Holst: or, the music of words
That Gustav Holst, he was a sharp guy. And he cared about words as well as music.
A section of “The Hymn of Jesus” was giving me fits, switching back and forth between 5/4 and 5/2. I just wasn’t coping. And then it was pointed out to us at rehearsal that this was a mini-Socratic-drama, Chorus 2 firing urgent queries at Chorus 1 for reply.
And suddenly it fell into place for me. Chorus 1 and Chorus 2 trade ten beats back and forth, call-and-response style, only Chorus 2’s line divides into two groups of five beats (two measures of 5/4), and Chorus 1’s into five groups of two beats (one measure of 5/2).
It’s insanely clever. Chorus 2’s five-beat measures sound off-kilter, unbalanced, worried. “I have no resting place!” they cry, and they sure sound like it. Whereas Chorus 1 emits a steady stream of calm, straightforward half-notes: “I have the earth, and I have heaven.” The emotional impact of the words is all there in the music.
Put that way, I find that I can deal with the rapid-fire time-signature changes. Though the single measure of 4/2 amidst 3/2 at “We praise thee, O Father” gets me every damn time still; I persist in coming in a beat early. Eh, well, this is why there are rehearsals.