Johann Sebastian Bach Lobet den Hern, all Heiden, BWV 230
Peter Hallock Phoenix
Ralph Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music
First published in 1821, Lobet den Hern, all Heiden, BWV 230 is a motet by Johann Sebastian Bach which draws its text from Psalm 117. It is not know when the work was composed. The publisher claimed to have access to an autograph score. The work was subsequently catalogued as one of a set of six surviving motets by Bach and is the only set to be scored for four voices. One more unusual aspect of the piece is that lightly scored instrumental accompaniment is specified.
The Serenade to Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) was composed in 1938 with a text from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice describing the glories of music. At the 1938 premiere Sergei Rachmaninoff was in the audience and was so overcome by the beauty of the work that he wept, declaring that he had never been so moved by a piece of music.