Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Collegium Musicum 2012–13 Season 498th Concert Thursday 28 March 2013 Dalton Center Recital Hall 7:30 p.m. MATTHEW STEEL, Director Kimberly Dunn Adams, Associate Director Brendan Closz, Graduate Assistant Conductor “Music for Church, Chamber, and Theatre” Giuseppe Torelli 1658–1709 Concerto in D Major for Trumpet, Strings and Continuo Thomas Tallis 1505–1585 If Ye love Me Hans Leo Hassler 1564–1612 Dixit Maria Christopher Simpson 1605–1669 Prelude in D Major from The Division Viol Johann Sebastian Bach 1685–1750 Sonata Number 1 in G Major for Viola da Gamba BWV 1027 I. Adagio II. Allegro ma non tanto Laura Tribby and Collegium Players Collegium Singers Collegium Singers Kristin Benes Kristin Benes and Emily Solomon William Billings 1746–1800 Creation William Billings Cobham Collegium Singers Collegium Singers Anonymous (late 16th century) The Dark Is My Delight Anonymous (late 16th century) In Paradise Giovanni Coperario c. 1575–1626 Fantasia for Violin, Bass Viol and Organ John Ward 1571–1638 Ayre for Two Bass Viols and Organ Sir Edward Elgar 1857–1934 As Torrents in Summer Lane Johnson b. 1958 Sweet Love Remembered William Hawley b. 1950 Vita de la vita mia Johann Sebastian Bach Ema Katrovas, Holly Quist, Brandon Pacheco, Heather Petcovic, and Mary Ross Laura Tribby and Viols Brandon Pacheco, Mary Ross, and Emily Solomon Brett Armstrong, Kristin Benes, and Emily Solomon Collegium Singers Collegium Singers Collegium Singers French Suite Number 4 in E-Flat Major BWV 815 I. Allemand II. Courante III. Sarabande IV. Gavotte V. Air VI. Gigue Holly Quist Antonio Vivaldi 1678–1741 In exitu Israel The Collegium If the fire alarm sounds, please exit the building im m ediately. A ll o ther em ergencies w ill be indicated by spoken announcem ent w ithin the seating area. The tornado safe area in D alton C enter is along the lockers in the brick hallw ay to yo u r left a s y o u e x it to the lobby behind you. In any em erg ency, w alk— do not run— to the n earest exit. Please turn o ff all cell phones and o ther electronic devices during the perform ance. B ecause of leg al issues, any video or audio recording of this perform ance is prohibited w ithout prior consent from the School of M usic. Thank you for your cooperation. COLLEGIUM MUSICUM Singers Î+ Brendan Closz, coach and conductor Bethany Barroso + Rory Closz Eleni Gaves Matthew Gehrls Ema Katrovas Renee Macdonald Korbin Mulder Nan Munn Aimee Murdoch Holly Quist David Sedlecky Richa Shah Giles Simmer Tyler Sone Laura Tribby Michael Voyt + Personnel and Business Manager Ï + Players Brett Armstrong, Viol and Double Bass Kristin Benes, Viol and Viola Brandon Pacheco, Viol and Violin Heather Petcovic, Viol and Cello Holly Quist, Harpsichord and Recorder Mayra Quitzia, Violin Mary Ross, Viol Emily Solomon, Organ and Harpsichord Matthew Steel, Viol Laura Tribby, Trumpet Assisted by Whitney Miller, Dulcian Î Ï Audrey Davidson Scholar KSO/WMU Artist Scholar + Member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity for men PROGRAM NOTES Thomas Tallis was born in Kent, England where he received his early music training. His first music appointment was in 1530 when he worked as the organ master for a Benedictine priory in Dover. In 1543 he was elevated to the English Chapel Royal as a Gentleman and his duties included providing music for the English court. Over Tallis’ long life, he worked in the courts of four different monarchs: Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary Tudor, and Elizabeth I. During this time the religion of the Monarch dictated the country’s religion. Accordingly, Tallis would master the music of both the Anglican and Catholic churches depending on the current monarch. Following a series of decrees from Edward VI, Tallis became the first person to compose sacred church music in English. During the reign of Elizabeth I, Tallis was awarded the first-ever license to publish music in England. If Ye Love Me was composed during the reign of Edward VI and demonstrates the reforms put into place by the monarch. The king made a decree that music for the Church of England be written in a succinct style without the melismatic passages heard in the Catholic Mass. To this end, Tallis wrote the music largely in a homophonic style with short passages of imitative counterpoint returning once again to homophony. This is one of Tallis’ best-loved works, as it demonstrates the composer’s mastery of text setting in a straightforward musical language. The German organist Hans Leo Hassler is considered with Orlando di Lasso to be one of the greatest of the German Renaissance composers. Following the death of his teacher, Andrea Gabrieli in 1585, Hassler moved to Nuremburg to take up the post of chamber organist for a wealthy merchant. He also worked as the town piper and the city’s music director. In 1608 Hassler took a post as Chapel Master for a court in Saxony, which he held until his death from tuberculosis just four years later. Hassler’s compositions included 120 Latin motets, nine masses, 95 German motets, and 60 German lieder making him a prolific composer. His music alternates between homophony and polyphony that develop in an intelligent and harmonically logical way. Dixit Maria is one of Hassler’s best know works. The motet was so well loved it was used as the musical subject for a parody mass. The musical style is influenced by the Italian Renaissance in the use of flowing, independent voices. Hassler alternates between contrapuntal and homophonic part writing. This piece demonstrates the composer’s mastery of voice composition as he seamlessly weaves individual lines together, gathering the lines in order to emphasize the importance of the text being set. A violinist by training, Antonio Vivaldi studied under his father and sometimes substituted for him as the principal violinist for St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice. While trained on violin, Vivaldi did not pursue music as his profession initially, choosing to take on the priesthood instead. In seminary, his red hair soon earned him the nickname of “The Red Priest.” In 1703, after having attained the priesthood, Vivaldi was awarded the post of Master of Violin at a girl’s orphanage, Ospedale della Pieta’ in Venice. He would remain at the orphanage for the remainder of his career eventually moving to the rank of maestro di cappella in 1735. Vivaldi was often away from Venice, traveling the continent as both pupil and teacher. He is primarily known for his Baroque orchestra works; however, he also wrote as many as 94 operas, though only 50 remain to us today. In exitu Israel is a setting of Psalm 114 written for SATB choir, strings and continuo. This fast paced work shows off Vivaldi’s mastery of both string and chorus writing. This single movement work weaves voice and strings seamlessly together, sometimes doubling one another, at other times complimenting each other with independent lines. The most significant textual passages are often brought out by uniting voices and instruments in total unison, having the effect of making the text leap off the page. One of the first prominent American composers, William Billings was a self-taught musician, in a truly independent American style. He worked as a tanner throughout his life, but music was his true vocation. He wrote several treatises on musical philosophy, performance practice, and music fundamentals. During his life he published six collections of works the last of which, Continental Harmony, today’s selections are drawn from. Billings was associated with the Revolution and as well as with important members thereof including John Adams and Paul Revere. A somewhat brash man, he was once described by a contemporary as having “an uncommon negligence of person.” He was blind in one eye, one leg was noticeably shorter than the other, and was known for using snuff. Billings personified a fledgling America in both his raw personality and his somewhat unrefined compositional style. Creation is typical of Billings musical style in that it opens with a homophonic texture where all voices sing together in a compound meter. The piece alternates between compound and simple meter closing with a climactic fugal ending with melismatic sections reminiscent of renaissance music. Billings shows off his understanding of meter by continually altering the time signature throughout the composition. The conclusion of the piece unifies the voices out of a contrapuntal setting for a stark conclusion on the words “strange that a harp of thousand strings should keep in tune so long.” In Cobham we hear Billings writing in a much simpler homophonic style, using harmonic structure to emphasize the somewhat dour and fatalistic text. The title may refer to the town of the same name in England, as is typical for many of Billings’ hymns. Sir Edward Elgar began his career as concertmaster for two orchestras in Worcester, England in his early twenties. In 1890, seeking a more musically rich environment, he moved to London where he spent his time composing. Elgar began composing for voice later in his career, premiering his first major vocal works, the cantata The black Knight and the oratorio The Light of Life, in 1896. After a slow start to his compositional career, by the early 20th century Elgar had achieved some measure of fame. He was knighted in 1904 and he continued to gain fame for the remainder of his career. His works include four oratorios, eight cantatas, fifteen Latin motets, five anthems, and thirty-five part songs. He was one of the earliest adopters of recording technology, spending the final years of his life recording his works until his death from cancer at the age of 76. “As Torrents in Summer” is taken from the secular cantata Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf. It features beautiful harmonic writing using the chromaticism Elgar gleaned from influences such as Wagner and Saint-Saëns. This setting evokes a strong sense of spirituality through nature, despite the piece’s secular text, a standard trait in many of Elgar’s works. The American composer Lane Johnson studied composition and theory at Brigham Young University. He teaches junior and senior high school in Utah. His music has been performed across the country and by choirs of all skill levels and training. He primarily writes for voice and tends to write on spiritual topics. Sweet Love Remembered is a beautiful setting of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29. Johnson uses chromaticism and dynamic contrast bringing to life the passionate lyrics that Shakespeare wrote. Johnson’s use of the major second throughout the piece keeps the listener on edge, constantly waiting for resolutions that sometimes do not come. The piece builds dissonance upon dissonance, echoing Shakespeare’s prose until the true meaning of the sonnet comes to light at which point Johnson dowses the listener in a shower of consonant harmonies, which again reflect the text perfectly through his use of text painting. William Hawley was born in Bronxville, New York into the family of an English poet and professor. He received his Bachelor and Master degrees respectively from Ithaca College and the California Institute of the Arts. His music is composed in an individual style with strong harmonic influences from the late Romantics. In Vita de la mia vita Hawley sets a Renaissance text by the poet Torquato Tasso (1544–1595). The opening motive builds on the major seconds with the text, “life of my life” until the soprano entrance in the fourth bar where he demonstrates the fluttering giddiness of the new love with a downward sixteenth-note motive that he passes around the top three voices. This motive is specific only to these three bars, although Hawley uses the dissonances of the major second several times throughout the piece. The composer reflects the texts using a compositional device known as text painting. Nowhere is this idea more clear than in the final four measures of the piece where the line, “softly you consume and melt me” is echoed in the part writing as Hawley moves all the voices to their low registers and writes a decrescendo giving the listener the impression of fading or melting away. —Brendan Closz John Ward was a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral. Most of his compositions are madrigals or viol pieces, the latter with settings for two to six viols. The many 17th century sources for these pieces attest to their popularity. With time, some of Ward’s renown has faded. Giuseppe Torelli was a violinist from Verona, Italy. As an instrumental composer, he helped develop the sonata, concerto grosso and classical concerto forms. Torelli’s interest in the trumpet may have been inspired by Giovanni Pelligrino Brandi, an exceptional trumpeter he met in Bologna. Giovanni Coperario was born John Cooper, but Italianized his name after studying there. At the time the English found all things Italian to be fashionable. Although he worked for many nobles, his chief patron was Cecil, Earl of Salisbury. Besides composing he also penned a treatise entitled Rules How to Compose, which continued to be influential nearly a century later. Coperario helped develop the fantasia-suite genre, featuring one or two violins, a bass viol, and the organ to which he gave an essential role. —Emily Solomon Christopher Simpson is an essential staple in English viol music. He published an instructional book first in 1659 and then later published a second edition in 1665 focusing on the art of playing viol and how to make a division on a ground bass. A ground bass being a structural musical line that is repeated continuously serving as a foundation for a musical piece, a division is simply improvisatory ornamentation played upon a ground bass line, similar to a jazz solo played over a modern day 12-bar blues form. Simpson mused that “a viol in the hands of an excellent violist may (no doubt) be reckon’d amongst the best of musical instruments. To play extempore to a ground is the highest perfection of it.” Johann Sebastian Bach wrote three viola da gamba sonatas (as well as several chamber pieces incorporating gamba) that embody a high level of musicality and playing technique. Thought to be originally composed for Bach’s dear friend and long time employer Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen around 1720, there is some speculation that the sonatas may have been written later in the mid-1730s for Bach’s student Carl Friedrich Abel, who was a virtuosic violist and would eventually go on to write some of the most challenging contrapuntal and technical solo viol music ever. —Kristin Benes Bach wrote six suites for harpsichord that are today identified as his “French” contribution to the genre. Five, including today’s work, appear in his Clavierbüchlein and would have been completed by 1724. Bach never labeled them as “French,” which is a title given them by later biographers. In fact, they are more in the Italian style than the French, based on their approach to ornamentation, harmony and form. The Anonymous works on today’s program come from a vast repertoire of late Renaissance English consort songs, i.e. solo voice accompanied by violas da gamba. This was bourgeois entertainment in which everyone participated. Some songs are downright silly, often suggesting ribaldry (our first selection), while others express loftier literary tendencies such as the flower imagery of In Paradise. –Matthew Steel TEXTS If Ye Love Me If ye love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may 'bide with you forever, e'en the spirit of truth I give my mortal interest up, And make my God my all. Dixit Maria Mary said to the Angel: Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me, according to your word. My body is but little, but little, So is the nightingale’s. I love to sleep against the prickle, So does the nightingale. Creation When I with pleasing wonder stand And all my frame survey Lord, 'tis thy work, I own thy hand Thus built my humble clay Our life contains a thousand springs, And dies if one be gone. Strange that a harp of thousand strings Should keep in tune so long. In Paradise In paradise of late a dame begun To peep out of her bed with such a grace As matched the rising of the morning sun With drops of honey falling from her face Brighter than Cynthia’s fiery painted beams Or icy crust of crystal’s glist’ning gleams. Cobham Teach me the measure of my days, Thou Maker of my frame; I would survey life’s narrow space, And learn how frail I am. The Dark Is My Delight The dark is my delight, So is the nightingale’s. My music’s in the night, So is the nightingale’s. Her Locks fair amber twisted up in gold, Passing the pride and riches of the East, With curious knots were into trammels roll’d, A snarling netting for a wand’ring guest: These things did her with a quaint disdain, Like Juno bright in pomp of spotted train. A span is all that we can boast, An inch or two of time; Man is but vanity and dust In all his flower and prime. As Torrents in Summer As torrents in summer, Half dried in their channels, Suddenly rise, tho' the sky is still cloudlesss. For rain has been falling. Far off at their fountains; See the vain race of mortals move Like shadows o’er the plain; They rage and strive, desire and love, But all the noise is vain. So hearts that are fainting Grow full to o'erflowing, And they that behold it, Marvel, and know not That God at their fountains Far off has been raining! Some walk in honor’s gaudy show, Some dig for golden ore; They toil for heirs, they know not who, And straight are seen no more. Vita de la mia vita You are to me like a pallid olive Or faded rose; Nor are you deprived of beauty, But in every way you please me, Whether you flatter or shun, And whether you follow me or flee, Softly you consume and melt me. What should I wish or wait for, then, From creatures earth and dust? They make our expectations vain, And disappoint our trust. Now I forbid my carnal hope, My fond desires recall; Sweet Love Remembered When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries And look upon myself and curse my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd, Desiring this man's art and that man's scope, With what I most enjoy contented least; Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, Haply I think on thee, and then my state, Like to the lark at break of day arising From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate; For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings That then I scorn to change my state with kings. In exitu Israel (Psalm 113) When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a barbarous people: Judea made his sanctuary, Israel his dominion. The sea saw and fled: Jordan was turned back. The mountains skipped like rams, and the hills like the lambs of the flock. At the presence of the Lord the earth was moved, at the presence of the God of Jacob: Who turned the rock into pools of water, and the stony hill into fountains of waters. Not to us, O Lord, not to us; but to thy name give glory. For thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake: lest the gentiles should say: Where is their God? But our God is in heaven: he hath done all things whatsoever he would. The idols of the gentiles are silver and gold, the works of the hands of men. They have mouths and speak not: they have eyes and see not. They have ears and hear not: they have noses and smell not. They have hands and feel not: they have feet and walk not: neither shall they cry out through their throat. Let them that make them become like unto them: and all such as trust in them. The house of Israel hath hoped in the Lord: he is their helper and their protector. The house of Aaron hath hoped in the Lord: he is their helper and their protector. They that fear the Lord hath hoped in the Lord: he is their helper and their protector. The Lord hath been mindful of us, and hath blessed us. He hath blessed the house of Israel: he hath blessed the house of Aaron. He hath blessed all that fear the Lord, both little and great. May the Lord add blessings upon you: upon you, and upon your children. Blessed be you of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. The heaven of heaven is the Lord's: but the earth he has given to the children of men. The dead shall not praise thee, O Lord: nor any of them that go down to hell. But we that live bless the Lord: from this time now and for ever.