CONCERT CHOIR David P. DeVenney, Director
SUNDAY, MARCH 21, 2021 LIVE STREAM 7:30 PM
PROGRAM PRAYER AND PRAISE SING HALLELUJAH TO GOD (THE SHEPHERD’S VISION) ............................. Horatio Parker (1863-1919) PSALM 67 .................................................................................................................... Charles Ives (1874-1954) LOSS AND LOVE REQUIEM AETERNAM (THE LEGEND OF DON MUNIO)..................................... Dudley Buck (1839-1909) SIX JOYCE SONGS, VOL. II .......................................................................................Conrad Susa (1935-2013) I. The Twilight Turns from Amethyst II. At that Hour III. Lean Out of the Window IV. Who Goes amid the Green Wood V. Winds of May VI. From Dewey Dreams, My Soul, Arise
MERCY AND REDEMPTION KYRIE (MASS IN C) ............................................................................................. George Bristow (1825-1898) Vittoria Rybak, mezzo-soprano SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF A MARTYR ................................................. Undine Smith Moore (1904-1989) XV. They Tell Me Martin Is Dead XVI. Tell All My Father’s People, Don’t You Grieve for Me Sydney Szwarc, soprano
West Chester University Concert Choir Sándor Kádár, piano (19th-century) Jonathan Kreamer, piano (contemporary) David P. DeVenney, director Please Turn Off All Electronic Devices
PROGRAM NOTES This evening’s livestream broadcast includes music from two separate programming initiatives from the current academic year. In June of 2020, Concert Choir was accepted to perform at the 2021 National Conference of the American Choral Directors Association – an honor that no other WCU choir has had in the over fifty-year history of ACDA. Like many other events, of course, it was decided later that the conference would be held virtually rather than in-person. In the fall semester, Concert Choir recorded the music that would have been performed as the demonstration choir for my session on Romantic American choral music. That music is represented here by three works written by prominent 19 th-century American composers. I then chose contemporary choral music that in some way either complimented the 19th-century pieces or challenged them. The resulting program is the pairing of works from two different centuries. Horatio Parker’s “Sing Hallelujah” is the concluding chorus to a church cantata. Boisterous and jubilant, it is paired with Ives’s iconic “Psalm 67” which is more reserved. The Ives motet is bi-tonal: the men sing in G minor and the women simultaneously in C major. It ends with a choral chant: “God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.” Dudley Buck’s “Requiem aeternum,” notwithstanding its sacred text, is not a liturgical piece of music. It is from a secular oratorio called The Legend of Don Munio, the libretto of which is based on a Washington Irving tale. This chorus is sung in the oratorio when the hero of the title dies. It is paired with a delightful set of pieces by the late San Francisco composer Conrad Susa. Susa chose six poems by James Joyce for his choral cycle: they chart the course of a love affair that, loosely, begins with a setting at dusk and ends with a poem at dawn. The music is by turns elegant, playful, flirtatious, and reflective. The piano parts are extraordinarily difficult and don’t so much support the choir as comment on their texts and music, while at the same time setting the atmosphere and mood of each movement. The final set of pieces begins with the “Kyrie” from George Bristow’s Mass in C, a moving and lyrical work from this early Romantic composer. It is paired with a portion of Undine Smith Moore’s striking cantata Scenes from the Life of a Martyr. We sing the closing two movements of Ms. Moore’s work: those dealing with the shooting and death of Martin Luther King, Jr. The music is interspersed at the beginning with shouting and moaning from the choir, in addition to stark and harsh chords in the choir and piano that are repeated many times. The emotion moves from shock and anger through sadness and grief, ending with a resolute hymn-like setting of a vow to remember and avenge King’s assassination. DPD
TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS Requiem aeternam Eternal rest, O Lord, grant unto them. Let perpetual light shine upon them. Six Joyce Songs I The twilight turns from amethyst To deep and deeper blue, The lamp fills with a pale green glow The trees of the avenue. The old piano plays an air, Sedate and slow and gay; She bends upon the yellow keys, Her head inclines this way. Shy thoughts and grave wide eyes and hands That wander as they list-The twilight turns to darker blue With lights of amethyst. II At that hour when all things have repose, O lonely watcher of the skies, Do you hear the night wind and the sighs Of harps playing unto Love to unclose The pale gates of sunrise? When all things repose, do you alone Awake to hear the sweet harps play To Love before him on his way, And the night wind answering in antiphon Till night is overgone? Play on, invisible harps, unto Love, Whose way in heaven is aglow At that hour when soft lights come and go, Soft sweet music in the air above And in the earth below.
III Lean out of the window, Goldenhair, I hear you singing A merry air. My book was closed, I read no more, Watching the fire dance On the floor. I have left my book, I have left my room, For I heard you singing Through the gloom. Singing and singing A merry air, Lean out of the window, Goldenhair. IV Who goes among the green wood With springtide all adorning her? Who goes amid the merry green wood To make it merrier? Who passes in the sunlight By ways that know the light footfall? Who passes in the sweet sunlight With mien so virginal? The ways of all the woodland Gleam with a soft and golden fire – For whom does all the sunny woodland Carry so brave attire? O, it is for my true love The woods their rich apparel wear – O, it is for my own true love, That is so young and fair.
V Winds of May, that dance on the sea, Dancing a ring-around in glee From furrow to furrow, while overhead The foam flies up to be garlanded, In silvery arches spanning the air, Saw you my true love anywhere? Welladay! Welladay! For the winds of May! Love is unhappy when love is away! VI From dewy dreams, my soul, arise, From love's deep slumber and from death, For lo! the trees are full of sighs Whose leaves the morn admonisheth. Eastward the gradual dawn prevails Where softly-burning fires appear, Making to tremble all those veils Of grey and golden gossamer. While sweetly, gently, secretly, The flowery bells of morn are stirred And the wise choirs of faery Begin (innumerous!) to be heard.
West Chester University Concert Choir 2020-2021 Abigail Arnold Sofia Bobrysheva Adella Brady Emily Caplan Andrew Cassell Richard Cross, president Caleb Deutsch Matthew Ebersole Drew Ference Andre Harding Aaron Hungerford Shane Hurley, vice president, tenor section leader Casey Jennings Steven Kendikian, secretary/treasurer Sergey Kravets, tenor section leader Yuriy Kravets Lauren Longhi Katelyn Lopez Mateo C. Lopez Samuel Loposky, bass section leader Chad McKenrick Vittoria Rybak, alto section leader Emily Salatti Jacqueline Scheck Jordan Schreiber William Shaw Elesa Stoltzfus Sydney Szwarc, soprano section leader Leetal Tusia Ryan Zickafoose
UPCOMING WELLS SCHOOL OF MUSIC EVENTS For full event details visit wcupa.edu/music or call (610) 436-2739
COVID-19 STATEMENT In Person Audiences Are Not Permitted for Spring 2021 Events Sunday, March 28, 2021, 3:00 PM Wind Ensemble Concert Andrew Yozviak, director Madeleine Wing Adler Theatre Performing Arts Center
Monday, March 29, 2021, 8:00 PM Faculty Recital: Terry Klinefelter, piano Ware Family Recital Hall Swope Music Building
Tuesday, March 30, 2021, 8:15 PM Trumpet Ensemble Concert Jean-Christophe Dobrzelewski & Robert Skoniczin, directors Madeleine Wing Adler Theatre Performing Arts Center
Thursday, April 1, 2021, 12:00 PM Madeleine Wing Adler Concert Series Ware Family Recital Hall Swope Music Building
Monday, April 5, 2021, 8:00 PM Faculty Recital: Karen Dannessa, clarinet Philips Autograph Library Philips Memorial Building
Wednesday, April 7, 2021, 8:15 PM Guitar Ensemble Concert David Cullen, director Ware Family Recital Hall Swope Music Building
Thursday, April 8, 2021, 8:15 PM Keyboard Honors Recital Emily Bullock, director Ware Family Recital Hall Swope Music Building
Sunday, April 11, 2021, 7:00 PM Latin Jazz Ensemble Concert Marc Jacoby, director Virtual livestream.com/wcupa
*Tickets required for this event.
Events at the Wells School of Music are often supported by individual donors and organizations. Contributions to the Wells School of Music may be made out to: WCU Foundation, 202 Carter Drive, West Chester, PA 19382 Please include “School of Music Deans Fund” in the memo line. For further information, please call (610) 436-2868 or visit wcufoundation.org A majority of performances are available to watch via live stream at Facebook.com/ArtsAtWCUPA and LiveStream.com/wcupa. Mr. Robert Rust, Audio & Visual Technician Steinway & Sons Piano Technical, Tuning and Concert Preparations by Gerald P. Cousins, RPT If you do not intend to save your program, please recycle it in the baskets at the exit doors.
The Wells School of Music | West Chester University of Pennsylvania Dr. Christopher Hanning, Dean