Fifteen
years into this adventure called Chicago a cappella, we
have much to celebrate. First is that you are here!
The
“in-person” concert, performed from people in the living
presence of other people, is an experience like no other. How
does this happen? You enter the concert space with your
own life as a backdrop. You arrive with hopes and expectations,
disappointments and setbacks. I would expect that you come
wanting an experience of some combination of the following:
transcendence, ecstatic release, contemplation, escape,
enjoyment, depth, stimulation, rest, repose, jubilation. We
come with music to offer you, with months of preparation under
our belts, having worked with the ins and outs of the many
languages on this concert, the musical details, the challenges
of working in a group without a conductor to watch, and so on.
Together,
we create the concert experience. It can’t happen without you
any more than without us. We take that experience for granted
sometimes, and I wanted to shine a little light on it in these
notes because I feel it’s so valuable in our social fabric.
The more I
have been to (and in) performances over the past year, the more
I have been feeling, palpably, the remarkable energy that gets
created in a concert. At some point there truly is an energy
that can be felt in the room—a transfer of energy is how it
feels to me. The energy mostly flows at first from the stage to
the audience, as the performers make their initial offerings, if
you will, to the audience, to set the mood and establish
connection and credibility; and then, if all is going well, it
rolls from there, back and forth from the audience to the
performers, in a virtuous circle, through applause, sighs of
contentment, increased energy for the performers to feed on, a
whoop or two. My wife Sandy and I went to hear the Soweto
Gospel Choir at College of DuPage a few weeks ago—it happened in
a huge way there too, and unusually quickly. The same thing
happened this year when we saw Jersey Boys, as well as
several other productions. Worship services are sometimes like
this, especially the more charismatic sort, but not often in
more formal worship. It’s in performance that this experience
happens. In the sense that the people who are gathered to
witness the event help to create the event itself, music is also
like sports. (One significant difference between singing and
sports: nobody has yet to dump a cooler of water or champagne
on me or Patrick or the singers after a particular “win.”
Please refrain from this sort of expression of enthusiasm today…
we do not own the concert venue.)
The
energy-experience of Chicago a cappella is a unique one.
We are a group like no other, singing music in combinations you
won’t hear anywhere else, with a group of incredible soloists
who are devoted to ensemble singing. I don’t say that as a
boast: it is true. As the founder, I initially wanted to make
sure that the ensemble reflected my personality, but more and
more it’s about the group and not about a particular person.
Even when a singer or two rotates in or out of the ensemble for
a given concert, the particularly delicious CAC experience is
generally the same. In some ways it’s even more fun being in
the audience with you than it is on stage, because I get the
same impact that you do of the full ensemble.
Music
Director Patrick Sinozich and I create a narrative weave, if you
will, of music in different tempi and moods, to establish the
“line” of the concert. The aim in our music programming, just as
with a script or novel, is to direct the pulse and intensity of
the emotion and thought that flows through the entire program,
just as it does on a micro-level in each well-crafted song. The
order of songs really matters. Patrick makes sure that the
performance is at its absolute best. The singers bring their
passion, skill, and commitment to the enterprise every time.
The result is a Chicago a cappella performance.
* * * * *
* *
The joy of performance takes nothing away from the bliss of a
world-class recording. I can hardly contain my pride and joy at
hearing the new Christmas a cappella album that we
have just released with our superbly talented partners at
Cedille Records. Jim Ginsburg and Bill Maylone have labored for
many months in post-production, just as the singers braved
difficult recording-session circumstances, all to get the job
done. In some ways I would think that you come to a recording
with many of the same hopes and expectations as you would a
concert, though in general the listening experience with a CD is
mostly a private one. There is an intensity of the sound itself
that can be absorbed alone, and on repeated listenings. I have
every expectation that this new album will quickly become one of
your trusted favorites, perhaps even making it to your
desert-island list of must-have recordings.
Life moves
on, and repertoire must be refreshed. Four of the songs on
today’s concert are on the new CD recording. A few of the
others are on our 2002 Holidays a cappella Live!
release. Most of the songs, however, are new to us. I
wanted to take you on a world tour of sorts, through seasonal
music. For the first time, we are singing in the Ewe language
from Ghana. Much of the new repertoire comes from a splendid
new source, the World Carols for Choirs book from our
trusted friends at Oxford University Press. Edited and compiled
by Bob Chilcott (formerly of the King’s Singers, now a full-time
“house” composer and arranger for Oxford) and Susan Knight, the
visionary choral conductor from Newfoundland, this volume is a
gem. Early reports from rehearsals were that the new repertoire
was a hit with the singers too, so we know you’ll be pleased.
Two other songs from this book are on our new CD but not this
concert: Rosephanye Powell’s Who is the baby? and
Eleanor Daley’s The Huron Carol, which have become
staples of the CAC repertoire since the Oxford book was first
released in 2005.
* * * * *
* *
Now that
we have a new administration coming to Washington, it is my
fervent hope that our nation can regain its place of honor on
the world stage. In our small way, we are sharing these songs
from around the globe with you in order to give thanks for the
remarkable riches of the world’s musical traditions. Perhaps we
can begin to understand and appreciate the wider world in a new
way by taking a short time to discover how other peoples, with
other histories and sensibilities and with other languages and
images, can express joy and hope in ways all their own. We may
never know, for example, what it really feels like to give
thanks for Jesus’ birth in Ghana, standing on the ground there,
breathing the air there. Yet the sounds and chords and
syllables and words are coming to life here in Chicago this
weekend, for all of us to embrace as we best are able. If that
can help to bring about world peace, then so be it.
Gracias,
takk, merci, todah, and many other thanks for coming to hear us
in person. Please do visit with us after the concert, and enjoy
the show.
—Jonathan
Miller
Founder
and Artistic Director
NOTES ON
THE MUSIC
Ramón Díaz,
arr. Guzmán: ¡Llega de Navidad!
Two forms
combine into one in this carol. First is the villancico, which
developed during the Spanish Renaissance; traditionally,
children would sing villancicos on Christmas Eve. The song form
made its way to most of the Spanish colonies in the New World.
Second is the Dominican Republic’s national dance, known as the
merengue. Ramón Díaz’s song uses traditional folk rhythms and
harmonies, while the choral arrangement by Juan Tony Guzmán
features percussion (guiro and tambora).
Trad.
French, arr. Ian Humphris: Noël nouvelet
(Cari
Plachy, soprano)
This
traditional French carol-about-a-carol (a “noël” is a Christmas
song or carol) has been delicately arranged by Ian Humphris,
conductor of the National Westminster Choir in England. Humphris
is a versatile composer and arranger. He became well known as
the conductor of the famous singing group, the Linden Singers,
appearing regularly on television and radio. As a member of the
male quintet, the Baccholian Singers of London, he has given
recitals in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Poland, and
many European and Scandinavian countries. Ian has written over
200 choral and orchestral arrangements, many published and
recorded. For 20 years, he presented television and radio
programs for schools on BBC and ITV, introducing and writing
music for “Music Time” on BBC TV and “Music Workshop” and “Music
Makers” on radio.
arr. J. David Moore: Il est Né, le Divin Enfant
(Harold Brock, Kathryn Kamp, Matt Greenberg, soloists)
This popular French carol has found a lively setting in the
hands of J. David Moore, a St. Paul-based musician who makes his
living as a choral conductor, singer, composer, arranger, and
music copyist. He holds degrees in conducting and composition
from Florida State University and the Cincinnati Conservatory of
Music. Moore has also done many settings for Dare to Breathe,
the Twin Cities-based vocal ensemble he founded. While living in
Cincinnati, he founded the Village Waytes, the vocal ensemble
for which he created this arrangement.
* * * * *
*
G. P. da
Palestrina: O magnum mysterium
Chicago
a cappella recorded this motet, and the Mass that Palestrina
wrote using much of this same musical material, as our very
first compact disc, back in 1996. Palestrina was the well-known
and much-praised Italian master of church music during the High
Renaissance. Starting around 1545, he composed many hundreds of
pieces for the church, which are known for their careful
treatment of dissonance; his “Pope Marcellus Mass” is probably
his best-known piece.
The
sentiment in this quietly and then exuberantly joyous poem, O
magnum mysterium, has inspired composers, singers, and
listeners for centuries. Palestrina’s beautiful six-voice motet
sets a poem which may be more familiar to you in the settings by
Spanish Renaissance composer Tomás Luís de Victoria and, more
recently, Morten Lauridsen. Lovers of liturgy may know that the
text was originally set in plainchant as the fourth responsory
at the early-morning Matins service on Christmas Day.
It
sometimes happens—as it does here—that local practices in a
congregation provide a composer with a slightly altered version
of a text from what most other composers would be using.
Instead of the more familiar lines starting with “Beata virgo,
cujus viscera…,” Palestrina’s version substitutes “Natum vidimus…”,
meaning “We see him born…” There is no focus on the Virgin Mary
here, just the baby and the shepherds who found him. The
difference is likely due to a variant in the chant books at
Santa Maria Maggiore, where Palestrina spent most of his
career. Palestrina’s version is also twice as long as
Victoria’s because it has a second section, called in Latin the
secunda pars; this practice was common in the late Renaissance,
allowing for extended polyphony in the liturgy where normally
one would have found chant. You may notice that when these
“Natum vidimus” text returns in the secunda pars, the music from
the prima pars returns too.
Eduardo
Falú: Villancico de la Falta de Fe
(For a World without Faith)
(Margaret
Harden, soprano)
A
world-renowned guitarist and composer, Eduardo Falú was born in
El Galpón, Salta (Argentina) on July 7, 1923. His parents Juan
and Fada were immigrants from Syria, and his artistic path began
in their family milieu. In 1945 he began his professional career
in Buenos Aires with the poet César Perdiguero, lyricist for
several of his compositions. In 1948 Falú was exposed to a
larger audience thanks to radio. He produced his first LP in
1951, and in 1959 the LP “Falú in Paris.” In 1963 he traveled to
Japan and gave 40 concerts. In 1964 he toured the US, and in
1968 Spain, France and England.
Falú has
composed more than 100 pieces, including this villancico. The
poem is by Luis Rosales Camacho (1910-92), a Spanish poet who,
like many living through World War II, struggled with issues
raised by Existentialism and religion. Rosales tended to write
poems stressing a simple faith in God as a worthy refuge from
life’s confusion, and this villancico follows that emphasis,
with a clear, joyful message and an unusual focus on the looks
and personalities of the Wise Men.
The texts
of villancicos typically focus on the things that the newborn
child needs, such as instruments so that the child may dance.
In this case the poem itself does not mention physical gifts to
the Baby, but the setting itself is based on guitar motifs, so
the baby who listens may be able to have some guitar music after
all.
Stephen Leek: Southern Cross
An
Australian, Stephen Leek is on the cutting edge of choral music
Down Under. He directs The Australian Voices and is a champion
of new Australian compositions. This is a piece he wrote
himself, to lyrics by his longtime collaborator, lyricist
Elizabeth Anne Williams. Astronomers and sailors revere the
Southern Cross, a formation of five stars only visible from a
very southernly latitude. The Southern Cross is an essential
tool in navigating the southern waters and was featured
prominently in the recent groundbreaking book 1421 by
Gavin Menzies, who chronicled the astounding Chinese feat of
circumnavigating the globe a few generations before Columbus.
(If you’re looking for an absorbing read during the holidays,
you won’t be able to put that one down.) Since it’s summer
during December in Australia, the bright sound-world in this
song evokes Christmas drenched in sunshine. A wonderful touch
is the poet’s wondering if the pointer star in the Southern
Cross is also the Star of Bethlehem.
* * * * *
*
Anon. Spanish carol: Riu, riu, chiu
(Benjamin Rivera, Matt Greenberg, Brian Streem, soloists)
Back in the heyday of the Many American Touring Choirs—the 1950s
and ‘60s—this tune leapt into the public imagination courtesy of
the entrepreneurial musicologist and performer, Noah Greenberg.
Greenberg found the tune in the famous Uppsala print, which had
been printed in Venice in 1556 and migrated to a Swedish
library. Greenberg made an edition easy for 20th-century
singers to perform, and his group, the New York Pro Musica,
performed the modern edition of this Renaissance carol around
the country and recorded it on best-selling albums. Scores of
other groups have recorded his edition as well, and it has
become a beloved part of many Christmas concerts. The vigorous,
masculine feel to the tune and text—about needing to keep “the
wolf” (sin or Satan or harm) away from “our ewe,” meaning the
Virgin Mary—gives the song a bravura quality not usually
associated with Christmas carols. The text is in a hybrid
dialect.
So that we can say we are fully in the 21st century,
we thought we’d mentioned that you can Google the YouTube
version of the Monkees singing “Riu, riu, chiu” by candlelight,
with Mickey Dolenz singing the solo.
Vanraj Bhatia: Hemant
(Winter)
Vanraj
Bhatia was born in Bombay, India, in 1927. After receiving his
M.A. in 1949 from Elphinstone College, University of Bombay, he
pursued his compositional studies at the Royal Academy of Music
in London and then spent five years (1954-59) as a student of
Nadia Boulanger. He served on the faculty of the University of
Delhi from 1960-65. Since that time, he has been working as a
freelance composer in Bombay. Bhatia is a prolific composer of
music for feature films, incidental music for plays, television
specials, advertisements, commercial film, and documentaries. He
has received several prestigious awards for his work.
The Six
Seasons for a cappella choir is based on 11th-century
Sanskrit texts. Each of the Six Seasons is based on a rãg
traditionally associated with that particular season. Rãgs are
the cornerstone of melodic organization in classical Indian
music. They have specific ascending and descending patterns
deriving from a parent scale, which provide the basis for
improvisation.
It is
essential, when improvising on a rãg, that one sing the right
pitches in the right order; other than that, one can
slide, Interpolate other pitches, and do all sorts of other
things vocally, as long as you “play by the rules.” Bhatia has
rather cleverly given each of the four voice parts its own
improvisation: each indeed plays by the rules, hitting the
pitches of the Winter rãg in order, both ascending and
descending. His accomplishment in this piece is to have all four
voice parts do it with some rhythmic coherence. You will notice
that the music doesn’t give you anything like a strong V-I
cadence anywhere; that’s not part of the traditional Indian
musical language. Rather, the music has its contrasts from
changes in texture, dynamics, and rhythmic speed, just as would
be the case for a soloist singing with sitar and tabla.
Christian Onyeji: Amuworo ayi otu nwa
This song is an expression of pure joy. Its Nigerian composer,
Christian Onyeji, is also a pianist, choreographer, and
conductor. He is Senior Lecturer at the University of Nigeria,
Nsukka Enugu State, where he researches African music and
composes Nigerian art music.
This piece, in the Igbo language, was designed to fit the needs
of modern Nigerian church worship. The text, when sung in
English, is likely familiar from Handel’s Messiah. With
elements of dance, polyrhythm, and texture typical of the Igbo
sub-area, the piece has a driving and jubilant quality. The
music is called a “Native Air,” a genre popular among Nigerian
art-music lovers. After several refrains and short verses, the
texture adds solo voices, with which it builds to a glorious,
multi-layered ending.
* * * * *
*
Þorkell
Sigurbjörnsson: Immanúel oss í nátt
We simply
love this song. Þorkell (Thorkell) Sigurbjörnsson is one of the
leading lights in recent Icelandic music. He was trained in
Reykjavik, where he now lives, and at the University of Illinois
at Champaign-Urbana. Thorkell has composed more than 200 works
in all genres. Icelandic is a very pure form of Old Norse, and
Iceland a nation of sophisticated language-connoisseurs. The
vowels are pure and open, in a way they also are in Italian or
Hebrew.
This piece
sets three verses of an old Icelandic text, written in 1742.
These words have a surprising tenderness, not what one would
first associate with a land of icy volcanoes.
Robert M.
Kwami: Krismas dodzi vo
A South
African, Robert Kwami was a professor of music at the University
of
Pretoria and director of the Center for Intercultural music
there. His early death left a gap among his colleagues
worldwide. He left more than 30 compositions and 70
publications. He taught and lectured all over Europe and
Africa.
This song
is in the Ewe language from eastern Ghana. The angels in the
text are proclaiming the birth of Jesus. The actual angels’
song, using words from the Bible, draws on the Ghanaian dance
style known as “highlife.”
Robert
Applebaum: Funky Dreidl
Bob
Applebaum, composer and pianist, has been writing choral music
prolifically in recent years. A longtime Chicago resident, Bob
recently relocated with his wife to northern California. His
gifts of harmony and texture are substantial. He is capable of
producing haunting melodies of his own, such as Shall I
Compare Thee? (the final track on Chicago a cappella’s
Shakespeare CD) and
infusing new life into traditional melodies such as this one.
If you
thought you knew everything about the old dreidl song, think
again. Starting with a low riff that resembles a slap-bass funk
line, this piece gradually builds over a few minutes to a
full-blown groove. Don’t forget to listen, even at the height
of our funkification, for the words “made it out of clay.”
Applebaum
explains that dreidl’s four faces are inscribed with the Hebrew
letters “nun,” “gimel,” “heh,” and “shin.” In the game, each
represents a particular gambling term related to Yiddish words:
Hebrew
Yiddish English
nun
nischt nothing (i.e., take nothing)
gimel
gantz all (i.e., take all)
heh
halb half (i.e., take half)
shin
shtel put in (i.e., put two objects
into the pot)
However,
the letters have been reinterpreted in the context of the
holiday as the first letters of the Hebrew words “Neis gadol
hayah sham,” or “a great miracle happened there.”
* * * * *
*
Rikuya
Terashima: Infant Joy
A composer
in many classical genres and Japanese traditional instruments,
Rikiya Terashima is also an accomplished pianist. Since Japan
has no tradition of Christmas carol composition and few poems
suitable for setting as carols, the composer has set here a poem
from William Blake’s collection Songs of Innocence. Most
of the carol is based on the pentatonic (five-note) scale, which
conveys a wide-open sort of innocence; the composer regards the
themes in the poem as particularly relevant for a carol setting
because of the universal appeal of joy, mercy, pity, peace, and
love.
Séamas
de Barra: Carúl Fáilte (A Carol of Welcome)
Born in
Cork, Séamas de Barra is known primarily for his choral music.
In 1993 he was asked to write a new work for the 500th
anniversary of Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin. This carol
was written especially for the Oxford World Carols book
and has a text written by the composer himself. He attempts in
the lyrics to capture “something of the emotional immediacy and
directness of expression characteristic of Irish devotional folk
poetry.” We are singing the English translation, which includes
the words “Hodie Christus natus est,” or “Today Christ is born
for us.”
I N T E R
M I S S I O N
trad.
Welsh, arr. John Rutter: Deck the hall
The words
in this version are given by John Rutter as “traditional”—and
therefore they may be unfamiliar to you! It’s amazing how we
can get so used to a particular version of a song that the
“real” words end up sounding strange. Such is the power of
repetition. Prior to this concert, I had never known that one
of the verses is “Fill the mead cup, drain the barrel,” though
it rhymes nicely with “carol.” So laugh and quaff away!
Hebrew
folksong, arr. Stacy Garrop: Lo Yisa Goy
(Hoss
Brock, tenor)
A composer creating music of great expressive power and
masterful technical control, Stacy Garrop has received several
awards, commissions, and grants, including the 2006/2007 Detroit
Symphony Orchestra’s Elaine Lebenbom Memorial Award, the
Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble’s 2006/2007 Harvey Gaul
Composition Competition, the 2005 Raymond and Beverly Sackler
Music Composition Prize, 2005 and 2001 Barlow Endowment
commissions, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 1999–2000
First Hearing Composition Competition. Chicago a cappella
commissioned two works from Stacy Garrop in 2007: a rollicking
Hava Nagila setting for its concert called “Days of Awe
and Rejoicing: Hidden Gems of Jewish Music,” as well as this
more somber work, Lo Yisa Goy, for its “Holidays a
cappella” performances.
The composer writes:
“Lo Yisa Goy is a prayer for peace. I remember singing this
song as a little girl in Hebrew school and synagogue, always
in the context (at least in my congregation) of praying for
the state of Israel. I think we’re at a particular point in
which people in a lot of different nations could use such a
prayer. For this reason, you’ll hear the words in both
Hebrew and English. In my research of previous versions of
the melody, I discovered three variants for the tune; listen
closely, and you’ll hear all three melodies incorporated
into my piece.”
There is a lovely, unexpected (and perhaps intentional)
reference to Handel’s Messiah at the very end of this piece,
with the final line of English text being identical to the last
line of Handel’s chorus “And the glory of the Lord.” For those
who have sung Messiah, it can be a remarkable, even
moving experience to hear the same text set in such a different
way.
Luo
spiritual, arr. Enrico Oweggi: Nyathi Onyuol
This is a spiritual in the Luo language from the Nyanza province
in western Kenya. The Luo are the second-largest and
second-wealthiest tribe in Kenya and the tribe into which Barack
Obama’s father was born. They traditionally live on the shores
of Lake Victoria, which they considered sacred. Many of Kenya’s
scientists and doctors come from the Luo tribe, which places a
high value on education. This piece has been made famous by
Muungano, the national choir of Kenya, founded by Boniface
Mganga as an ecumenical, pan-Christian, multi-ethnic choir with
singers from all of the tribes and linguistic traditions of his
country. “Muungano” means “unity” in Kiswahili; the choir’s
songs, like many contemporary African arts, fuse traditional and
neo-traditional African tunes with exuberant and intense
quasi-Western harmonic style. Staying true to our own
traditions, Chicago a cappella features a vocal
percussionist covering the drum part.
* * * * * * *
trad.
Quebecois, arr. Gilbert Patenaude: Notre divin Maître
This
lovely French-Canadian carol was originally a drinking song, but
since the mid-1700s it has been associated in Canada (mostly in
Quebec) with a religious Christmas text. The arrangement by
Gilbert Patenaude features strong contrasts of dynamics and
mood. There is usually one musical note per syllable of French,
so the lyrics will go by quickly!
Jean-Baptiste Lully: L’hiver (“Winter” scene from
Isis)
How about
a little heavenly shiver and intrigue to go with your Christmas
carols? This is the “winter scene” from the tragédie lyrique
opera Isis, written by Jean-Baptiste Lully. Lully was
one of the great French musicians of the late 17th
century. Along with Rameau, he brought French music into the
Baroque sensibility, with operas and songs of great expressive
power.
This opera
finds the nymph Io being unfaithful to her betrothed Hyerax, a
mortal; Io confesses that she has fallen in love with none
other than Jupiter himself, king of the gods. Juno, Jupiter’s
wife, finds all this out and then demands as punishment that Io
become her servant, to which Jupiter agrees. Hyerax puts Io
under the watch of his brother, Argus a giant with a hundred
eyes; when she tries to escape, she is banished by Juno to the
four corners of the earth. Finally, after the present scene
where the chorus bewails the torture of snow and ice, Io is
“promoted” to immortality as the Egyptian goddess Isis in a
bargain where Jupiter promises never to look at another woman.
All ends with an Egyptian chorus singing Isis’s praises. This
drama makes the stresses of the December holidays in Chicago
seem perhaps a little more manageable after all!
trad.
Alsatian noël, arr. Donald Patriquin: Venez, mes enfants
For three
decades Donald Patriquin taught various musical disciplines at
McGill University in Montreal. Now retired and living in the
Eastern Townships of Quebec, he is increasingly active as a
performer, composer, arranger, and conductor. Patriquin is
known internationally for his choral and instrumental
arrangements of folk music. He has arranged several Canadian
carols, of which this may be the most familiar. This tune comes
from the Alsatian region of France, which borders Germany and
Switzerland; in fact, those familiar with German carols will
recognize this tune as “Ihr Kinderlein, kommet.”
* * * * *
* *
Spiritual,
arr. Moses Hogan: Glory, glory, glory to the newborn King
(Cary
Lovett, Kathryn Kamp, Hoss Brock, soloists)
Internationally renowned as a pianist, conductor, and arranger,
the late Moses Hogan was recognized during his all-too-short
lifetime as a leading force in promoting and preserving the
African-American musical experience. Beginning in 1980, he
focused his musical energy in the area of arranging spirituals,
forming The New World Ensemble and the acclaimed Moses Hogan
Chorale to preserve and extend the spiritual tradition. His
contemporary settings of spirituals, original compositions, and
other works have become staples in the repertoires of high
school, college, church, community, and professional choirs
worldwide; Chicago a cappella has recorded his
blockbuster hit “Elijah Rock.” Through his work with the Moses
Hogan Singers, including concerts and recordings, as well as his
participation in festivals and workshops as both clinician and
guest conductor, Hogan was a major force in creating a growing
interest in the African-American spiritual as a choral art
form. Hogan had a sense of the theatrical as well as the
proper, and the careful balance between the two—meaning the
balance between the traditional and the ecstatic—always comes
through in his work.
Among
Moses Hogan’s classic arrangements is this, based on “Go Tell It
On The Mountain.” Hogan has added some new words in a
call-and-response opening section with a soloist. While the
piece has only small variations among the repetitions of the
familiar tune, the overall work has its characteristic Hogan
feel in the way that the traditional material is placed in a
sweeping context of great drama and excitement, ending—of
course—with a big finish.
* * * * *
* *
Except for
composer biographies and unless otherwise attributed, all
program notes provided here are copyright © 2008 Jonathan M.
Miller and may not be reproduced in any form whatsoever without
express permission.
FOR THE
RECORD:
Nine works
on this concert are available on Chicago a cappella CD
recordings.
Christmas A
Cappella: Songs From Around the World
includes “Noël nouvelet” (arr. Humphris); “Il est Né, le Divin
Enfant” (arr. Moore); “Amuworo ayi out nwa” (Onyeji); “Lo Yisa
Goy” (Garrop); and “Nyathi Onyuol” (Oweggi).
Holidays a
cappella Live
includes
“Immanúel oss í nátt” (Sigurbjörnsson); “Funky Driedl” (Applebaum);
and “Hemant” (Bhatia).
Palestrina: Music for the
Christmas Season
includes “O Magnum Mysterium” (Palestrina)
In
addition, other works by several of tonight’s composers are also
available:
Three
Shakespeare settings by Robert Applebaum appear on
Shall I Compare Thee?
Moses
Hogan’s “Elijah Rock” appears on
Go Down, Moses
