Walker Art Center. The Dale Warland. Neo Choral II. Singers

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1 Walker Art Center The Dale Warland Singers Neo Choral II

Walker Art Center presents The Dale Warland Singers Neo Choral II 3 pm, Sundav, 14 April I. Ceremony After a Fire Raid, Op.63 William Mathias (b. 1934) II. The Mask William Bolcom (b.1938) 1.

2 Walker Art Center presents The Dale Warland Singers Neo Choral II 3 pm, Sundav, 14 April I. Ceremony After a Fire Raid, Op.63 William Mathias (b. 1934) II. The Mask William Bolcom (b.1938) 1. We Wear the Mask 2. Heritage 3. Shadow 4. Worn Faces -, 5. Interlude for Natalie (piano solo) 6. Portrait Intermission III. A Litany for Courage and the Seasons David Maslanka (b. 1943) 1. The Sleep of Poets 2. Servis Road: A Hymn to St. Francis 3. The Soundless Sound 4. On Chestnut Hill 5. Little Dance for Barbara Mason 6. A Litany for Courage and the Seasons This program is made possible in part by a grant from the Music Program of the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal Agency. The Dale War'and Singers Dale Warland Sigrid Johnson Jerry Rubino Conductor and Music Director Associate Conductor and Symphonic Chorus Music Director Pianist and Cabaret Singer Music Director Alto Joanne Halvorsen Karen M. Johnson ** Lynette Johnson Anna Mooy * Rachael Dawn Nelson Mary J. Oldakowski Joan Quam Lisa Boers Strandjord Denise Wahlin-Fiskum Claudia Zylstra Tenor Paul J. Anderson Jeffrey Barnett James Fiskum Paul W. Gerike John William Henley * Kory Kassulke Gary A. Kortemeier ** Thomas Larson Dean Palermo Steve J. Sandberg Timothy Sawyer Bass David Benson Steve Burger Wayne A. Dalton Jerry Johnson Jin Kim Jerry Rubino * Arthur LaRue Julian Sellers Frank Steen Paul A. Theisen * Section Leader ** On Leave of Absence Program Notes Instrumentalists: Piano: John Jensen Clarinet: Timothy Paradise Percussion: Jay Johnson Ceremony After a Fire Raid William Mathias Soprano Janice Hunton Sigrid Johnson * Kathy Josselyn Deborah Loon Osgood Barbara Nelson Julie Ann Olson Laurie B. Rejzer Lea Anna Sams-McGowan Lisa Burau Sawatsky Marie Spar Linda Steen * MYSELVES The grievers Grieve Among the street burned to tireless death A child of a few hours With its kneading mouth Charred on the black breast of the grave The mother dug, and its arms full of fires. I Begin With singing Sing Darkness, kindled back into beginning

3 f When the caught tongue nodded blind, A star was broken Into the centuries of the child Myselves grieve now, and miracles cannot atone. Forgive Us forgive, Us your death that myselves the believers May hold it in a great flood Till the blood shall spurt, And the dust shall sing like a bird As the grains blow, as your death grows, through our heart. Crying Your dying Cry, Child beyond cockcrow, by the fire-dwarfed Street we chant the flying sea In the body bereft. Love is the last light spoken. Oh Seed of sons in the loin of the black husk left. Of the luminous cathedrals, Into the weathercock's molten mouths, Rippling in twelve-winded circles, Into the dead clock burning the hour Over the urn of sabbaths Over the whirling ditch of daybreak Over the sun's hovel and the slum of fire And, the golden pavements laid in requiems, Into the bread in a wheatfield of flames, Into the wine burning like brandy, The masses of the sea The masses of the sea under The masses of the infant-bearing sea Erupt, fountain, and enter to utter forever Glory glory glory The sundering ultimate kingdom of genesis' thunder. Reprinted by permission. The Trustees for the Copyrights of the late Dylan Thomas. The Mask William Balcom II I know not whether Adam or Eve, the adorned holy bullock Or the white ewe lamb Or the chosen virgin Laid in her snow On the altar of London, Was the first to die In the ci nder of the little sku II, o bride groom ' o Adam and Eve together Lying in the lull Under the sad breast of the head stone White as the skeleton Of the garden of Eden. I know the legend Of Adam and Eve is never for a second Silent in my service Over the dead infants Over the one Child who was priest and servants, Word, singers, and tongue In the cinder of the little skull, Who was the serpent's Night fall and the fruit like a sun, Man and woman undone, Beginning crumbled back to darkness Bare as the nurseries. Of the garden of wilderness. III Into the organ pipes and steeples I We Wear the Mask' We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes, This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, And mouth with myriad subtleties. Why should the world be over-wise, In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see us, while We wear the mask. We smile, but, 0 great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise. We sing, but oh the clay is vile Beneath our feet, and long the mile; But let the world dream otherwise, We wear the mask. -Paul Laurence Dunbar II Heritage I want to see the slim palm-trees, Pulling at the clouds With little pointed fingers... I want to see lithe Negro girls, Etched dark against the sky While sunset lingers. I want to hear the silent sands, Singing to the moon Before the Sphinx-still face...

VI. Portrait I want to hear the chanting Around a heathen fire Of a strange black race. When woman picked up first stone, made the rhythmic thud called fire, Sun shone sheen on mountain.

4 VI. Portrait I want to hear the chanting Around a heathen fire Of a strange black race. When woman picked up first stone, made the rhythmic thud called fire, Sun shone sheen on mountain. The eland rubbed its twisted horns agajnst the black scab of a tree. I want to breathe the Lotus flow'r, Sighing to the stars With tendrils drinking at the Nile... I want to feel the surging Of my sad people's soul Hidden by a minstrel-smile. -Gwendolyn B. Bennett III Shadow Silhouette on the face of the moon am I. A dark shadow in the light. A silhouette am I on the face of the moon lacking colour or vivid brightness but defined all the clearer because I am dark, black on the face of the moon. A shadow am I growing in the light, not understood as in the day, but more easily seen because I am a shadow in the light. -Richard Sing a song to the rain's cool baptism seeping through the flesh of ceremonial masks. The percussive hammer strikes wire -an arpeggio cradled in the arms of silence. - T.J. Anerson III A Litany for Courage and the Seasons David Maslanka I The Sleep of Poets Bruce IV Worn Faces Hills about the country side, Cold and bare, dissatisfied. From the years of deep regret, Laboring, paying on her debt, On through life. Deep the gullies scar her face Where the waters run their race; Once a smooth and sun-lit hill Now she's ragged, worn and still Dead from strife. Aged and worn a human's face Where the tears in steady pace Cut the youth to ragged forms, As it faces roughest storms, Seeking life. -Charles Cyrus Thomas v. Interlude for Natalie (Piano Solo) Fingers dip in an ivory thicket of keys. The last ticket holder staggers in. Black print programs fade to music. Pastel crescent shadow rippling on curtain waves of savanna grass. The sleep of poets is but a travellogue of dream, Mars tonight and the crab nebulae tomorrow. Hea r dit-dit-.dit-the voice of God. The colorless silences are his paragraphs, Dark holes the dimples of his mind. o come, morning, with your vivid dawn And your rain and winds To see if you can rival The augury and majesty of dream! II Servis Road: A Hymn to St. Francis After a hard winter of work spring comes at last, With warming winds which find even the deepest culverts. In my heart St. Francis is stirring. His blindness And the remedy of hot irons disrupts me as I walk along this country road. I wonder what God could have done to prepare a man for that, Both the pain and the disfiguration. I ask St. Francis to pray for me Because I need the recommendation of a good man. The sky is blue with no clouds. The freshets gurgle pleasantly beneath the

sounds of c6untless peepers and new birds. I walk along briskly, remembering my body, Trying to awaken it from a long chill, As though it had been asleep under the snow.

5 sounds of c6untless peepers and new birds. I walk along briskly, remembering my body, Trying to awaken it from a long chill, As though it had been asleep under the snow. e sun surrounds me with a flowing light. id shows me the configurations and colors Of things I have come to know and love. I wonder why my own blindness was not healed by this transfiguration. Blessed Francis, guide me through my awakening While my spirit is still heavy with sleep And while I have trouble focusing my eyes. Speaking is a way of knowing Psalms from a lover's soul, On the heart's hearth newly glowing Like ignited coal. The fire's brand along the temples. And the.smell of burning hairthe love of God impeached the troubles Brother Ass imprisoned there. Scarred and blistered and blinded still. with ulcers on both feet and hands Blessed Francis, share your loving With another blinded man. The Soundless Sound The soft crackling of the rain On dry leaves And the echo of the birdsong Against the woods Are these all one hears Between breathing in And breathing out? One hears nothing if not The soundless sound. IV On Chestnut Hill On Chestnut Hill I lean against the wind. I walk among the grass and the Solomon's Seal And watch the yellow moon begin its rise. I lie where the deer have lain, and ask the skies Impossible questions: is this phantom real Who made both night and day?. Is it wise to wish the night away? " Little Dance: For Barbara Mason Pushing back the walls, Stretching for freedom, Time and Space were the fringes Of my limitation. With only my skin For a costume, and no script At all, I offer a careful bow To the beings beyond the dark. Perhaps this little dance Will please the dead and the unseen, And then the boundaries will cave in, And then my spirit will fly. In this moment and no other, In this way and no other, I am. VI A Litany for Courage and the Seasons May the apple blossoms flower on my birthday. May my heart be calmed if it snows on the jonquils. May the hot days of summer be made tolerable by a little rain. May I get wisdom if the flowers die. May the maples splash enough color to seem warm, not cold. May I be thankful on Thanksgiving, even though I might not remember what for, And joyful at Christmas, for the same reason. I am not sure that by myself I would pray for all these things. But if I did not pray, not even knowing what I pray to, I would lose my reason. May God come and stay in my heart through the round of seasons. May God make me love each season more, though none are new. And if I should die before the birds come back from the South May my spirit be waiting for them in the trees. -Richard Beale Biographical Notes William Mathias was born in 1934 at Whitland in Dyfed and studied at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, and later at the Royal Academy of Music, where his teachers included Lennox Berkeley and Peter Katin. One of the most versatile musical minds of his generation and one of the best-equipped composers Wales has ever produced, he is Artistic Director of the North Wales Music Festival and from was Professor and

6 - Head of the Music Department of the University College of North Wales, Bangor. Mathias' musical language embraces both instrumental and vocal forms with equal success, and he addresses a large and varied audience both in Britain and abroad. He is a frequent visitor to the USA where his music is widely performed; in 1987 he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Music by Westminster Choir College, Princeton. Press, USA, and is helping to expand the Oxford American Choral list which will include a Dale Warland Choral Series. In August of 1990, Warland prepared the chorus for performances of the Penderecki Polish Requiem as part of the World Symposium on Choral Music in Sweden and Finland. His frequent.' appearances as guest conductor, composer and lecturer include work with the Swedish Radio Choir, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Israel's Cameran Singers. William Bolcom was born in Seattle in He entered the University of Washington at age 11 as a private student in composition with John Verrall and in piano with Bethe Poncy Jacobson, and took his B.A. there in Bolcom received his Masters degree from Mills College and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Stanford University. A recipient of many honors, he won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in composition for his Twelve New Etudes for piano in addition to Guggenheim fellowships and commissions and grants from the Koussevitzky and Rockefeller Foundations. Recognized today as a major voice in American music, he has performed world-wide and many of his works have been recorded. Currently, Bolcom is a professor of composition at the University of Michigan, where in 1977 he was presented the Henry Russel Award. The Dale Warland Singers, now in its 19th season, has become a Twin Cities cultural treasure and one of the world's premier. professional choral ensembles. As a nationally and internationally renowned ensemble, The Singers has toured internationally, performing with the Stuttgart and Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestras, and most recently at the Second World Symposium on Choral Music in Scandinavia. Locally, the ensemble has performed with organizations including the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra. The Dale Warland Singers has made significant contributions to fostering the creation of new choral works through its numerous comrnlsslons and performances of 20th century choral repertoire. David Maslanka was born in Massachusetts in He studied at the New England Conservatory, the Oberlin Conservatory, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, and received his PhD in music theory and composition from Michigan State University. His principal composition teachers were Joseph Wood and H. Owen Reed. He has served on the faculties of State University College at Geneseo, New York; Sarah Lawrence College; New York University; and Kinsborough Community College of the City University of New York. Mr. Maslanka has received grants and fellowships from ASCAP, the MacDowell Colony, the New York State Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts among many others. His music has been widely performed in the United States, Canada,. Europe, Australia and Japan. Dale Warland has devoted his professional life to attaining the highest musical level in choral singing. He has received awards from the Ford Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and the Bush Foundation. He has also served as professor of music at Macalester College and as a member of the NEA Recording and Choral Panels. In June 1988, he was named Choral Advisor to Oxford University This concert is made possible in part by a gran provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board throuqi: ~~neppropriation by the Minnesota State Leulstature. The Minnesota State Arts Board received additional funds to support this activity from the National Endowment for the Arts. Programming of A Litany for Courage and the Seasons was made possible in part by grants provided by the American Choral Works Performance Program of Chorus America and Meet the Composer/Midwest, a program of Arts Midwest in partnership with Meet the Composer, Inc. Meet the Composer funding was provided through the Composer Exchange Program with support from the Weyerhaeuser Family Foundation. The Dale Warland Singers is a member of Chorus America. The Singer's choral risers and acoustical shell are mar:ufactured by Wenger Corporation, Owatonna, MN For additional information regarding The Dale Warland Singers, call Upcoming Performance: A Grand Night for Singing A Gala Benefit and Performance 6:30 pm Saturday, 27 April Earle Brown Heritage Center, Brooklyn Center

THE DALE WARLAND SINGERS

fjji WALDORF COMMUNITY ARTIST SERIES I presents, THE DALE WARLAND SINGERS ::::::~... t1.... ~~~~~~~~~~. :::::::::::::... Wednesday January 30, 1991. 7:30 P.M. Immanuel Lutheran Church Forest City, Iowa