Program Notes from "The Contemporaries"

Good evening, and welcome!  Whether this is your first Suncook Valley Chorale performance or your forty-seventh, we’re awfully glad you’re here and are going to do our best to give you an evening of joy in song.  We’ve been busily at it Monday nights since September and we’re excited to present our program to you.  Here are a few notes to introduce you to the pieces you’ll be hearing tonight.

 

The program for the concert is called “The Contemporaries,” and it is a presentation of what is “new” in the choral world.  Each piece on this program was published within the last eleven years or so, my son is older than most of these pieces. 

 

We’ll open the program with Donald Patriquin’s Savory, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme from his set of Songs of Early Canada.  Patriquin has been gaining attention for other Canadian works as well, including a few settings of folk songs of Quebec.  This one is an arrangement of how the old Scarborough Fair song was being sung in Canada in its earlier years; listen for how it is both similar and dissimilar to the older folk song. 

 

The laureate conductor, Weston Noble, brought the next piece with him when he conducted the New Hampshire All State Chorus two years ago right here in Concord.  Both Joshua Shank, the composer, and Mark Robinson, the poet of The Boy Who Picked Up His Feet to Fly hail from Luther College, where Noble leads choral ensembles and teaches the choral art.  Shank writes on his piece, “What child- or adult for that matter- has never dreamed of flying?  Although the poem is somewhat dark in nature (because of the ‘be careful what you wish for...’ mood which concludes it), [it] should be approached with one idea in mind- fun!”  “Won’t you come fly?”  Grab our hands and off we’ll all go, on a soundscape of imaginative flight! 

 

Can You Hear comes next from a composer just emerging on the choral radar, Jim Papoulis.  He has been heading a project called “Sounds of a Better World = small voices calling,” which focuses on songs for youth, written from their perspective.  This song asks us to focus our attention on the changes and challenges presented to youth, being asked to grow so quickly, unsure of their steps.  The lyric taps into the uncertainty facing a world of children who ask “Will I see the future in me?”   There is a section in the middle reminiscent of tribal singing, with the melody superimposed, building in energy and intensity.

 

Sherri Porterfield arranged a child’s poem to create the next song, Who Sees?  “Michael Ross, age 15” is the way the lyricist is given credit on the music.  It was commissioned for a school All State Choir in Texas, premiering in 1998.  Ross’ poem asks us to be aware of the incredible beauty in nature around us, to notice the leaves falling and the waves crashing.  He reminds us that “those who take the time to see natures work as it unfolds will change the way they act, for they’ll see their own self worth” reflected.  The choral part ends on an odd chord, and we’ve discussed that several times—“why?”  We decided that it was the whole idea that where we are is not the end at all, merely the propulsion into what’s next. 

 

Now we come to a sobering offering, originating from Serbia.  Prayer for the Children, written in 1995 in the midst of the heated crisis and “ethnic cleansing” there, slaps us into the harsh awareness that war’s casualties include the next generation.  Images abound: “if I should die before I wake...” “... if unknown roads lead away from home...” “Angry guns preach a gospel full of hate, blood of the innocent on their hands...” “softly pleading for silence in their shattered world...”  “nothing to hold onto but hope for a better day.”  It has been a challenge for us to sing these words and to distance ourselves enough from them to get them out without choking on their meanings.   The piece calls us to examine exactly what we are teaching the next generation about conflicts and how to solve them.

 

Next we’ll sing a setting of Rosetti’s poem “In Remembrance” by composer Stephen Chatman.  The danger of singing brand new stuff is that not all of it will turn out to be popular enough for the publishing companies to find it worth their while to continue printing it.  Determining “popularity” so quickly gives no time for a piece to “catch on.”  Whether this one will or will not eventually achieve “popular” status I cannot predict, but when we found we needed more copies, it had already gone out of print!  We like it, though!  And we’ll present it to you, popular or un-, this evening.

 

Deep Peace is next, with its setting of the traditional Celtic prayer by Greg Knauf.  It too is a follow up to the “social awareness” set, and reminds us of higher powers and deeper meanings to life, tapping into them and sensing the peace of that which is eternal. 

 

We will be honored this weekend (if the weather cooperates) to host the composer of the next piece!  Dr. Gwyneth Walker has been achieving notoriety of late in the choral and band worlds from her home in Braintree, Vermont.   Adapting texts of Plato and Handel, she calls us to recall music’s power to heal and soothe: “It is the essence of order, and leads to all that is good, just and beautiful, of which it is the invisible, but everlasting dazzling, passionate and eternal glow.”  Our first half ends with Dr. Walker’s call to “Let Music Fill the Air!”

 

After a short intermission, we’ll return for the second half of our program.  We’ll begin with the composer who is, perhaps, widest-known in modern “art” music, Morten Lauridsen.  I first became aware of Mr. Lauridsen’s work last decade when I was introduced to his song cycle on the French poems of German poet, Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), Les Chansons des Roses.  In these chansons, I heard a composer use dissonance, clashing notes, to soothe rather than to stir up, to create a peaceful sound rather than the usual use of such harmony, which is to create tension.  Lauridsen’s work opened my ears to a brand new way of thinking harmonically!  It caught on quickly, and I have heard many other composers exploring this same path of a consonant dissonance.  Indeed it is one of the threads or trends I find in modern classical music.   I cannot say whether Lauridsen began this idea, but I do know that his is the music of this style that seems to have found the most popularity.  We will present Roses, La Rose Complete and immediately following, Dirait-on. 

 

We will turn once again to our Vermont neighbor, Gwyneth Walker, for a bit of whimsy.  Originally written for a community chorus in Vermont, the Thetford Chamber Singers, Directions for Singing conjures up none other than the famous John Wesley, hymn composer and sacred musician from the mid 1700’s, to lead us in a lesson on hymn-singing.  He quotes from his introduction to the hymnal Sacred Melody (1761), encouraging us to “sing lustily, and with good courage!”  Our chorale transforms itself into Professor Wesley’s choir, attempting to put his admonitions into practice with as much faith and fervor as we can muster! 

 

We continue exploring Dr. Walker’s repertoire with a song of hers called Tambourines from a set of Harlem Songs, based on the poetry of Langston Hughes.  Listen for the chorus’ depiction of the sounds of tambourines as they might be used to accompany spirituals.  Hughes was the most influential poet of an era referred to as the “Harlem Renaissance,” roughly coinciding with the jazz age of the 1920’s and 30’s.  Dr. Walker explores the influences Hughes may have heard when thinking of his line “Tambourines to the glory of God!”  Here, too, one hears “consonant dissonance,” and the use of the new harmony to create order with what, a half century ago, might have been considered chaos. 

 

Using Tambourines as our springboard, we continue in the “spiritual” vein, tapping in to the heart beat of African American gospel influence.  There are many who would consider these spirituals to not fall into “classical” literature, and in ways they are right; however, they are still incredible examples of artistic music (or “art music); a careful listen will astound the critical ear with their exploration of harmony, form, tone color, and use of rhythm as propulsion.  Duke Ellington said it best: “If it sounds good, it IS good.”  Those who have watched Suncook concerts in the past may have heard Keith Hampton’s music (he being the next composer we offer up for your enjoyment); a couple years ago we presented his Praise His Holy Name, a rousing gospel number.  Here again, we visit the gospel style in Hampton’s retelling of the spiritual “This Little Light” in his piece, True Light. 

 

Moses Hogan is the only composer on tonight’s program I know to not be alive.  Mr. Hogan passed away just this past year, leaving a legacy of updated spiritual writing, carrying the torch passed to him by Jester Hairston and William Dawson, famous spiritual arrangers from a previous generation.  Who will pick up the torch now?  Time will tell.  We’ll sing Hogan’s Music Down In My Soul, a rollicking arrangement that will, unless you have no pulse at all, get your body moving and your soul singing along!

 

Our evening of modern “art” music concludes with Joseph Martin’s The Awakening.  First published in 1995, this song describes a nightmarish culture in which music fades to silence.  “I dreamed of a land so filled with pride that every song, both weak and strong withered and died.”  The implication is that we are headed for this land by our reliance on others to make music for us; we must take the responsibility of keeping the music alive ourselves, “Let music never die in me!  Forever let me spirit sing!  Let all our voices join as one...  Awake!  Awake!  Let music live!”  As a music educator, I hear this plea and echo it; there are many, many important things we can teach our children, the self-expressive art of music must be among them, for it gathers all the disciplines and arts under one umbrella.  The study, not just the participation in, but the genuine, disciplined study of music cannot be allowed to die out in our schools or our culture.  It’s loss would be, quite simply, unendurable. 

 

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Has tonight’s concert awoken in you the desire to sing again?  Has it been too long since you were in a choral group?  Have you always longed to sing, but never quite had the courage?  Come and try out our Open Sings for the next season.  We will meet on Mondays, January 17th and 24th in the auditorium of the Pleasant View Retirement Community on Pleasant Street in Concord.   The Open Sings are a way for you to see if you like us, to see if you like the program we will be singing that season and to see if you wish to commit to joining us.  This is not an audition... well, of you, at any rate; it IS an opportunity for you to audition us!  7 PM – 9 PM, Monday nights from January through to our May 20th & 21st concerts, we will be working on a program of folk music from the Americas; come and join us for the Open Sings—come and see if you’d like to be a part of a fabulous singing group that’s having an awful lot of fun!

 

 

Translations and Texts

For your enlightenment and enjoyment, here are some selected texts from tonight’s program:

 

Who Sees?

                -Michael Ross

Who sees the morning sun as it hits the dew on the grass,

  or watches the ocean waves strike the rocks with a crash?

Tell me, who sees the first snowflake as it falls to the ground,

  or sees a new-born bird take its very first bound?

 

Is there anyone there to witness autumn’s leaves fall from the trees,

  or watch the metamorphic butterfly as it struggles to be free?

All the miracles of nature, as simple as they may be,

  are often nearly impossible to see.

 

Those who take the time to see nature’s work as it unfolds

  will change the way they act,

For they’ll see their own self-worth.

 

 

Prayer of the Children

                -Kurt Bestor

 

Can you hear the prayer of the children, on bended knee,

    in the shadow of an unknown room?

Empty eyes with no more tears to cry, turning heavenward

    toward the light,

Cryin’ who will help me to see the morning light of one more day,

    but if I should die before I wake,

    I pray my soul to take.

 

Can you feel the hearts of the children, aching for home,

    for something of their very own?

Reaching hands with nothing to hold on to, but hope for a better day.

Cryin’ who will help me to feel the love again in my own land,

    but if unknown roads lead away from home,

    give me loving arms, away from harm.

 

Can you hear the voice of the children, softly pleading

    for silence in their shattered world?

Angry guns preach a gospel full of hate, blood of the innocent on their hands.

Cryin’ who will help me to feel the sun again upon my face?

    For when darkness clears, I know you’re near,

    bringing peace again.

 

Dali cuje te sve djecje molitve?

Can you hear the prayer of the children?

 

 

 

La Rose Complete

                -Rainer Maria Rilke                              trans: Barbara and Erica Muhl

 

J’ai une telle conscience de ton                         I have such an awareness of your

etre, rose complete,                                              being, perfect rose,

que on consentement te confond                     that my will unites you

avec mon coeur en fete.                                      with my heart in celebration.

 

Je te respire comme si tu etais,                           I breathe you in, as if you were

rose, toute la vie,                                                  all of life,

et je me sens l’ami parfait                                    and I feel the perfect friend

d’une telle amie,                                                   of a perfect friend.

 

 

 

Dirait-on

                -Rainer Maria Rilke                              trans: A. Poulin, Jr.

 

Abandon entoure d’abandon,                           Abandon surrounds abandon

tendresse touchant aux tendresses...                               tenderness touches tenderness...

C’est ton interieur qui sans cesse                     You’d think your center would caress

se caresse, dirait-on;                                           itself on and on and on...

 

se caresse en soi meme                                       caress itself in itself and seem

par son propre reflet eclaire.                               to glow with its own image.

Ainsi tu inventes le theme                                  Thus you invent the theme

de Narcisse exauce.                                             of the fulfilled Narcissus.