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2011|12 LRMC Program Notes
Holiday Treasures
Los Robles Master Chorale is delighted to present Holiday Treasures, its annual family-oriented holiday concert! Presenting classic choral favorites such as Roger Wagner's The Christmas Story according to Saint Luke and Alfred Burt carols, as well as contemporary pieces by Eric William Barnum, Shawn Kirchner, and Michael W. Smith, LRMC combines them with a handbell choir and audience sing-a-longs of some secular favorites of the season, as we look to entertain and engage while enjoying the sounds of the holidays!
Frohlocket, ihr Völker, Op. 79, No. 1, was the first motet written by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847) in 1843, as part of a six-anthem set (Sechs Sprüche) for the Berlin Cathedral Choir, tied to the reinstitution of the revised Prussian liturgy. The king encouraged a return to a cappella writing in the style of Palestrina, and discouraged the commonplace practice of using wind instruments to double voice parts. Frohlocket, ihr Völker was used as the introit and gradual that Christmas at the cathedral. Op. 78 and 79 largely represent Mendelssohn's work as the royal composer of church music.
Between 1942 and 1954, Alfred Shaddick Burt (1920-1954), following his father and grandfather's tradition, composed fifteen Christmas carols that were sent to family and friends in the form of a Christmas card. Burt was the son of an Episcopal minister, and a jazz musician who worked first with the Alvino Rey Orchestra and then with the King Sisters in the 40s and 50s. The carols we have chosen for this concert were all written in the last four years of Burt's life, Caroling, Caroling; We'll Dress the House; and the last carol he ever composed, The Star Carol. The texts Burt used in his final years were written by his hometown church organist, Wihla Hutson (1901-2002), and were perhaps the most personal to him. Caroling, Caroling and We'll Dress the House were not used as Christmas cards, but his final composition, The Star Carol was the last Christmas carol used as a card and was sent posthumously by his wife, Anne, in 1954.
Brad Printz (1955-2005) was a Kansas City-based music educator and highly respected composer and arranger of choral music. His exhilarating arrangement of Sing With Joy, Sing Noel (Personent Hodie), a fourteenth century German tune, adds a new English text to the traditional Latin and incorporates handbell accompaniment.
Daddy's Christmas Cowboy was written in 1955 by brothers Tim & Glenn Spencer, with words by Red Rowe. Tim Spencer was one of the Sons of the Pioneers and many of the songs he composed or co-composed with his brother Glenn, were written for performance by that group. This particular song, however, never saw the light of day. There is one unpublished recording, sung by Ken Curtis (Sons of the Pioneers, Gunsmoke), but the sheet music was never actually published. The arrangement we present this evening was created by dictating the melody and harmonic structure from the recording and was arranged in the style of Barbershop for the men of the chorale, with apologies to Ken Curtis and the brothers Spencer!
Lloyd Pfautsch (1921-2003) was one of the preeminent figures in American choral music for more than fifty years both as a conductor of university choral ensembles and as a composer of choral music. His setting of the Annunciation is taken from Luke I:28-31 and combines motives taken from Gregorian chants with a twentieth century avant-garde harmonic language in the women's voices and an arpeggiatic accompaniment.
Brightest and Best, arranged by Shawn Kirchner (b. 1970), is a Southern Harmony (1835) hymn using a text by Reginald Heber (1811). Shawn's setting employs much spirit and solid four-part male singing from the choir, and a rather demanding part for the piano accompaniment. Like all of Shawn's arrangements, this piece was written with the singer in mind, so it sings easily and with much beauty.
Eric William Barnum's (b. 1979) Sweeter Still is a very lovely carol, much in the style of his teacher, David Dickau. Currently a DMA candidate in choral music at the University of Washington, Barnum has received much attention nationally for his choral compositions.
The men sing one of the most famous and performed Christmas songs of all time, Do You Hear What I Hear?, arranged by Harry Simeone (1911-2005). It is always a welcome addition to a holiday program, but the male chorus version is particularly exciting.
The first half of the program closes with the modern-day carol, Christmastime, which debuted on the 1998 holiday album of the same name by contemporary Christian singer-songwriter Michael W. Smith (b. 1957), a Billboard top ten and multiple Grammy-winning recording artist. This arrangement by Heather Sorenson highlights the handbells of Ascension Lutheran's Carillon Choir.
Gaudete is a sacred Christmas carol composed in the sixteenth century and first published in 1582 in Piae Cantiones, a collection of Finnish/Swedish sacred songs. The Latin text is a typical medieval song of praise, which follows the standard pattern for the time - a uniform series of four-line stanzas, each preceded by a two-line refrain. No music is given for the verses, but the standard tune comes from an older liturgical book.
The Biebl Ave Maria Angelus Domini is one of the more beloved compositions in the choral repertoire. Noted for its soaring melodies and particularly lush harmonies, Franz Xavier Biebl (1906-2001) composed the piece in 1964, although its harmonic language reflects very much that of the German Romantic composers. The harmonic structure, however, is rooted in the twentieth century, based upon key shifts that would have been a little surprising to a nineteenth century ear. The version we present this evening for male chorus, is the original scoring - the SATB and subsequent other voicings followed the success of this one.
The Christmas Story according to Saint Luke (Luke 2:1-20) was composed and arranged by Roger Wagner (1914-1992) in 1963 for a television special starring Tennessee Ernie Ford (1919-1991) and featuring the Roger Wagner Chorale. Written to demonstrate the rich sonorities and overtones of the Wagner Chorale, Roger's arrangements of the traditional carols appeared on the album Joy to the World before being used in this form. John LeMay will narrate this beloved classic while the choir will recall the sounds of the Roger Wagner Chorale at its best....
John Rutter's Rejoice and Be Merry is arranged for
choir, keyboard and handbells. A traditional English carol taken
from an old Church Gallery Book attributed to the Reverend J.L.T.
Darwall, Rutter sets it in a very celebratory style, making it a
joyous song of the season.
- Lesley Leighton/Robert Weibezahl
Holiday Presence
Welcome to Holiday Presence, Los Robles Master Chorale's second concert of this festive season. We hope you will enjoy this global celebration, which features traditional carols from many lands, including Latvia, France, China, Venezuela, Kenya, and the United States, along with some popular and some less familiar pieces.
The concert begins with John Henry Fowler's arrangement of Gaudete, a sacred Christmas carol composed in the sixteenth century and first published in 1582 in Piae Cantiones, a collection of Finnish/Swedish sacred songs. The Latin text is a typical medieval song of praise, which follows the standard pattern for the time - a uniform series of four-line stanzas, each preceded by a two-line refrain. No music is given for the verses, but the standard tune comes from an older liturgical book.
Hodie Christus Natus Est is a motet for five voices by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562 -1621), a Dutch composer, organist and music teacher whose work straddled the end of the Renaissance and the beginning of the Baroque era. Although best known for his keyboard works, he composed more than 250 works for voice. This piece was published in 1619, near the end of the composer's life. The text, taken from a medieval Gregorian chant, has been set by many composers through the years, including Palestrina (c.1525-1594) and William Bird (c.1540-1623), as well as contemporary composer Nico Muhly (b. 1981), who utilizes it in Senex Puerum Portabat, which the chorale will sing later in the program.
Andrejs Jansons was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1938, and was educated at the Italian State Conservatory, Juilliard, the Manhattan School of Music, and Rutgers University. In 1975, he became the artistic director of the newly formed New York Latvian Concert Choir, a position he still holds. Jansons has written two sets of Three Latvian Carols, and tonight the chorale performs one from the first set, written in 1991. The text for Ziemassvētku nakts (Christmas Night) is by Valda Mora (1902-2001).
The anonymous Chinese text, c. 1935, used by St. Olaf College Emeritus Professor of Music Carolyn Jennings in Pengyou, Ting! (Listen, friend!) appears in a Chinese hymnal with a different melody than the one used here. Instead, Jennings uses a Chinese folk melody that appears in the same hymnal, but with a different text. The ancient pentatonic melody carries the text with graceful buoyancy. Venez, mes enfants is one of three Noëls Anciens arranged for chorus by Canadian music professor Donald Patriquin (b. 1938). The Noëls Anciens are a form of popular literature, spiritual songs of the Nativity which date back to the medieval Mystery Plays and still come to life at Christmastime in France and Quebec. They depict, often in picturesque detail and without the least concern for authenticity, the customs of the time and the various events connected with the Nativity story. Venez, mes enfants originates from the Alsace region.
Composed to lullabies written by the most important Latin American female poet of the twentieth century and winner of the 1945 Nobel Prize in Literature, Gabriela Mistral - a nom de plume for Lucila de María del Perpetuo Socorro Godoy Alcayaga (1889-1957), taken in honor of French writer Frederic Mistral - Venezuelan composer and conductor, Alberto Grau (b. 1938) shows Spanish harmonic influence throughout the two pieces in Canciones de Cuna. The rhythmic rocking heard especially in the first lullaby suggests the cradle of which the soloist sings. It is interesting to note that Grau dedicated the first piece to his eldest daughter, Beatriz, and the second to a member of his Schola Cantorum, Rocio Asuaje, the first member of the choir to have a child.
Natufurahi Siku Ya Leo, a traditional Taita folk song arranged by Boniface Mganga (b. 1954), was popularized by Mganga and his Muungano National Choir (founded, 1979). A native Kenyan, Mganga brought African music into the Western world through touring and recordings with the Muungano National Choir. Set in a typical Kenyan call and response style, Natufurahi Siku Ya Leo has a simple harmonic structure; the complexities are in the rhythm of the percussion.
Grammy® Award winner Salli Terri (1922-1996) was a soloist and arranger for the Roger Wagner Chorale (f. 1946) beginning in 1953. She also recorded several solo albums, including the particularly memorable Conversations with Guitar with Laurindo Almeida (1917-1995), and was widely known for her renditions of folk songs. Jesus, Jesus, Rest Your Head is a folk song written by John Jacob Niles (1892-1980) that Terri arranged and sang for the Wagner Chorale in the 50s, recorded in Studio A at Capitol® Records for the Joy to the World album.
William L. Dawson (1899-1990) was an African-American composer, choir director, and professor. He taught at the Tuskegee Institute from 1931 to 1956, where he developed the Tuskegee Institute Choir into an internationally renowned ensemble. Dawson dedicated this arrangement of the traditional, Mary Had a Baby, to Robert Shaw (1916-1999).
One of the most often heard Christmas carols, Hark the Herald Angels Sing was written by hymnist Charles Wesley in the 18th century. Robert Hunter (1929-2001) arranged the song as a commission celebrating 75 years of Jesuit higher education in Los Angeles, for Loyola Marymount University in 1988 at the request of its beloved Fr. Richard H. Trame, S.J., Ph.D. (1921-1998). The arrangement, which brings the first half of tonight's program to a close, demonstrates clearly the virtuosity of Hunter in his ability to set a song simply, yet effectively, always evoking the rawest of human emotions from both singers as well as listeners.
Immortal Bach (1988), by Norwegian composer Kurt Nystedt (b. 1915), is modeled on Bach's chorale "Komm, süsser Tod" ("Come, Sweet Death"), and is a deconstruction of the piece for a cappella choir. The choir begins by singing the chorale as it was written by Bach; then, the choir is divided into five sections and each sings through each of the three phrases again. But this time, each vocal section moves at a different slow pace through the phrase, so that all of the parts move independently of the others. At the end of each phrase, all the parts come to rest on the final chord; there is a pause, and the next phrase begins. As the parts combine in different ways, new sonorities and dissonances are created.
Senex Puerum Portabat by Nico Muhly (b. 1981) was commissioned by Works and Process at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, and was premiered in the rotunda of the museum on December 15, 2008 by the Vox Vocal Ensemble and the Graham Ashton Brass Ensemble, conducted by George Steel. It is a new Christmas carol setting two texts: Senex Puerum Portabat and Hodie Christus Natus Est, which the composer says he wrote to counter the proliferation of Christmas music that is either really majestic (O Come All Ye Faithful) or really still (Silent Night), but rarely ecstatic. On his website (nicomuhly.com), Muhly writes, "My basic scheme was that the first part (Senex Puerum Portabat) was a series of pulses anchoring the texture, and then at the second part, we encounter an ecstatic brass band which then explodes into free-form speaking-in-tongues at "Gloria in Excelsis Deo.... The way I structured it was around a single drone (a G) over which we could imagine an old man gingerly carrying a child. I love a drone in the middle of a texture: rather than a pedal point or an inverted pedal, a center drone focuses the ear like nutmeg in a sauce. The brass joins, and the drone repeats, this time with slightly more Regal pomp. The G stays with us this whole time, tossed around between the trumpets and the singers. A big crescendo, and suddenly we are at Christmas day, with the Hodies, dragging us out of the G, and delivering the first chord with no G - an aleatoric, ecstatic repeating pattern on "Gloria in excelsis Deo" - the initial drones made electric, anxious, and all-encompassing. A series of overlapping and messy brass triads wipe the sky clean, and we're left with another drone on two notes (a and b) and the text "Alleluia," sung quietly."
A set of three contemporary songs begins with the women of the chorale singing Michael Isaacson's (b. 1946) adaptation of the Ladino Candle Lighting Blessing, which features a macaronic text from the Ladino Sephardic language, a Judaeo-Spanish tongue spoken among some Sephardic Jewish communities and used, as in this case, in religious texts. Irving Berlin's (1888-1989) White Christmas is a standard that is known the world over. Born Israel Isidore Baline in the Russian Empire, Berlin emigrated with his family to New York City where he lived until he died at the ripe age of 101 in 1989. Considered to be one of the of the greatest song writers of all time, Berlin penned White Christmas in 1942 for the film Holiday Inn, starring Bing Crosby - Crosby's subsequent recording of this song remained the best-selling single in any music category for more than fifty years. Berlin won the Academy Award for Best Music in an Original Song for this composition. Nearly as popular as the Berlin classic, The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) was written by Mel Tormé (1925-1999) and Robert Wells (1922-1998) in 1944. According to Tormé, the song was written during a blistering hot summer in an effort to "stay cool by thinking cool." Nat King Cole (1919-1965) recorded the song four times between 1946 and 1961, with the last, stereophonic version, now considered the definitive recording, although countless other performers have recorded it as well. This choral version, arranged by Walter Ehret (1918-2009), exploits the pop melody with close, jazz-influenced harmonies.
The beloved British choral composer John Rutter (b. 1945) was commissioned to write his Gloria by the Voices of Mel Olson, who first performed the work in May 1974 in Omaha, Nebraska, under the direction of the composer. This three-movement work sets the Latin text from the Ordinary of the Mass. Rutter's setting is based mainly on one of the Gregorian chants associated with the text. The opening and closing movements, marked "Allegro vivace" and "Vivace e ritmico" respectively, are jubilant, the middle "Andante" movement is more introspective and devotional, as befits the text. The accompaniment is for brass ensemble, timpani, percussion and organ. The Gloria remains one of Rutter's most popular works. "Choirs love to sing this music," wrote BBC Music Magazine, "and audiences seldom fail to respond to it."
We close Holiday Presence with Roger Wagner's (1914-1992)
arrangement of Silent Night from his The Christmas
Story according to Saint Luke, composed and arranged by
Wagner in 1963 for a television special starring Tennessee Ernie
Ford (1919-1991) and featuring the Roger Wagner Chorale - the perfect
ending to any musical celebration of this holy and festive season.
- Robert Weibezahl
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