|
Circle Singers Program Notes March 2006
While the First New England School was composing "fuguing tunes" in Boston, the chapel masters of Mexican cathedrals were writing highly sophisticated music in the European Baroque and Classical styles that was performed throughout the Spanish new world. Ignacio de Jerúsalem was born in Italy in 1710 and developed a reputation as a composer and virtuoso violinist. After coming to Mexico in 1742, he became chapel master of the Mexico City Cathedral in 1749. As you listen to the refined and elegant instrumentation that opens the Dixit Dominus (Psalm 110), you will think you are listening to Mozart. Yet this work was composed in Mexico probably about the time of Mozart's birth. De Jerúsalem's setting of this piece is in five sections, with three choruses interspersed by a trio and a bass solo. The final Gloria Patri concludes with an Amen, repeating a fugue from the end of the first section. The text of this Psalm is a very powerful one. God promises that he will defeat and destroy the enemies of Zion. Yet as in much of early classical music, grace and polish take precedence over dramatic expression. For the contemporary composers you will hear today, creating mood and expressing the text are paramount. These composers are representative of the late-twentieth-century return to classical and romantic harmonies arranged in new and interesting ways. David Conte, Professor of Composition and conductor of the Conservatory Chorus at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, is the prolific composer of operas and works for orchestra, organ, and chorus. The Composer describes the intensity of the creative experience. The composer's music comes to him in the variety of emotions felt in solitary moments. How does Conte create a mood that is at once "restless" and "quiet?" He first uses the classical device of a dissonant note that resolves to a consonant harmony (appoggiatura). Often underneath these sharply dissonant notes, however, are cluster chords, which have become so much a part of contemporary expression that they no longer sound dissonant to our ears. The resolving appoggiatura in the first two measures of the piece creates the intensity that permeates this text. Then Conte expresses both calm and disquiet by using tonal triads over a very dissonant held note in the bass (a pedal), for example to accompany the words "In restless moments…" A three-note motive recurs throughout the piece, providing unity. But along with these classical devices, the music moves through unrelated harmonies with chromatic resolutions in a most un-classical manner. Conte is also a Romantic composer in his use of extreme dynamic contrasts to heighten the mood. Conte's Invocation and Dance sets a text taken from Walt Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd." The poet is mourning the death of Lincoln; yet in the joyful song of the bird, he hears this carol celebrating life in the midst of the pain of death. The opening slow pulse of the timpani creates a sense of hushed expectation. In Invocation, Conte uses many of the same devices discussed above to express the contradiction of the union of joy and grief and the recognition that death is a part of life. For example, in the opening phrases we hear the tonal triad accompanied by a very dissonant note, as the poet invites "lovely and soothing death." Conte uses word painting to describe death "undulating" round the world. Contrasting dynamics and the imaginative use of percussion intensify the conflicting emotions. Dance is an exuberant expression of joy. Percussive instruments and a four-note melodic motive set the tone with a jazzy rhythm, and cluster chords evoke an atmosphere of celebration. A middle section sets a different mood, as the tenors and basses, followed by the other voices, sing about the approach of death, the "strong deliv'ress." Then the opening motive and jazz rhythms return and the song concludes with "Dance on, sing praises. For life, joy, love, sing praise!" Canadian composer Eleanor Daley has concentrated on choral music for worship. Her anthem And God Shall Wipe Away All Tears and "In Remembrance" from Requiem treat another aspect of death: the certainty that life is ongoing. And God Shall Wipe Away All Tears sets the text in Revelation that pictures a new realm where there is no more sorrow. Daley creates a feeling of serenity with a flowing accompaniment and a smooth melodic line. Her Romantic harmonies combine minor and major forms of the key to heighten the emotional impact. In the first phrase, the harmonies are all minor. Then with the words, "and there shall be no more death," she moves from D minor to D major on the word "death." She modulates to C minor, then ends the piece in the hopeful key of C major, often used by composers to portray the light of God. "In Remembrance" speaks with the voice of one who has gone, but who is still present in all that we see, feel, and hear about us. Once again Daley uses major and minor forms of the key, modulating briefly from E major/minor to G major, with another C major harmony to portray "sunlight." Daley also uses the sharply dissonant note against a tonal triad to create depth of emotion in such a phrase as "Do not stand at my grave and weep." And we hear word painting with the "birds in circled flight." Nick Peros, also a Canadian composer, has written over 120 works in orchestral, choral, and chamber genres. His Veni Sponsa Christi is one of a group of twenty Motets that look for inspiration to the style of Palestrina, Josquin, and Lassus. Unlike such Renaissance composers, his melodic line is highly chromatic. In the first nine measures, the melody moves through eight of the eleven pitches of the octave. Interestingly, this chromatic melody is harmonized by tonal triads that change from measure to measure in a chromatic progression. He writes a melody that ascends an octave span to illustrate the text "prepared (for you) for eternity." He unifies the piece by a return at the end to the opening nine measures. Nick Peros says that this music is intended to convey a sense of "mysterious beauty." In 1913, at the age of twenty-three, English-born Healey Willan came to Canada to head the Theory Department of the Toronto Conservatory (now the Royal Conservatory of Music). As the organist-choirmaster of St. Mary Magadalene, he soon was acclaimed for the liturgical music written for his choirs. While rooted in medieval plainsong, this music abounds in chromatic Romantic harmonies. The lovely Rise up, my Love, my Fair One, taken from the Song of Solomon, is one of his most popular pieces. Even though the text is Biblical, it is a love song, and as love songs often do, it has a beautiful flowing melody. His harmonic style might have influenced David Conte. You will hear appoggiaturas and cluster chords, which give this music such a warm, rich sound. Morton Lauridsen is one of America's finest and most popular choral composers. He is currently Professor of Composition at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music. Nocturnes received its premiere performance at the American Choral Directors Association's Los Angeles National Convention in February 2005. It was performed by the Donald Brinegar Singers with the composer at the piano. "Emotion," "mood," and "depth of feeling" are words that come to mind while listening to these three Nocturnes. The first, Sa Nuit d'Été, sets a French love poem. The beloved's heart is likened to a bright new star that has just appeared in the summer night. The sharp dissonance of the four-measure piano introduction prepares us for the wrenching emotion of the opening words, "If with my burning hands, I could melt the body surrounding your lover's heart…" The chorus sings this text softly and unaccompanied, as a recitative before a rapturous revelation, "Ah how the night would become translucent…" The composer portrays this overwhelming moment with cluster chords and Romantic harmonies that progress tonally over a dissonant repeated note, or pedal, in the bass of the piano accompaniment. The text and music following the recitative is then repeated and enriched with the voices dividing into eight parts. The text of Soneto de la Noche is reminiscent of "In Remembrance." The one who has died asks the beloved to go on living and loving all that they both had loved together. The melodic themes of the piece, growing out of Sa Nuit d'Été, are not of primary importance. It is the aural "surround sound," conjuring the emotions, that is striking in this work. The dynamics make a distinct contribution. "When I die" is sung at the beginning as softly as possible. As all of the loved experiences come to mind, the sound grows, until there is a joyous proclamation, "I want all that I love to keep on living." The intensity of this expression is augmented by a repetition in a new key. Then the sound falls away, and the music ends in soft reverie. Sure On This Shining Night forms a contrast to the first two pieces, with a lovely melody and a flowing tonal accompaniment. Its form is AABAA. There is great variety in each repetition of the melody. Once again, dynamics in an arch form play an important role in expressing the warmth of summer and the healing beauty of "this shining night."
Archive Program Notes:
|
| |
|
||||||||