Conductor Steven Fox joins John Banther to talk about this Mass that was overlooked after its premiere in 1893. Fox tells us everything we need to know about a mass, what to listen for, and how Ethel Smyth's mass stands apart. We also touch on her life as she was an aggressive suffragette, women's rights advocate, and openly bisexual composer in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Show Notes
Transcript
00:00:00
John Banther: I'm John Banther, and this is Classical Breakdown. From WETA Classical in Washington, we are your guide to classical music. In this episode, I'm joined by conductor Steven Fox, music director of the Cathedral Choral Society, to talk all about the Mass in D by Ethel Smyth.
Steven Fox is currently preparing a performance of this work with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at the Washington National Cathedral, and he tells us everything we need to know, like what to listen for, Smyth's unique musical characteristics, what sets this one apart, and more. And stay with us to the end as he talks about his upcoming performance in one of the most beautiful spaces.
Thank you so much for joining me, Steven Fox, to talk all about this work. I figured who better to talk to about it than someone who has had their face in this score for months, I imagine, and someone who's about to perform it.
00:00:54
Steven Fox: Thank you. I'm thrilled to perform this piece. We had the chance to do a few movements of it a couple of years ago, the Sanctus Benedictus and Agnus Dei, but we decided as a group we needed to come back to the whole piece to delve into it and perform it as a whole because it's such a strong and beautiful piece.
00:01:15
John Banther: And we're going to get into the whole thing in this episode. But first real quick, Ethel Smyth or Smith? It's Smyth, right?
00:01:22
Steven Fox: I've had to ask a number of people myself. Usually having lived in London for a couple of years, if you see that spelling, usually it would be Smith, but her name is pronounced Ethel Smyth from everyone I've asked, including authentic Brits.
00:01:37
John Banther: Ah, okay, good. So we've got that sorted. So before we get into it, I just want to read a little bit about her, because we're not going to get into her whole life in this episode, but I wanted to give a little bit of an idea. She's an English composer born in Sidcup, like an outer flung borough of London today, born April 22nd, 1858, and she lived a long life. She died May 8th, 1944.
And I want to read from some program notes that were included in a performance in Michigan last year, and these were written by Meredith Hanoian. And I love what she writes here. I think this gives us a good idea of Ethel Smyth. Meredith writes, " Possibly her most famous composition of the time was not a larger orchestral piece, but instead her 1910 March of the Women, a rousing anthem written for the Women's Rights Movement.
As an unabashedly, unmarried, bisexual person, Smyth fought against societal standards and was a fierce advocate for women. She even donated her own musical revenue to the cause during this time. Smyth is credited as teaching Pankhurst, the leader of the woman's social and political union, how to " properly throw stones to break the windows of the male politicians who opposed their rights."
It is no surprise that Smyth was imprisoned in 1912 for two months after one such stone- throwing incident. And also that when her friend and conductor Thomas Beecham was visiting her in prison, she was conducting her fellow suffragettes from her cell window in her powerful March of the Women anthem with a toothbrush. This difficult period eventually became the subject of her 1930 dramatic oratorio, The Prison.
I mean, wow, Steven, this isn't so much about this piece, but I think that really gives you an idea of Ethel Smyth also as a person. She sounds like she was quite a tenacious person, wasn't she?
00:03:30
Steven Fox: Absolutely. And you mentioned The Prison, that was my first experience with Ethel Smyth's music working on that piece as the chorus master for a recording made with the Experiential Orchestra and Chorus. And I think that there are a lot of similarities between that work, which is her last major work, and the Mass in D, both very dramatic works that I think show a very original voice and an ease in creating drama in terms of timing, harmony, melodies all coming together in such a dramatic way. And I think all these pieces also show why she was such a natural at opera and why she was known to be a great opera composer.
00:04:14
John Banther: Now, before we jump into the music, tell us quickly, what is a mass in music? What are these? Why were they written?
00:04:23
Steven Fox: The movements that she has written here set to music we see in many masses written by many different composers. They're the parts of the Mass Ordinary, which means that they're the unchanging parts of the mass that are sung or spoken every week.
00:04:44
John Banther: In the Roman Catholic Church.
00:04:45
Steven Fox: Exactly. And also the Anglican Church where Ethel Smyth was a member as well.
00:04:53
John Banther: So it's a musical depiction of this mass, and that's why the words are the same from all these composers because they're all using the same Latin text?
00:05:03
Steven Fox: That's right. And it's many say the greatest story ever told, and different composers tell it in different ways. But in a lot of ways, this is a traditional setting of a mass. It reminds me in its structure of the way Joseph Haydn set his masses, the alternation between chorus and soloists for different parts, the alternation between grand moments and very intimate moments.
And she follows that structure. Something that's different about this Mass in D is that the Gloria is meant to be at the end, and that is an old school way of doing it. As I said to the choir, old school referring to the year 1662 and that version of the Book of Common Prayer where the Gloria is actually at the end of the mass. And Smyth wrote it that way, not just because it was part of the Anglican service in her time, but also she wanted the piece to end triumphantly.
The Agnus Dei is so beautiful, but ends rather softly worse. The Gloria is a triumphant ending, and I can see why she viewed that movement to be the last one and we will perform it that way.
00:06:16
John Banther: Okay. And I have some questions about that too as we go on, but let's jump into the first movement Kyrie. (Singing) I love how this opens. It's like there's this drone and rumbling of timpani before men's voices enter. It almost sounds like it's coming out of nothing, coming out of the earth, her music.
00:06:47
Steven Fox: It really does, and the key of D minor is a key that many, many great composers of the past, some of whom she may have studied, viewed D minor as a key with gravitas. The Mozart Requiem is in D minor, Beethoven's ninth Symphony. And this opening theme actually reminds me a little bit of the Kyrie from Mozart's Requiem. (Singing) C# leading to D. And here she also has the C# leading to D, just a little bit inverted. (Singing) So there are similarities. And yes, one can see that Smyth was connected with the European tradition of setting the Mass Ordinary.
00:07:45
John Banther: Something that I find in her music in this piece as it really starts into the first several minutes, it builds from this nothingness coming out of the earth rumbling sound into something quite massive before you even quite realize it. Almost like that old frog and boiling water thing. You're in it before you realize, and it gets quite towering in the music too.
00:08:12
Steven Fox: It does. There's a very organic way that she adds voice by voice and then adds the instruments one by one at the beginning. And you're right, suddenly you realize the whole orchestra is in and all of the voices are in, but it happens in a slow and rather unexpected way.
00:08:27
John Banther: It almost feels like you're being tossed around by the sea. And I find myself thinking about the sea at a couple of points as I'm listening. Towards the middle, it starts to really, really pick up. And it gets even bigger and we have these huge monolithic lines that for the listener, for me, I feel like I'm sitting in my chair with the speakers playing and my hair is just flying back. I'm just pressed into the chair.
00:08:54
Steven Fox: Yes. As I mentioned, she has a way with drama. I find that there are a lot of things in each of the movements, including the Kyrie, unexpected things. C naturals thrown in where we expect C#, shortened chords where we're expecting longer chords. I find her to be... At first when I heard her music, it reminded me of Wagner, and then it reminded me of Berlioz. And the reason it reminds me of Berlioz is that unexpected quality and almost this edginess and almost experimental quality that I associate also with Berlioz. I find her rhythms to be surprising and unexpected at times, also harmonies.
00:09:35
John Banther: One of the unexpected harmonic moments that I found is two- thirds of the way in where we get to a quite soft intimate moment and then we have a moment of great dissonance in the harmony with a C# against a D, which then goes to a C, and then it'd be just this passing violin line that is maybe reminiscent of some of the chromatic things in regards to Wagner, which was a composer she was looking to.
00:10:11
Steven Fox: I think her use of suspensions throughout the piece is really beautiful and arresting. This is one of those cases where the whole chorus changes chord except for one of the parts which suspends their note and changes and resolves later than the other parts. And it's to a beautiful effect.
00:10:31
John Banther: And I love how she ends this too. It feels like I have a parachute and I've just gently glided and landed on the ground after witnessing some crazy thing in the sky. And then we hear the chorus coming in with that sounds like the opening Kyrie line again and it ends almost as it began. It just shrinks down into nothing going back into the earth for the final moment of this opening Kyrie movement.
00:11:09
Steven Fox: Yes, the way that she uses unison is very interesting. There are parts of the mass where she divides the chorus into eight parts, which is I think why it's suited to a larger group. But then there are parts where suddenly everyone's singing together on the same note, and her choices about when to use unison are very dramatically effective.
00:11:32
John Banther: In addition to the chorus, there's an assigned amount of soloists for this. Are there four soloists in this mass?
00:11:39
Steven Fox: Absolutely, but no soloists in the Kyrie. She reserves the Kyrie just for the chorus.
00:11:46
John Banther: Now, going into the next movement Credo , you've already alluded to it a little bit, the order of the movements, they're a little bit different because of I guess what was also written in that Book of Prayers from centuries before. But this Credo second movement, it's also sometimes numbered differently like number three on a CD for instance. And I think that has to do with the order in which it was composed versus which she preferred they were performed in.
00:12:15
Steven Fox: Well, I think she very much viewed the Credo as the second movement and the Gloria to be at the end. Again, this is the way the old Book of Common Prayer from 1662 was written and the Anglican mass even in her time was performed with the Gloria at the end. So in the modern Catholic mass, we see the Gloria as the second movement.
So there are times where this piece is performed with the Gloria as the second movement, but I really prefer the Gloria at the end because she envisioned it that way, but also because she wanted the ending to be triumphant and I think the Gloria is so triumphant.
00:12:55
John Banther: And I think after everyone hears this piece, everyone agrees the Gloria belongs at the end. But this Credo, it is such a bright contrast to the opening movement. It has such a bright, almost metallic sound. It's also the longest movement of a symphony. And this also makes me think of... I just called this a symphony, right?
I don't know if you just caught that, and I say that because mistakenly the first movement almost sounds like an overture or just something to get us settled down in our seats. Okay, now we're onto to the second movement. This story really begins. It feels like this is where we really jump into it.
00:13:34
Steven Fox: This is again where the mass reminds me a little bit of the Haydn masses, and Haydn was such a great master of this form. Haydn so often started his masses, but also his symphonies with an introductory movement to have the audience and the listener settle and then go into the intense music. And I agree with you, I think the Kyrie sets the stage and is very prayerful, almost meditative in parts, and the Credo leaps off of the page.
00:14:10
John Banther: Just a couple minutes into it there, now that we have soloists coming in, I think it's a tenor solo like two or three minutes into it that has some beautiful interaction then with solo violin and flutes. I love that moment and also how it sounds pastoral. It sounds like there's some droning aspects to this that make it feel pastoral and in also my mind by extension, a little more English compared to something French or German, for example.
00:14:39
Steven Fox: Yes. Something I love about this piece is how the grand moments with chorus alternate with the solo moments which appear to be so intimate. As you said, the solo lines are often duets with solo instruments. So the tenor solo begins qui propter nos homines and the oboe responds.
And it's almost a duet between those two instruments at first. The intimacy of these solo parts is something that makes the piece really special. And then like you said, a solo violin and a duet between the solo violin and the clarinet then enters, and the solo flute enters. So this section feels almost like chamber music.
00:15:27
John Banther: I'm also wondering about some of the entrances for the singers. There's something right after this, a soprano. It sounds like they're just naturally growing out of the sound of the orchestra versus coming in on mezzo- forte, here is the entrance. It sounds like they grow out of the sound. Is that something that she's asking for in the score or just something naturally that people have been doing?
00:15:56
Steven Fox: I completely agree with you. It's something we were talking about in rehearsal last night that these choral entries are not meant to be so conspicuous all the time. Sometimes they are, but sometimes like you said, they're supposed to come out of the orchestral sound.
There isn't a very specific instruction she gives, but I think once one becomes accustomed to her style, one sees that she hears the music that way. It becomes apparent from the way the music is written, and we're really trying to be sensitive to that in our rehearsals.
00:16:25
John Banther: I bet you're also getting some great low brass sounds in rehearsals too, because I also hear this religious evoking sound that she's bringing in with the brass. And I especially appreciate her voice leading in all of the brass writing through this whole piece.
00:16:47
Steven Fox: Well, I know that you're an expert brass player, so that is a high compliment coming from you, and the voice leading is astounding in this piece. I think for instruments and for singers, and we also talk about it in rehearsal, the lines are so singable. I mean, that's a reason we wanted to return to this piece after we got a little taste of it a couple of years ago. Her style of writing is so natural for singers, that so often stepwise motion, when there's a leap, it makes sense.
And it's singable. And I also agree with you about the colors. She's so skilled at using these low brass instruments for these dark beautiful colors, and then brilliant at also adding in the lower voices sometimes to mirror the low brass. And so the pairing of voices and instruments is really brilliant how she will add voices to an instrumental line to add additional color and the same thing with the upper voices and the upper winds, which sometimes mirror one another and even sing and play together.
00:18:02
John Banther: Now, I have a question or something to point out that might sound like it's out of left field, Steven, but there's this moment I guess maybe it's halfway through where I'm reminded so much of Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony, and we know that these two actually knew each other and interacted and played with each other at one point earlier than this.
But we hear the tam- tam in her work and then the sound of the harmony of the voice and especially the brass and low brass, it sounds so similar to me to the end of Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony, which has the tam- tam and then that low brass chorale. The phrasing is similar. The harmony reminds me of it. But I found that very eerie, but I think there's no way they could have known about it from each other, right? Because Tchaikovsky's was in 1893, her premiere was before his premiere, but they knew each other. It just doesn't seem like there's any way they knew about it.
00:18:58
Steven Fox: It would be a stretch. But like you said, they did meet when she was studying in Germany. And I think that her time studying in Germany and the composers that she met there were very influential on her. And so I'm not surprised that you find that similarity.
00:19:15
John Banther: What about the text here because I'm also wondering about how she's pairing text within the music?
00:19:21
Steven Fox: Well, and the part that you just played is one of my favorite parts and the part that precedes it is also one of my favorite parts, the Crucifixus, was crucified, passus et sepultus est, died and was buried. And the way that she sets the Crucifixus first with these augmented seconds (Singing) is such a beautiful musical depiction of the pain of the crucifixion. And to me, this is one of the most beautiful settings of this text.
As we talked about earlier, this text has been set by so many great composers. To me, this setting really stands out. And then the beautiful section, as you said, died and was buried, the beautiful colors, the Tchaikovsky- esque use of percussion, and the low brass feels chorale- like.
00:20:20
John Banther: And like you said before, there's the full chorus and something more intimate or chamber of music. After this, I think we pick up suddenly, and we're like the full chorus is back, the orchestra is in. We are at fortissimo with something big, kind of like the beginning of the movement.
00:20:36
Steven Fox: Exactly. Suddenly we are talking about the Resurrection, on the third day he rose. And this is a beautiful part of the form of the Credo and the mass that after that poignant part we go right to the Resurrection, and it is some of the most exciting music in the mass. Full orchestra. Full chorus.
00:21:08
John Banther: Okay, Steven, now I want to get into maybe a final point on this movement, maybe some music theory digging or some kind of music nerd digging into the theory about this because something very interesting is happening here. We have these high male voices that are singing chant- like, and I can't speak Latin. It's like the (Latin) And I expect the resurrection of the dead and the wife of the world to come. Amen.
Then there's a beat of silence, and then violins enter with this beautiful line that's like the start of fugue and its sounds so English. So I bring this up because it sounds like there's something harmonically interesting going on because we have the familiar amen, plagal cadence on the amen going from a D major chord to A major chord. But we are in the key of D major, so I think we're ultimately resting on the dominant of D major in this suspenseful moment.
And then the fugue is in D major starting on F#, but what makes all of this I think come together is her then use of C natural, a minor seventh, against a D like two measures later. That makes this whole thing feel so English sounding, but maybe I'm grasping at straws on this or using my imagination too much.
00:22:35
Steven Fox: I agree with you. I think the we're done. In D major, the C natural will be the lowered seventh, which I think is something that we do find in English music going back to bird and talus. And there's a term the English cadence with that lowered seventh. That does give it that flavor.
00:22:56
John Banther: And then the ending is super bright. I love the use of cymbal at the end. And in my opinion, if this is performed and there's going to be an encore of something or maybe a little choral work that she wrote, what should actually be the encore is the final few minutes of the Credo for the piece, if they will, if there was an encore.
00:23:16
Steven Fox: Well, absolutely. Something else I look for in any mass setting is how does the composer set the word amen and she really stretches it out. We've got a good long setting of the amen. Again, the rhythms are unexpected. And the way that she also plays with the tempo, nuances of ritardando and then accelerando, più mosso, throughout the piece, but I notice it very much in the Credo. There are instructions about small changes in tempo that I think add expressiveness and then also extra energy in these final moments.
00:23:52
John Banther: Now, I want to read now a little bit more from those program notes by Meredith Hanoian, and it's talking about the rehearsals and how Ethel Smyth worked. And I think you'll see also her tenacity in this. Meredith writes. " Throughout the rehearsal for the 1893 premiere of the Mass, Smyth was anxious, rewriting sections after hearing them live for the first time." She writes, " No sooner was the rehearsal over than armed with music paper, scissors, stick paste, and all the incursive paraphernalia of composers, I ensconced myself in the bowels of the edifice and rescored the Sanctus."
Later in her memoir, Meredith writes, " She writes of this time hoping for and almost expecting accolades once audiences heard her music, but sadly receiving little. 'I believed I had something to say, but as far as my countrymen went was seemingly alone in that opinion. For like its forerunners, the mass had gone to the bottom, leaving not even a ripple on the surface.'"
That's quite something to read about her. Steven, she is armed to the teeth with all of the things to rewrite and make edits after just hearing a part of it, but then she doesn't really receive any recognition or much from this mass it sounds like.
00:25:11
Steven Fox: Yes, the mass received quite a few positive reviews when it was first done. But in general, I would say this is a theme with Ethel Smyth in her life, when finally at age 75, Sir Thomas Beecham really gave a festival in her honor and performed these works. The mass was the culmination of that festival. She had already lost her hearing and could not appreciate it to the full extent. And maybe this is just another part of that running theme through her life, but that's another reason that it's just so nice to see the renaissance of her music now I would say particularly in these last five years.
00:25:53
John Banther: Now, going to the next movement, it is a Sanctus, and this opens with a soprano solo, brass chorale. It is absolutely divine. More of that great voice leading that I mentioned before, and it's also the shortest movement I think out of all of these.
00:26:15
Steven Fox: I agree. The voice leading is superb. It's natural. If you look at these horn parts and the bassoon parts, so mellifluous, they're singing lines written for instruments really. You have the low brass and the low winds, bassoons and contrabassoons doubling bass, trombone, and tuba with the alto solos, add to that cellos and double basses.
So all of the low instruments of the orchestra giving this beautiful support to the alto solo. It's a rich sound, but it's also delicate, marked pianissimo espressivo at the beginning. So it's a difficult part to perform well, I would say, but it's exquisitely written.
00:26:58
John Banther: Now, there's also very little text compared to the previous movement. The previous movement's like 17 minutes long. It's got 32 lines. This has just four lines of text. Is that something that is she just choosing four lines from the Sanctus Latin Ordinary or is this all there is? I'm wondering is there an aspect of one has a ton of text, one has a little bit of text, if there's anything there when it comes for a composer's choices?
00:27:27
Steven Fox: Yes, it's dictated by the text. So even if you go back to Renaissance masses by Victoria and Palestrina and Auderghem, the Credo will be the longest movement because there's all of that text. And the Sanctus generally will be shorter. In the Romantic era, there are some composers that extended the Sanctus just a little bit longer than in other masses, but this is the text. She set the Ordinary text through the same text you'd see in other masses. So it has more brevity for that reason.
00:28:00
John Banther: This also gives a great opportunity for listeners and for conductors, of course, in study in that you just mentioned from centuries before mass setting's done, we have an example from composers over centuries who have almost zero in common with each other, but they're all using the same text and they're all operating within a very similar framework. So you really get to see how each composer is approaching a particular mass.
00:28:29
Steven Fox: And that's what I love about this mass. The originality of her style comes through, but also the respect for the tradition. When I mentioned the form of Haydn's masses earlier, it does go further back than that. Of course, Haydn had the alternation between choral moments and solo moments just as Smyth's mass does.
But the Renaissance masses, while those composers did not write solo or tutti in the scores, there are intimate moments where certain bits of text will be sung by just two or three voices rather than the full five or six- part choir. So it really does extend back centuries, this tradition.
00:29:17
John Banther: Okay. Now, an instrument that we have not mentioned yet that appears in this mass is the snare drum, and it appears in multiple ways, in multiple uses, I think. And it also makes it sound a little more forward or slightly futuristic compared to 1893. It definitely sounds like it's like 20 years too soon almost, and I think the snare writing helps with that. Not a lot of masses have snare drums in them, I think.
00:29:42
Steven Fox: That's true. And for me, the snare drum reminds me of The March of the Women, her most famous work that you mentioned earlier, and her connection... I believe her father was in the military and there was this connection with the sound of the military drum, which makes its way into this Sanctus. And it's appropriate that, of course, during the first part, the snare drum does not enter.
But during the Hosanna in the highest is when it enters, a call to attention of this more triumphant part of the movement. I'll also mention another instrument that enters prominently in the Hosanna is the first trumpet, the solo trumpet entering in unison with the sopranos, which is not something that you hear very often in choral pieces.
00:30:32
John Banther: No, and especially not... I think maybe with Handel from a century or so before with the king's trumpets, something like that might happen, but not so much in something like this.
00:30:43
Steven Fox: Exactly. There's something regal about it.
00:30:46
John Banther: Now going to the next movement, Benedictus, this also opens quite flowing, but now with voice, we have oboe and strings, also beautiful moments for cor anglais, the English horn, here as well. And we also have a brief trumpet like pick solo in the middle. There's some triangles. There's some bright sounds. But this movement overall, Steven, feels like it's less varied. We're going to the extremes less, and it almost feels like this movement is glue that's holding larger sections of the mass together.
00:31:23
Steven Fox: It's in a way similar to the Kyrie that it sets a mood, and only half of the choir sings. Just sopranos and altos accompany this beautiful soprano solo. And as you mentioned, gorgeous lines also for the oboe soloist and English horn. So it's a gorgeous movement that again goes into the Hosanna, but the Hosanna in this case is a little more understated, I would say, than in the Sanctus.
00:31:52
John Banther: So there's a Hosanna line that compared to the Sanctus is less intense. I didn't quite understand that they were the same lines repeated in different movements.
00:32:04
Steven Fox: Exactly. The Sanctus leads to the Hosanna in the highest, and so does the Benedictus. And interesting, this is an area where maybe she does it a little bit differently than other composers setting the mass. There are some mass settings through the centuries that at the end of the Benedictus have simply the score says go back and sing the original Hosanna that also took place after the Sanctus.
She writes a different Hosanna. And it is still strong, of course, it's Hosanna in the highest, fortissimo, and the soprano soloist goes up to high B- flat. But still, because not the entire chorus is singing, no tenors and basses, it has still more of an intimacy about it in my mind. And I'd also love to mention in this movement there are solo lines that are sung by the chorus, this beautiful theme. (Singing) First the altos have it.
Then the Sopranos have it. And in rehearsals, we talk about how these should be sung like solo lines. I asked the chorus, don't feel like choristers in these moments. Sing like a soloist because those lines have to have the presence and the core of sound that a soloist would have.
00:33:35
John Banther: That's interesting, because as I was listening, I'm wondering if this was the movement. There were moments where the chorus did indeed sound different, more individualistic in a way. I don't know if that's the connotation. In an orchestral context, you have the idea of playing as soloist, but playing together in that way. Is it kind of like chamber music within the choir in that way?
00:34:01
Steven Fox: Yes, absolutely. I think you're right to notice the difference of sound, because often in choruses we think about blending. And particularly in a movement like this, you'd see, okay, there's a soprano soloist, so this means that we're in the background. And as the chorus, we have to support the soloist.
It is true in certain places where the chorus responds pianissimo, but then there are these soloistic lines in the chorus that create a duet with the soprano soloist. So in those cases, I would ask my singers to sing a little bit more, to be a little more individualistic, as you said, and to have their voices not have to blend in so much, but to hear the individuality of each of them.
00:34:43
John Banther: That is such an interesting sound, and one I imagine you would not get 110 years earlier with Haydn, for example.
00:34:53
Steven Fox: That's true. I think the difference in style there. Although even in a Haydn mass, there may be moments where the melody will be in the chorus, and you might ask the chorus to sing a little bit more soloistically in those moments. But I think even clearer in this case.
00:35:12
John Banther: And we will get into the next movement right after this. Classical Breakdown, your guide to classical music, is brought to you by WETA Classical. Join us for the music anytime day or night at WETAClassical. org, where you'll also find educational resources like Take Note, the WETA Classical Playlist, and our blog Classical Score. Find all that and more at WETAClassical.org.
Okay, Steven, we're getting now into the final two movements. This one, Agnus Dei, the opening, there's really something about this because it sounds like we are actually joining something already in progress. We're not starting a new movement. This isn't something that, hey, we're all starting this together. Rather, it's like opening the door and you are thrust into a scene in progress. It feels like I'm on a stormy ship. I'm bringing back that sea talk from before. It feels very dark, feels... I don't know. It feels quite stormy within, and then we have that extended tenor solo.
00:36:28
Steven Fox: You're thrust into the drama immediately. The strings are pianissimo, but there's an intensity in the way this line is written. Again, we're in D minor, that dark key, and the tenor joins the sound of the strings right away. And it's just a beautifully expressive solo line from the tenor. So singable, so much of it's stepwise, so naturally written, and the melody seems to alternate very easily between the strings and the tenor soloist.
00:37:09
John Banther: Can you talk a little bit about that I think you said singing intensely, although very, very soft? Because that's something you also, when you're teaching music a lot of times, yeah, forte can be very loud, intense sound, but pianissimo, it can also be just as intense, but it's a little different. I wonder how that is for a singer compared to someone in orchestra.
00:37:34
Steven Fox: Absolutely. I often say to the chorus that pianissimo requires more energy than forte. And this would be one of those cases. I also think the other area that adds intensity to this moment, pianissimo, but it's the tempo, it's adagio ma non tanto, so not too slow, but it's also in two.
So actually the tempo has to drive. This is the job of me and other conductors who do this piece. We have to strike the right tempo here because it needs to be not too slow, not too fast, but there has to be a little bit of this driving aspect to it that I think creates the storminess that you mentioned earlier.
00:38:20
John Banther: And it sounds like with this one, again, I'm stuck on the stormy ship thing at sea because some of the lines, it feels like they are rising and falling, ascending and descending in cycles or really kind of like in waves. And it feels like that general line, melodic shape rather, is what's dominating this movement.
00:38:44
Steven Fox: And this is an area where I find this again relates to an earlier style of choral music, going all the way back to Baroque and even Renaissance masses where you phrase according to the contours of the phrase. So if the phrase goes up, you're singing out a little bit more. And as it descends, it gets a little bit softer. And that just seems to be the way that these phrases are written too. Again, so naturally, so vocal. And as it rises, it builds. And as it descends, it softens.
00:39:17
John Banther: Especially in brass playing, getting louder as you go higher and then softer as you go back down, that's usually seen as like, yeah, don't do that, but sometimes it really is, you get a little bit louder as you go up and you get a little softer. Sometimes that's what the music is. Something I want to point out and something I point out semi- regularly on this podcast is moments where the composer did not have to do something or they could have stopped something here, and sometimes I'll edit the music to demonstrate that.
And I bring this up because there's a moment where in this Agnus Dei, the movement is over, it's ended. We've got this tonic resolution and then it's over. It could be over, no one would know a thing. But then from that emerges nothing, the slightest, the lightest snare roll and then tremolo and strings. There's oboe and muted brass. This texture comes out of nowhere. I actually had to lean forward. I was wondering is that the snare drum giving this sound here again? And then the tenor comes back in with what sounds like an opening line that the movement started with.
00:40:33
Steven Fox: It's another great use of the snare drum. This is a coda. You're absolutely right. The movement could have ended there, but it just extends. It's a coda and it's almost like a memory of what happened before, first with the tenor soloist, and then the ending very similar to what we've just heard. I always think a coda is... It's a memory of previous material, but it's seen through a very different lens. And I think it adds something very poignant to the end of this movement.
00:41:07
John Banther: When you said memory, that really lit off something in my head because I don't always think of it as a memory of something before. Sometimes it's like, yeah, we're bringing back things from before in a slightly different way, but memory really struck me because it sounds like there is some kind of haunting remembering of a line in this moment. It sounds like we are not just replaying something, but rather remembering something. Now, Steven, when did you first hear about this work and start working on it?
00:41:41
Steven Fox: I first learned about this work when we were planning a concert with Cathedral Choral Society to give Washington National Cathedral in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment and women's right to vote. So probably a couple of years before that, 2018, I started looking at works by women composers that had not received due attention.
I thought we would put together a program that brought some of these works from the past to light, works that deserve greater attention, together with a few new commissions that were written by leading American women composers inspired by this anniversary. And I had come across Ethel Smyth's music working on a recording of The Prison, which was you could say a choral symphony, although it's not a piece that actually fits into any particular category or genre.
But I was very moved by her music and her style when I was the chorus master for that project and decided to look to see what other choral works Ethel Smyth had composed. And I found this work listed, and I did find that there are one or two recordings of it and was just absolutely mesmerized by the power of the music, the dramatic qualities of it. And I decided that we should sing a few of those movements from the mass on this program.
As I mentioned, the music immediately reminded me of Wagner in terms of its scale, the symphonic nature of it, the way that it extended out very easily, and the rich orchestration. But now I look at this score and I see only Ethel Smyth. To me, it's a completely original voice, and that's why we're so thrilled to be performing the work as a whole.
00:43:40
John Banther: And I think we all agree as we're listening to this, it's really just really wild and crazy that this wasn't venerated more. This is such an interesting sound. And as you said, it is the sound of Smyth herself in this music she's bringing out. Now, the last movement, Gloria, this is the longest, or maybe the second longest, but it's longer than several of the previous movements combined. And Steven, I don't know how this would even be described, but however this movement opens is what I love about choral work. So whatever this is, I'm sold. I'm in.
00:44:21
Steven Fox: Yes. Together with the Credo, the Gloria is usually the second- longest movement. I think it doesn't have quite as much text as the Credo, but it has a lot of texts that also like the Credo is split into different sections. There are a lot of composers that would split the Gloria into several different movements. We call that cantata style. So for instance, Bach's B minor Mass, the Gloria is a number of different movements.
Gloria in excelsis Deo creates its own movement. Laudamus Te is its own movement. And the same thing with Mozart's Mass in C minor, the Gloria is broken up into many different movements. Here, it's one movement, but it is broken up into different sections. And the way that it begins is absolutely thrilling. It really brings out the joy of the text.
00:45:14
John Banther: It goes back and forth a bit too. It's warm and lush. We have the full chorus that's going up and down and energy. And this also sounds to me more operatic than any of the other movements, not just in the dramaticism, but also in some of the writing. This feels more operatic or more than what I hear from masses. And I'll be honest with you, Steven, I don't listen to masses all that time. A lot of the Bach and the other ones they do, they sound nice, but I'm not listening to them all the time. They kind of blend in together. Totally not the case with her.
00:45:49
Steven Fox: I agree with you that you can see her knack for writing dramatic music, and you can see why after this mass she was encouraged to turn to opera and she did and had several very successful operas. Keep in mind that her opera, Der Wald, was the first opera by a woman to ever be performed at the Metropolitan Opera in 1903, and there wasn't another opera by a female composer performed at The Met until 2016, Kaija Saariaho's L'Amour de loin.
So she really was so gifted in this dramatic style. And I think one of the reasons that this movement sounds operatic is again, the alternation between rich chorus and orchestra moments, and then more intimate solo moments. But in this case, we have soloist singing together.
We have actually the four soloists singing together et in terra pax hominibus, and on Earth peace, and it's this beautiful section that goes into two- four and is a lilting melody. And one by one, all four soloists join, and it's just so organically built and grows in such a beautiful way. After the four soloists sing this text, the chorus then joins and repeats the text, et in terra pax hominibus.
00:47:23
John Banther: I love when the chorus comes back in reaffirming some things that we already heard before. There's two moments that I want to point out. One is vocal. The non- vocal one is this moment that really feels like Beethoven. Rhythmically how she gets into this section, it feels like Beethoven where she's I think eight notes over the beat, da-da-da-da, something like that. And it explodes into what really feels Beethovenian. But as you said, it's a Smyth sound. We're not floating into something German or too Beethoven- like with this.
00:47:58
Steven Fox: What she does here that's so thrilling that I think may remind us of Beethoven is that little by little, she's accelerating the tempo not by writing accelerate. She's changing the tempos and changing the meter. We are starting in six four and then where we just played... It goes into four four, but it's in two. So it's a cut time, Allegro con fuoco, which speeds things up and then add in the horns, which are playing on the offbeats, which drive it more towards the choral entry three measures later. It's just so brilliant how she builds into the choral entry there.
00:48:38
John Banther: The other point I want to mention is vocal- related, Steven, and that's where we get this I think it's a tenor singing like Jesu Christe and then soprano comes in like come Sanctus Spiritus. And it sounds very chant- like. It sounds like she's directly referencing something like in the Catholic mass tradition of something about chanting like the high versus low mass.
00:49:02
Steven Fox: Yes, it's very reminiscent of plainchant, the ancient Gregorian chant that these mass settings all come from. Renaissance masses were built on the themes of those cantus firmus or those chant lines that come from the original mass plainchant. So this is reminiscent of that. And this is a case even before it hands off to the tenor solo, another case where the chorus sections are soloists. So first, tu solus altissimus, thou alone art most high, is sung by the tenor section.
And then the bass section, Jesu Christe, and then it hands off to the tenor solo. It's a great alternation again of the roles of chorus and soloists that oftentimes the chorus sections are asked to be soloists as well. And we rehearsed those parts as well last night. And I remember asking the bassist to sing a little bit more like soloists, even though it's written just mezzo- forte, just to have more individualistic qualities and more core in the sound there.
00:50:11
John Banther: There are plenty of challenging soloistic lines and moments here. And the end, it feels like a triumphant march. That's not a march, but sort of feels something like it. It feels very, very English. I think if you play just the last 10 seconds for someone and they didn't know what or who this was, but they're a musician that might say, well, that sounds quite English, how she gets out of that, especially in the 1890s, and I think Elgar would also grab onto some of those sounds a decade or two later.
00:51:00
Steven Fox: Absolutely. And adding to the drama are the nuances and all of the instructions. I'm looking at the last few pages of my score here. There are a lot of instructions with tempo, acceleration, and then più mosso, and then molto ritardando, then adante, and then ritardando again.
00:51:19
John Banther: So getting faster, a little more motion now, then slow down, and then slow down more.
00:51:23
Steven Fox: Exactly. And even before that, largamente, and so she's stretching the tempo in places and then asking you to accelerate and accelerate and then back again. It creates this give and take that is a really original aspect of her style. I can't say I've seen these kinds of usages of tempo markings in other composers like I see in this Smyth score, and it makes the ending so completely dramatic. And of course, this is why we have to end with the Gloria.
00:51:57
John Banther: Oh, you can't end with anything else. And it's fun for musicians too. I mean, there are plenty of works where we play, and no offense, Steven, you're not really paying attention to the conductor at the end. You're playing with your section and you're just playing. You're running home. The horse is going back to the barn. But it is nice when there are things in the music that require you to do a little more and require you to also look up and actually pay attention to the conductor so that it all really, really lands quite like this.
00:52:28
Steven Fox: With all those tempo changes at the end, I really hope and I will implore all singers and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra to watch me at the end.
00:52:38
John Banther: Yes, please do. Now, I have one more thing to read from Meredith Hanoian's notes when it comes to Smyth and also Brahms and Tchaikovsky. But first, tell us a little bit about your performance on March 16th, 2025 at the National Cathedral with the Baltimore Symphony. You're playing this piece. And sorry, if you're listening after March 16th, it's already passed, but tell us a little bit.
00:53:03
Steven Fox: We're really thrilled to be welcoming the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra back to Washington National Cathedral to perform with Cathedral Choral Society and for magnificent soloists on this grand piece that really was written for a grand space. If we think about it, that it was premiered in 1893 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, which is such a grand space where the proms are given each year, you see that this piece was written for a large and beautiful space.
And that is exactly what Washington National Cathedral is. I think that this is a piece that needs room to resound with the full orchestra and chorus and these four magnificent soloists. I think that this piece will sound so beautiful in there. And of course, it's a sacred piece and it's her most significant sacred work. And to perform it in a sacred space like Washington National Cathedral is a really rare and special occasion.
00:54:03
John Banther: Definitely. I mean, Baltimore Symphony, National Cathedral, and this mass, I mean, that's going to be quite a performance. And I will put a link on the show notes page for more information. But we'll end, Steven, with another quote here from Meredith Hanoian and her and program notes. And I want to end with this because it sums things up with her personality and some of the composers that she was also good friends with.
Meredith writes, many of these friendships were fruitful with encouragement and support for Smyth's compositions. Brahms, who Smyth called a kindly jocular fellow, would discuss instrumentation with her. Once at a rehearsal of Smyth performing his piano quintet, her giant half- breed St. Bernard named Marco bounded into the room knocking Brahms over. Though as a dog lover himself, he did not seem to mind.
Tchaikovsky also enjoyed Smyth's musical depth and compositional style, writing many compliments after hearing her violin sonata. He befriended and mentored her, perhaps subconsciously supporting a fellow composer of the ambiguous 19th century LGBTQ+ community and wrote in an 1889 letter directly to Smyth saying, " Goodbye, dear Mademoiselle. I hope that you have composed many fine things, and I wish you every possible happiness. P. S. I hope that your dear dog is faring well."
I love that, Steve, and just this little connection between these two composers. One, she's getting Brahms knocked over onto the floor, and then Tchaikovsky is also writing hoping the dog as well and some warm wishes for her.
00:55:38
Steven Fox: Yes, it shows that she had a magnetic personality and really was very well- respected by so many of the great musicians of her day, both in England and in Continental Europe. And it was really a shame that her works fell into relative obscurity after her death. But it is a beautiful thing that we are coming to learn more about her now and her works are being played and sung much more. I'm delighted that our performance is not the first, and our recording of this piece will not be the first.
I think we often talk about the premiere as being such an important thing, but I think just as important are the second and third and fourth performances of pieces that have not received enough attention. We at Cathedral Choral Society certainly wanted to contribute to this building of energy around Ethel Smyth and particularly around this piece, the Mass in D, and we hope that our performance will inspire others around the globe.
00:56:37
John Banther: Well, thank you so much, Steven, for joining me to talk all about this mass. I think we've all enjoyed your conductor insights for this. And of course, we all wish you a very great performance.
00:56:46
Steven Fox: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.
00:56:50
John Banther: Thanks for listening to Classical Breakdown, your guide to classical music. For more information on this episode, visit the show notes page at ClassicalBreakdown. org. You can send me comments and episode ideas to ClassicalBreakdown@ WETA. org. And if you enjoyed this episode, leave a review in your podcast app. I'm John Banther. Thanks for listening to Classical Breakdown from WETA Classical.