Saint Anthony Chorale

Joseph Heintz the Younger - St. Anthony and the Miracle of the Mule
Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, Italy
(http://www.friendsofart.net/en/art/joseph-heintz-the-younger/st-anthony-of-padua:-the-miracle-of-the-mule)

I was under ten when I read a booklet about St. Anthony of Padua, and I have loved him ever since. The tales about his miracles are naive in the best sense of the word, funny and gracious, they make you approach him like a child, in simplicity and joy.

The name of the saint is also related to a musical miracle: a work of Brahms is based on an old piece known as St. Anthony Chorale.

When I heard for the first time the Variations on a Theme by Haydn I was marveled: the music sounded noble and joyful, it was like an invitation to a universe where any miracle would have been natural.

I heard then this work many times and it kept for me the same freshness as the first time. Here is a 1957 recording of the Variations with Philarmonia Orchestra led by Karajan.

(video by David Hertzberg)

Now: how is this work of Brahms linked to St. Anthony? Well, it's not that simple. There are variations on a theme by Haydn. Here is the first trap: Brahms was a great admirer of Haydn and he wanted to use the theme with variations form in order to offer in some kind a dialog between his view on music and the view of his revered model. So when he was presented with a transcription of a Divertimento in two movements attributed to Haydn, he immediately took the second part and created the variations on it. Brahms was convinced that the author of the Divertimento had been Haydn; some scholars believe that the friend of Brahms who came to him with the transcription of the Divertimento was actually wrong, and the author had been another person, the Austrian-born French composer Ignaz Pleyel. Up to now nobody has been able to establish beyond any doubt who had been the author of the Divertimento, and anyway Brahms was totally unaware of all this: for him the theme had been created by Haydn and he composed the variations as a homage to the genius of Haydn.

And this is only the first trap. Here is a another one: nobody knows whether the author of the Divertimento (be it Haydn or Pleyel) created the second part from the scratch or used a more ancient melody: St. Anthony Chorale! (now, you shouldn't believe that the Chorale, as ancient as it could be, was composed by St. Anthony, neither in his epoch: est modus in rebus)

And to make a long history short, here is St. Anthony Chorale, recorded at the Church in Steinkjer, Norway. Enjoy!

(video by sveinaost)

(Aimez-vous Brahms?)