Program Notes: Winter Sky

As we sing tonight, the low winter sun sets early.  To the north, beneath the handle of the Little Dipper and riding the back of Taurus, shine the Pleiades, dozens of tiny gems surrounding the Seven Sisters.  This brilliant cluster, pictured on our cover courtesy of a telescopic photograph,  can still be viewed by eye wherever the screen of electric light has not smeared night’s vivid darkness.  In this season of natural darkness, human imagination and faith create festivals of light, such as Hanukkah — a feast of miraculously burning oil lamps — and Christmas, which anticipates both the return of the sun and the birth of a son.  Like stargazing, so also poetry and music still conjure this sense of anticipation and hope.  Tonight, Cantabile presents music and texts to evoke winter’s dark and celebrate festivals of light.

Around 1680, in a papal protectorate near Avignon that paid duties to King Louis but remained a haven of tolerance outside the rule of France, a prosperous Jewish merchant, anticipating the birth of a son, commissioned a cantata (Canticum Hebraicum) for the circumcision ceremony.  In his pride (or was this the composer’s idea?) he chose a text praising the Almighty (‘Nismecha yachad Eloheino echad eil chai olamim) and calling for the swift coming of the Tishbite [that is, Messiah] (‘Shelach Tishbi maheir vehavi bizchut beritecha le’am amusecha.)  Little is known of composer Louis Saladin.  The scholarship of Israel Adler and Joshua Jacobson have resulted in a modern edition of this cantata, which is musically typical of the early French Baroque with its ‘swing’ triplet rhythms.  A full scoring would have strings, winds, and percussion for the dance-like sections.

At the same time, the Restoration in England fostered more elaborate anthems, imitating the splendor of the French court with ever larger instrumental forces.  Henry Purcell’s Christmas Anthem for the Chapel Royal (1687) was thus essentially a cantata exploiting the spectacular low voice of a celebrated ‘base’, the Rev. John Gostling.

Praise Wet Snow Falling Early, like the Christmas Anthem, is a Gloria (‘Praise the Lord’):  the second movement of a complete Mass celebrating the Day of St. Thomas Didymus (‘doubting Thomas’).  This is praise with a sharp purpose, reminding us that peace is no free gift, but a struggle against bloody impulse.  Poet, editor, and critic  Denise Levertov, born in England, became an American citizen in 1956.  Raised as Anglican, she undertook to write a Mass as a way to explore a text that had inspired music and poetry for centuries.  As quoted by Kathleen Norris in Christian Century (Feb 17 1999), Levertov wrote that “writing this Mass — the long swim through waters of unknown depth — had also been a conversion process” toward Catholicism.  Composer Elizabeth Alexander earned her doctorate in composition at Cornell in 1990. Her  compositions have been performed by over a hundred American choirs ranging from the American Master Chorale and the Gregg Smith Singers to elementary school choirs.  She has set texts by Sandburg, e. e. cummings, and others.  “Praise Wet Snow” won Highest Honors at the 2002 Oregon Bach Festival’s “Waging Peace through Singing” project.

All This Night begins with the shrill  ‘wake-up’ call of a rooster, chanticler, singer of light.  The Sun dispels dark and rescues the soul from darkness, as mortals gaze in awe and hail the Sun of Righteousness.  This holy pun was committed by William Austin, a London barrister of the early 1600s, who turned from writing popular humorous verse in his youth to producing a series of devotional poems for the great church festivals.  His posthumous book Haec Homo espoused the equality of women with men, declaring women to be the perfection of God’s creation.  Composer Gerald Finzi was deemed by Ralph Vaughan Williams to be his successor, but he died at age 55, in 1956.  Finzi set many poems of Thomas Hardy, produced a setting of Wordsworth’s Intimations of Mortality that is considered to be his masterpiece, and, with his wife, edited the works of poet and composer Ivor Gurney.

John Tavener calls for “extreme tenderness — flexible– always guided by the words” in performing his setting of the best-known of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence, The Lamb.  Yet the musical structure is rigorously symmetrical in time and in pitch.  It is as if the freehand artistry of an engraver  were reproduced fourfold mirrorwise on the page, so deftly that the symmetry itself disappeared.  Blake’s poems have inspired many composers — Cantabile performed most recently two premieres of madrigal settings by American composer David Avshalomov.  Tavener arrived on the British musical scene in 1968 with his composition The Whale, for orchestra and pre-recorded tape. He was soon invited by Benjamin Britten to create an opera.  Later he found renewed compositional inspiration in the music of the Orthodox Church, and produced the Akathist of Thanksgiving (1988) to celebrate the millennium of Russian Orthodoxy.  A vast public heard the “Song for Athene” (1998) at the funeral of Princess Diana.

The Frost settings come from Frostiana, a cycle commissioned by the Town of Amherst to commemorate the town’s bicentennial (1955) and to honor the poet who taught for many years at Amherst College.  For the premiere, Composer Randall Thompson conducted the community Bicentennial Chorus, with his friend Frost in the audience.

Both men are strongly associated with New England.  Thompson began his teaching career at Wellesley and ended it at Harvard, after stints at Berkeley, Princeton and the Curtis Institute. Robert Frost is often considered the iconic New England poet, and some of his poems, such as Stopping by Woods, are so widely taught that they seem obvious or sentimental.  That reaction is of course unfair to an artist who emphasized that poetry is a creation of intellect as well as feeling.

“Stopping by Woods” appeared in 1923 in the collection  New Hampshire: a Poem with Grace Notes.  Each short stanza comes almost to rest, but not quite, as one verse line, lacking its rhyme, anticipates the next stanza.  The poem ends with a famous repetition — or is this, too, an anticipation and a challenge?  Composer Thompson likewise uses simple means but avoids the obvious.  Hymn-like men’s voices match tempo but not cadence with steadily falling snow, and each phrase detours for an extra measure before arriving at its goal.  “Come In” appeared twenty years later during wartime, as title poem of a collection.  Miles later, the woods, still dark, are no longer ‘lovely’, but a sad place where a thrush’s song is ‘almost like a call to come into the dark and lament.’  This time Frost’s choice is clear: “But no, I was out for stars.’  In Thompson’s setting, the piano’s trill accompanies women’s voices.

Last winter’s concert featured a premiere of  “Winter Madrigals” by Bruce Lazarus.  This year  Cantabile presents a newly commissioned work, A Guide to the Winter Sky.  Lazarus writes:

I’ve been fascinated by stars and galaxies as far back as I can remember. My youthful imagination was fed by a mixture of science fact and fiction: the early NASA program, “Lost in Space,” my first good telescope, the Hayden Planetarium, “Star Trek,” Arthur C. Clarke novels. To this day, I have a strong sense of connection to distant planets, stars, galaxies, and the universe – an ongoing spiritual experience.

My long-term romance with space has often sparked my music. My Alpha Centuri (2000) for harpsichord quartet and Ordinary Stars (2002) for solo piano were premiered at the Storm King Music Festival in Cornwall, New York, and last year I was privileged to compose a choral work for Rebecca Scott’s Juilliard Pre-College Chamber Chorale – StarSongs – a 20-minute cantata on astronomical themes for youth chorus, flute, cello, and harp. Guide to the Winter Sky, for SATB adult voices and piano, looks upward to the stars while keeping its musical feet planted firmly on Planet Earth, and was designed to be performed preferably on an evening when there’s a layer of frost underfoot and a nip of winter chill in the air.

We begin in the manner of an astronomy handbook (or planetarium show) by pointing out a few easy-to-see features of the 9 p.m. winter sky (“Ursa Minor hangs from the North Star, and Ursa Major sits on its tail near the horizon.”), progress to discussions of the mythologies behind a few constellations and star groupings (Cassiopeia, Castor and Pollux, the Pleiades), describe the yearly shift of Cygnus’s east-west orientation from an upside-down T-shaped winged Swan into an upright T-shaped Cross, and conclude with a meditation on space and time in general (“.boundless space and time without end — it never ends.”).

We close with a series of graceful settings of folk carols.  Troc-a-Tronechoes the clip-clop of donkey’s hooves on the long journey to Bethlehem.  Czech composer, organist, and musicologist Petr Eben has produced many large-scale orchestral works, and like Tavener often turns to plainchant.  Here, he shows his love of old folk melody, in what has been called “styled archaism”.  Settings of Donkey Plod and Mary Rideand How Soft, Upon the Ev’ning Air come from Thomas Dunhill and Eric Thiman, both known for accessible keyboard works, melodious songs and cantatas suitable for community and school choruses, in conservative early 20th century ‘typically English’ style.  A much more opulent flowering of the folk-song movement is the Fantasia on Christmas Carols by Ralph Vaughan Williams.  Describing a recent recording, reviewer Stephen Schwartz notes that despite its loose form, this is far from just a string of melodies — it’s the work of a considerable symphonist.  Finally, from John Rutter, editor of British carol and chorus editions, composer of the Requiem (1985) and Magnificat (1990), a colorful setting of The Twelve Days of Christmas.  May you all get the gift you most desire this holiday season.

Schaffe in mir, Gott by Johannes Brahms
Composed in 1860 as one of three a cappella motets set to Lutheran religious text, Schaffe in mir, Gott is divided into three short sections. The first movement is a canon in augmentation in G major expressing repentance and the desire for a pure heart. The second movement is a chromatic fugue in G minor asking for grace and forgiveness. The third movement ends with a fugue based on the motet’s opening theme asking for the joy of the Holy Spirit to descend upon us.

After a calm, hymn-like opening section, and the anxious plea “Verwirf mich nicht” (cast me not away) set as an extremely chromatic tonally wandering fugue, the motet returns to its home key with a sense of restoration — “Tröste mich wieder” (comfort me once more). Now voices, rather than pulling in different directions, overlap in a simple dance-like melody. Brahms’ text here, “der freudige Geist erhalte mich” (may a joyful spirit uphold me), is rather sunnier than that of the Luther Bible: “mit einem willigen Geist rüste mich aus” (equip me with a willing spirit). –Bruce Bush

Whenever I hear the song of a bird by Clara McMaster
Sister Clara McMaster died at the age of 93, having served the Mormon Church her entire life as a leader and teacher in the Primary (children’s organization). She composed six songs in the children’s singing book. This one reminds us simply that we live in a state of Grace and need not be discouraged. We can experience joy simply by looking at and listening to nature.

Corn Song by Gustav Holst
Gustav Holst suffered neglect as a child resulting in a lifetime of ill health. He studied composition with Stanford at the Royal College of Music along with Ralph Vaughan Williams. Then he took up the trombone to support himself and learn orchestration and even played in the Brighton beach resorts. He was shy and solitary, living frugally as a strict vegetarian. A fall off the stage precipitated more long years of illness. Nervousness and hard work resulted in little support or adulation. Finally he was sent to a nursing home and given the choice of living impaired for the rest of his life or having a difficult operation. The operation was a failure and he died tragically at the early age of 59. Holst hated conventionality and enjoyed new and humorous ideas. In spite of conservatory training, he was basically self-taught and believed that composition should serve the situation. During his lifetime, he had little success as a composer. His daughter, Imogen Holst, an outstanding musician herself and an assistant to Benjamin Britten, was devoted to promoting her father’s music. The earthy and simplistic poem is by John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892) the influential American Quaker poet and abolitionist.

The Creation by Joseph Haydn
Haydn composed the Creation between 1796 and 1798 when he was sixty-five years old. He used words by Lidley after Milton’s “Paradise Lost.” It became an immediate success and rivaled that of Handel’s Messiah. It is a programmatic work full of colorful text “painting.” Beginning with the overture representing chaos before the world was created the music gradually becomes harmonious representing the spirit of God moving upon the face of the water and suddenly the orchestra and chorus burst forth with light! Each new day of creation is introduced in recited song (recitative) by one of the Archangels, followed by a descriptive chorus or solo song (aria). We begin with the recitative and aria of Gabriel announcing the earth yielding seed and the fields in full bloom. Then we skip to a dramatic tenor (Uriel) recitative representing the creation of the heavens, the sun and moon followed by the famous chorus with solo trio, The Heavens are Telling. Moving to the end of the second part, Raphael introduces the fugal chorus Achieved is the Glorious Work which is then interrupted by a soaring trio On Thee each living Soul awaits, and soon returns with even greater power to complete the praise. This is the work of a great master of choral and orchestral music that must be heard! We hope that our selections encourage you to listen to the entire oratorio!

Give us this day by Ward Swingle
Ward Swingle grew up in Mobile, Alabama, listening to jazz and playing in Big Bands during High School. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Cincinnati Conservatory and then studied piano with the celebrated Walter Gieseking in postwar France. In Paris in the 1960s he was a founding member of the Double Six of Paris, taking the scat singing idea and applying it to the works of Bach. Thus he created The Swingle Singers, whose early recordings won five Grammies. When the Paris group disbanded in l973, Swingle moved to London and formed an English group, expanding the repertoire to include classical and avant-garde works along with the scat and jazz vocal arrangements. In 2005 Swingle was commissioned to write Give us this Day for England’s Vasari Singers for their 25th anniversary. “I was lucky to have a poem written for the occasion by Tony Vincent Isaacs” who had written for the Swingle Singers earlier. “I’ve written a very simple four-part setting so that the words (and their important message) are quickly understood.” This song expresses exactly the theme of our concert tonight.

Blues Nocturne: Theme and Variation for Clarinet and Piano by Ruth Scott Clark
Ruth Elizabeth Scott Clark’s creative works of poetry, music and fine art have received many accolades. This piece won first prize for chamber music from the National League of American Pen Women chapter of which she was a member. Works now available through her website are: her poetry book, Ruminations of Ruth, two volumes of piano music, an Advanced Volume including this Blues Nocturne for Clarinet and Piano and other incidental instrumental pieces, a Student Piano Volume, twenty-four songs and several choral pieces (performed by Cantabile Chamber Chorale on several of their CDs). Mrs. Clark is Rebecca Scott’s mother and is still writing poetry at the age of 97 years young. www.ruthscottclark.comAs It Fell Upon a Day by Aaron Copland
Copland’s parents were Russian Jewish immigrants who had little interest in music. At the age of 20, he was accepted as the first American composer to study with Nadia Boulanger. Many followed in his footsteps. This song was originally an assignment by Boulanger for a piece for flute and clarinet. While working on this, he came upon a poem “Philomel” (“As It Fell upon a Day”) by Richard Barnefield (1574-1627) and decided to add a voice part to the assignment, having being affected by the “simplicity and tenderness” of the poem. Boulanger sent a copy to Universal Editions in Vienna for him, but they never received it. Otto Luening considered this one of Copland’s best pieces.
Irish, Scottish, Welsh and English Folksong arrangements for piano, violin, cello with various voice combinations by Ludwig van Beethoven
There are nearly 200 of these works. A 22-page manuscript in Beethoven’s own handwriting shows five arrangements for popular Scottish and Irish folk songs commissioned by Scottish publisher George Thomson. Beethoven wrote 126 settings for Thomson who wanted to popularize Scottish and Irish folk songs in 19th century drawing rooms. However, the arrangements produced by Beethoven were too complicated for drawing room performers. Beethoven and Thomson had disagreements but Beethoven refused to simplify the music and also argued about his pay.
Lochnagar was composed in Scottish Gaelic, Lachin Y Gair in 1807 by George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron, who lived on a farm near the Cairngorm mountains in Aberdeenshire until the age of 10. Lochnagar is a steep mountain ridge with four distinct peaks about a loch (lake) of the same name.
Sunset (or The Dreary Change) by Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) The ninth son of an Edinburgh solicitor, he studied law at 21, becoming Clerk of Session. His literary efforts: historical romances, poems, dramas, biographies, essays, critical editions, translations and almost every form of literary product brought him fame only surpassed by Byron. He became rich, was made a Baron by King George IV and created an estate called Abbotsford on the river Tweed living the life of a county magnate and powerful businessman which ended sadly in financial ruin, illness and death at the age of 61. This poem, also translated as The Dreary Change was written as he, old and ill, gazed upon his beloved and familiar view from the hill above Cauldshiels Loch and without self-pity mused that it was just as wonderful as always, but that he himself had changed.I Dream’d I Lay Where Flowers Were Springing was composed in Scottish Dialect by Robert Burns who stated that “These two stanzas are among the oldest of the printed pieces I composed when I was seventeen.” ”Drumlie” means hitting like a drum or thundering; “lang” is “long about noon;” “A’” is all; “mony” is many.
To The Blackbird by Dafydd ap Gwilym (c.1315/1320-c.1350/1370) He is generally regarded as the greatest Welsh poet of all time and among the great poets of Europe in the Middle Ages. His main themes were nature and love. Many of his poems are addressed to women, particularly to two, Morfudd and Dyddgu, and about 170 of his poems have survived. He was an innovative poet but perhaps his greatest innovation was to express his own personal feelings and experiences, often erotic and revealing, which was something not done at that time. Dafydd was responsible for making popular the metre known as the cywydd and the first to use it for praise. The cywydd consists of a series of seven-syllable lines in rhyming couplets, with all lines written in cynghanedd. One of the lines must finish with a stressed syllable, while the other must finish with an unstressed syllable. Cynghanedd (harmony), in Welsh language poetry, is the basic concept of sound-arrangement within one line, using stress, alliteration and rhyme. The translation of this song from the Welsh was done by a Clergyman from Pentre, Wales, named Reverend Roberts.
The Sailor’s Song was composed by Joanna Baillie (1762-1851) for her drama Phantom. Her poetry ranged from songs and lyrical ballads to dramatic monologues and realistic blank verse poems relating to her youth in the Scottish countryside, as well as her life in London. Sir Walter Scott supported the production of her dramas in London. Baillie’s best poetry has been considered by some, the equal of and the “formative link” between Robert Burns’ Scottish poetry and William Wordsworth’s meditations on Nature. Glossary: “bairnies” – children; “Largo Bay” – a wide bay of the southern coastline of Fife, extending from Buckhaven and Methil in the west round to Kincraig Point in the east and to the south lies the Firth of Forth; “cot”- a suspended bed used by naval officers which doubles as a coffin if required; “eldritch”- a weird or horrifying thing.

O swiftly glides the bonny boat Just parted from the shore,
And to the fisher’s chorus note Soft moves the dipping oar.
His toils are borne with happy cheer And ever may they speed,
That feeble age and helpmate dear And tender bairnies* feed.

Refrain
We cast our lines in Largo Bay*, Our nets are floating wide,
Our bonny boat with yielding sway, Rocks lightly in the tide.
And happy prove our daily lot Upon the summer sea,
And blest on land our kindly Cot* Where all our treasures be.

The mermaid on her rock may sing, The witch may weave her charm.
Nor watersprite nor eldritch* thing The bonny boat can harm.
It safely bears its scaly store Thro many a storm gale,
While joyful shouts rise from the shore. Its homeward prow to hail.

Effervescence by Emma Lou Diemer, a native of Kansas City, MO, is a well established and esteemed American composer. She has written many works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, keyboard, voice, chorus (women’s, men’s) and electronic media. In 2006, Cantabile was fortunate to commission Ms. Diemer to compose a piece in memory of Cantabile Board member and alto Leila Eutermarks entitled In One of the Stars for SATB, guitar and piano. Effervescence was composed in 2007 to an excerpt from an essay by Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964) and is published by Kjos music.

Dodi li va’ani lo (My beloved is mine, and I am his) by Gerald Cohen was commissioned for Cantabile by Mitzi Lasky and Seth and Carolyn Rudnick in memory of their parents, Dr. Stanford and Lucille Batter Rudnick, and in celebration of Cantabile’s 20th anniversary season 2008-2009. It is the third piece that Dr. Cohen has written for us. Dr. Cohen writes, “The Song of Songs is a favorite text of both mine and Mitzy’s and is suitable as a tribute to the love of her parents for each other. I chose a selection of short texts from different parts of the poem, with the opening line as a refrain, and with each successive line becoming musically more and more caught up in the intoxication of love.”

Refrain: Refrain:
Dodi li, vaani lo, My beloved is mine and I am his,
haroeh bashoshanim. He browses among the lilies.

K’shoshana bein hachochim, Like a lily among thorns,
kein rayati bein habanot. So is my darling among the maidens.
K’tapuach baatsei hayaar, Like an apple tree among trees of the forest,
kein dodi bein habanim. So is my beloved among the youths.
(Refrain) (Refrain)

Hayoshevet baganim, O you who linger in the garden,
chaverim makshivim, A lover is listening,
l’koleich hashmiini! Let me hear your voice!
(Refrain) (Refrain)

Ichlu reiim, sh’tu v’shichru Eat, Lovers, drink, become
dodim! Intoxicated with love!

Saturday, March 28, 2009, at 7:30 PM
Christ United Methodist Church, 485 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, New Jersey

CANTABILE CHAMBER CHORALE
Rebecca Scott, Artistic Director

All in Green – Cherish Our Earth
Songs to Celebrate Our Home and Our Creator
Jeremiah Duarte Bills, flute Vasko Dukovski, clarinet
Lynne Stallworth, piano Dennis Dell, organ
and Cantabile Youth Singers and Players
Elizabeth Verderosa, Director

God is Gone Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gerald Finzi (1901-1956)

Schaffe in mir, Gott . . . . . . . . . . . . . Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Opus 29, no. 2

Whenever I hear the song of a bird. . Clara McMaster (1904-1997)
Duet: Sally and Jeff Duke Jeremiah Duarte Bills, flute

The Corn Song. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gustav von Holst (1874-1934)
Cantabile and Cantabile Youth Singers & Players
Creation (excerpts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
And God Said, With Verdure Clad
Sally Duke, soprano solo
And God Said, In Splendour Bright
Jerry Phillips, tenor solo
The Heavens are telling
Chorale with Trio: Gabriel-Gail Tilsner
Uriel-Michael Holloway Raphael-Ron Baughman
And God saw everything that He had made
Jeff Duke, bass solo
Achieved is the glorious work
Chorale
On thee each living soul awaits
Trio: Gabriel-Ruth Lanza Uriel-Larry Cohen Raphael-Jeff Duke

Achieved is the glorious work
Chorale
INTERMISSION (10 minutes)
Conversation between Two Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ANON
Cantabile Tenors

Give us This Day. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ward Swingle (b.1927)

Blues Nocturne: Theme & Variation. . . Ruth Scott Clark (b.1912)
Vasko Dukovski, clarinet Lynne Stallworth, piano

As it Fell Upon a Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
Judith Johnston, soprano
Jeremiah Duarte Bills, flute Vasko Dukovski, clarinet

Folksong arrangements . . . . . Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Scottish: Lochnagar
Trio: Ruth Lanza, Jerry Phillips, Jeff Cartwright-Smith
Scottish: Sunset
Duet: Tammy Guarderas, Michael Holloway
Irish: I dream’d I lay where flowers were
Duet: Gail Tilsner, Nancy Engel
Welsh: To the Blackbird
Quartet: Nancy Engle, Tammy Guarderas, Ruth Lanza
William Tinnel, Michael Holloway
Scottish: O swiftly glides the bonny boat
Opus 108, No19, 1815
R. Lanza, T. Guarderas, G. Tilsner, N. Engel, A. Gould, M. Holloway
J. Phillips, L. Cohen, J. Cartwright-Smith, J. Duke, W. Tinnel, R. Baughman

Effervescence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Emma Lou Diemer (b.1927)

Dodi Li va’ani lo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gerald Cohen (b.1960)
Vasko Dukovski, Clarinet
World Première Commission

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