|
Singing about the deaths of innocent children may not seem like quite the thing to put one in the Christmas spirit! In fact, I have taken something of a risk in programming such a thing as tonight’s concert at a time when people are often expecting something a little more jolly.
But St. Martin’s audiences are different, I have always noticed. We like to hear things from off the beaten path. We like to experience things that are not the commonest of things, or to apprehend them in a different way than we have apprehended them before. We like to explore how other people do things, or how things were done at some point in the past. We enjoy hearing something new just as much as (in fact, perhaps even more than) hearing things we’ve heard before. Our ears are open to the unexpected, unusual, or experimental just as much as the tried and true.
The first half of tonight’s concert is along these lines. There used to be a time, before Christmas became as commercialized as it is now, when the Christmas story included a chapter called “The Slaying of the Innocents,” just as it still retains chapters entitled “The Angel Gabriel,” “No Room at the Inn,” “Of Swaddling Clothes and Mangers,” “Shepherds Hear the Angels,” and “The Adoration of the Magi.” That this chapter of jealousy, lust for power, a harrowing escape, cruelty, and unspeakable violence should be excised from the story is perhaps not surprising; but it also deprives the story of part of its meaning, part of its poignancy, part of its deep symbolism, and, indeed, part of its drama.
It is not my intention to complain, scold, or begin a movement to restore this chapter to the public consciousness. My intention is merely to explain -- and even to mollify, should anyone hearing tonight’s concert be disappointed. I ask you to let the first half of this concert be a meditation on the ugliness of violence, the fragility of life, the importance of relationships, and how these things relate to the Christmas story, or to your life, at this time of year.
At any rate, the second half of the concert brightens considerably with the presentation of the truly charming and simple
Christmas Oratorio by Camille Saint-Saëns, performed all too infrequently (and inexplicably so, I might add).
So hopefully everyone will find something to appreciate in tonight’s concert. On behalf of the singers and staff of St. Martin’s Chamber Choir, I wish you all a very joyous holiday season and a happy new year.
--Timothy J. Krueger
Coventry Carol, Anonymous, Medieval
This Medieval version (c. 1591) of the well-known Coventry Carol, mourning the death of a nameless infant boy, slain by Herod in an attempt to secure his throne and succession, is notably different than more modern arrangements in its asymmetrical beat pattern (you will notice bars consisting of two, three, and four beats), its repetition of one extra line in the refrain, and its stark harmonies, shifting abruptly between major and minor modalities.
In Ramat sonat gemitus,
Anonymous, 12th-13th century
In Wolfenbüttel, Germany (near Hanover) is one of the finest libraries in the world, containing a greater collection of antiquities and manuscripts than almost any other in Europe, begun in the 17th century by a particularly bibliophilic Duke of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel. From this collection comes a monophonic chant, one might almost call it a Lament, dating from about the 12th or 13th century. The anachronistic references to England in this particular text are allegorical, referring to the flight and exile of St. Thomas à Beckett to France when he was the Archbishop of Canterbury, to escape the rage of King Henry II (Herod).
Coventry Carol, arr. Frank Eychaner (b. 1970)
Frank Eychaner, a new tenor in St. Martin’s Chamber Choir, wrote this arrangement of the second verse of the
Coventry Carol specifically for this concert. It consists of nine separate parts, all for the men of the choir. The tenors (augmented by two low altos) sing an undulating ostinato-like rising figure that ebbs and flows constantly between consonance and dissonance. The baritones have the melody, here sung very slowly and mournfully. And the basses sing a pedal G, occasionally moving to form harmonies with the melody, but always giving a foundation to the harmonies above it. The works’ final dissonant, unresolved chord sets the stage perfectly for the next piece.
“Herod”, from “A Boy Was Born”,
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
St. Martin’s Chamber Choir has performed the entirety of Benjamin Britten’s ambitious and daunting cantata A Boy was Born once before; but I have frequently excerpted single movements to go with a particular concert’s theme. This time it is the third movement that I call forth, largely for the men of the choir, although they are joined by the women at the powerful climax of the movement. The abrupt and violent interjections of the word “Noël” throughout the work give it an angry and spiteful tone, as befits the text, an early 16th-century narration of the Herod story.
Coventry Carol, arr. Donald Warner (b. 1935)
This brief verse of the Coventry Carol, in addition to the final Refrain heard at the conclusion of the first half, were excerpted by kind permission from an arrangement by Denver organist and Episcopal priest Donald Warner, composed when he was serving at Christ Church, Aspen, in the 1970’s.
Vox in Rama, Giaches de Wert (1535-1596)
Of note in this setting of the communion motet from the Feast of the Holy Innocents (Dec. 29) by Flemish composer Giaches de Wert is the prevalence of word-painting. First, the undulation of chords on the word
ululatus (“to ululate,” or “wail lamentingly”), which calls to mind the practice in some cultures of rocking back and forth when grieving; second, the chromatically descending line on ‘Rachel plorans’ (“Rachel weeps”) -- descending chromatic lines have symbolized death and anguish for as long as musical accidentals have been in existence --; and finally, the rising chromatic line on et noluit consolari (“and would not be consoled”) which hints at hope, but never quite achieves it.
Coventry Carol, arr. Martin Shaw (1875-1958)
Certainly the most familiar of the Coventry Carol arrangements is that of the English organist and composer Martin Shaw. Like many of the students of Charles V. Stanford, Shaw became intensely interested in English folksong, and, together with his friends Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, and Cecil Sharp, used many old English melodies in their works.
Anima nostra, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
This is a particularly effective example of Palestrina’s gift for magisterial counterpoint; but like many Renaissance choral works, there is little difference in range between the two tenor parts and the alto part, making it difficult to find just the right key in which to perform it, for it’s either too low for the altos, or too high for the tenors. This is naturally due to the presence in Palestrina’s day of male counter-tenors on the alto line, who were capable of singing lower than modern-day female altos. The probability that tenors had higher voices in the 16th century (due to the shorter stature of most people – and vocal range is determined by the length of one’s vocal chords) further complicates the issue!
Salvete Flores Martyrum,
Tomas Luis de Victoria (1548-1611)
The original meaning of the word “hymn,” of which this is one, was simply a strophic piece (i.e., different words [verses] sung successively to the same melody). By Victoria’s day, verses of hymns typically alternated between the original Gregorian chant melodies, and through-composed verses where the chant melody was embedded (usually in augmentation) in the texture. This is a prime example, where the plainchant melody (sung on verses 1 and 3 by the tenors) is placed by Victoria in the 2nd soprano line (verse 2). It is not easy to discern, however, as it is sung so slowly that the mind has trouble identifying it as a melody.
Meciendo, Leanna Kirchoff (b. 1969)
(Text freely adapted from “Meciendo” (“Rocking”) by Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957))
In 2006 St. Martin’s Chamber Choir made a private recording of an unpublished work for Denver composer and professor Leanna Kirchoff, which she submitted as part of an application for the 2007 Sorel Medallion Award for an original composition. The composition was
Meciendo, an a cappella choral setting of a macaronic poem by Gabriela Mistral . . . and it won! As winner of the award,
Meciendo was given a performance by the Voices of Ascension, conducted by Dennis Keene, in Carnegie Hall.
Meciendo, with its mystical text, evoking the rocking and lulling of a child, came strongly into my mind as I was pondering the program for this concert. To me the piece has a melancholy and deep longing that brings to mind the grieving mothers whose children have been slaughtered. Even though there is no direct connection to tonight’s theme, I decided to go with my intuition in programming it, since it kept coming into my mind.
In having this year’s Mark Sheldon Conducting Intern Jill Schroeder conduct the piece, I was hoping for her to bring a feminine insight to the work, as (to my knowledge) the piece has only been led by male conductors so far (myself, Michael J. Kornelsen of Metro State College, and Dennis Keene). That it is one of the most difficult pieces of the concert demonstrates my esteem for Jill’s talents.
"Of the Father’s Love Begotten",
arr. Terry Schlenker (b. 1957)
Between 1999 and 2001, Terry Schlenker arranged three Advent/Christmas Carols for St. Martin’s. The first, “O come, O come Emmanuel,” which we recorded for
our A Glimpse of Heaven CD, became immediately popular, and did nothing less than launch Terry’s association as a composer with St. Martin’s. I have been subsequently able to program the second, “Let all mortal flesh,” on a Christmas program; but it has been nothing short of a grievous oversight that I had never yet programmed the third, “Of the Father’s love begotten,” until now.
In February of 2009, St. Martin’s will be releasing a new CD – our 10th – and it will feature exclusively the compositions of Terry. A few of the works have been already released on recordings, and will also be placed on the new CD; but many of them will be new for this recording. If you are a fan of Terry’s work, I advise you to keep your eyes on St. Martin’s e-mails or mailings for the announcement of the CD’s release; or perhaps even come to the release party planned in February.
© 2008 Timothy J. Krueger |