David Rain: Ave Maria

[@DavidRainChoralComposer]

What a special feeling to be present at this world premiere of my Ave Maria choral adaptation of a favourite Brahms piano piece. Heartfelt thanks to Nicol Matt and the Chamber Choir of Europe for bringing this musical creation into the world. Vielen dank!

[@lindagama-pinto557]

Congratulations! Simply beautiful!

[@DavidRainChoralComposer]

@@lindagama-pinto557 Thanks Linda!

[@susanallen1179]

Beautiful!

[@DavidRainChoralComposer]

Thanks Susan!

[@hildigunnurr]

Excellent. A lovely start to the day. Saved :)

[@Grace-vt4tr]

David you have made my day....Ave Maria is one of my favourite pieces....and you have done a great job, keep it up. Congratulations!!! Grace

[@DavidRainChoralComposer]

Kea leboha, 'Me!

[@davidwilson6819]

For some reason reason this keeps appearing at Xmas time on my feed. My views have not changed. And David Rain, your point is well made but many of these arrangements (like this one) have been made without the composer's 'blessing'. Elgar was asked for permission for one such and replied "Over my dead body". and they had to wait, but still did. I think what irks me most here is the transference to a religious genre, which Brahms would most certainly not have wished.

[@DavidRainChoralComposer]

David, I am not in his class, of course, but can I ask how you feel about Schoenberg doing an orchestral transcription of Johannes Brahms’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor? Or the much loved orchestrations of Pictures at an Exhibition, by Ravel and others? Should composers never touch or adapt the original work of a dead composer into some other form? That would lead to a lot of much loved music never being performed again, I suspect. I'd be interested to know what you feel the moral principles are that are at play here. Is it a total, never ever adapt any dead composer's works to other forms?

[@grumpygrowler]

@@DavidRainChoralComposer Many thanks for taking the time reply in such detail. On reflection, I think my particular objection is the change of intended use here; from a piece for humanist reflection to one of religious dogma which the composer has always eschewed, more so towards the end of his life when this piece was written. I agree that orchestrations and reworking are part of music history and as you will know, Brahms himself transcribed Bach's chaconne and reworked studies by Chopin and Weber. Yet these are (like your Schoenberg and Ravel examples) are purely musical and help to promote the music in other textures and timbres. I feel your project (which I still admire for both your skill and the performers') 'crosses a line' of philosophical intention that the composer would have objected to. For more detail, please see Jan Stafford's biography, especially pages 317-9. Best David Wilson

[@DavidRainChoralComposer]

@@grumpygrowler Thanks David, I understand better now. And, speaking as an agnostic myself, I can only hope that Brahms himself might appreciate the spirit behind my project: certainly not dogmatic, but rather, that there is a special spiritual essence to the "Ave Maria" prayer that can touch us all, the same special spiritual essence that I find flows through his timeless, otherworldly Intermezzo. And if he were to be upset with me nonetheless, I would of course offer an apology to him and hope for his forgiveness and understanding.

[@DavidRainChoralComposer]

I was asked a very interesting question: "How did you come with the idea for the first introductory bars? I am basing my question on the original version for piano." Here is my answer: First of all, I felt some kind of intro would be appropriate, i.e. not to start straight away with the Brahms melody. I initially had the tenors and basses singing Ave Maria, Ave Maria, etc, on a kind of drone a perfect 5th apart. This was fine, but somehow it didn't feel very Brahmsian. I then thought to myself, why not play a bit with the first 3 notes of Brahms' gorgeous melody: mi, re, fa. Thus the tenors sing this but not quite in the right rhythm, like somehow they are searching for Maria herself, and then they hand it over lovingly to the sopranos, who then give full expression to the original Brahms melody. It took me an incredible amount of time to land on something which now sounds so simple, and so obvious.

[@sarahdecker4084]

Beautiful. Thank you for sharing the process behind your composition, I was wondering the same thing.

[@DavidRainChoralComposer]

@@sarahdecker4084 You're welcome, Sarah, thanks for having a listen, the sound of the choir was amazing!

[@DavidRainChoralComposer]

For more song information or sheet music, visit: davidrainchoralcomposer.ca/songs/ave-maria-brahms/.

[@grumpygrowler]

A bit of a travesty. Johannes will be spinning. Technically good but there's a Brahms setting already he might have preferred.

[@DavidRainChoralComposer]

Thanks for your comment, David. Yes Brahms did write a very beautiful Ave Maria himself, which I love. There is always a risk when adapting something from one genre to another. I have tried to be as respectful as I could to Brahms' legacy in my arrangement, and I hope that I have been honouring him through this. I acknowledge there will be some who may see things differently. Thanks again.

[@grumpygrowler]

@@DavidRainChoralComposer A year later, I feel the same. We have no right to do this to fellow composers. Brahms himself destroyed manuscripts and arrangements he considered unworthy.

[@DavidRainChoralComposer]

@@grumpygrowler I respect your views, David. That said, throughout Western musical history, composers have been borrowing and adapting pieces by other composers, and this continues til today. So many examples, orchestrations of piano pieces, string quartets, you name it, and of course on this very same concert program was John Cameron's much loved Lux Aeterna arrangement of Elgar's famous Nimrod movement: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r6uQi2aooK2KiLM