St. Martin's Chamber Choir - Program Notes

Program notes - Passio Christi

A Note from the Artistic Director

With St. Martin's in its 16th year, with some 300 concerts under our belts, it is sometimes astonishing to me to discover a major work that is a favorite of mine that we have yet to perform. The Tallis “Lamentations” is such a work. Classed as one of the top half-dozen masterpieces of the English Renaissance, it has deserved much earlier attention from us. Tallis' setting is only a partial one, for there are nine readings from Jeremiah that are to be said or sung on the last three evenings before Easter (three each evening), and Tallis has set two of them, one from the first evening (Wednesday) and one from the second (Maundy Thursday). Whether he intended to set a third for Good Friday -- or, indeed, to set all nine -- is not known. But these two stand as some of the finest choral music ever written.

In keeping with the intent that the two portions of the work be performed on successive evenings, I have chosen not to perform them together, but to separate them with another work -- the incredibly haunting and difficult Chaconne by J. S. Bach for solo violin (transcribed for viola) since we are joined this evening by one of the area's finest violists, Matt Dane. When I asked Matt to choose a solo work for this concert, he selected the Chaconne because he felt it fit very well with the spirit of the Tallis. Hence, I ask the listener to listen to the Chaconne as an extended meditation on the sorrow that is at the heart of the Tallis Lamentations.

Matt's influence on this concert is further and significantly felt in the final work of the evening, Christus by Minnesota composer John Ferguson. Christus is a set of pieces for chorus and solo viola based on hymn- and chant-melodies that Matt brought to my attention a year ago, and I immediately programmed them for the following (this) season. They are works of varied moods and expressions, from the joy of "Rejoice, rejoice, this Happy Morn" and "Good Christian Friends," to the atmospheric beauty of "O come, O come Emmanuel" and "Who is this?" to the anguished wailing and grief of my favorite one of the set, "Ah, holy Jesus." In all of them, the viola is an equal of the chorus in telling the "story" of each piece based on its place in the church year (Advent, Christmas, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost, and a final summation work).

We are also joined on Friday night by the Honor Choir of East High School, under the direction of Will Taylor. East High was selected as one of our high school residencies this year, an educational outreach program that St. Martin's started in 2007 to work with area High Schools to promote singing, to encourage Denver's young singers to continue singing after they leave school, and to develop relationships between high school choir directors/singers and Denver's professional chorus, St. Martin's Chamber Choir. They will present one work by themselves, and then join St. Martin's on a double choir work by Bach, with St. Martin's singing one choir and the East High Honor Choir singing the part of the other.
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inally, our Mark Sheldon Conducting Intern Jill Schroeder is directing two of my favorite Lenten choral miniatures, one of which St. Martin's recorded on our early CD "A Glimpse of Heaven" (the Battishill "O Lord, look down from Heaven"), and the other of which we are about to record (with Jill conducting) on our CD slated to appear this autumn (the Kuhnau "Tristes est anima").

Timothy J. Krueger
April 2009