directed by Dr. Fredrick Lokken

Email us: BellevueChamberChorus @yahoo.com

May 2005: A World of Song

Son de la Loma           Miguel Matamoros, arr. José Castillo (Cuba)

Fengyang Song           trad. Chinese, arr. Chen Yi

Zahučaly Hory (Roaring Mountains)       trad. Moravian, arr. Petr Eben (Czech Republic)

Ning Wendete             trad. Kenyan, arr. William and Rosephanye Powell

Marlin Saner, Kim Hofer - percussion

Ave maris stella Javier Busto (Spain)

            Kelly O’Hallaran - soloist

Sanctus Jan Sandström (Sweden)

Sing Me to Heaven Daniel Gawthrop (U.S.)

 Livonian Heritage (from Forgotten Peoples) Veljo Tormis (Estonia)

Lindude äratamine (Waking the Birds)

Karjametsas (At Pasture)

Larry Richardson, Marta Chaloupka - soloists

Vastlad (Shrovetide)

Unehiireke (Wee Winkie Mouse)

Laulis isa, laulis poega (Sang the Father, Sang the Son)

Marc Popkin-Paine - soloist 

(Saturday) Shorewood High School Aeolian Choir

John Hendrix, Director

Gloria (first movement) John Rutter (England)

            Randi Teigland-Hendrix - piano

The Bluebird Charles V. Stanford (England)

Noel Ayisyen (A Haitian Noel) Emile Desamours

Loch Lomond trad. Scottish, arr. Jonathan Quick

            Amy Beth Lindvall, Jenna Moffat - soloists

(Sunday) Bellevue Christian High School Concert Choir

Joel Ulrich, Director

Praise the lord            trad. Cameroon; arr. Ralph Johnson

Gloria (from Missa Kenya)             Paul Basler (U.S.)

            Jason Ericson - tenor soloist

Esto les digo    Kinley Lange (U.S.)

Of crows and clusters Norman Dello Joio (U.S.)

Betelehemu Nigerian Carol, Via Olatunji & Wendell Whalum; arr. Barrington Brooks

Tyler Kruse - baritone soloist

Bahia Blanca Horacio Salgan (Argentina)

            Andy Carr - piano

Gala del Día Carlos Guastavino (Argentina)

Five Hebrew Love Songs Eric Whitacre (U.S.)

1.  Temuná (A picture)

2.  Kalá kallá (Light bride)  

3.  Lárov (Mostly) 

4.  Éyze shéleg! (What snow!)

     Debra Nielsen - soloist

5.  Rakút (Tenderness)

                        Andy Carr – piano / Jordan Firestone - violin

Shout Glory! Byron Smith (U.S.)

                        Combined choirs / Andy Carr - piano

                        Soloists: Katelyn Berreth and Isa Farnik (Shorewood H.S.)

 Program Notes

Son de la loma
Miguel Matamoros (1894-1971) was one of the most important Cuban composers of the 20^th century.

He founded and directed the world famous Trios Matamoros from the 1920's until they disbanded in 1969.  During this time he composed many songs that became popular Cuban standards, including the lively Son de la loma (They are from the hill).  It exemplifies Matamoros’ fusion of two of the most important genres of Cuban popular music: the “bolero” and the “son”.  His style of "bolero-son" mixed a stronger rhythm along with rich harmonies and melodies into the traditional romanticism of the bolero ballad. 

José Castillo's choral arrangement holds true to the unique style created by Trios Matamoros.

Mom, I want to know where the singers are from
that I find so charming, and I want to know them,
with their songs so fascinating that I want to learn.

Where are they from?  They are from Havana.
They are from Santiago, the sovereign land,
they are from the hill and they sing in the field.
You'll see soon, you'll see it.

Mom, they are from the hill, but, mom, they sing in the field.
Where are they from, mom?  I want to learn their songs.
They are from the hill and I want to know them - let's go see.  Yes sir!

Fengyang Song

Chinese composer Chen Yi (b.1953) moved to the United States in 1986 and now teaches composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory.  She has received numerous awards as well as commissions from orchestras and solo artists of international renown.  Her Set of Chinese Folk Songs was arranged in 1994 for the prestigious American male vocal group Chanticleer, with whom she was then composer-in-residence.  These nine songs come from several different provinces and ethnic groups in China, and reflect Yi’s travels to the Chinese countryside as a student to collect indigenous folk music.  The colorful Fengyang Song is from Anhui province; its text includes some nonsense words that imitate the sound of drums and gongs.

Gongs and drums are in my hands,
I am singing a song while playing drums and gongs.
Other songs I don't know how to sing,
I can only sing a Fengyang song.

Zahučaly hory

Petr Eben (b.1929) is one of the foremost composers and arrangers in the Czech Republic today, as well as an accomplished keyboard performer.  Currently professor of composition at the Prague Academy of Music, Eben writes for all genres of music but devotes most of his compositions to organ and choral works.  His music displays a highly original use of historical techniques and traditional tonal language, and the frequent use of Czech folklore and folksongs, as in his arrangement of the haunting Moravian folksong Zahučaly hory (Roaring Mountains).

Roaring mountains, blowing forests,
where did you go, my youth, my youth?

My young years just passed by;
my youth has not seen the world - all is lost.

The stone will be turned around many times by the flowing water,

but my youth will never come again, never again.

Ning Wendete

Dr. Rosephanye Powell is an Associate Professor of Voice at Auburn University, and a choral composer of increasing national reputation.  This spirited arrangement of Ning Wendete, a traditional Kenyan love song, was done with her husband, William C. Powell, an Assistant Professor of Music and Assistant Director of Choral Activities at Auburn.

I love you, but you do not love me.  How is that?
If you do not love me, you had better tell me so.

Ave maris stella

A native of the Basque region of Spain, Javier Busto (b.1949) holds a degree in medicine and is a self-taught musician.  As a conductor, he has founded and/or directed several award-winning choruses in Spain, and as a composer has garnered several awards and international acclaim for his choral works.  His meditative setting of Ave maris stella (a ninth-century liturgical hymn to the Virgin Mary) beautifully alternates chant-like solo lines with choral writing characterized by consonant harmonic clusters, rich textures, and choral pedal tones.

Sanctus

Hail, O Star of the ocean,
God's own Mother blest,
ever-sinless Virgin,
gate of heavenly rest.
   
Taking that sweet Ave,
which from Gabriel came,
peace confirm within us,
changing Eve's name.

Break the sinners' fetters,
make our blindness day,
Chase all evils from us,
for all blessings pray.
Show thyself a Mother,
may the Word divine
born for us thine Infant
hear our prayers through thine.

Virgin all excelling,
mildest of the mild,
free from guilt preserve us
meek and undefiled.
 

Keep our life all spotless,
make our way secure
till we find in Jesus,
joy for evermore.

Praise to God the Father,
honor to the Son,
in the Holy Spirit,
be the glory one. Amen.

Jan Sandström (b.1954) is among the most frequently performed Swedish composers on the international scene today.  Mostly know for his orchestral and operatic works, he also has composed a considerable amount of music for solo voice and chorus.  Many of his sacred pieces, like this Sanctus written in 1994, exhibit the influence of the contemporary musical style sometimes referred to as “mystical minimalism”.  The short, repetitive phrases, simplified harmonies, and generous use of musical silence together evoke an inner, reflective, and peaceful world of the spirit, in this case quite in contrast to the usual exultant settings of this text. 

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God; heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Sing Me to Heaven
Virginia-based composer Daniel Gawthrop (b.1949) has been the recipient of over one hundred commissions during his career, many from significant choral ensembles around the country and from  organizations such as the American Choral Directors Association through their prestigious Raymond Brock Memorial series.  Sing Me to Heaven (1991) is one of his most popular choral works, due both to Jane Griner’s lovely original text on the power of song to touch the human spirit, and to Gawthrop’s sensitive and lyrical musical setting.

In my heart’s sequestered chambers lie truths stripped of poet’s gloss.

Words alone are vain and vacant and my heart is mute.

In response to aching silence memory summons half-heard voices,

And my soul finds primal eloquence and wraps me in song.

 

If you would comfort me, sing me a lullaby.

If you would win my heart, sing me a love song.

If you would mourn me and bring me to God,

Sing me a requiem, sing me to heaven.

 

Touch in me all love and passion, pain and pleasure;

Touch in me grief and comfort.

Sing me a lullaby, a love song, a requiem.

Love me, comfort me, bring me to God:

Sing me a love song, sing me to heaven.

Livonian Heritage
Estonian composer Veljo Tormis (b.1930) is as significant a contributor to the genre of contemporary choral music as his perhaps more well-known countryman Arvo Pärt.  However, while Pärt works primarily with sacred texts, the most important part of Tormis’ choral oeuvre is connected with the ancient folksongs of his Balto-Finnic ancestors.  Among this genre is his massive six-part cycle known as Forgotten Peoples.  Written over a period of almost twenty years (1970-1989), these a cappella arrangements of archaic songs capture the cultures and languages of several indigenous, but now disappearing, ethnic groups in parts of what is now eastern Finland, western Russian, Estonia, and Latvia. 

In this program we present the Seattle-area premiere of the first series of the cycle: Livonian Heritage. Long ago the Livonian people inhabited territory around the Gulf of Riga in what is now Latvia.  In this century, their language is still spoken by only a handful of people in a few fishing villages.  (While the song texts are in Livonian, the titles of the songs are actually in Estonian, because the native folksingers rarely gave titles to their songs.)  Livonian Heritage reflects the transformation over time of the Livonian people.  The ancient incantations to nature (Waking the Birds, and the milking spells in At Pasture), give way to the entertainment of the Shrovetide mummers (children who would sing and dance in exchange for food during the three days preceding Lent).  The repetitive Wee Winkie Mouse is a charming lullaby in dialogue form (comparable to the old American folk tune There’s a Hole in the Bucket), while the rollicking drinking song Sang the Father, Sang the Son reflects later Latvian influences. 

1. Waking the Birds
Tsitsor-birds, tsitsor-birds, now it's time to wake, tsitsor, tsitsor!

You have had a long sleep night after night, day after day.

Fat flounders into our sea, lean ones into another one. 
Good animals into our wood, wolves and bears into another one.
Good boys into our village, cruel ones into another one.
Hard-working maids into our village, lazy ones into another one.

Tsitsor-birds, now it's time for you to wake!

 

2. At Pasture
Make haste sun, make haste,
run to where the river flows!
I've worn out my best shoes,
I've eaten my last crumb of bread.
       Ur, go back, ur, go back, uruu!
       Uruu, uruu!
Skylarks are singing, spring is coming.
Bake me a bun, dear mother,
I'm going to look after the herd!
       Uruu, uruu!
Clear up sky, clear up;
the sun looks like the white egg of a goose.
It's really the egg of a goose, it's our dear sun.
       Uruu, uruu!
Skylarks are singing, spring is coming.
Bake me a bun, dear mother,
I' m going to look after the herd!
If you bake a big bun, I'll go far,
if you bake a little one, I'll stay near.
       Uruu, go home, cows,
       the sun is going down,
       night is approaching,
       uruu, urururuu!
Bz, bz, bz, bz, tails high,
bz, bz, go home, cows,
bz, bz, gadflies on your back, go home, cows,
bz, bz, bz, go home, cows,
       Ririi, ririi, it's milking time,
       Uruu!
When you have a hard time,
you have a hard time;
the herdsboy had a hard day,
a hard day had he.
       Uruu!

 

3. Shrovetide
Sing, mummer, dance, mummer,

sing and dance, Shrove mummer!
Mother dear, let the children in!
Mother dear, let the Shrove mummers in!
The children's feet are cold:
they peed their shoes wet,
now their feet are freezing.
Sing, mummer, dance, mummer,
sing and dance, Shrove mummer!
I well know what's a Shrove mummer's share:
a small loaf of bread, three mugs of beer,
that's what it is, the Shrove mummer's share.
Sing, mummer, dance, mummer,
sing and dance, Shrove mummer!

 

4. Wee Winkie Mouse
Where are you running, wee winkie mouse, pai-pai-pai-pai?
   To carry the wood, to heat the sauna, pai-pai-pai.
You'll suffocate in the smoke.
   I'll crawl under the platform.
What will you eat there?  What will you drink?
   I'll eat some mud, I'll drink some mire.
You'll get a swollen belly.
   I'll prick it with a needle.
Wouldn't it smart?
   I'll smear some butter on it.
Where do you get the butter from?
   I'll take it from the grandmother's churn.
Where does the grandmother get it from?
   From the udder of a piebald cow.
Where does the piebald cow get it from?
   From the head of a green bulrush.
Where does the bulrush get it from?
   From the dew in the morning.
Where does the morning dew get it from?
   From the bottom of a deep river.

 

5. Sang the Father, Sang the Son
Sang the father, sang the son, sang the two hired helpers.
Father and his son sang well together,
much better than the hired help.
Rallallaa!
 

What's their secret,

how is it that their singing goes so well?
They've been drinking a lot of beer,
they have eaten a lot of honey.
Rallallaa!
 

One barrel's in the cellar, two mugs are on the table.
Shove it here, shove it there, shove it to the end of the table.
Rallallaa!

 

Bahia Blanca
Horacio Salgan is universally recognized as one of Argentina’s greatest composers/performers of tango.  A pianist of unique skill, his compositions and arrangements are elegant miniatures that show influences of both romantic poetry and American jazz.  The piece Bahia Blanca takes its name from the coastal city of Salgan’s birth.  He currently resides in Buenos Aires, having retired from active performing last year at the age of 90.

Gala del Día

Carlos Guastavino (1912-2000) was one of Argentina's leading 20^th century composers, and perhaps the greatest exponent of the more conservative tradition of Argentine romantic nationalism.  Much of his music was written for piano and/or voices, and most was greatly influenced by Argentine folk music, as exemplified by Gala del Día (Finery of the Day), from a suite of six choral pieces entitled Indianas.

I love the light of dawn because it kisses you,

and makes you alive, alive and fanciful.
Straight tassel to the wind of noon,
I love the sun that gilds you, ripe and mine.
Alas!  Heart of the night, finery of the day!
My life, I am longing for your happiness!
       
When the afternoon cries for its lost light,
I love the song you put in my life.
I love so much the night that is infinite,
as your sweet hour, dark and warm.
Alas!  Heart of the night, finery of the day!
My life, I am longing for you happiness!     

Arturo Vazquez

Five Hebrew Love Songs

Eric Whitacre (b. 1970), is one of the bright young stars in contemporary concert music, and has quickly become a much commissioned, published, and performed choral and symphonic composer. As a student at the Juilliard School of Music, he studied with eminent composers John Corigliano and David Diamond. His Five Hebrew Love Songs were written in 1996 originally for solo soprano, violin, and piano, and later arranged for several different vocal/instrumental combinations. The texts were written by the original soprano soloist, Hila Plitmann, who was born and raised in Jerusalem and is now married to Whitacre.  These delicately beautiful love poems are profoundly personal, each capturing a moment shared between author and composer, including the sounds of bells at the start of Éyze shéleg!, which imitate the bells from a German cathedral in the town where these exquisite songs were first performed.

1. Temuná (A picture)

    A picture is engraved in my heart;
    Moving between light and darkness;
    A sort of silence envelopes your body,
    And your hair falls upon your face just so.

2. Kalá kallá (Light bride)
    Light bride
    She is all mine, 
    And lightly
    She will kiss me!

3. Lárov (Mostly)
   "Mostly," said the roof to the sky,
   "the distance between you and I is endless;
    But a while ago two came up here,
    and only one centimeter was left between us."

4. Éyze shéleg! (What snow!)
    What snow!
    Like little dreams
    Falling from the sky.

5. Rakút (Tenderness)
    He was full of tenderness;
    She was very hard.
    And as much as she tried to stay thus,
    Simply, and with no good reason,
    He took her into himself,
    And set her down
    in the softest place.

Shout Glory!

Byron J. Smith, an Associate Professor of Music at Los Angeles Harbor College, also freelances as a music director, studio musician, arranger, and producer.  He is the composer of the musicals Black Pearls, Shades, and the award winning Children of the Night, as well as many choral works.  Highly acclaimed at the 2001 American Choral Directors Association National Convention when premiered by the World Youth Choir, his exhilarating gospel song Shout Glory! lives up to its name with its highly energetic choral writing and exciting accompaniment.