HAMER SINGERS · Alleluia just 45 minutes before the first performance. Written in 1940, this work is standing the test of time as a popular addition to the choral ... Eric Whitacre’s

1

Jonathan Grieves-SmithArtistic Director

As One Who Has SleptChoral Music from the USA, Canada, UK, Latvia, Russia, and Estonia

with works by Pärt, Tavener, and Rachmaninov.

Sunday 3 December 2017St Patrick’s Cathedral, East Melbourne

D E B U T C O N C E R T

HAMERSINGERS

AOWHS program 2017-final hi-res.indd 1 27/11/2017 5:04 pm

HAMER SINGERS

Artistic Director: Jonathan Grieves-Smith

JONATHAN GRIEVES-SMITH is internationally renowned for compelling performances and rigorous artistic leadership. He is Artistic Director of Hallelujah Junction, Australia’s professional choir, and of the Hamer Singers, and has held the titles of Chorus Master to the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Director of Music at Trinity College, the University of Melbourne, Music Director of Brighton Festival Chorus, the Hallé Choir, and the Huddersfield Choral Society.

Acclaimed as an outstanding conductor of music from the Baroque and Classical periods, he is also a passionate advocate for new music, commissioning and premiering such

composers as Brett Dean, David Lang, James MacMillan, Gavin Bryars, Gabriel Jackson, Arvo Pärt, John Tavener, Alfred

Schnittke and Lou Harrison. He has conducted the BBC Singers, Orchestre National de Lille, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Coro dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Europa Cantat, and Flemish Federation of Young Choirs.

In concerts and recordings in major festivals

with the world’s leading orchestras, he has collaborated intensively with conductors, including Sir Simon Rattle, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Roger Norrington, Pierre Boulez, Stephen Layton, Sir Andrew Davis, Mark Wigglesworth, and Valery Gergiev.

2

Photo: Kirsty Argyle


PROGRAM

Randall Thompson (USA, 1899-1984) ALLELUIA Arvo Pärt (Estonia, b. 1935) BOGORÓDITSYE DYÉVO John Tavener (England, 1944-2013) MOTHER OF GOD Robert Parsons (England, 1535-1572) AVE MARIASergei Rachmaninov (Russia, 1873-1943) BOGORÓDITSYE DYÉVORené Clausen (USA, b. 1953) TONIGHT ETERNITY ALONE Soprano soloists: Helena Balazs, Camilla Gorman

Stephen Paulus (USA, 1949-2014) THE DAY IS DONE Ēriks Ešenvalds (Latvia, b. 1977) THE HEAVENS’ FLOCKCharles Villiers Stanford (Ireland, 1852-1924) THREE MOTETS: i) Justorum Animae ii) Caelos Ascendit Hodie iii) Beati Quorum ViaHealey Willan (England/Canada 1880-1968) HOW THEY SO SOFTLY REST Eric Whitacre (USA, b. 1970) SLEEPĒriks Ešenvalds (Latvia, b. 1977) AMAZING GRACE Soprano soloist: Veryan Croggon

3


4

At least we do not have to worry about the text!’ was the commissioning

conductor’s retort on being delivered the score of Randall Thompson’s Alleluia just 45 minutes before the first performance. Written in 1940, this work is standing the test of time as a popular addition to the choral repertoire. It is notable for its gradually intensifying luscious suspensions and skillful counterpoint, which subside into a most peaceful ending. Though recently composed, the next work is a blend of old and new. Arvo Pärt’s version of Bogoróditsye Dyévo, an ‘Ave Maria’ sung in Old Church Slavonic, was commissioned by the King’s College Choir, Cambridge, for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols performed on

Christmas Eve, 1990. It is characterised by a rhythmic jubilance rare for this composer. Chanted sections of recitative-like accompaniment form the basis for passages of declamatory harmony. John Tavener is quoted as saying that his epic work ‘The Veil of the Temple’ is ‘the supreme achievement of my life’. The magnificently simple Mother of God, Here I Stand is an anthem extracted from this all-night journey from darkness to light. It is slow, quiet and intense throughout, creating an atmosphere of devotional stillness.

Back now to the 16th century and the five-part Marian motet Ave Maria by Robert Parsons. This ‘singing gentleman of the Chapel Royal’ drowned aged 40 at the height of his musical

Program Note

As the concert’s title suggests, a unifying factor of this program is sleep

– that precious commodity we don’t seem to get enough of in this frenetic era. These most ingenious of composers whose work spans six centuries have created works

that suggest sleep as rest for the living and the dead, and twilight and darkness when anything seems possible beneath the stars and the heavens. But there is also awakening, a fitting motive for Melbourne’s newest choir!

The Music

‘


5

powers while crossing the River Trent on horseback, and of his relatively small output of sacred and secular vocal compositions, this motet is possibly his most well-known. Along with its beautiful passing and suspended dissonance, this motet demonstrates Parsons’ mastery of polyphonic writing, for which he was renowned.

Serge Rachmaninov’s early 20th-century version of the Bogoróditsye Dyévo differs considerably from Pärt’s heard earlier in the program. Possibly the most well-known and loved piece of Russian church music, it is extracted from the all-night vigil ‘Vespers’ (1915). Only briefly does this movement rise above piano – a powerful moment. When the Vespers is performed in its entirety, the Bogoróditsye Dyévo completes the first section, the Vespers service, after which there is a final blessing and the extinguishing of light.

The US state of Minnesota has long been a destination for Scandinavian immigrants, which has produced generations of Lutheran lovers of choral music. Not surprisingly, this tradition has spawned some talented choral composers, of which the next two on our program are fine examples. Tonight Eternity Alone by René Clausen engenders a sense of deep calm, solitude and contentment in a

vast open space. Set in 1991 to the poem ‘Dusk at Sea’ by Thomas S. Jones, the choral writing features diatonic harmonies peppered with gentle dissonance. Short, soaring passages for two soprano soloists adorn the work. Stephen Paulus’s deceptively simple homophonic composition The Day is Done (2006) is a similarly tranquil setting of a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Latvia also has a rich choral tradition, and has produced several exceptional composers, one of whom is the deeply religious Ēriks Ešenvalds, himself a choral tenor. The Heavens’ Flock was set to a text by US poet Paulann Petersen in 2014, and features a soaring melodic motive set against modern choral harmonies and cluster cadences. Fellow contemporary composer Gabriel Jackson has referred to this piece as a ‘celestial meditation’, an appropriate description for its dreamlike sensibility.

We move back in time to the late 19th century to sing ‘Three Motets’ by Charles Villiers Stanford, a composer sometimes described as ‘Brahms with an Irish accent’. Written for and dedicated to the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, and their distinguished Director of Music Alan Gray, Justorum animae takes its text from the Book of Wisdom, and is in three short sections.


6

The outer two reflect the contemplative nature of the text, while the middle section is a striking representation of malice. Caelos ascendit hodie is a motet for Ascensiontide that sets words found in the Cowley Carol Book, a late 19th-century collection. It is a dramatic interplay between two choirs, with its final triumphant ‘Amen’ beginning on a unison note that expands outwards to a full eight-part chord. Beati quorum via takes its text from the first verse of Psalm 119, and is much more meditative in nature. It has gained a reputation as one of Stanford’s finest unaccompanied compositions.

The poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow makes an appearance again in How They So Softly Rest by British-Canadian composer Healey Willan. Composed in 1917, it is dedicated to the memory of the choristers of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir who died in the Great War. It was composed relatively early in Willan’s career, and its rich chords hint at the church music of his Russian contemporary, Rachmaninov. Similarly dedicated to the dead, Eric Whitacre’s Sleep has an interesting story attached. Texan lawyer and mezzo-soprano Julia Armstrong commissioned the work in memory of her parents. She requested Whitacre to use as the text Robert Frost’s poem ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’. After

labouring over the piece for some time, Whitacre realised he had failed to secure permission to use the poem. Following a long battle with Frost’s estate and their publisher, permission was sternly denied. The work sat under Whitacre’s bed for 37 years until the composer’s friend Charles Anthony Silvestri agreed to create new words for the music. The resulting combination is ravishing.

The final piece is a version of what is probably one of America’s most well-known and recorded pieces of music, Amazing Grace. Originally composed as a hymn in 1772 by the preacher John Newton, it has undergone various revivals, including as folk music and an African American spiritual. Arranged in 2004 by Ēriks Ešenvalds for the Riga Youth Choir, Kamēr, this version has the famous tune altering slightly each time it is heard. After an initial statement as a soprano solo, it becomes gradually more embedded in a rich eight-part texture. The descending modulations build the intensity towards a final euphoric statement of the original key.

Jillian Graham 2017


7

Texts

Bogoróditse Djévo, rá dujssja,Blagodátnaja Maríje, Gosspód ssTobóju:Blagosslovjéna Ty vzhe nách,i blagosslovjén plod chrjéva Tvojégójáko Sspássa rodilá jeessí dush náshikh.

Rejoice, O virgin Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with theeBlessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,For thou hast borne the Saviour of our souls.

Mother of God Here I Stand – John Tavener

Mother of God, here I stand now praying,Before this icon of your radiant brightness,Not praying to be saved from a battlefield,Not giving thanks, nor seeking forgivenessFor the sins of my soul, nor for all the souls.Numb, joyless and desolate on earth,But for her alone, whom I wholly give you.

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum:benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui. Amen.

Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you;Blessed are you among women,And blessed is the fruit of your womb. Amen.

Bogóroditsye Dyévo – Arvo Pärt/Sergei Rachmaninov

Ave Maria – Robert Parsons

,

,

,


8

Tonight Eternity Alone – René Clausen

Tonight, eternity alone is near the sunset and darkening blueThere is no space for fearonly the wonder of its truth.

From ‘Dusk at Sea’, Thomas S. Jones Jr (1882–1932)

The Day is Done – Stephen Paulus

The day is done, and the darkness Falls from the wings of night,As a feather is wafted downward From an eagle in his flight.

I see the lights of the village Gleam through the rain and the mist,And a feeling of sadness comes o’er me That my soul cannot resist:

A feeling of sadness and longing, That is not akin to pain,And resembles sorrow only As the mist resembles the rain.

Come, read to me some poem, Some simple and heartfelt lay,That shall soothe this restless feeling, And banish the thoughts of day.

Read from some humble poet, Whose songs gushed from his heart,

As showers from the clouds of summer, Or tears from the eyelids start;

Then read from the treasured volume The poem of thy choice,And lend to the rhyme of the poet The beauty of thy voice.

And the night shall be filled with music, And the cares, that infest the day,Shall be banished like restless feelings, And silently steal away.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)

The Heavens’ Flock – Ēriks Ešenvalds

Stars, you are the heavens’ flock, tangling your pale wool across the night sky.Stars, you’re bits of oily fleece catching on barbs of darkness to swirl in black wind.You appear, disappear by thousands, scattered wide to graze but never straying.While I, a mere shepherd of these words, am lost.What can I do but build a small blaze, And feed it with branches the trees let fall: That twiggy clatter strewn along the ground.And lichen crusting such dead limbs glows silver, glows white.The earthfood for a fire so unlike and like your own.Oh, what can I do but build a small blaze.

Paulann Petersen (b. 1942),

,

,


9

Justorum animae in manu Dei sunt,Et non tanget illos tormentum malitiae.Visi sunt oculis insipientium mori, Illi autem sunt in pace.

Cælos ascendit hodie, alleluiaJesus Christus Rex gloriae, alleluiaSedet ad Patris dextera, alleluiaGubernat caelum et terram, alleluia

Iam finem habent omnia, alleluia.Patris Davidis carmina, alleluia,Iam Dominus cum Domino, alleluia,Sedet in Dei solio. Alleluia, alleluia.

In hoc triumpho maximo, alleluia,Benedicamus Domino, alleluia,Laudatur Sancta Trinitas, alleluia,Deo dicamus gratias.Alleluia, Amen.

Beati quorum via integra est,Qui ambulant in lege Domini.

Three Motets – Charles Villiers Stanford

The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,There shall no torment or malice touch them.In the sight of the unwise they seem to die,But they are at peace.

Today Jesus Christ, the King of glory, alleluia,Has ascended into glory, alleluia,Who sits on the right of the Father, alleluia,And who rules heaven and earth, alleluia.

Now all the songs of the Patriarch David, alleluia,Have been fulfilled, alleluia,Now the Lord sits with the Lord, alleluia,On the throne of God. Alleluia, alleluia.

In this great triumph, alleluia,Let us bless the Lord, alleluia,Let the Holy Trinity be praised, alleluia,Let us give thanks to God.Alleluia, Amen.

Blessed are the undefiled in the way,who walk in the law of the Lord.

,


10

How They So Softly Rest – Healey Willan

How they so softly rest,All, all the holy dead,Unto whose dwelling placeNow doth my soul draw near!How they so softly rest,All in their silent graves,Deep to corruptionSlowly down sinking!

And they no longer weep,Here, where complaint is still!And they no longer feel,Here where all gladness flies!And, by the cypressesSoftly o’ershadowed,Until the Angel calls them, How they so softly rest.Henry Wordsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)

Sleep – Eric Whitacre

The evening hangs beneath the moon, A silver thread on darkened dune.With closing eyes and resting head; I know that sleep is coming soon.Upon my pillow, safe in bed, A thousand pictures fill my head, I cannot sleep, my mind’s aflight; And yet my limbs seem made of lead. If there are noises in the night,A frightening shadow, flickering light;

Then I surrender unto sleep,Where clouds of dream give second sight.What dreams may come, both dark and deepOf flying wings and soaring leap?As I surrender unto sleep.

Charles Anthony Silvestri (b. 1965)

Amazing Grace – Ēriks Ešenvalds

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound,That saved a wretch like me,I once was lost but now am found,Was blind, but now I see.

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,And grace my fears relieved;How precious did that grace appearThe our I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares,I have already come;‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me,His word my hope secures.He will my shield and portion beAs long as life endures.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,Bright shining as the sun,We’ve no less days to sing God’s praiseThan when we first begun.

John Newton (1775–1807)

,

,

,


Hamer Singers was established as a vehicle for renowned British/

Australian choral director Jonathan Grieves-Smith to conduct a cappella and accompanied choral works to the highest-possible artistic standard. We aim to present three concerts annually, taking advantage of the exceptional acoustics of venues such as St Patrick’s Cathedral.

In establishing the Hamer Singers, we acknowledge our collective debt and homage to the Hamer family’s longstanding dedication and legacy to music and the arts in Melbourne.

Hamer Singers extends its sincere thanks to St Patrick’s Cathedral and St Peter’s Eastern Hill for their support.

Hamer Singers Inc.ABN: 67 273 658 372

Peter Garnick President Helena Balazs Vice President Jillian Graham Secretary Veryan Croggon Treasurer Jonathan Grieves-Smith

SopranosHelena BalazsEva Butcher Veryan Croggon Samantha Davies Laura FaheyIris Ferwerda Catherine FolleyCamilla GormanPenny Huggett Judith McFarlaneRuth McIntoshLynne MuirNatalie ReidJemima SimAilsa WebbBeth Ylvisaker

TenorsPeter CampbellEd Chan Nicholas Christie Freddie Grieves-Smith Jack JordanDominic McKennaStephen Wood

AltosKate Bramley Jane BrodieAlex ChubatyKerry FranklandJillian Graham Ros HarbisonChristina McCowanKerry Roulston Annie RunnallsRose SaundersWilma SmithLibby Timcke

BassesKevin BarrellDaniel BrinsmeadDavid Brown Nicholas CowallJohn HowardSymon KohutTim MarchEdward Ounapuu

SingersAbout the Choir

11


12

HAMERSINGERS

Program design: Lynne Muir

Thank you for joining us for our debut concert, and for your support.

Plans for 2018, our first full year, include: , Sunday 15 April, St Patrick’s Cathedral , July/August, two metropolitan performances , Sunday November 11, St Patrick’s Cathedral, to commemorate the centenary of the Armistice.

For further information, please email [email protected], or visit our website hamersingers.weebly.com


Documents

HAMER SINGERS · Alleluia just 45 minutes before the first performance. Written in 1940, this work is standing the test of time as a popular addition to the choral ... Eric Whitacre’s