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May 2006: Choral ExcursionsDe Amor Heridos (Wounded by love) Mexican folksong, arr. Ramón Noble Le Pont Mirabeau (The bridge Mirabeau) Lionel Daunais (Canada) i carry your heart Gwyneth Walker (United States) Andy Carr - piano
Pastoral Song Eastern Inner Mongolian folksong, arr. Qu Xixian Ngana Stephen Leek (Australia)
(Saturday) Newport High School Camerata Nancy Fisher, Director
Laus Deo John Leavitt Adoramus Te G.P. da Palestrina Salmo 150 Ernani Aguiar (Sunday) Bel-Canto of Edmonds-Woodway High School Gail Colson, Director
Once Upon a Time
arr. Kirby Shaw Dorian Singers Tumbalalaika Yiddish folksong, arr. Robert DeCormier mixed ensemble SeEun Kim - piano
Lorca Suite Einojuhani Rautavaara (Finland) 1. Canción de jinete (Song of the horseman) soloists: Larry Richardson, Gene Buchholz 2. El grito (The scream) 3. La luna asoma (The moon rises) soloist: Kaye Kofford 4. Malagueña (Dance from Malaga)
Four Slovak Folksongs Béla Bartók (Hungary) 1. Wedding Song from Poniky 2. Song of the Hayharvesters from Hiadel 3. Dancing Song from Medzibrod 4. Dancing Song from Poniky Andy Carr - piano
Music to Hear George Shearing (England) 1. Music to Hear 2. Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? 3. Is It for Fear to Wet a Widow’s Eye? 4. Sigh No More, Ladies, Sigh No More 5. Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind Andy Carr - piano Dennis Staskowski - bass
Lullaby of Birdland George Shearing Andy Carr and Dennis Staskowski
(Saturday) Newport High School Camerata
Medley from Hairspray Mark Shaiman
(Sunday) Bel-Canto of Edmonds-Woodway High School
Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel
traditional spiritual, arr. Roger Emerson Ovation; SeEun Kim - piano Hallelujah (from Shrek) Leonard Dohen, arr. Lawson mixed ensemble
Combined Choirs
Jabula Jesu African folksong, arr. Stephen Hatfield (Saturday) soloists: Debra Nielsen, Lee Huffman, Katie Knowles, Philip Duffy (Sunday) soloists: Debra Nielsen, Lee Huffman, Laura Hoover, Kevin Halle percussion: Kim Hofer
Program Notes
Welcome aboard for Choral Excursions, our sixth annual journey through the fascinating and diverse world of contemporary international choral music! From serious art songs, to folksongs from around the world, to a touch of jazz and popular music, we have another exciting choral spectacle in store for you. Our journey begins with three diverse songs of love, both its trials and its joys, from the Americas. First, the lively Mexican folksong De Amor Heridos exclaims:
If you want to avoid the tortures of love, do not attempt to court that brunette! Many are hurt by love; I, too, was wounded by this great bliss. I won't tell you by whom; with this bitter pain, it is best I keep quiet.
Montreal-born Lionel Daunais (1902-1982) based his beautifully nostalgic Le Pont Mirabeau (1977) on a text by Italian/French poet Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918), which compares the memories of lost love to the flowing waters of the River Seine in Paris. Beneath the Mirabeau bridge the Seine flows, And there memories of our love return to me. Joy comes always after pain. Night comes, the hours pass; the days slip by, I remain. Love slips away like this current of water; Love slips away like life ever slowing, And like hope becomes violence. Night comes, the hours pass; the days slip by, I remain. Days pass, weeks pass, but neither time nor love return. Under the bridge Mirabeau the Seine flows. Night comes, the hours pass; the days slip by, I remain.
Then, from American composer Gwyneth Walker (b.1947) comes the lovely and lyrical i carry your heart (1993), a setting of exquisite poetry by e.e.cummings, in his usual idiosyncratic style.
i carry your heart with me. i carry it in my heart. i am never without it, anywhere i go you go, my dear, and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling. i fear no fate, for you are my fate, my sweet, i want no world, for beautiful you are my world, my true, and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant, and whatever a sun will always sing is you. here is the deepest secret nobody knows, here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud, and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher and higher than soul can hope or mind can hide. and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart. i carry you in my heart.
Next we travel to Asia and the Pacific for two pieces directly or indirectly based on indigenous music, and both inspired by the beauties of their natural environment. The traditional Pastoral Song describes an idyllic scene from eastern Inner Mongolia.
White sheep frolic on the emerald green pasture land Like pearls upon a green carpet. Our home village is the boundless pastures, Our tents the white clouds and blue sky. The rosy dawn welcomes our carefree song; Happy and contented are our lives.
Australian composer Stephen Leek (b.1959) captures the driving energies, rhythms, and vivid colors of the island seascape around the northeastern tip of Australia in his exciting Ngana (1994). Brief melodic and rhythmic patterns reminiscent of aboriginal chants are layered among the voice parts, using just four indigenous Australian words that call to the shark ("ngana") and the fish ("mangana") to welcome ("yah") them to the translucent blue waters ("lina") of the coral reef.
We’re pleased to have on our programs again this year two wonderful regional high school choirs and their directors: the Newport (Bellevue) High School Camerata (5/20), directed by Nancy Fisher, and Bel-Canto of Edmonds-Woodway High School (5/21), directed by Gail Colson. Their selections showcase yet more examples of the diverse world of choral music.
Our musical voyage continues into Europe with the dramatic Lorca Suite (1973), the most well known choral work by Finland’s renowned contemporary composer, Einojuhani Rautavaara (b.1928). In fact, this may be the most widely performed modern Finnish choral piece in the world today. The title refers to the texts by Spanish writer Federico García Lorca (1898-1936), whose poetry displays a startling surrealistic imagery similar to the paintings of his countryman Salvador Dali. Lorca’s work also exhibits a frequent preoccupation with violence and death, resulting in what one commentator has called a “strange mixture of terror and beauty.” When combined with Rautavaara’s tightly-knit musical structures and evocative mood-painting, these become haunting songs of mystery and melancholy, exploring a dark underside of Spanish culture.
Canción de jinete Song of the horseman Córdoba. Córdoba. Lejana y sola. Alone and far away. Jaca negra, luna grande, Black pony, great moon, y aceitunas en mi alforja. and olives in my saddlebag. Aunque sepa los caminos Although I know the way, yo nunca llegaré a Córdoba. I’ll never get to Córdoba Por el llano, por el viento, Through the wind, across the plain, jaca negra, luna roja. black pony, red moon. La muerte me está mirando Death is staring down at me desde las torres de Córdoba. from the towers of Córdoba. ¡Ay qué camino tan largo! Oh, the road, how long it is! ¡Ay mi jaca valerosa! Oh, how brave my pony is! ¡Ay qué la muerte me espera, Oh, death, how it waits for me antes de llegar a Córdoba! before I get to Córdoba. Córdoba. Córdoba. Lejana y sola. Alone and far away.
El grito The scream La elipse de un grito The ellipse of a scream vade monte a monte. goes from hill to hill. Desde los olivos From the olive trees será un arco iris negro a black rainbow will rise sobre la noche azul. above the blue night. ¡Ay! Como un arco de viola Aiii! Like a viol bow el grito ha hecho vibrar the scream has thrilled largas cuerdas del viento. ¡Ay! long strings of the wind. Aiii! (Las gentes de las cuevas (The cave people asoman sus velones.) hold out their lamps.) ¡Ay! Aiii!
La luna asoma The moon rises Cuando sale la luna When the moon rises se pierden las campanas bells fade away y aparecen las sendas and impenetrable paths appear. impenetrables. Cuando sale la luna When the moon rises el mar cubre la tierra the sea covers the earth el corazón se siente isla and the heart feels like an island en el infinito. in the infinite. Nadie come naranjas No one eats oranges bajo la luna llena. under the full moon. Es preciso comer fruta You must eat fruit verde y helada. that is green and ice cold. Cuando sale la luna When the moon rises de cien rostros iguales, with a hundred faces all alike la moneda de plata solloza silver coins sob in the pocket. en el bolsillo.
Malagueña Song from Malaga La muerte entra y sale. Death goes in and out. Pasan caballos negros Black horses y gente siniestra and sinister people por los hondos caminos move along the deep paths de la guitarra. of the guitar. Y hay un olor a sal And there is a smell of salt y a sangre de hembra and of woman’s blood en los nardos febriles in the feverish spikenards de la marina. of the seashore. La muerte entra y sale, Death goes in and out, y sale y entra la muerte and out and in goes death de la taberna. from the tavern.
We travel a short distance to central Europe for music by the greatest Hungarian composer of the modern era, Béla Bartók (1881-1945). Bartók displayed an early passion for ethnomusicology, and his own compositions were invigorated by the themes, modes, and rhythmic patterns of the Hungarian and other Eastern European folk music he studied. These he synthesized with influences from other contemporary styles to create a distinctive musical voice. Forced to flee the political situation in Hungary in 1940, Bartók and his wife moved to New York, where they lived in relative obscurity and difficult financial straights until his death. In honor of Bartók’s 125th anniversary year, we present his delightful settings of Four Slovak Folksongs, composed in 1916.
Wedding Song from Poniky Once a poor mother sent her young daughter Into a distant land. Sternly she bid her: “Follow your husband. Never return to me!” “Now I will change into a blackbird, Fly to my mother’s home. There I’ll be waiting, perched in her garden, On a white lily’s stem.” Out came the mother: “Who is this blackbird? Strange is her song and sad. Away and be gone now, you little birdling; Don’t break my lily’s stem!” “To a mean husband mother has sent me, Off to a distant land. Why must I suffer, ah, dearest mother, With such a spiteful man?”
Song of the Hayharvesters from Hiadel Where the Alps soar so free, flowery vale is bright with joy. There to rest: ah, there’s no bed in the world softer! Done the work of the day, filled the barn with our hay. Comes the night, let us turn peacefully home, neighbors.
Food and drink is her only pleasure, and to dance recklessly. But to work with pin and needle never appeals to her. To the bagpipe player I have paid four dimes foolishly, So that she may dance with others, while I stay so lonely.
Dancing Song from Poniky Bagpipes are playing, dancers are swaying! Piper, play till all is spent, to our heart’s and heel’s content! Play on, bright and bonny, while we still have money! Tavern keeper, here’s for you! Here is for the piper, too! Once a goat was straying: now his skin is playing! While the goat no more can prance, bagpipe makes all young folk dance!
Next, we’re off to jolly old England for the charming choral suite Music to Hear by British-born jazz pianist George Shearing (b.1919). Composed for the Dale Warland Singers in 1985, the musical styles of these settings of Shakespeare stretch from echoes of the Renaissance sounds of the Bard’s own day (Is It for Fear; Shall I Compare Thee), to influences of early 20th century English composer Frederick Delius (Music to Hear), to the jazz harmonies and rhythms that Shearing knows and loves best (Sigh No More, Ladies; Blow, Blow). Shakespeare’s texts provide marvelous musings on various aspects of the human condition: advising marriage and procreation instead of the single life (Music to Hear; Is It for Fear); praising incomparable personal beauty and the power of poetry to immortalize it (Shall I Compare Thee); and offering a rather cynical, albeit witty, assessment of male fidelity (Sigh No More, Ladies) and sincerity in human relationships (Blow, Blow).
Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly? Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy: Why lov'st thou that which thou receiv'st not gladly, Or else receiv'st with pleasure thine annoy? If the true concord of well-tuned sounds, By unions married, do offend thine ear, They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear. Mark how one string, sweet husband to another, Strikes each in each by mutual ordering; Resembling sire and child and happy mother, Who, all in one, one pleasing note do sing; Whose speechless song being many, seeming one, Sings this to thee: 'Thou single wilt prove none.' Sonnet 8
Shall I
compare thee to a summer's day? Sonnet 18
Is it for
fear to wet a widow's eye, Sonnet 9
Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more, Men were deceivers ever; One foot in sea, and one on shore, To one thing constant never. Then sigh not so, but let them go, And be you blithe and bonny, Converting all your sounds of woe, Into hey, nonny, nonny!
Sing no more ditties, sing no more Of dumps so dull and heavy; The fraud of men was ever so, Since summer first was leavy. Then sigh not so… Much Ado About Nothing: Act II, Scene 3
Blow, blow, thou winter wind, Thou art not so unkind As man’s ingratitude. Thy tooth is not so keen Because thou art not seen, Although thy breath be rude. Heigh ho, sing heigh ho, unto the green holly! Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly: Then heigh ho, the holly; this life is most jolly. Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, Thou dost not bite so nigh As benefits forgot. Though thou the waters warp Thy sting is not so sharp As friend rememb’red not Heigh ho, sing heigh ho…. As You Like It: Act II, Scene 7
Shearing’s most well-known jazz composition, Lullaby of Birdland (referring to the famous New York jazz club), then gets a wonderfully swinging rendition from our guest instrumentalists.
To complete our musical excursion, the combined choirs explore the sounds of Africa in Canadian composer Stephen Hatfield’s exciting Jabula Jesu. Based on a traditional Zulu folk song, the piece demonstrates the African style of layering various repeated melodic/rhythmic patterns to create exhilarating polyrhythmic textures. The Zulu portion of the text exclaims:
We say: be joyful with Jesus; We say: play, Solly, and have a good time. Hey, Solly, have a good time. Listen!
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