The small early music group Intimate Baroque specializes in small scale vocal chamber music using members of Seattle’s large and often distinguished pool of Baroque musicians and singers. Formed by sopranos Rebekah Gilmore and Madeline Bersamina with Nancy Zylstra, arguably the finest voice teacher of the Baroque style in the Northwest, the group recently performed Buxtehude’s 1680 seven-cantata meditation on Christ’s body, “Membra Jesu Nostri,” highly appropriate for this time of year.
Less than an hour for all seven, it may have been composed to be sung in sections on different Sundays at the Marienkirche, Lübeck, where he was organist and choirmaster just as, later, Bach, who learned much from the older composer, did for the churches where he was in charge.
Performed here at St. Mark’s Cathedral with a small force of five voices–the two aforementioned sopranos, counter-tenor Joshua Haberman, tenor David Hendrix and bass Gabriel Lewis-O’Connor; and six instrumentalists: violinists Ingrid Matthews and Cecilia Archuleta, violist Laurel Wells, cellist Page Smith, viola da gambist Joanna Blendulf and chamber organist Leslie Martin–it was a rare chance to hear this pre-Bach work performed as it might have been done then.
The title means “The limbs of our Jesus,” with the cantatas addressing Jesus’ feet, knees, hands, side, chest, heart, and face, with each with a short instrumental introduction, followed by a Biblical quotation and then verses possibly written by thirteenth-century poet Arnulf of Leuven. The way Buxtehude has set them is fairly repetitive, without much ornamentation, dynamic or tempo change (this was often a steady four beat or a lilting rhythm) and not a huge change in mood from one to the next. Some sung parts felt more somber or sadder than others, some a little more lively or reflective, but while this is beautiful, heartfelt music, it is not passionate.
While both sopranos’ voices rang out quite well in their uppermost registers, the range seemed a bit low for them the rest of the time and their voices had less projection strength, though that may in part be due to the uneven acoustics of the cathedral. The three men fared better, all of them with very pure voices perfect for the style of singing and which carried in the space.
The excellent instrumental ensemble balanced the voices, which themselves were matched well, and the whole was directed minimally by Gilmore. At the start, the audience was treated to Buxtehude’s Praeludium in A Minor, BuxWV 153, played on the magnificent Flentrop organ by cathedral organist Michael Kleinschmidt. A joy to hear.
