrast. Have them mark the new section with a star-have them work in small groups. Teach the new part in pairs/ soprano and tenor, bass and alto-m. 49-50. Then sing through the section on page 12-13. Review what is done in each of the sections and how creative and interesting each phrase is. Finally put all the pieces together (with group solos as desired) and sing through the piece.

4. Assessment

Assessment of the Martini-Domine Ad Adjuvandum me occurs in the following ways:

• Before-Initial discussion will focus on contrast and similarities on how we say (sing) the same words.
• During-Discussion of compositional techniques, similarities and differences in the subjects, basso continuo, subject and counter subject, major and minor tonalities
• After-Following the performance or before the final performance, play other contrapuntal works that develop the material in a similar fashion. Ask the students to discuss the development of the musical ideas in these other compositions. Discuss likenesses and contrasts/ analyze a weaker composition-determine if the ratio is off balance compared with the Martini.