Fall Choral Concert: Firsts

FALL CHORAL CONCERT November 22, 2015

Wendy Moy, conductor Patrice Newman, pianist

John Anthony, rehearsal pianist Reveille, No. 7 from A Pushkin Wreath Cantata (1978) .............................................................. Georgy Sviridov (1915-‐1998)

Chorale & Camel Heard Maksim Ivanov, Baritone, Stephanie Foster ’18, Soprano, Kristina Toro ’17, Alto

The Longest Nights (commission and CT premiere) ............................................................. Timothy C. Takach (b. 1978)

I. A Winter’s Spell II. After Harvest III. Many-‐Splendored Thing IV. Blizzard V. Winter Walk VI. Last Night’s Moon VII. Returning

Camel Heard

Intermission The First Noel ............................................................................................................................................... arr. Dan Forrest (b. 1978)

Camel Heard & Chorale Nowel: Owt of Your Slepe Arise ......................................................... 15th Cen. British Carol, arr. Anonymous 4 Ther Is No Rose of Swych Vertu ......................................................... 15th Cen. British Carol, arr. Anonymous 4

Camel Heard

Song of Good Cheer ................................................................................... Ukrainian Carol, arr. Mykola Leontovich (1877-‐1921) Christmas Lullaby ................................................................................................................................................ Dan Forrest Rejoice, O Virgin (1990) ......................................................................................................................................... Arvo Pärt (b. 1935)

Chorale

Rejoice, O Virgin from All-‐Night Vigil, Op. 37 (1915) ..........................................................Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-‐1943) The 12 Days of Christmas ......................................................................................................................... arr. John Rutter (b. 1945)

Camel Heard & Chorale

Chorale Personnel Camel Heard Personnel Soprano Lauren Baretta ‘18 Caley Bennett ‘19 Molly Brown ‘18 Alexis Cheney ‘16 Olivia Giuliano ‘17 Julia Hutton ‘19 Clare Loughlin ‘18 MaryClare McDonough ‘18 Elizabeth Moreno ‘18 Becca Nash ‘19 Emmaline Nathans ‘19 MacKenzie Orcutt ‘19 Caroline Schiller ‘17 Tanya Schneider* Julia Tackett ‘18 Alto Karen Baker* Molly Brown ‘18 Kathryn Chinetti ‘19 Meaghan Hanley* Catharine Moffett* Jillian Noyes ‘19 Tina O'Keefe* Kristina Toro ‘17 Lucy Tuchmann ‘19 Sophie Xue ‘18 Tenor Colin Archer ‘19 Ken Koopmans* Alex Medzorian ‘19 Bass Samuel Girioni ‘19 Luis Gonzalez* Tobias Myers* Jacob Stewart*

Soprano Molly Brown ‘18 Stephanie Foster ‘18 Alto Camille Iorio ‘19 Rachel Glasser ‘19 Lauren Stubbs ‘17 Tenor Sam Girioni ‘19 Gerard Lanzano ‘17 Christian Vazquez ‘19 Bass Justin Winokur ‘18 Connor Wu ‘17 *CC Staff/Faculty

TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS AND NOTES

I. A Winter’s Spell On the old porch swing I set a spell, Collecting the cicadas’ lulling buzz, Hazy summer sunset lingering All lazy, ripe, and heavy on the night. Far too soon this light will turn to gold, And fireflies will flee the waning day. Copper leaves will choke the guttered eaves As all the signs of summer fade from sight. Soon the snows shall gather up the green, A chill wind whistling through the branches bare; Silences in violet shadows fall, Reflect, refract through gleaming prismic white. How shall I endure this winter’s chill, When blizzard bites the blood and shivers all? I’ll remember then the spell I set Upon the old porch swing in summer’s light.

Charles Anthony Silvestri (commissioned for this piece)

III. Many-‐Splendored Thing And there are the dawns and the dusks when the snow is falling, when the lights in the villages take on a fat and gauzy glow, when the whole prairie world, although dark, seems somehow aglow, when the sky above the storm becomes the particular pale pink of a prairie rose in bloom. When the winter sky puts on that face, the only possible response is to keep silent, as before any many-‐splendored thing.

Paul Gruchow (used with permission)

II. After Harvest The gleaning done, the ashen pods and vines, just twitch and rattle with what’s left behind. The purple stubble on the fields below erasing now with patches of first snow. Cornstalks turn ghostly. Wagon, barn and rake give up their shapes, and the new shapes they take no longer presage any human thing. The wilderness recalls her underling. We need the strength of all we can endure, to grant what earth gives up and make it sure. The twining and the gathering is the easy part for now the rind is ripe and heavy like the heart. The liquid light that poured into our flesh must take us through the night of cold and emptiness when colors of the world fade into one. The web of branches stretches till it’s gone.

Monica Raymond

(used with permission)

IV. Blizzard A blizzard races a blizzard, neither can defeat the other: now one pulls ahead, now it is behind the other. I watch until my eyes tire, the mind’s world enters my thought: A blizzard races a blizzard, neither can defeat the other.

Juhan Liiv, trans. H.L. Hix and Jüri Talvet

(used with permission)

V. Winter Walk The longest night The brightest moon The sharpest sting of cold The barest branch The hardest earth My breath the only cloud And I am out walking to ask the winter moon: Who will I be when the spring rains come? The air so still Smoke rising straight The snowbanks sleep so deep The quiet star The silent night A lone bird wakes and sings And I am out walking to hear my heart, And I am out walking to hear my heart. Brian Newhouse (commissioned for this piece)

VII. Returning I was walking in a dark valley and above me the tops of the hills had caught the morning light. I heard the light singing as it went among the grass blades and the leaves. I waded upward through the shadow until my head emerged, my shoulders were mantled with the light, and my whole body came up out of the darkness, and stood on the new shore of the day. Where I had come was home, for my own house stood white where the dark river wore the earth. The sheen of bounty was on the grass, and the spring of the year had come.

Wendell Berry (used with permission)

VI. Last Night’s Moon This morning, the wind and a bent weed working together… drawing the shape of last night’s moon in the snow.

Scott King (used with permission)

From the willow, melting ice dripped, from the alder wet snow slipped. High on the air came a cry: I hear, I hear! I’m coming, I, the spring, I’m coming, I’m coming!

Juhan Liiv, trans. Hix and Talvet (used with permission)

Reveille Poem by Alexander Pushkin They’re sounding reveille…from my hands The ancient Dante falls, On my lips a nascent verse, Half-‐read, falls silent, The spirit soars into the distance. Ah, familiar sound, lively sound! How often you sounded There, where I quietly grew up In days long past. They’re sounding reveille…

Song of Good Cheer Song of good cheer, song of good cheer! A swallow is here, Chirping her song, Calling out the master of the house: “Come out, come out, master, take a look at your manger! The sheep there have mated And the little lambs have been born. If all your animals stay healthy, You will have a pot of money! And should your money turn to chaff, You still have a good-‐looking wife!” Song of good cheer, song of good cheer! A swallow is here!

Nowel: Owt of Your Slepe Aryse Out of your sleep arise and awaken, for God has taken human form from a maid without any equal: of all women she is best. Nowell! And through a fair and wise maiden humankind is now brought to its full worth; now the angels kneel in the service of humanity; and at Christmas time, all this took place. Nowell! Now man is brighter than the sun; man shall now dwell on high; blessed be God that this game is begun, and his mother the empress of hell. Nowell!

Rejoice, O Virgin Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos, Mary full of grace, the Lord is with You. Blessed are You among women, And blessed is the Fruit of Your womb, For You have borne the Savior of our souls.

Ther Is Nor Rose of Swych Vertu There is no rose of such virtue as in the rose that bore Jesus. There is no rose of such virtue as is the rose that bore Jesus, alleluia. For in this rose was contained both heaven and earth in a little space, a thing to wonder at. By that rose we may well see that he is God in person three, but of equal form. The angels sang to the shepherds, “Glory in the highest to God.” Let us rejoice! Let us leave this worldly mirth and follow this joyful birth. Let us go.

From the Timothy C. Takach, Composer: I’ve always imagined the winter months as the bottom third of a circle, dipping lowest at the new year and then coming back up to find Spring. There was never any negativity or depression attached to that image, but I do think it’s neat to think about the act of journeying through Winter as a descent of sorts. We dig deep, we nestle ourselves in, we maintain until it’s safe to come out. The texts and music in this cycle touch on that idea–that we have to endure, we have to stay strong through the turning of the year. The images of hibernation and metamorphosis come to mind as well–will we be the same person on the other side? Or do we grow? Do we change? I wrote “A Winter’s Spell” last of all seven movements. I commissioned Tony Silvestri to write the poetry for this first piece, and not only did I want him to foreshadow images and emotions from the other texts, but I also wanted to include musical motives and themes from the remainder of the cycle. And so we hear hints of what’s to come–the opening piano theme is from “Many-‐Splendored Thing,” the scalar passages in “Blizzard,” a few instances of the chorus from “Winter Walk,” the grace note figure from “After Harvest,” and the rolling chords in the piano from “Returning.” It’s all in there. In his poem Tony tries to hold on to the warmth of summer as winter descends. The piano writing in “After Harvest” is sparse and open, signaling the onset of cold and darkness. Monica Raymond’s poem paints a landscape that’s covered in snow, and she talks about how the light and warmth of summer “must take us through the night of cold and emptiness.” But winter can also take on a beautiful form, as is evidenced in Paul Gruchow’s writing. The music here paints a different perspective on the season. It’s warm, full and rich, and we are asked to take in this scene with a sense of awe, of wonder that illicits a response, simply, of silence. I was intrigued by the motion and energy in Juhan Liiv’s poem “Blizzard.” Often times in a snow storm we are able to “see” the wind as flakes swirl around our world and around each other. That fierce wind is most present in the right hand of the piano, but also in the repeating, alternating rhythmic ostinato in the soprano and tenor lines. Of the poem, translator Jüri Talvet says that Liiv “imagines a parallel between (cosmic) nature and the mind’s world (human culture); the same blizzards are racing one another in the world of culture...And it is true...A trend claims its superiority, then falls, and so on eternally...” In 2014 Brian Newhouse sent me a piece he had written, and I asked if he would be willing to take two lines from that piece and expand it into a poem for this cycle. He agreed and came up with the wonderful poem “Winter Walk.” I imagine this poem falling in the middle of the season, at the peak (or the bottom of my imagined circle, as I mentioned above) of the journey through the darkness. And here we have the main idea of the cycle. The cold and quiet offer us a chance to look inside of ourselves. And if we listen and decide to follow our hearts, who will we be when we come through on the other side? I imagine that we come out as better, stronger versions of ourselves.

When I was gathering texts together, I kept reading Scott King and Juhan Liiv’s two small poems as one narrative, so I set them as one song here. They work seamlessly together! The idea of two working together toward a common goal led me to collaboration, so I asked my friend, violinist Sara Pajunen, to read these texts and write a wordless melody to go along with them. I improvised a second melody under her line, and the bones of the piece were created. And here, at the end of this movement, we get the first promise of Spring. “Returning” completes our journey. Wendell Berry uses these images of emerging: from under to above, from shadow into light, from quiet into singing. I loved the contrast here between the new (the fresh spring grass), and a familiar scene. Those warm rolling piano chords sound out and we know we are home. Octave doubling in the voices gives us solidarity and strength until we arrive “on the new shore of the day. ”It was a delight to compose this cycle, and my deep thanks go out to the poets who wrote for me, and those who gave their permission for me to use their work. I also wouldn’t have been able to write this without the encouragement of my 42 commissioning choirs, who supported me in the creation of the work. -‐ Timothy C. Takach, 2015 The traditional Ukrainian carol, Song of Good Cheer arranged by Leontovich tells of the New Year, which in Pre-‐Christian Ukraine took place in the Spring. Peter Wilhousky added English lyrics to this tune and the resulting piece is commonly known in the United States as Carol of the Bells. Arvo Pärt was born in Estonia and received his formal music education at the Tallinn Music Middle School and Tallinn Conservatory. Bogoroditse Devo (Rejoice, O Virgin) with text in Church Slavonic, was composed for the Festival of Nine Lesson and Carols that takes place on Christmas Eve at Kings College Choir, Cambridge. Sergei Rachmaninoff was born in Novgorod, south of St. Petersburg, Russia and started his musical studies in piano with his mother. While attending the Moscow Conservatory, he studied with Taneyev and Arensky and met Tchaikovsky. Rachmaninoff composed three sacred works with Church Slavonic texts, which reflected his interest in traditional Russian Orthodox chant and singing he heard during his youth. Bogoroditse Devo from the All-‐Night Vigil (Rachmaninoff Vespers) was premiered by the Moscow Synodal Choir in 1915 and received rave reviews. Nine of the work’s movements are based on znamenny or Kievan chants. The movement we sing today has become the most popular and is commonly performed separate from the masterwork.

Notes by Wendy Moy

George Sviridov’s stature as a composer is evidenced by his tremendous popularity among Russian musicians, musicologists, and audiences. His music has entered the standard repertory of Russia’s professional musicians; it has become the subject of research and analytical works by the country’s leading musicologists. Most impressive is his popularity of among Russian audiences: Sviridov is a household name loved and revered by the occasional concert-‐goer as well as the connoisseur. Outside of Russia, Sviridov’s works have been sporadically performed, primarily by Russian artists. There have been occasional attempts to present him to American audiences but, for all practical purposes, he is an “unknown.”

A Pushkin Wreath is a musical “book of poems”—ten in all—by Aleksandr Pushkin (1799-‐1837). The poems selected by Sviridov form, at once, “a wreath made of Pushkin”—a kaleidoscopic view of the poet’s world, and “a wreath for Pushkin”—a eulogy to Russia’s greatest poet. The composer’s relationship to the poet is symbiotic: by his choice of poems, Sviridov sets forth his own unique vision of the world. Among the slow movements of the choral concerto, Ekho (No. 4) and Zoriu byut (No.7) [Reveille], exhibit a number of typical traits: long note values, a solo line over a chordal texture sung a bocca chiusa, intricate divisi voice lines, elaborate dynamic effects, and static harmony. The composer imposes his own peculiar pacing and acoustical effects: time appears to be “frozen,” and movement is accomplished through space and color. The overall effect is meant to create a sensitized listening environment in which the word is heard anew—through the composer’s perception.

Notes by Peter Jermihov

BIOS

Maksim "Maks" Ivanov’s artistic career spans two continents and several art forms. As a singer, songwriter, poet and actor, he has appeared in opera, musical theater and concerts, on movie and TV screens, music festivals and clubs in the United States and his native Russia. On the lyric stage he has appeared with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera Festival at Glimmerglass, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Opera Providence, New Jersey Opera, Yale Opera, Opera Theater of Connecticut, Salt Marsh Opera of Rhode Island, Connecticut Lyric Opera, Ash-‐Lawn Festival, Sanibel Music Festival and the Music Academy of the West and many others. His repertoire includes over a dozen roles including Marcello and Shaunard in "La Boheme," Count Almaviva in "The Marriage of Figaro," Figaro in "Barber of Seville," Escamillo in "Carmen," Ford in "Falstaff," Sharpless in "Madama Butterfly" and Eugene Onegin, among others. In concert Mr. Ivanov performed at Lincoln Center in New York, Staller Center for the Arts and in Paul Mellon art Center as well as with Wallingford Symphony, Norwalk Symphony, Manhattan Philharmonia Orchestra, Classical Orchestra of Pila, Poland and the Connecticut Virtuosi Orchestra among others. He was a winner in a number of national and international vocal competitions including those held by Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera and the Connecticut Opera Guild. Conductor Wendy K. Moy is the Director of Choral Activities and Music Education at Connecticut College and Co-‐Artistic Director of Chorosynthesis Singers, a professional project choir based in Seattle, WA. Active as a clinician and guest conductor, she serves on the Connecticut American Choral Directors Association Board and is also the President/Co-‐founder of Chorosynthesis, a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to transform the culture of American choral music through the tenets of collaboration, sustainability, innovation, and excellence. Wendy is proud to be singing her first season with the professional choir, CONCORA. Wendy holds a BA in Music Education from Seattle Pacific University, a MME from Westminster Choir College, and a DMA in Choral Conducting from the University of Washington.

Pianist Patrice Newman collaborates frequently in chamber music and art song. She has performed in concerts in the New York area including the Riverside Church, Hudson

Highlands Music Festival, Peconic Chamber Orchestra, and in a Weill Recital Hall chamber music debut as a winner of the Artists International competition. Her recent CDs include Lukas Foss’ "The Prairie" and Dominick Argento’s "Jonah and the Whale" with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) and The Providence Singers. In New York, she also performed frequently with the Composers Circle and Friends and Enemies of New Music. Patrice holds degrees from the Hartt School/University of Hartford and Boston University, where she won the Piano Performance Award, and also studied at the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, France, the Schubert Institute in Baden bei Wien, Austria, and in New York with pianist Grant Johannesen. She worked as a collaborative pianist at the Mannes College of Music. Patrice is also a founding artistic director of Chamber Music Mystic, a summer chamber music festival in Mystic, CT.

Acknowledgements and Special Thanks

John Anthony & Dale Wilson-‐Music Department Co-‐Chairs

Jurate Svedaite-‐Waller, Samantha Talmadge, Maksim Ivanov, Voice Faculty Nancy Zuelch-‐Music Department Administrative Assistant

Connecticut College Sound, Lighting, and Recording Departments Whitehall Foundation

Andrea Lanoux, Head of CC Slavic Department Tony Lin, Russian Advisor

About the Music Department

Our department of music seeks to distinguish itself among liberal arts college music departments in the United States. Our curriculum is modeled on the best features of a

music conservatory, but we are small enough to offer personal attention. For more information, please visit www.music.conncoll.edu.

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by emailing Wendy Moy at [email protected].

Upcoming Events

Russian Winter Arts and Music Festival December 3, 2015

6:00 pm-‐Concert #2 in Harkness Chapel

December 4, 2015 4:15 pm-‐Student presentations with Molly Brunson (Yale University) in Charles Chu Room

7:00 pm-‐Lecture by Emily Frey Giansiracusa in Ernst Common Room 8:00 pm-‐Concert #3 in Harkness Chapel

A Festival of Lessons and Carols

December 9, 2015, 12:00 pm -‐1:00 pm Harkness Chapel

Featuring Chorale and Camel Heard

Documents

Fall Choral Concert: Firsts