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A Note from the Artistic Director
As I stated in the Summer Quarter installment of the
St. Martin's Voice newsletter, since September 11 there has been a great outpouring of national spirit, in a great variety of ways. Although this concert was planned well before the tragic events of that day, St. Martin's is proud to add its voice to the national chorus of civic pride.
Whereas many of the expressions of national spirit in the last nine months have taken the form of overt patriotism, St. Martin's takes a different tack.
President John F. Kennedy said "The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction, in the life of a nation, is close to the center of a nation's purpose — and is a test of the quality of a nation's civilization."
If this is the case — and I believe it very much to be so - then the most appropriate way for St. Martin's to respond to the vicious terrorist attacks of September 11 is to do what we do best, which is
not to offer an uncharacteristic concert full of patriotic songs, or even arrangements of traditional Americana, but to remain true to our mission — to present quality music from the classical tradition, rendered to the highest professional standards - and thus to come closest "to the center of [our] nation's purpose," in the visionary words of President Kennedy.
In this spirit, St. Martin's celebrates the American choral tradition of the 20* century with great choral works by some of our foremost composers.
I wish at this point to give special thanks and recognition to those who made donations towards the purchase of scores for the Randall Thompson
Mass of the Holy Spirit. Those who give gifts that enable a performing arts organization to purchase sheet music are like those who donate blood to hospitals, or who indicate that they wish to be organ donors: They are, in fact, giving the gift of life.
Timothy J. Krueger
June 2002
Program Notes
Kyrie (2002) - Terry Schlenker (b. 1957)
Along with Hubert Parry, Terry Schlenker has the distinction of being the most recorded composer by St. Martin's! This
Kyrie for Double Choir - to be recorded on our next CD - is the first movement of an as yet unfinished Mass for Double Choir that Terry is writing. He informs me that the
Credo is now also finished. If the rest of the Mass is as inspired and gorgeous as this first installment, the American choral world has a masterpiece in its future — the first great Mass of the twenty-first century — and a world-class composer in the wings.
Mass of the Holy Spirit (1956) - Randall Thompson (1899-1984)
The phrase "unjustly neglected" can easily become a hackneyed one in my field, and I therefore attempt to use it sparingly. However, this work must fall under that rubric, even though it was composed less than 50 years ago. Written at the request of a Mr. Nicholas Brown of Providence, Rhode Island (of the U. S. Navy), and dedicated to the Choir of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church of that city, Hollis E. Grant, director, it was premiered on the West Coast by the Stanford University Choir and on the East Coast by the Harvard Glee Club in 1956. The first four movements are works of true genius, and deserve to stand alongside the greatest Mass settings of the 20th century. The last two movements are less so, in my opinion, partly because of the constraints imposed on himself by his use of strict canon, making for very satisfying demonstrations of excellent counterpoint technique, but ultimately not of the emotional intensity of the earlier movements. Still, the work deserves to be performed with frequency, not to mention recorded, and it is a mystery to me why I had never heard of it until coming across a yellowed score of it in a box of music that came from the library of the late composer and teacher George Lynn, given to me by his daughter, Christina Lynn-Craig. I have taken the liberty of shortening the last two movements slightly by removing repetitions of text and music that may be desirable when performed liturgically, but are unnecessary in a concert setting.
Alleluia (1940) - Randall Thompson
Written during the opening months of the Second World War, this familiar and very moving work reflects either a longing on die part of the composer for the serenity of peace to come, or (it could be cynically argued) the isolationist nonchalance of an America not yet involved in the war. As Thompson was a well-traveled man with an internationalist sense, it is hard not to believe that the former is closer to the truth. It begins sweetly, with a gently undulating melody; but it soon builds to a climax of great emotional intensity, heightened by a gradual quickening of tempo; finally it relaxes back into die serenity of its opening bars, now with me added dimension of release and repose.
I have been extremely fortunate this year to have had a musician of such depth and talent as Mark Sheldon as my assistant. The
Alleluia, although very frequently performed, is an appropriate vehicle for Mark's intensity of feeling and confidence of interpretation, and a very fitting tribute. I think, to his immense talents; to his invaluable assistance to me; and to the valiant struggle he is making in his personal life against cancer, an illness every bit as vicious, in its way, as
the violence of 9/11.
To a Wild Rose (1896) - Edward MacDowell (1869-1908), arranged
for choir by Arthur Somervell
Known most widely for his piano compositions, MacDowell would regularly write down snippets of melodies that came to him on New-England walks, and then discard them as a way of keeping compositionally "fresh." This melody, however, his wife persuaded him to keep, and it became one of his many charming character pieces for piano. It was arranged a decade later by die Englishman Sir Arthur Somervell for four voices to words written for the melody by R. H. Elkin.
Reincarnations (1940) - Samuel Barber (1910-1981), texts by
James Stephens after the Irish of Rafferty
Samuel Barber said, "When I'm writing music for words, then I immerse myself in those words, and I let the music flow out of them." This statement is made evident in these lyrical songs where, once you’ve heard Barber's melody, you can't imagine any other fitting to these particular words. One almost has the impression that the melody is already familiar to you when you first hear it.
The Lamentations of Jeremiah (2001) - Timothy J. Krueger (b. 1964)
These are the first three lessons appointed for Tenebrae in Holy Week, a service of darkness commemorating die passion and suffering of Christ. I incorporate die ancient Lamentations chant in one voice or another at all times, a repetitive chant in F major consisting of only four consecutive notes (F, G, A, and B-flat). The chant traditionally introduces each verse of text with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which I retain here. The major challenge I faced in this setting was to make a four note melody that repeats itself over and over again into something interesting to listen to. Rather than obscuring it (which would be one way to accomplish it!), I chose to make it fairly prominent. Something heard over and over again can either be described as hypnotic and meditative, or monotonous: I strove for the former. In the First Lesson, the melody appears exclusively in die sopranos; in die Second Lesson it is exclusively in die men, with die women humming above it (this is where die chant in its most pristine form will be most recognizable); and in die Third Lesson it moves from part to part, appearing occasionally in octaves with tenor and soprano or alto and bass. Another challenge was to make a chant in a major key sound dark and ominous. I have attempted to accomplish this through atmosphere (especially in die Second Lesson), and frequent use of non-chordal tones, many of which do not resolve where they ought to, and some of which do not resolve at all.
Four Pastorales (1964) - Cecil Effinger (1914-1990), Texts by Thomas Hornsby Ferril
Thomas Hornsby Ferril was at one time the Poet Laureate of Colorado. These four poems, chosen by Effinger from a collection published in the 1950's, have little to do with one another except for their authorship. The first poem is especially poignant to me, referring to an airman who died in the Second World War and who was very close to the poet (perhaps a son?). The second portrays a willingly hot scene, very effectively set by Effinger (if you are not picking at your collar from heat by the end of this piece, you have not listened carefully!). I will leave the interpretations of the final two up to the listener, aided mightily by the emotional insight provided by Cecil Effinger's musical settings
© 2002 Timothy J. Krueger |