Christus (Liszt) - Part One: Christmas Oratorio

Part One: Christmas Oratorio

I. Motivum - Introduction
II. Pastorale and Annunciation
III. Stabat Mater speciosa ('Stood the beautiful Mother')
IV. Song of the Shepherds at the Manger
V. The Three Kings

The narrator (see above) brings the 'motivum' of the work at the very opening, speaking in Latin, and then follows the introduction by the orchestra, once more punctuated by the voice of the narrator, bringing the words from Isaiah, 45:8. The introduction is largely of light, pastoral atmosphere, and its duration is around 18 minutes. It is a kind of free polyphonic fantasy on the plainchant for Advent 'Rorate coeli', building from a quiet start seamlessly to a climax.
In the 'Pastorale and Annunciation', we hear the soprano and tenor soloists and the choir for the first time. Supported and coloured by the orchestra, they sing of the angels coming among some shepherds, heralding the birth of Jesus Christ (Luke, 2:10-14). The Angelus music is based upon the perfect-fifth derived from the 'Rorate coeli'.
'Stabat Mater speciosa' is a long, nearly a capella movement for chorus and some organ passages. The Latin hymn which is sung is a 'sister-hymn' to 'Stabat Mater dolorosa', and is to be sung to a rather similar melody, yet is in brighter, calmer mood and the words are different, describing Mary watching little Jesus in his cradle and at play.
In the 'Song of the Shepherds at the Manger', the pastoral atmosphere reaches its climax in gentle and merry melodies of the oboes, clarinets and bassoons, again based on the perfect-fifth interval. The music constantly builds up and by the end of the movement reaches its joyous and dance-like peak. This movement, it is important to add, is entirely instrumental.
The closing movement of this part, 'The Three Kings', is in fact a march on a grand scale which starts with a quiet but steady and springy tread and moves inexorably on to close fortissimo with the full orchestra. The movement includes the narrator (see above), with words of the journey of the Three Kings (Matthew 2:9,11). There are three main themes of this movement. While all the themes are independent, all begin with the same germ idea. The first one begins with a rising perfect fifth, depicting the march. Another one, depicting the star, on a descending arpeggio of the triad outlining the fifth (so this is the fifth in inversion, and transformation). And the third is more sinuous, its opening rising phrase outlining the intervalic rise to the fifth, and then descending the fifth back to the tonic as an arpeggio (and is thus also a motivic combination of the other two). All three themes are developed and Part One ends magnificently and optimistically.