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JM06 · Show · Judas Maccabaeus

Disdainful of Danger

The Maccabees go out to fight: three voices step out ahead of the ranks on Left, then the chorus takes it up and the whole column marches round the corner and down Porch Left, Judas leading.

1:22 · with a spoken intro

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Judas Maccabaeus

JM01OvertureIntro1:17The house in Seleucid purple, the Temple grey with idols; the armies march in from the road from Antioch, and in the hills the fugue wakes the Maccabees' blue lights one voice at a time.JM02Mourn, Ye Afflicted ChildrenIntro1:27Mattathias has died. The people's blue and white lights on the porch dim in long falling phrases, a slow lament flowing toward the Temple, and his light on Left goes out.JM03O Father, Whose Almighty PowerIntro1:17The people pray for a leader. The blue lights gather on Left and steady; Simon's deep blue names Judas, and a single brass-gold light appears among them.JM04Arm, Arm, Ye Brave!Intro1:23Simon calls the Maccabees to arms, and blue and white lights step into ranks along Left; the chorus answers 'We come, in bright array' and the ranks march in place on the beat.JM05Call Forth Thy PowersIntro1:23Judas takes command: his gold follows his voice up and down the ranks on Left, and every light it passes flares and stays brighter, until the whole rank shines.JM06Disdainful of DangerIntro1:22The Maccabees go out to fight: three voices step out ahead of the ranks on Left, then the chorus takes it up and the whole column marches round the corner and down Porch Left, Judas leading.JM07Fall'n Is the FoeIntro1:23The first victory: the Maccabees' blue and white sweep onto the field on Right, and every 'Fall'n' breaks a block of Seleucid purple, which scatters back to the road from Antioch.JM08Sion Now Her Head Shall RaiseIntro1:23After the victory, warm light rises from the porch toward the Temple while the Woman sings, harp glints climb the porch on every 'Tune your harps', and the chorus lifts the whole house.JM09Sound an Alarm!Intro1:21Purple armies pour in from the end of Right while Judas's gold calls the brave on Left; the chorus answers and the blue and white ranks charge across the house to meet them, steel clashing at the front.JM10We Never Will Bow DownIntro1:17Grey idols stand in the Temple on the porch. The people, blue and white across the house, refuse to bow, and on every 'stock' and 'stone' an idol cracks and falls, until the Temple is empty and clean.JM11Father of Heav'nIntro1:17The Feast of Dedication: the Temple on the porch is clean, and to the priest's prayer its olive-oil light comes back, slowly, from the middle outward, until it fills Porch Front.JM12See, the Conqu'ring Hero ComesIntro1:19Judas's gold walks up the road to the Temple with three voices beside him; then the people line the road, the whole chorus greets him, and the trumpets and drums light the whole house.JM13March, and Sing unto GodIntro1:26The people's blue and white march toward the Temple along every run, a pace on each beat, and gold joins them; then the chorus sings God's praise and the whole house swells with every chord.JM14O Lovely PeaceIntro1:22The purple is long gone: soft pastoral light, ripe corn and green pasture, slow and wide, and two voices of peace, white-silver on Left and sky blue on Right, coming together at the Temple.JM15Rejoice, O JudahIntro1:23Simon's deep blue calls Judah to rejoice; the chorus answers, and the whole house fills with blue, white and gold through Hallelujah and Amen, then settles back to the lights on the porch.JM16IntermissionIntermission5:00The house waits in blue, and white fills it from both wings toward the porch over five minutes, the lights' glow steady on the Temple, until the white meets in the middle and the set begins again.

About this scene

The Maccabees go out to fight, rank after rank off Left, round the corner and down Porch Left.

The scene opens where Call Forth Thy Powers (JM05) ended, and over the first seconds the rank on Left becomes the army drawn up in the hills (CARRY, from JM05's last frame: change both together): ranks of small blue and white lights along Left, Judas's brass gold in the middle of them, Seleucid purple on Right and Side, the Temple grey with its idols over the glow of the lights. The ritornello is the march's call: every sixteenth of the first violins lifts the white ranks, every note of the second violins the blue, and the scales that climb at its end run up the ranks toward the corner.

Then the trio, "Disdainful of danger, we'll rush on the foe", three voices stepping out ahead of the ranks near the corner of Left, each a small light that flares on its notes, the tenor first, then the bass, then the alto; Judas walks up through the ranks to the front of them. "That thy pow'r, O Jehovah, all nations may know": on each "-ho-" a white call runs from the front of the ranks down Porch Left to the Temple.

Then the chorus takes it up, forte, and the army moves: on every bar the whole column steps forward, Judas leading, round the corner and down Porch Left, the ranks flaring on the chorus's notes, a surge on each "we'll rush on the foe". By the closing ritornello Left is empty but for a trace of blue, and the ranks fill Porch Left, marching in place on the beat with Judas at their head by the Temple, facing the purple waiting on Right; on the last chord they stand. That is where Fall'n Is the Foe (JM07) begins: change both together.

The music is Handel's own: No. 22, "generally sung as a Trio, and repeated in Chorus", as the score says: the opening ritornello, the trio's first entries to "rush on the foe" and its "That thy pow'r, O Jehovah", then the end of the number as the chorus repeats it, and the closing ritornello's last eight bars, transcribed from the Novello vocal score into disdainful_of_danger.musicxml and timed by scripts/score_excerpt.py at a quaver of 144 (the score marks Allegro). The trio is played on flute, clarinet and bassoon over a harpsichord continuo; the chorus on strings with oboes and bassoons doubling and horns on the long notes; the ritornellos on the strings with the oboes on the top line. Marching feet under the chorus, the column's own sound.

For your own show

Short, bright pieces meant to be watched. The FSEQ (v2, zstd, 40 fps) plays in Falcon Player on a house with the same layout; see About for how it is made.

.fseq · 0.9 MB.mp3

Its spoken intro, to schedule before it: .fseq · .mp3