Symphony CELEBRATING SEASON. & Chorale MOSC.ORG. Midland-Odessa. GARY LEWIS Music Director & Conductor. 55 Seasons of Enriching Lives Through Music!

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1 Symphony Midland-Odessa & Chorale SEASON GARY LEWIS Music Director & Conductor MOSC.ORG CELEBRATING 55 Seasons of Enriching Lives Through Music!

2 Midland-Odessa Symphony & Chorale Presents SOUNDS FROM THE CONTINENT MOSC CHORALE Gregory M. Pysh, Conductor Shari Santorelli, Accompanist Saturday, April 28, :30pm First Presbyterian Church of Midland Sanctuary 800 W. Texas Avenue, Midland TX 1

3 MOSC CHORALE SPONSORS Dee & Susan Carter Midland Symphony Guild FRIENDS OF THE CHORALE M.G. Crain Thomas & Denise Elrod Maridell Fryar Ann & Ken Hankins, Jr. Connie May Ann Parish Joyce Sherrod Mark & Violet Singh Audrey Steakley Nora Steakley Verner 2

4 PROGRAM Come, Ye Sons of Art Henry Purcell ( ) (Birthday Ode for Queen Mary) Credo, RV 592 Antonio Vivaldi ( ) (North American Premiere) ed. Gregory M. Pysh I. Credo in unum Deum, patrem omnipotentem, factorem coeli et terrae, visibilium et invisibilium. I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things seen and unseen. Et in unum Dominum Jesum Christum, Filium Dei unigenitum, et ex patre natum ante omnia saecula. And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of the Father, born of the Father before all ages. Deum de Deo, lumen de lumine, Deum vero de Deo vero. God of God, light of light, true God of true God Genitum, non factum, consubstantialem Patri: per quem omnia facta sunt. Begotten, not made, of one essence with the Father; by whom all things were made. Qui propter nos homines, et propter nostram salutem descendit de coelis. Who for us, and for our salvation, came down from heaven. II. III. Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine; et homo factus est. And was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary; and was made man. Sonja K. Millichamp, soprano; Hannah Payken, alto Crucifixus etiam pro nobis; sub Pontio Pilato passus, et sepultus est. He was also crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, He suffered, died, and was buried. IV. Et resurrexit tertia die, secundum Scripturas. Et ascendit in coelum: sedet ad dexteram Patris. On the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures, ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. 3

5 Et iterum venturus est cum Gloria, judicare vivos et mortuos: cujus regni non erit finis. And He shall come again in glory, to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom shall have no end. V. Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et vivificantem: qui ex Patre Filioque procedit. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. Qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur, et conglorificatur; qui locurtus est per prophetas. Who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who spoke through the prophets. Et unam sanctam catholicam et apostolicam ecclesiam. And I believe in one holy, catholic (universal) and apostolic church. Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem peccatorum. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins. Et expecto resurrectionen mortuorum. And I expect the resurrection of the dead. VI. Et vitam venturi saeculi. Amen. And the life in the world to come. Amen Text from the Roman Mass, translated by Gregory M. Pysh The Promise of Living, Aaron Copland ( ) from The Tender Land Three Western Songs arr. Gregory M. Pysh (b. 1958) Red River Valley Streets of Loredo - Caleb Burnet, soloist Home on the Range - Terrill Littlejohn, soloist 4

6 Fantasy in C Minor, opus 50 Ludwig von Beethoven ( ) (Choral Fantasy) Shari Santorelli, piano soloist Alice Beckstrom, Sydney Higar, Tracy Avery, Lauryl Hoose, soprano Kay Szenasi, Jessica Waller, alto John Kejr, Scott Long, tenor Caleb Burnett, Gene Collins, Terrill Littlejohn, Ron Whitaker, bass Schmeichelnd hold und lieblich klingen Graceful, charming and sweet is the sound unseres Lebens Harmonien, of our life s harmonies, und dem Schönheitssinn entschwingen and from a sense of beauty arise Blumen sich, die ewig blühn. Flowers which eternally bloom. Fried und Freude gleiten freundlich Peace and joy advance in perfect concord, wie der Wellen Wechselspiel. like the changing play of the waves. Was sich drängte rauh und feindlich, All that was harsh and hostile, ordnet sich zu Hochgefühl. has turned into sublime delight. Wenn der Töne Zauber walten When music's enchantment reigns, und des Wortes Weihe spricht, like that of the sacred word, muss sich Herrliches gestalten, Magnificence takes form, Nacht und Stürme werden Licht. The night and the tempest turns to light Äuss're Ruhe, inn're Wonne Outer peace and inner bliss 5

7 herrschen für den Glücklichen. Reign o'er the fortunate ones. Doch der Künste Frühlingssonne All art in the spring's sun lässt aus beiden Licht entstehn. Makes light flow from all. Großes, das ins Herz gedrungen, Greatness, once it has pierced the heart, blüht dann neu und schön empor. Then blooms anew in all its beauty. Hat ein Geist sich aufgeschwungen, Once one's soul has taken flight, hallt ihm stets ein Geisterchor. A choir of singers resounds in response. Nehmt denn hin, ihr schönen Seelen, Accept then, you beautiful souls, froh die Gaben schöner Kunst. Joyously the gifts of high art. Wenn sich Lieb und Kraft vermählen, When love and strength are united, lohnt den Menschen Göttergunst. Divine grace is bestowed upon Man. - Christoph Kuffner You Your Legacy And the music of the MOSC CAN BEGIN NOW! For further details on the role you can play in assuring that live symphonic and choral music continues in the Permian Basin for years to come please contact: Violet Singh, Development Director development@mosc.org (432)

8 PROGRAM NOTES Come, Ye Sons of Art Henry Purcell ( ) (Birthday Ode for Queen Mary) By the 1690s, Henry Purcell was the brightest star on London's musical scene. Appointed organist of Westminster Abbey at the age of twenty, he also held the appointments of Gentleman of the Chapel Royal and Keeper of the King's Instruments. The height of professional success was to have one s music performed at the royal court, and Purcell was a frequent contributor. Musical celebrations at court could be occasioned by many different events, but royal birthdays were a particular favorite. There was a tradition of performing Odes specially composed for the monarch's birthday. Come, Ye Sons of Art is the last of many royal Odes Purcell composed, written for Queen Mary's birthday on April 30, 1694, with a text by the poet Nahum Tate. Purcell's next composition for a monarch was her funeral music in March the following year, five months before his own death at the age of 36. The chorus celebrates the beauty of music in the opening chorus, "Come, Ye Sons of Art," a cheerful call to celebration. Credo, RV 592 Antonio Vivaldi ( ) (North American Premiere) ed. Gregory M. Pysh Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice in 1678, and was employed for most of his working life by the Ospedale della Pietà, a convent, orphanage, and music school in Venice with a renowned all-female orchestra and choir. Vivaldi served the Pietà as violin master beginning in Although well-known during his lifetime (Bach transcribed six of Vivaldi's concerti), his music fell into oblivion after his death in Vienna in After Vivaldi s death, many of his manuscripts were acquired by the Venetian Jacopo Soranzo. Soranzo bound these manuscripts into twenty-seven volumes, which were later obtained by the musical impresario Count Giacomo Durazzo. After his death, the Durazzo family divided the manuscripts into two equal portions. Through the monetary donations of Roberto Foà and Filippo Giordano, both in memory of their sons, the collection was reunited and now resides in the Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria in Turin. Italy. Vivaldi s known sacred music consists of mass sections (Kyrie, Gloria, and Credo), psalm settings, Magnificat(s), hymns, motets, and several oratorios. The individual mass settings do not seem to be connected with a larger Missa, but are stand-alone works composed chiefly for the musicians of the Pietà. Although the date of the Credo RV 592 is unknown, research indicates the use of the tenor viola part would place the origin in Italy, where the additional instrument was more common after 1720, while being a rarity in northern Europe. Most prominent in Vivaldi s choral works, the Qui sedes movement of the Gloria RV 588 makes use of the second (solo) viola. 7

9 The Credo RV 592 is scored for Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass voices, 2 violins, alto viola, tenor viola, basso continuo, and optional oboe. The text is divided into six musical sections. The first is an Alla breve in G major, with imitative melodic figures, each beginning with the word Credo. The text is set in seven phrases, bridged by unison staccato strings. This is followed by a nine -measure Adagio setting of Et incarnates est, with the chorus in homophonic voicing, the soprano doubled by the second violins, and the altos by the first violins one octave higher, in typical Vivaldi scoring. The Crucifixus is written for Soprano and Alto soloists, with no indication of tempo in any part. The strings (minus the tenor viola) play an introduction and a closing section, but are scored in unison during the vocal phrases. This duet is followed by a brisk three-eight meter setting of Et resurrexit for full chorus and orchestra. Vivaldi then reprises the melodic material of the opening section, in three phrases. The third phrase modulates briefly to G minor, then to a final cadence in G major. The composition closes with a brisk setting of Et vitam venturi saeculi. Amen. in three-four meter, with a melismatic Amen in all voices and instruments. The Promise of Living, Aaron Copland ( ) from The Tender Land Aaron Copland was not the only great American classical composer of the 20th century. There were dozens of others, as Copland himself emphatically proclaimed. But quite early in his career Copland became known as the dean of American composers, and there was no one who subsequently fit the description more clearly. He not only wrote his own music, but worked tirelessly to promote the music of his fellow composers. Copland was the first American to be internationally recognized as creating musical works that were both distinctively American and of lasting merit. Originally written for the NBC Television Opera Workshop, The Tender Land was rejected by network producers, perhaps because of weaknesses in its plot and characters. It premiered at New York City Opera on April 1, 1954, with Thomas Schippers conducting and Jerome Robbins as director. Putting aside the rejection by NBC, it is amazing to consider there was a time in the United States when commercial network television executives commissioned prominent composers to write television operas. These were the days when NBC and CBS each had their own in-house orchestra. NBC Opera Theatre, which operated from 1949 to 1964, also produced Gian Carlo Menotti s Amahl and the Night Visitors. The Tender Land is the story of a young farm girl who graduates from school, falls in love with a farm hand (who jilts her), and leaves the farm for life in the world beyond. The Promise of Living comes at the close of Act I, and expresses the American virtues of working hard to develop the fruitfulness of the land, of helping and sharing with family and neighbors, while at the same time believing 8

10 deeply in the bounties of nature as governed by the blessings of God. Copland uses John G. McCurry s old revivalist song Zion s Walls as the basis for The Promise of Living, using the two melodies of the song separately for most of the composition, then bringing them together at the beginning of the final section, a full chorale-style passage. Three Western Songs arr. Gregory M. Pysh (b. 1958) Red River Valley Folk songs have evolved from the blending of different cultural traditions. Familiar songs sometimes spring from surprising origins. One of the most notable is Red River Valley. What appears to be a simple song of lament sung by cowboy singers around campfires is, in reality, the end of a musical mix with its foundation in the melodies of traditional folk songs sung in the mists of a Gaelic past, and whose lyrics were written as a personal expression of a cultural conflict. Red River Valley was first recorded as Cowboy Love Song in 1925 by Carl T. Sprague, one of the first cowboy singers from Texas. In recordings of the song, the lyrical associations are about the Red River Valley which marks the border between Texas and Oklahoma. Although it is not widely known, there are two significant Red River valleys on the North American Continent. It is to the Red River Valley of the North the origins of Red River Valley lead. The famed Canadian folklorist, Edith Fowke, gave mostly anecdotal evidence the song was known in at least five Canadian provinces prior to She claimed the song was well-known on the Canadian prairies, and told the story of a girl lamenting the departure of her significant other, a soldier who came west to suppress the Red River Rebellion. Streets of Laredo "Streets of Laredo", also known as the "Cowboy's Lament", is a famous American cowboy ballad in which a dying cowboy tells his sad story of his demise on the streets of Laredo (Texas). When cowboys finally reached town after months on the trail, they were eager to shake off the dust and spend their pay. They would get haircuts, take showers, polish their boots, put on fancy shirts, and head for a saloon to drink, play billiards, and gamble. Generally, they were just looking to have a good time. The frequency of gunfights and fatal shootings has been greatly exaggerated in books and movies through the years. Although these occurrences did happen, the dangers of the cattle drive took many more lives. Home on the Range "Home on the Range" is a classic western folk song sometimes called the "unofficial anthem" of the American West. The lyrics were originally written by 9

11 Dr. Brewster M. Higley of Smith County, Kansas, in a poem entitled "My Western Home" in In 1947, it became the state song of Kansas. In 1871, Higley moved from Indiana to Smith County, Kansas, under the Homestead Act. He lived in a small cabin near West Beaver Creek, and was so inspired by his new bucolic surroundings he decided to write a poem in praise of the prairie. Thus, the lyrics to "Home on the Range" were originally published as a poem in the Smith County Pioneer in The music was later added by Daniel E. Kelley, a carpenter and friend of Higley. The song was eventually adopted by ranchers, cowboys, and other western settlers and spread across the United States in various forms. In 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt claimed it to be his favorite song. Since then the song has been used in countless movies and shows, being sung by everyone from Willie Nelson to Porky Pig. Fantasy in C Minor, opus 50 Ludwig von Beethoven ( ) (Choral Fantasy) Reports are numerous regarding the fiasco of the first performance of the Choral Fantasy, introduced to the world at Vienna's Theater an der Wien on December 22, 1808 as "Improvisation for piano with gradual entrance of the orchestra and finally a choral section and finale." On the same program were Beethoven s Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6, his Fourth Piano Concerto, an aria, two excerpts from his in-progress Mass in C, and a solo improvisation. Nearly all of the music, including some of the most challenging ever devised by the mind of man, was sight-read at the concert, which lasted from 6:30 pm to 10:30 pm. According to the composer's piano pupil Ferdinand Ries: "We experienced the fact that one could easily have too much of a good and even more, a powerful thing. I, no more than the extremely kind and gentle Prince [Prince Lobkowitz, one of the composer s chief patrons, who had invited Ries to sit with him], whose box was in the first tier very near the stage, on which the orchestra with Beethoven conducting were quite close to us, would not have thought of leaving the box before the end of the concert, although several faulty performances tried our patience to the utmost." Beethoven wanted a "brilliant Finale" to unite in a single piece the different musical elements highlighted in the concert night: piano solo, chorus and orchestra. The Fantasy, Op. 80, written shortly prior, was thus composed expressly to fulfil this role. Beethoven himself played the piano part, and the opening solo offers an example of his improvisational style (at the premiere he did, in fact, improvise this section). The Choral Fantasy theme is itself taken from earlier work by Beethoven, a slightly modified version of the composer's "Gegenliebe", a lied for voice and piano. According to Beethoven's pupil Carl Czerny, the poet was Christoph Kuffner. The Fantasy opens with a slow but virtuosic 26-bar piano introduction, modulating from C minor to C major and back again. The main part of the piece, marked "Finale", begins with an Allegro theme played by the cellos 10

12 and basses. Next, the solo piano introduces the choral theme in an ornamented version. Variations on the theme are then played, followed by a full orchestral version, which leads into a more lyrical piano line. The orchestra accompanies an eighth-note piano figure as the piece modulates from C minor to C major. A calm, flowing A-major section, ending with a call-and-response section between organ and piano, leads into the Marcia, an F-major variation in march style. A reprise of the instrumental theme from the first Allegro transitions into the choral entrance. The chorus enters with the ladies singing the melody, followed by the men, both harmonized in triads. Then the entire chorus is joined by the full orchestra. A Presto coda with orchestra, chorus, and piano brings the piece to a triumphal close. Program Notes by Gregory M. Pysh MOSC ORCHESTRA VIOLIN I John Madura, Concertmaster Erin E. Weber, Associate Concertmaster Nikesha Hailey, Associate Principal VIOLIN II Karen McAfee, Principal Jason Snider Erin DeLavan VIOLA Melissa Madura, Principal Laura Peña, Associate Principal Miriam Oddie CELLO Amy Huzjak, Principal Danny Mar, Associate Principal BASS Bill DeLavan, Principal OBOE Caryn Crutchfield, Principal ORGAN Hyun Lee, Principal 11

13 MOSC CHORALE Soprano Alto Tenor Kimberly Allen Tracy Avery Alice Beckstrom Cathy Bonifay Teresa Clingman Sydney Higar Lauryl Hoose Sharon Humphreys Sandra Huston Cynthia Jarrett Tamar Kes Linda Loudenback Sonja K. Millichamp Tricia Moffa Susan Perez Renee Pocsik Kathy Pysh Pamela Radabaugh Beverly Rekdahl Eileen Shayeb Audrey Steakley Carrol Unger Karen Weidmann Doris Anderson Julie Andreopulos Jannee Banner Lisa Bristow Debbie Butler Lynne Chandler Sarah Clothier Leslie Cyphers Virginia DeBerry Melody Drinkard Clarissa Funk Kristie Graves Berniece Johnson Connie May Dawn Miller Mary Neff Cathy O Reilly Sandy Patrick Hannah Payken Brenda Perez Valerie Rodriguez Kay Szenasi Jessica Waller Kent Alexander Dee Carter Nash Dowdle John Kejr Scott Long Scooter Tilley Bass Clyde Aly Caleb Burnett Gene Collins Leonard Glascock Terrill Littlejohn Don Miller Alec Nutt Garth Powell Mike Randolph Lyle Roberts Ron Whitaker 12