Download Program notes for Shining Light It gives me great pleasure once

Program notes for Shining Light
It gives me great pleasure once again to be on the podium before my friends and colleagues of our city’s most historic
choral ensemble, and one of Canada’s most celebrated philharmonic choirs. Adding to my joy in crafting this evening’s
performance is the opportunity to once again share the music of three brilliant and expressive composers, each of
whom offers a glimpse into the possibilities afforded us as we journey – as one day we all must – from our temporal life
into the mists of eternity.
Duruflé, Elgar, and Lauridsen, each in his own way, have made lasting contributions to the choral literature of the
twentieth century. The pre- and post- Great War years in France and England were fertile ground for composition in
myriad forms, and while Duruflé was schooled in the cathedral music culture of upper Normandy as a choirboy in Rouen,
Elgar spent his youthful years thirsting for a musical education that never quite materialized in any formal sense, and
indeed, his chosen profession might well have been as a solicitor, had it not been for his utter disdain for office culture.
Both men were raised as Roman Catholics, and both were well-acquainted with the Gregorian tradition of music, and
the liturgical forms associated with that particular aesthetic. Duruflé’s other musical influences were largely
impressionistic, while Elgar, a generation his senior, had cut his teeth on the works of the German romantics, and their
fellow composers in France. Lauridsen, on the other hand, grew up in the Pacific northwestern shore of the United
States, and received his formal musical studies in California. He published his first choral compositions in the mid-1960s,
and his own adaptation of the Requiem text comes to us from the very cusp of the new millennium.
While their individual experiences of music and culture may vary, the three composers heard tonight achieve a synthesis
of old and new in their work, whether by combining specific Gregorian melodies with the colours and moods of
impressionism, or merely alluding to those early references in the context of something befitting modern mysticism. I
will refer to this again, in the context of the two Requiems heard tonight.
In Elgar’s case, and while he wrote a good deal of choral music (ranging in scope from motet to oratorio), his Lux aeterna
was never conceived of as a choral piece at all, but rather is an astonishingly effective arrangement by John Cameron of
the ninth variation – Nimrod – of the composer’s Enigma Variations (1899-1900) for orchestra. Originally titled after an
Old Testament character, referred to in scripture as “a mighty hunter before the Lord”, Elgar was known to describe the
movement as a portrait of “something that happened” between two or more people. In that light, perhaps this choral
arrangement (set as it is to the Lux aeterna of the Requiem text) does justice to that very suggestion, as a friend might
mourn the passing of another, and pray for God’s grace and protection on the journey from life into death.
Duruflé wrote his Requiem between 1941 and 1947, and used as a basis for each movement the Gregorian hymn
associated with the Mass of Christian Burial. These immortal melodies are heard clearly, often at the outset of each
section of the work. We hear, in the Introit, the Requiem aeternam hymn itself, decorated by the colours of harmonic
and rhythmic movement so well associated with this composer. While the sense of drama is present enough, and with
great power and effectiveness, the work owes more to the understated style of Fauré than it does to the overt
expressionism of Berlioz. Originally scored for full orchestra, the composer adapted the instrumental score for
accompaniment on the organ, to magnificent effect.
The Quatre Motets sur les thèmes grégoriens (composed in 1960) are very much a continuation of the same idea. Scored
for unaccompanied voices, each motet is based on the Gregorian melody associated with its individual title, and the
texts themselves come from unique segments of the liturgical year. Ubi caritas was originally sung on Holy Thursday
during the ceremony depicting Christ’s washing of his disciples’ feet at the Last Supper. Tota pulchra es, scored for upper
voices only, is a text commemorating the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (and thus exemplifies the purity of Mary).
Tu es Petrus rousingly celebrates St. Peter, as the “rock upon which I will build my Church”, and Tantum ergo offers us a
glimpse in to the essence of the benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
Duruflé won the composition prize of the Amis de l'Orgue for his Prélude, Adagio et Choral varié sur le thème du Veni
Creator, Op. 4 (1930). The Prélude derives its thematic material from two phrases of the Veni Creator plainsong: the first
is treated in the manner of a fileuse using delicate flute stops and the second, in longer notes, is played on soft reed
stops in the pedal and later in the left hand. After a short link-passage, a more lyrical Adagio emerges, comprising three
sections; the outer two, which present the plainsong in minor keys on the lush Voix céleste, frame a Tournemire-like
interlude that is characterized by the darker timbre of the Voix humaine. The movement concludes with an intense and
overwhelming crescendo and climax. This gives way to a sublime harmonization of the Veni Creator plainsong, followed
by four delightful variations, between which the choir will sing the verses of the Gregorian hymn on which the work is
based.
Lauridsen, in expressing his approach to his art, writes “My passion second to music is poetry … consequently, it has
been a natural development for me as a composer to wed these two passions and to set texts to music.” As a writer of
choral music, he is particularly attracted to the choral cycle, and in many ways, his crafting of a multi-movement piece
unified by a central poetic (or other) theme is most expressly found in Lux aeterna. This serene and unfettered
expression of mystery and eternity is founded on texts from a variety of Latin sources, each expressing something about
“light”. The result is an intimate, serene work, centred on themes of goodness, hope, and reassurance, all illuminated,
and at all levels. As in the case of Duruflé’s Requiem setting, the original orchestra score is arranged for the organ, to
wonderful and warm effect.
In Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, the soul is received on the “other side” by the sounding of trumpets. The faithful person
has run the race, and kept the faith, and is received into the everlasting arms of God in the context of his holy splendour.
Wesley, in his moving hymn “Let saints on earth in concert sing”, tells of how the Church is divided “by the narrow
stream of death” between those above, and those below. He also writes of the transition between life and death as
“part of the host has crossed the flood, and part is crossing now”. While speaking to these sentiments with great
effectiveness and sincerity, tonight’s composers offer us something different, in a glimpse of the peace and comfort that
waits for us on another shore, and that our faith is our reassurance, freeing us from fear and enveloping us in the
everlasting mercy that is there for all of God’s children.
© Matthew Larkin