Shenandoah Music Association

Transcription

1 The Board of/ "rectors of the Shenandoah Music Association gratefully acknowledget support of the corporations, companies and individuals 1 sted below. CORPORATE SPONSOR -- PELLA CORPORATION SUSTAINING City National Bank Mr. and Mrs. Mark Eno First National Bank, Essex Dr. and Mrs. Kenneth Gee George Jay Drug Company Hackett Funeral Home Mr. and Mrs. John Kidd Dr. and Mrs. W.E. Lloyd Mr. and Mrs. John McLaren Mr. and Mrs. Dale Matthews Merle Norman Cosmetics - Phillip and Shirley Rattenborg Mount Arbor Nurseries Mr. and Mrs. George Perry Dr. and Mrs. Dean Ray Mr. and Mrs. George Rose Mr. and Mrs. Rawson Stevens Tall Corn Motel Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Travis Wilson Insurance Agency Our 46th Season Shenandoah Music Association GOLD Dr. and Mrs. David Arunski Mr. and Mrs. Erwin Aust Mr. and Mrs. William: Billings Earl May Seed & Nursery Co. L.P. Susan Foster Dr. and Mrs. Floyd Jones Mr. and Mrs. Forest Klepinger Mr. and Mrs. William Tyner SILVER Dr. and Mrs. Allen Carrell Central Surveys Inc. Mr. and Mrs. George Elwers Dr. and Mrs. Orlin Fick Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Fisher Phyllis J. Funk Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Hagglund Hy-Vee Food Stores Imperial Inc. Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Jones Dr. and Mrs. William McClain Mr. and Mrs. Dennis McDermott Mr. and Mrs. Virgil Perry Sack 'N' Save Grocery Mr. and Mrs. Paul Sjulin Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Stevens Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Williams Mr. and Mrs. Clinton Williams Gladys Wirsig-Jones Auditorium Concerts at 7:30 p.m.

2 SHENANDOAH MUSIC ASSOCIATION Presents THE DALE WARLAND SINGERS Dale Warland, Conducting I. AMERICAN MADRIGALS "The Uncertainty of a Poet" from A Poet's Eye (1987) Cary John Franklin (b. 1956) "10 Son la Primavera" from Six Madrigals (1985) William Hawley (b. 1950) Of Crows and Clusters (1972), Norman Delle joio (b. 1913) II. NEW MUSIC FROM ENGLAND The Rose (1969),, John Paynter (b. 1931) III. MUSIC OF OUR TIME Epitaph for Moonlight (1968), R. Murray Schafer (b. 1933) Magnificat (1989) ~, Arvo Pan (b. 1935) IV. GREAT CHORUSES "How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Plate'? from A German Requiem, op. 45 (1868) Johannes Brahms ( ) La Passeggiata (The Excursion) (1840) " Giocchino Rossini ( ) -- INTERMISSION-- V. FOU~ SHAKESPEARE SONGS Fancie (1961), Benjamin Britten ) "The Cloud-Capp'd Towers" from Three Shakespeare Songs (1951) Ralph Vaughan Williams ( ) "Take, 0 Take Those lips Away" from Three Madrigals Emma Lou Diemer (b. 1927) "Blow; Blow Thou Winter Wind" from Music to Hear (1985) George Shearing (b. 1919) VI. THE WARLANO CABARET SINGERS Jerry Rubino, conductor Selections to be announced {rom the stage VII. FOLK MUSIC I1Ie Drummer and the Cook English (Harrison Oxley) Fabodpsalm Frdn Dalarna (ASummer Pasture Hymn) Swedish (Anders Ohrwall) Cindy, American (Carol Barnett)

3 THE DALE WARLAND SINGERS Founded in 1972, The Dale Warland Singers has become one of the world's premier professional choral ensembles and is recognized internationally for its performances of twentieth century choral music. Based m the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, the chorus has gained countless fans from twenty years of concert tours, festival appearances, radio broadcasts and sixteen critically acclaimed recordings. Dr. Warland and The Singers were honored in June 1992 with the presentation by Chorus America of the Margaret Hillis Achievement Award for Choral Excellence. They also received ASCAP awards in 1992 and 1993 for their programming of contemporary American repertoire. With a particular focus on the works of living American composers, the organization is committed to providing increasing opportunities for composers and to keeping the choral genre fresh and alive with new musical ideas. Regular commissioning projects have involved such composers as Dominick Argento, Anthony Davis, George Shearing, Mary Ellen Childs, Peter Schickele, and Bernard Rands. With the assistance of the Jerome Foundation, the ensemble maintains a reading, commissioning, and performance program encouraging the writing of new choral works by emerging composers. Commissions have been awarded to Mary Ellen Childs, William Hawley, Alf Houkom, Jalalu-Kalvert Nelson, Jackie T. Gabel, and Janice Hamer. The Dale Warland Singers perform an annual subscription series in the Twin Cities and tour extensively throughout the United States. The group has also concertized internationally and most recently represented North America at the Second World Symposium on Choral Music. Their concerts have been broadcast over German, Swedish and Finnish state radio. The ensemble was often heard on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion, and has appeared regularly on American Public Radio's St. Paul Sunday Morning. The 1992 Dale Warland Singers Echoes of Christmas concert was carried by I::2JRublie radio stations and reached an estimated seven.. on listeners. DALE WARLAND The season marks Dale Warland's twenty-second season as Music Director of The Dale Warland Singers. Warland has devoted his professional life to attaining the highest musical level in choral singing. Consummate musicianship and attention to detail have been his tools in building one of the fmest choral.groups in the country. Beyond his active schedule as Music Director of The Dale Warland Singers, Warland is in demand as guest conductor, lecturer and composer. He has conducted such prestigious choirs as the Swedish Radio Choir, Danish Radio Choir, Oregon Bach Festival Chorus, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and Israel's top professional choir, the Cameran Singers. In August of 1990, Warland prepared the chorus for Penderecki's Polish Requiem, the culminating event of The Second World Symposium on Choral Music in Finland. Warland is an active composer and a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors,and Publishers (ASCAP). He has also served as co-chair of the choral and recording panels of the National Endowment for the Arts. A recipient of major grants from the Ford Foundation, the Bush Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Board, Dr. Warland holds Distinguished Alumnus Awards from. St. ~laf College and the University of Southern California, He served as professor of music at Macalester College after earning his academic de~rees at St. Olaf Co~ege, the University of Mmnesota and the Umversity of Southern California. In May, 1992, he was honored with a Doctor of Humane Letters from Augustana College, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. PERFORMANCE PERSONNEL Soprano Jane E. Andersen Marie Spar Dymit Norah Long Nancy McMurrin Julie Ann Olson Melissa O'Neill Alto Joanne Halvorsen Lynette R. Johnson Anna Mooy Lisa Theisen Patricia Thompson Mitzi Westra Tenor David Fisher Thomas Larson Robert W. Pontious Steve J. Sandberg Randall C. Speer Steven Staruch Bass Philip Blackburn Bruce Broquist Jin Kim David Ryan Moberg Jerry Rubino Brad Runyan Mark Sheldon ARTISTIC & ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF Dale Warland Music Director and Conductor Peter Hendrickson Assistant Conductor, and,rvtusic Director, Warland Symphonic Chorus Jerry Rubmo Assistant Conductor, Pianist, and Music Director, The Warland Cabaret Singers Dean Palermo Librarian Russ Bursch General Manager Rosalie Miller Office Manager & Personnel Coordinator Betsy Peregoy Robert W. Pontious Marketing Assistant Operations ~is activity is made possible in part by a grant provided by the MlllnellOla State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minneaola State Legislature. The Minnesota Stale Arts Board received additional funds to support this activity from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Dale Warland Singers is a recipient of funds from the Otorua Program of the National Endowment for the Arts. The Dale Warland Singers is a member ofotorua America. Compact discs and casaette tapes of The Dale Warland Singers will be for sale in the lobby during intennission and after the performance. For additional information call or write: about The Dale Warland Singers, The Dale Warland Singers 120 North Fourth Street Minneapolis, Minnesota Phone Fax: il,~ ARtS MIDWEST This project is supported by Arts Midwest members and friends in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.

4 A portion of the score of Murray Schafer's Epitaph for Moonlight. ('Ie'] s.it'j) J. "".. II. 4.,. PROGRAM NOTES by Brian Newhouse Welcome to The Dale Warland Singers on tour! The big mid-america swing this spring takes us to Minnesota towns from which many of us hail- Montevideo, New Ulm and Fairmont. After a night in Minneapolis-St. Paul performing for our families (and sleeping in our own beds, hurrahl) it's off to Marshalltown, Iowa. We sing our way south, through Kansas and into Oklahoma, perhaps in time to see blue bonnets and other wildflowers blossom along the Salt Fork River. Then it's back north, through Illinois and Wisconsin and home by May 3. Enjoy! THE UNCERTAINTY OF A POET Cary John Franklin began his musical studies at the age of five, with an instrument that few take up at that or any age nowadays: the accordion. The polka instrument served him well. Today he's the Chorus Master and assistant conductor of the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Music Director of the First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis, and has guest conducted the Kansas City Symphony and the Washington Opera. He has a sparkling eye and bright red hair, which fit him perfectly- you'll know why after listening to this shon funny piece. 10 SON LA PRIMAVERA Iam Spring, who gladly, lovely women, returns to you with my beautiful, embellished mantle to dress the countryside in greenery cnuiflowers and to arouse in your hearts new loves. For me Zephir sighs, for me the earth laughs, and so the serene heavens; from breast to breast fly the charming Amoretti by the thousands, armed with arrows and with torches. And you, again delighted, Take pleasure in my coming amidst laughing and song; Love your lovers now, while April adorns lovelyfaces with flowers; Springfor you will not return forever. Ask any of the Dale Warland Singers- William Hawley's music is as beautiful to sing!/"i- as it is to hear. This New York native was IS"" I." trained as a singer and a linguist, and has an uncommon knack for setting words to music. The Italian text about spring's beauties flows effortlessly from the tongue and voice. Hawley's musical language couches the jazzy intervals of seconds, ninths and sevenths, in a lush antique mode. OF CROWS AND CLUSTERS The nonsensical text Of Crows and dusters dates from the tum of the century, when poet Vachel Lindsay, like many Americans, was enamored of fantasies such as Alice in Wonderland. Here, we've two bumbling black birds sitting on a fence, "thinking of cause and effect... effect and cause, and of nature's laws." One of them stutters, the other mutters, a bee buzzes by and scares them both off, and that's that. Don't look for ultimate meaning here-just enjoy the wit and snap of a great composer, and this goofy poem. THE ROSE Of a rose singe we Misterium mirabile (Marvelous mystery). This rose is red of colour bright, Thro' whom our joye gan alight Upon this Christmasse night, Claro David germine (Of David's noble seed). Of this rose was Christ ybore, To save mankind that was forlore, And us aile from sinnes sore. Prophetarum carmine (Assung by the prophets). This rose offloweres she isflower; She ne will fade for no shower; To sinful men she sent succor. Mira plenitudine (Of wondrous fullness). This rose is so fair of hue; In maid Mary that is so true Yborne was Lord of virtue, Salvator sine crimine (Saviour without sin). This has become one of the signature pieces ofthe Dale Warland Singers. Though intended for Christmas, the reverent, almost mystical quality of both the 15th century text and Paynter's music is really quite timeless. "The gradual unfolding of the music symbolizes the opening of a rose," the composer says. To bring that offhe gives the individual singer a lot of latitude, with long sections of pitched but freely-spoken text. The last page is haunting' charming: the choir sings over and over "Salvator sine crimine" (Saviour without sin) on a gently rocking rhythm, while the alto soloist takes wing. Choir and soloist diminuendo, and the work closes as gently as a flower at sunset. EPITAPH FOR MOONLIGHT In 1968 Schafer gave his seventh graders the assignment of creating synonyms for the word "moonlight." Their list: nu-yu-yul, noorwahm, maunklinde, malooma, shalowa and many more. Schafer wrote the piece to depict moonlight and to commemorate the moon's pristine environment, which, in 1968, he realized would be forever altered with the arrival of Buzz Armstrong and his colleagues the following year. Musically, Epitaph is an exercise in ear training. There are no key signatures, bar lines, sharps or flats here- not a stave of conventionally notated music. The sopranos enter humming a "medium high note" and the choir, divided into 16 pans, slides in behind on descending half-steps; if all is lined up properly, this soft mash of sound evolves into a major triad. Within this context, the vocalists can alter text, pitches, and rhythms

5 to create, Schafer says, "the effect of moonlight on water." MAGNIFICAT My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit rejoices in God my savior. For he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he who is mighty has done great things for me: and holy is his name. And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm: he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has deposed the mighty from their thrones and exalted the humble. The hungry he has filled with good things: and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy.as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed forever and ever. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be; world without end, Amen So far tonight, we've had a few musical surprises. It is no surprise that in this tense and jangling technical age, many are embracing Arvo Part's music. The gentle Estonian, whose dark eyes and flowing grey beard remind one of an Orthodox monk, breaks new musical ground by being radically plain. He describes his ethos: "I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played. This one note, or a silent beat, or a moment of silence, comfort me. I build with the most primitive materials- with the triad, with one specific tonality. The three notes of a triad are like bells." His 1989 Magnificat is a perfect example: in its seven pages, there is only one bar that does not contain the note C, and most bars simply invert and re-invert an F minor chord. Such a piece could have been written 400 years ago, but Part's meticulous stripping away of anything extraneous to the text is thoroughly modem. One writer has aptly said that to create music like this demands the "courage of humility." How LOVELY IS THY DWELLING PLACE In February 1865, Johannes Brahms received an urgent telegram from his brother in Hamburg, Germany: "If you want to see our mother once again, come immediately." The young composer caught the next train out of Vienna but was too late- his mother suffered a stroke and was dead. The loss stunned Brahms and threw him into a deep depression, out of which came his revolutionary A German Requiem. When writing a Mass for the Dead, most earlier composers fixated on the terrifying drama of the "Dies lrae" (Day of Wrath). Brahms however wrote consolingly, filling his Requiem with peace and hope, intending it more as a comfort to the bereaved than a prayer for the dead. "How Lovely" is its centerpiece and has taken on a life of its own, cherished both in churches and concert halls the world over. LA PASSEGGIATA Calm and serene the heavens, limpid the waves below us, sailing from shore to shore guided alone by love. To gentle winds and flowers we speak ou r words of love, all beating hearts together to them respond in love. Winds now are blowing stronger, rippling the sea around us, winds are now whistling, winds are now blowing, quickly let us depart and move on. Ah! no, the moon appearing turns all our fear to gladness, in this delightful country we sing our songs of love. Rossini once boasted he could set even a shopping list to music. As far as we know, he never tried, but in the space of eighteen years he did complete a stupefying forty operas! They are the cornerstone of bel canter- William Tell, Barber of Seville and so many others. Then, at the age of 37, he suddenly retired and wrote no more opera. For four decades he was a Parisian musical celebrity, ending his days by creating dozens of little pieces- Sins of My Old Age he called them. "La Passeggiata" sparkles like champagne, which biographers say was a special passion of Rossini's' FOUR SHAKESPEARE SONGS There is a real trick to setting Shakespeare to music, because there's already a marvelous. subtle music in his words. The composer's job is to find notes that enhance that music and meaning. Novices tear their hair out. Here are four who've succeeded in capturing the Bard's muse: Britten's Fancie was written in 1961 for a book called Classical Songs for Children. The intention of the book was to enable children to see how different composers, in their own styles, respond to the same text. Poulenc and Kodalywere also invited to contribute, and all were asked to set these lines from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. Britten marked his "Quick and Fantastic," and gave the piano a rippling motion. The voices are in unison until the end, when they divide and imitate the bells of "Fancie's knell" Vaughan Williams lifted lines from Shakespeare's last play The Tempest for this work. The 1951 Festival of Britain invited him to compose a test piece for the choral competition. He refused at first, saying the choirs should use something already written, but at the last minute he changed his mind. He attached this gruff little note to the score and mailed it off: "Here are three Shakespeare settings, do what you like with them." The "Cloud-Capp'd Towers" is the second of the set, grave and tranquil and surprisingly inspired for such a last-minute effort, American Emma Lou Diemer chose the comedy Measure for Measure as her Shakespearean source. "Take, 0 Take" is the second of Three Madrigals she wrote for a high school choir in Arlington, Virginia. Like the Vaughan Williams setting it is rather sedate and solemn, and the form is simple: the short first verse quietly rhapsodizes the beloved's eyes and lips; a shorter second verse turns melancholy because the poet's love is unrequited, then the first verse is simply repeated. Diemer is wise for realizing that, when putting Shakespeare to music, less is often more. Jazzman George Shearing asks that his "Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind" (from the comedy As You Like It) be performed "cheerfully, with a beat." The blind pianist-composer, who's still swinging at the age of seventy-three, writes a bouncy twobar piano riff to start things off. but the choir enters in an olden, madrigal style. /\ After two verses, all bow-ties come loose and the choir Joins the piano, delighting in gorgeously thick Jazz chords- the Shearing trademark for over fifty years. William Shakespeare.