First Half Program Notes

Bogoródyitse Dyévo This hymn to the Mother of God recurs The Seal Lullaby (Rejoice, O Virgin Mary) in many places in Orthodox worship. Here it is sung three times with great solemnity, and It is amazing to realize that during Sergi Rachmaninoff was, by nature, a afterwards the priest gives a blessing, which Rudyard Kipling’s lifetime, that great English solemn, brooding introvert. Throughout his brings Vespers to an end on a note of short-story writer, novelist, and poet went life he suffered extended bouts of severe rejoicing. All of the lights are then dimmed from being the unofficial Poet Laureate of depression, self-doubt and writer’s block. and the doors are closed. GH Great Britain to being one of the most Despite the toll these inner torments inflicted denounced poets in English literary history! on his creative instinct, Rachmaninoff was In 1907, Kipling became the first Englishman able to transcend his legendary gloom and Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos, to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. By translate his soul-storm into a language of Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with Thee. the time of his death in 1936, Kipling had soaring lyricism. He became not only the last Blessed art Thou among women, and blessed compiled one of the most diverse collections truly great representative of Russian late is the Fruit of Thy womb, of poetry in all of English literature. Today romanticism, but one of the half-dozen for Thou hast borne the Savior of our souls. we recognize Rudyard Kipling as one of the greatest piano virtuosos of the twentieth best balled writers of all time. Here are two century. Kipling ballads, in musical settings, that Rachmaninoff remained stubbornly Otche Nash (Our Father) justify that claim, leaving no room for doubt. unconcerned with the new aesthetic trends in Rudyard Kipling’s poem “The Seal composition swirling around him, e.g., Alexander Gretchaninov was born in Lullaby” prefaces the story “The White Seal” Debussy and the Impressionists, the Serial Moscow in 1864. Unlike Mozart, who from The Jungle Book, first published in music of Arnold Schoenberg and the Second climbed up on a piano bench at age five and magazines in 1893 and ‘94. “The White Seal” Viennese School. Instead, all of his began composing songs. Gretchaninov didn’t is the story of Kotic, a seal who saved his compositions are imbued with the spirit of even see a piano until he was 14. His father species by finding a beach hunters couldn’t Russian singing. was a no-nonsense type who wanted his son get to by land or sea. We sing “The Seal He left in 1917, never to return. to take over the family business. However, Lullaby” set to music by the popular His beloved estate at Ivanovka that had Gretchaninov, at age 17, enrolled in the contemporary composer Eric Whitacre. provided him with the uninterrupted peace Moscow Conservatory without his father’s Kipling (1865-1936) wrote The Jungle and tranquility he needed for composing was blessing or financial support. He remained Book in a farm cottage near Brattleboro, razed to the ground in the revolutionary there until moving on to St. Petersburg to Vermont, not far from his wife’s family’s maelstrom that ensued. begin studies in composition and estate. His tiny study and the quiet location The All-Night Vigil, Op. 37 – popularly orchestration with Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov. suited him perfectly. He claimed that he known as the Vespers – stands as the It was a fortunate association, for Rimsky- blocked out the stories in his head, after crowning achievement of the “Golden Age” Korsakov provided his brilliant but destitute which his pen took charge and he watched it of Russian Orthodox sacred choral music. new pupil many extra hours of attention as begin to write. During that period, which began in the 1880’s well as a generous stipend. Hundreds of Kipling’s poems, ballads, and lasted until Communist takeover in 1917, In 1896, Gretchaninov returned to and ditties have been set to music, so it is dozens of Russian composers turned their Moscow and began writing for the theater, the somewhat paradoxical that he himself was creative energies to composing choral music opera, and the . His utterly tone deaf. One of Kipling’s daughters on texts drawn from the Russian Orthodox choral works achieved considerable success wrote that her father admitted that God “had liturgy. within Russia, and his instrumental works excluded all music from his make-up except Rachmaninoff created a monumental enjoyed even wider acclaim. By 1910, he was the brute instinct for beat, as necessary for the work that elevates the spirit by its lofty considered a composer of such distinction manufacture of verse.” expressiveness and captivates the ear by its that Tsar Nicolas II awarded him an annual Eric Whitacre follows a long line of sheer beauty. As his musical vehicle, pension. Even though the Revolution put an noted composers who have set Kipling’s Rachmaninoff uses a living, breathing end to this largess seven years later, poetry. Whitacre is widely known for his instrument – the human chorus – in a way Gretchaninov remained in Russia until he "Virtual Choir" projects on YouTube, that few composers have used it before or emigrated to in 1925, then to the stitching together individual voices from since. His choral writing makes full use of in 1939 where he remained for around the world in a cyber internet choir. the rich sonority and timbral colors developed the rest of his life, ultimately becoming an YouTube has exposed Whitacre’s music to a by his predecessors in the Russian choral American citizen. He died in New York in new audience and helped it gain an school of the late nineteenth/early twentieth 1956 and is buried outside the church at Rova unprecedented popularity. Orpheus sang his centuries. Farms, a Russian enclave in Ocean County, Lux Aurumque during the Christmas season. After giving due praise to God, the . GH Orthodox Church always pays homage to the We sing Gretchaninoff’s Otche Nash,a Virgin. Bogoródyitse Dyévo, perhaps the version of “The Lord’s Prayer” in Church Oh! Hush thee, my baby, the night is most widely known hymn from Slavonic, the liturgical language of many behind us, Rachmaninoff’s cycle, captures both the branches of Eastern Orthodoxy. NM And black are the waters that sparkled gentle simplicity of the angelic greeting and so green. the awe-struck glorification of her response to The moon, o’er the combers, looks

God. downward to find us,

At rest in the hollows that rustle Ave Maria sympathies. The last year of his life, 1945, between. was spent in poverty and disgrace in a small Where billow meets billow, then soft be Mascangi’s immortal Imtermezzo room at the Hotel Plaza in . With few thy pillow, Sinfonico from Cavalleria Rusticana provides activities to fill his days and with visits from Oh weary wee flipperling, curl at thy the melody for this piece. The text, an Ave friends rarer as the war went on—others ease! Maria by Piero Mazzoni, was set as a solo for avoided him for his erstwhile Fascist The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark a tenor or a soprano a decade or so after the connections—he was often alone and lonely. overtake thee, opera’s premiere, with the composer’s Mascagni was never able to duplicate the Asleep in the arms of the slow swinging blessing. Orpheus will sing Mascagni’s success of his first opera. He once remarked, seas! immortal melody for you in a 4-part “It is a pity I wrote Cavalleria first. I was arrangement for men’s voices by our own crowned before I became king!” Mascagni Michael Fraser. died August 2, 1945. A band played the

When Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana at his Danny Deever Rusticana won first prize in a contest for one- funeral. GH act operas sponsored by the publishing house Rudyard Kipling’s poem Danny Deever of Edoardo Sonzogno, it started a trend in deals with what, for the times, was an almost Italian opera known as verismo (naturalism or Hail Mary, mother and Saint, unimaginable subject matter – the description realism). Later examples of verismo opera are Sustain the devout one who implores you. of a military execution, the hanging of a Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and Puccini’s La As you walk by the river of sorrow soldier, Danny Deever, in the presence of his Bohème. Mascagni and Puccini were fellow And faith, instill (this faith) in my heart. garrison. students at the Milan Royal Conservatory. O compassionate one, you who have suffered First published in a weekly, the Scot’s ’s two most prominent composers would so much. Observer, in 1890, the poem was issued two remain life-long friends. See, Ah! See my pain. years later in the Kipling collection, The electrifying debut of Cavalleria In these cruel times, I embrace you Departmental Ditties, Barrack-Room Ballads Rusticana took place on May 17, 1890 at the With an infinity of tears. and Other Verses. Since its publication, it has Teatro Costanzi in Rome. It created a Ah! Do not abandon me been singled out as one of Kipling’s sensation equaled by few other operas. The Hail Mary! outstanding works. It is the first of his poems obscure, impoverished 27-year-old composer Look down on me and do not leave me, to articulate the views and dialect of the was suddenly catapulted to stardom. He took O my holy Mother! ordinary soldier. The verses are written in a forty curtain calls! Outside the theater, Look down on me and do not leave me, “question and answer” sequence, each verse thousands waited to acclaim him. In just two O my holy Mother! beginning with questions posed by Files-on- years Cavalleria had taken Paris, Berlin, Look down on me and do not leave me, Parade, a soldier in the ranks, and answered London and New York by storm. This single Do not leave me. by his Color Sergeant. opera made Mascagni famous and rich. In a Kipling’s macabre masterpiece describes never-ending attempt to prove that the how a military execution was dealt with in the tradition of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and British Army in India in the 1880s: the Verdi was still a dynamic force in the world The Anvil Chorus infantry was paraded in “hollow square” of music, Mascagni battled throughout his life formation, wheeled forward to face inwards on behalf of italianità and against the winds Giuseppe Verdi set about composing his in order to witness the execution. A gallows of modernism sweeping in from France and 17th opera, Il Trovatore, in November, 1852. was at the center of the “hollow square.” The Germany. He wrote fourteen operas after Though probably long pondered and planned, condemned man was marched onto the parade Cavalleria Rusticana, several achieved only the actual putting of music to paper is said to ground, his coffin on a gun carriage in front minor success. Passionately patriotic, he was have taken place between the 1st and 29th of of him. The execution is carried out and the bitterly opposed to his country’s involvement the month. Only twenty-eight days to write garrison is quick-marched past the scaffold in both world wars; a political naïf, Mascagni down the music of Il Trovatore? One can and off parade. was denounced as a Bolshevik in 1920 and as hardly believe it, but then the mysteries of so There are numerous musical settings of a Fascist in the aftermath of World War II. great a genius are not easily fathomed. It is this remarkable poem. It is the Walter The seeds of the disaster that would certain that the full score was finished by the Damrosch version that is remembered today. overtake Italy were being sown. In 1940, the 14th of December. Rehearsals began Damrosch (1862-1950) published his famous true magnitude of the nation’s tragedy was immediately after Christmas. setting in 1897. It was first performed by the about to emerge. Despite the warning signs, Verdi had selected the Teatro Apollo, American baritone David Bispham at the Mascagni continued to trust his hero. His Rome’s leading opera house during the 19th Academy of Music in Philadelphia in dogged devotion to Mussolini remained century, to stage the first performances of his December of that year. intact. Mascagni composed works glorifying Il Trovatore. In his musical setting Damrosch fascism and Il Duce, notably the opera The opera received its premiere on completely captures the feeling of marching Nerone. During World War II, the composer January 19, 1853. And what an opening night feet, the movement of soldiers in disciplined came on bad times. Arteriosclerosis reduced it was! The eagerness of the Roman public to formation and the intense horror of the him to an invalid for the last few years of his hear Verdi’s new work was extraordinary. occasion. Little wonder that over the years, life. Mascagni appeared as conductor for the The Tiber had risen in flood, overflowed its Danny Deever has been a concert favorite of last time in February, 1944 leading a single banks and invaded the whole district near the baritones the likes of no less than John performance of Cavalleria in the same theater theater. Even so, the public would not be Charles Thomas, Laurence Tibbett and in which it had received its 1890 premiere. deterred; lines began to form from eight Leonard Warren. GH His property was confiscated and he was held o’clock in the morning. The Apollo was

in contempt for his avowed Fascist besieged by a great crowd, who despite everything – increased prices for admission, So, to work now! great melodist, and no other has arisen since the cold, the mud, their feet in water up till Lift up your hammers! then to take the world by the ears. their ankles – squeezed, shoved and disputed Who turns the Gypsy’s day from gloom to Seventeen months after his death, in order to get places for that evening’s brightest sunshine? Puccini’s unfinished Turandot was scheduled performance. By midday the house was sold His lovely Gypsy maid! to receive its world premiere at Italy’s out! foremost opera house, Milan’s Teatro alla The opening evoked frenzied Fill up the goblets! New strength and courage Scala. The management of La Scala excitement. The audience was overwhelmed. flow from lusty wine to soul and body. considered it politic to invite Italy’s new Il Trovatore was received with the greatest See how the rays of the sun play and sparkle fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini. Il Duce possible enthusiasm. And yet, some critics and give to our wine gay new splendor. said he would attend on condition that the were harsh: “Bel canto has been ruined, to be So, to work now! Giovanezza, the Italian counterpart to the replaced by sobs and shouts of rage.” Who turns the Gypsy’s day from gloom to Nazi Horst Wessel Lied, would be played The short-sighted critics failed to see brightest sunshine? before the start of the opera. But Il Duce had that Verdi had turned away from earlier 19th His lovely Gypsy maid! not reckoned on the powerful Arturo century models toward more modern vocal Toscanini: either Turandot would be conquests. Verdi, by virtue of his own innate, performed without the Giovanezza or they irrepressible Italian fury, had burst through Nessun Dorma would have to find another conductor! La the Victorian crinolines, antimacassars and Scala’s management dared not replace their eiderdown. Il Trovatore is a late flowering of In 1911, Gustav Mahler died leaving his world famous conductor, nor could they the Italian romantic tradition possible only to Tenth incomplete. In July 1924, postpone opening night to which critics from one who had seen beyond it. Heroic singing Ferrucio Busoni died leaving incomplete the around the world had been invited. The had been born. finale is most ambitious operatic project, political dictator was no match for the Il Trovatore has enjoyed uninterrupted Doktor Faust. In 1935, death would prevent musical dictator. Toscanini won the day. success from the day of its first performance. Alban Berg from finishing the third act of There was no Giovanezza and no Duce to mar From the Teatro Apollo, Verdi’s remarkable Lulu. All are masterpieces of the 20th century, the baptism of Puccini’s final masterpiece. expression in music of the romantic, hot- conceived and realized on the threshold of Opening night took place on April 25, blooded drama of chivalry began its world. their composer’s deaths. The same was to be 1926. The evening was dedicated to Puccini. Its melodies are more widely known than the fate of Giacomo Puccini’s final The performance terminated when Toscanini perhaps those of any other opera. In spite of masterpiece, Turandot. laid down his baton, turned to face the Enrico Caruso’s famous dictum to the effect Toward the end of 1923, Puccini audience and made the first and last public that all the opera requires is the four greatest developed a violent cough and very painful utterance in his life. In a voice hoarser than singers in the world, and notwithstanding sore throat, but, having always been a heavy usual, he said: “Here at this point, the imitation, parody, inadequate singing and smoker, he was not very concerned. By mid- Maestro laid down his pen. Death on this barrel organs, Il Trovatore has survived for a November he had completed Act III of occasion was stronger than art.” Toscanini century and a half. That is because it is a Turandot up to the torture scene; only the last might have been speaking not just of work of immense verve, dramatic power and act finale was lacking. Puccini’s health Puccini’s last work, but of Italian opera in passionate expression, an explosion of continued to worsen. Always afraid of illness general. Puccini left no Crown Prince. With emotional fire. It is the Verdi of forty and terrified by death, he was finally forced him the glorious line from Rossini, Bellini, working at white heat. to consult a specialist in Florence. The Donizetti and Verdi came to a conclusion. It Each of the four acts has a title. Act II diagnosis was kept from him, but was given is tempting to speculate whether the Great (La Gitana – the Gypsy) takes place at a to his son, Tonio: throat cancer, too advanced Tradition would have gone on had Puccini gypsy camp on the slopes of a mountain in to operate. It was decided that Puccini’s only completed Turandot and produced more Biscay. It is dawn. A great fire is burning. hope for recovery was to undergo radiation, a operas in is old age. Or was it inevitable that As daylight grows brighter, a band of gypsies kind of treatment then in its infancy. In order all would go on as it has. We will never sings the famous Anvil Chorus. While to do so, he would have to travel to Brussels know working at their forges, they swing their where the method was being pioneered at the Puccini’s incomplete masterpiece hammers, bringing them down in rhythm with Institute de la Couronne. Puccini took with necessitates an extremely strong protagonist. the music, the upper voices on the weak him sketches of the finale –thirty-six pages in Along with Rodolfo in La Bohème, Calaf is beats, the lower voices on the strong. The all – hoping to complete the last act while the most important of Puccini’s tenors. The chattering 2/4 rhythm with an abundance of convalescing at the clinic. In Turandot, night scene in the palace garden at the triangle was nothing new to the audiences of Puccini wanted beyond all else to glorify love opening of Act III is one of the last supreme the day, but men striking anvils in alternation as an all-conquering, exalting power. This moments of heroic lyricism in the autograph on stage? This was quite new to Italian opera idea was to find its apotheosis in the finale. of the score. A chorus of heralds offstage in 1853. The percussive effects would have What bitter irony of fate that he was unable to introduces the famous Romanza of the been sufficient to ensure the piece’s complete his dream. Puccini died at four unknown Tartar Prince. Nessun dorma is popularity, but the tune itself, a lusty unison o’clock in the morning on November 29, based on the repetition of a motivo called “the C-major refrain, is memorable. GH 1924. theme of the Prince’s name.” GH The glorious lineage of Italian opera, dating from the second half of the See how the clouds melt away seventeenth century onwards, had come to an Heralds: from the face of the sky when the sun shines, end. Puccini died without musical heirs. Turandot commands thus: its brightness beaming; There was then no new figure on the horizon “Tonight no one must sleep in Peking!” just as a widow, discarding her black robes, giving promise of equal or similar gifts as a Distant Voices: shows all her beauty in brilliance gleaming. No one must sleep! No one must sleep! Hearlds: No one must sleep! No one must sleep! “Under the pain of death, the name of You, too, oh Princess, Distant Voices: the stranger must be revealed before In your cold room No one will know his name… morning!” Look at the stars, that tremble And, alas, we must die! Distant Voices: With love and with hope! The Unknown Prince: Under the pain of death! But my mystery is shut within me; Vanish, oh night… Heralds: No one will know my name! Set, your stars! “Tonight no one must sleep in Peking!” No, I will say it on your mouth At dawn I will win! Distant Voices: When the daylight shines! I will win! I will win! No one must sleep! No one must sleep! And my kiss will break the silence The Unknown Prince: That makes you mine!

Second Half Program Notes

Cantique de Jean Racine incorporated his training into new In the evening, I went to the shore compositions, moving through Classical To meet a pretty little gal, This work, originally for mixed chorus influences and forms back toward a distinctly White and red and curly-haired, and organ, was written in 1865 by Gabriel Russian music. Full of life and cheer. Fauré (1845-1924). Cantique (Op. 11) won With the death of Tchaikovsky, in 1893, for him the first prize when he graduated Rimsky-Korsakov stepped into his former Tiritomba floats like a vision in the air from the École Niedermeyer – a school for rival’s position, writing for the Imperial church music in Paris founded by L. Theatres. He wrote eleven operas over the She was pretty, more than pretty, Niedermeyer, a failed opera composer albeit a next fifteen years. The middle opera of this She looked like the star of Love. moderately successful composer of vocal period was The Tale of Tsar Saltan, She was the nail that music and an influential music enducator. premiered in 1900, based on a Russian fairy Knows how to pierce the heart After his Requiem, Op. 48, Cantique remains tale. Flight of the Bumblebee closes Act III, Fauré’s most popular choral work. Its sober, Scene 1, as an enchanted swan aids in Tiritomba floats like a vision in the air limpid haromonies and pliant, unfolding transforming the tsar’s unjustly exiled son melodic lines reveal Fauré’s deep familiarity into a bee so that he may secretly fly to visit I watch her and she laughs, with the polyphonic masters of the 16th and his father. I speak to her and she responds. 17th centuries. The text comes from a prayer Flight of the Bumblebee has since I was a man who had now by the 17th-century French dramatist, Jean become famous in its own right, due to its Walked into the waves of love. Racine (1639-1699). GH frenzied pace of chromatic sixteenth notes. Originally written for , the solo has Tiritomba floats like a vision in the air Word of God the most high, out sole hope been performed on many instruments, eternal day of the earth and heavens, as we including flute, clarinet, tuba, guitar, trumpet, break the silence of the peaceful night, divine trombone and others. In this presentation, the Mamma savior look down upon us. solo goes to young violinist Nicole Skaggs. Imbue us with the fire of thy great mercy so Choir member Thomas Wentzel has created Italian composer, Cesare Andrea Bixio that hell itself will flee at the sound of your an arrangement wherein the men of Orpheus (1896-1978) was one of the most popular voice; disperse the sleep which leads our accompany the soloist with nonsense songwriters of the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. His languishing souls to stray from the path of syllables and toots on their trusty kazoos, hits included Vivere, Parlami d’amore, righteousness. O Christ, show your favor to which they otherwise wield perennially in Mariù, La Mia Canzone de Vento and your faithful people who have come together December performances of P.D.Q. Bach’s numerous others. The lyricist for most of his to worship you; receive the praises that they Good King Kong. TW hits was Bruno Cherubini. Famous singers offer up to your immortal glory and may they who performed Bixio’s songs included: come back laden with the gift of your grace. , , Ferrucio Tiritomba Tagliavini, Guiseppe De Stefano, , and Andrea Bocelli. Flight of the Bumblebee Napes – land of sunshine and blue skies Orpheus will sing Bixio’s famous 1941 that spread like a magic canopy over the sea – canzone, Mamma, in an arrangement by our Born into an aristocratic Russian family that sea which has been the inspiration for own Jim Filipek. JF in 1844, Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky- songs known the world over. Korsakov displayed musical genius as a child. Non-native singers must first acquire the His parents considered such behavior beneath proper stylistic accent of Neapolitan before When it becomes dark here their social status, and insisted he study performing this music. They can be hindered and the night overtakes the day, navigation and join the Russian Navy. in their desire to sing Neapolitan songs since images arise in my heart Rimsky-Korsakov was encouraged to return several letters and letter groups do not of mother and son to composing by an 1861 meeting with the represent the same sounds in Neapolitan that magnetic Mily Balakirev, the central figure of they do in Italian. The rich vibrant dialect of Mamma, I am so happy a circle of young amateur Russian composers is not a variant of modern Italian, but to be returning to you. who embraced the folk music of their a distinct dialect with roots in medieval Latin My songs tell you that this heritage. He wrote portions of his first and a literature that goes back many is the most wonderful day for me! symphony while on a 3-year naval cruise centuries. Mamma, I am so happy… around the world, and composed a number of The Neapolitan canzonetta Tiritomba Why should I live far away? songs, , and other orchestral has its roots in folk music. Over the years, it works over the next several years. has stood the test of time to become a classic. Mamma… In 1871, buoyed by the strength of his Here, with sunshine in every note and the for you alone I sing! early works, Rimsky-Korsakov accepted the unique flavor of Naples, is Michael Fraser’s Mamma… position of professor of composition and arrangement of Tiritomba. GH You’ll be with me, you won’t be lonely any orchestration at the St. Petersburg more! Conservatory. There he rigorously studied I love you so much! music theory and orchestration and These words of love which my heart sighs for you, he was eight years old, Borge was playing a Over the years Orpheus has collected may be old-fashioned… concert in Sweden in 1940 when the Nazis and performed a large repertoire of classic Mamma… occupied Denmark. He managed to escape on and modern Cowboy songs and ballads, all of but you are my loveliest song! the last neutral ship to make it out of them mirrors of life in the Old West, fleeting You are life itself Petsamo, Finland and arrived in America with reminders of an altogether unique chapter in And while life shall last I shall not leave you only twenty dollars. Even though Borge did American history. The songs we sing for you again. not speak a word of English upon arrival, he today are our tribute to a hundred years of quickly learned English by watching movies. Arizona statehood. GH I can feel your weary band seeking my golden By the end of World War II he had curls developed many of his trademarks, including Your failing voice no longer repeatedly announcing his intent to play a Ghost Riders in the Sky Sings the old lullabyes piece but getting "distracted" by something or Today I want to clasp other, making comments about the audience, Stan Jones was born on June 5, 1914, Your white bead to my heart! or discussing the usefulness of Chopin's ninety miles south of Tucson in Douglas, "Minute Waltz" as an egg timer. Among his Arizona. He learned the fundamentals of Mamma… famous bits is the "Phonetic Punctuation" guitar playing from Arizona cowboys. For you alone I sing, etc. routine, in which he recited a story with full When Stan Jones and an old cowpoke …Mamma…never again! (will I leave you) punctuation as exaggerated onomatopoeic named Cap Watts went ridin’ out one day on sounds, and his "Inflationary Language," the D. Hill Ranch in southern Arizona, there where he "inflated" all words that sounded was unrest in the air. Ominous cloud Musical Risotto like numbers, so that "forehead" became silhouettes grouping, regrouping, backlit with "fivehead," etc. yellow and sun-red accents, looked to the When Sons of Orpheus traveled to In his stage shows in later years, he often imaginative mind like nothing more than a Germany in June 2008 to sing in the Leipzig included his classic "Hands Off" segment line of riders racing through the ragged skies. International Choral Festival, they paid with Marilyn Mulvey, a talented coloratura Stan Jones and Cap Watts began to tie down homage to Johann Sebastian Bach in the same soprano and an alumna of City Opera the blades on a windmill when masses of Thomaskirche (St. Thomas Church) where performances. She would try to sing an aria dark, fast-moving clouds appeared on the the great man wrote and performed much of and would manage to keep a straight face horizon forming spectral figures. Cap Watts his glorious music while serving as while Borge would react and interrupt. After warned prophetically, “Ghost riders.” cantor/music director from 1722 until 1750. this routine, the spotlight would fall upon the While working as a park ranger in Death In addition, they sang in the home where "straightman," and Mulvey would sing a Valley in 1949, Stan Jones acted as a guide Felix Mendelssohn lived with his family serious number with Borge accompanying in for movie locations for a film starring John during the 1840’s, then joined nine other the background. CD Wayne. With some reluctance, he sang his choirs at St. Nicholas Church to sing two own special brand of campfire music for the selections from Elijah, Mendelssohn’s Hollywood group. Ghost Riders in the Sk” dramatic oratorio. Cowboy Classics changed Stan Jones’ life overnight! Jonathan Willcocks, who conducted the A Tribute to Arizona’s Centennial Later that year he appeared in the Gene massed choirs, was best known as an Autry movie, Riders in the Sky that featured important English composer and choral We celebrate Arizona’s centennial with his song. He later composed music for John director of church music. But he also had a a group of songs that are closely associated Ford’s Wagonmaster and the title song for the lighter side, as evidenced by Musical Risotto with the Copper state. Arizona is loved the John Wayne classic The Searchers in 1956. (1992), his delicious stew of almost 60 Italian world over for its blazing drama, its legends, He died in 1963 and is buried in his musical terms served up in the style of and its music. Cowboy songs are one of the hometown, Douglas, Arizona. GH Rossini, Handel, and Beethoven. You’ll hear most important parts of the folk music of piano (softly), forte (loudly), crescendo Arizona. We have strong cowboy ties. (louder), and diminuendo (softer). And you’ll Tucson is a mecca of Western music. Just Tumbling Tumbleweeds be able to guess at others like calmato down the road a-piece, is the birth place of (calmly) and ma passionato (but many legendary Western movies: Old Tucson The celebrated Bob Nolan of cowboy passionately). But watch out for those more Studios. The songs and stories of Arizona, its and western music fame was born in the obscure ones like strepitoso (noisy, history, its memorable movies excite the isolated wilds of the Canadian province of boisterous), martellato (hammered, strongly imagination enormously. New Brunswick in 1908. While he was still a marked), and affretando (quickening, A hundred years ago, the reality of boy his family moved to Tucson, Arizona, accelerating)! MF hardships and lawlessness in the Arizona where Bob attended school. He excelled at Territory were matters of life and death. Our track and field events while he was a student forefathers and mothers had to fight to do at Tucson High School from 1924 to 1927. Hands Off Please whatever was necessary to survive. And in so He was a pole vaulter on the Badger track (A Tribute to Victor Borge) doing, they helped to shape the American team. character. Their struggle for existence has In 1937 he became a drifter and explored Born Børge Rosenbaum in Copenhagen captured the imagination of the world. the American West, often hopping freight into a Jewish family of musicians, Victor Sadly, the Old West has all but vanished, trains. He worked for a time as a lifeguard on Borge (1909-2000) was a comedian, lost to us a little more each day, drowned in the beach at Venice, California. In 1931, Bob conductor, and pianist, affectionately known country music and the asphalt ocean of the Nolan joined a singing group, the Rocky as the "Clown Prince of Denmark." A former New West. Lost, but not forgotten. Mountaineers, headed by a young man from prodigy who gave his first piano recital when Ohio named Leonard Slye who later rode to fame as Roy Rogers! In the fall of 1932, Bob 26 Men Rangers are credited today with helping to left that job to work as a caddy at the Bel Air bring law and order to the old west. The actor, screenwriter and composer Country Club. One wet and windy November Here is a Maurice Hill choral Harold S. “Hal” Hopper was born in afternoon there was no golf and, confined to arrangement of Hal Hopper’s This is the Story Oklahoma on November 11, 1912. The multi- his apartment, he stared out the window. of 26 Men, one of the best theme songs of all talented Hal Hopper played Corporal Clark in Leaves from the trees were being tumbled the TV westerns. GH the TV Series The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, down the street by gusty winds. It was a sense and he wrote the show’s theme song! He of being confined that rainy day that inspired portrayed a chauffeur in Kitten with a Whip Bob Nolan to write one of the greatest of all 3:10 to Yuma starring Ann-Margaret. Hopper composed the western songs, a philosophical statement song There’s No You, recorded three times by One of the least-known but most about his own propensity for drifting along, Frank Sinatra. His screenwriting credits respected composers in film, George Duning, Tumbling Tumbleweeds. include Russ Meyer’s Lorna (1964)—in was born in 1908 in Richmond, Indiana. He In late 1933, back with Roy Rogers and which he acted as well—and Shalako (1968), attended the Cincinnati Conservatory of the members of a newly formed group, The which starred Sean Connery and Brigitte Music where he studied composition with the Sons of the Pioneers, Tumbling Tumbleweeds Bardot. Hal Hopper also wrote the theme influential teacher and composer, Mario became the group’s theme song for their daily songs for the TV series Colt 45 and Judge Castelanuovo-Tedesco. After leaving the radio show. GH Roy Bean. Hopper acted in eight episodes of Conservatory, he quickly moved from

the TV series 26 Men. He also composed the classical to popular music. Duning joined the

series’ theme song! A thirty-minute show, musical staff at Columbia Pictures after he Cool Water which first aired in November 1956, 26 Men mustered out of the Navy in 1946. Over the

ran for 78 episodes and helped to acquaint a next 15 years, he scored an average of seven Here’s another western classic by Bob whole new generation of Americans with a films a year! Although Duning never won an Nolan who has been called the finest colorful chapter in Arizona history. Oscar, he earned five nominations. Among songwriter ever to appear in country music. Formed in April 1860 by Provisional his colleagues, Duning was considered one of Nolan is credited with inventing the sound Governor Dr. Lewis S. Owings, the Arizona the finest creative talents in the studio and style of western harmony singing. Territorial Rangers were first headquartered business. He died in the year 2000 in San The spell of the desert and its power of in the gold mining town, Pinos Altos, in what Diego. the mirage was forever in the soul of Bob is now New Mexico. Miners and the mining One of his well-regarded scores is from Nolan. In it he found beauty and solace. camp were under constant threat from the the noir western, 3:10 to Yuma, scripted by While still a student at Tucson High School, Apaches and the occasional band of Navajos. Elmore Leonard. Filmed right here at Old Nolan wrote a poem. Twenty-five years later When the Territory joined the Confederacy, Tucson Studios, 3:10 to Yuma was released in his composition Cool Water was recognized the men that had formed the Arizona Rangers U.S. theaters on August 7, 1957, by Columbia in a national survey as the “best known song joined the Confederate Army and the rangers Pictures. The film was produced in a period of the American West.” disbanded until after the Civil War. when the time of the Great Westerns was The image of the old prospector and his Following the war, many former Texas coming to an end. As such, it represents an mule Dan, the shimmering heat of the desert, Rangers and returning soldiers joined the important turning point in the history of the the teasing, taunting mirage, the insistent calls rugged organization. Restricted to no more genre. 3:10 to Yuma is also remembered for for “water, water, cool, clear water” are vivid than 26 men, these dedicated lawmen ranged the memorable George Duning theme song and haunting. throughout the Arizona Territory and across sung by a man we will forever identify with Bob Nolan died of a heart attack on June neighboring borders, including Old Mexico. other classics like Rawhide, Mule Train, Do 16, 1980. In accordance with his wishes, his As one of the original members put it, “The Not Forsake Me, Cool Water, and yes – even ashes were scattered out on the desert. GH reason there was only 26 of us was because Blazing Saddles, the one and only, Frankie

the Territory couldn’t afford no more.” The Lane. Arizona Rangers were commissioned to Now, to sing 3:10 to Yuma for you, eliminate lawlessness in the Territory in please welcome our own multi-talented

preparation for statehood, which was finally singer-composer, the gifted and versatile Jim achieved on February 14, 1912. Although it Hogan. GH was a tall order, they seldom failed. The

Arizona Rangers made thousands of arrests but lost only one man in the line of duty. Disbanding for good in 1909, the Arizona