First Half Program Notes

Procession of the Nobles from century. In the second act, a condensed the mixed-voice choral Act II, Scene III by midsummer festival’s dancing and parts into parts for our men’s voices. Rimsky-Korsakov singing is punctuated by the Procession of the Nobles, wherein In spite of the irony of the situation Mlada has a long and convoluted the locals welcome their rulers: at this point in the libretto, and the history. It began with a ballet by tragedy that is to follow, Procession Filippo Taglioni entitled The All hail Princess Voyslava! of the Nobles is a regal and stirring Shadow, which premiered in 1839 in Hail to Yaromir, mighty ruler of work. We will do our best to honor . In 1870, Stepan Arkon! Mlada’s spirit as we welcome you to Gedeonov, director of the Russian Glory! Glory! Glory! our Spring Concert. Imperial Theatres, conceived an Hail Mstivoi, Prince of Retra! TW adaptation of Taglioni’s work, with Noble Polabians, all hail! the plot moved to a new time and Glory! Glory! Glory! The Verdi and Wagner place. It was to be a ballet Sing in praise of all our nobles! Bicentennial Year choreographed by Hail to all Slavonic people! with music by Aleksandr Serov. Glory! Glory! Glory! It is a strange coincidence, one in However, Serov died in 1871 before which some ways mirrors the composing anything for the work. Unfortunately, the praising locals implausibility of many plots, are unaware that Yaromir’s bride but 2013 is shared as a birth year by Gedeonov revised his conception as Mlada has been murdered by two 19th century musical titans who an opera-ballet, with a libretto by Voyslava, who has entranced define the world of grand opera Viktor Krïlov, and in 1872 proposed Yaromir with the help of Morena, today. a collaborative effort by Nicolai godess of the underworld. Somehow Rimsky-Korsakov, César Cui, it all works out, in a tragic sort of Sons of Orpheus joins the music and Alexander way. Shown the truth by Mlada’s world in celebrating the two Borodin, who were to write music restless spirit, Yaromir confronts hundredth anniversary of the births for the sung portions of the libretto Voyslava. She confesses, whereupon of Richard Wagner (May 22, 1813) and dramatic action. However, he kills her. In retaliation, Morena and Giuseppe Verdi (October 10, Gedeonov's scheme was not destroys the city of Retra, killing 1813), arguably the two greatest realized. Soon he left the post of Yaromir. In the end, Yaromir is opera composers of the 19th century. Director of the Imperial Theatres united with Mlada in heaven. Their lives and personalities were and Mlada dropped into oblivion. strangely parallel and yet wildly Whatever the four composers had Thomas Wentzel assembled this different. They were born at a time created for Mlada found its way into arrangement for Sons of Orpheus to when Europe was convulsed by their later compositions (such as perform, starting with a piano four- Napoleonic wars, when the nation Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald hands reduction of the orchestral states of Germany and Italy did not Mountain). score by Garry Laycock, which he yet exist. These two musical giants located in Mitchell Library, State shared a revolutionary zeal. Both Eighteen years later, in 1889, Library of New South Wales, played huge roles in shaping their Rimsky-Korsakov was greatly Australia (MLMSS 8053), via the respective nation’s identities. Each influenced by a traveling production magic of the Internet. The Mitchell went through three periods of of Wagner’s Ring Cycle visiting St. Library holds a collection of composition which were roughly Petersburg, and from that point Laycock's music manuscripts from parallel in time. Each emerged from onward, he devoted his career to the 1970s and 1980s when Laycock the prevailing Romanticism of the composing . For one of the worked with the Australian Ballet age to become pioneers of the new first, he drew upon Viktor Krïlov’s and Australian Opera. Thomas era. Both brought music forward unused Mlada libretto to create an requested and received a limited from the classical world of Mozart opera-ballet in four acts. Rimsky- permission from the library to use into the future and the 21st century. Korsakov’s Mlada premiered in St. the reduction in our performances. Petersburg in 1892. Since Laycock had only transcribed Verdi saw art as a source of comfort about three-quarters of the piece, for the human spirit. Of his twenty In Krïlov’s libretto, the action takes Thomas filled in the gaps with his nine works, twelve live today at the place in the city of Retra on the own four-hands reduction, and then very heart of the repertory. Wagner Baltic seacoast in the 9th or 10th pursued his Teutonic obsessions with gods and heroes and thought- did the opera come into its own. and gladly greet thy smiling hoped- that his music might drive Gradually, other German theaters meadows; men mad. A conceited egomaniac produced Tannhäuser. The U.S. now I lay down my pilgrim’s staff, who exploited his supporters and premiere took place at the for, faithful to God, I have made my exemplified the way great artists Stadttheater, New York, on April 4, pilgrimage. rarely prove to be great human 1859. The second season of the By atonement and repentance I have beings, Wagner once complacently Metropolitan Opera, 1884-85, made my peace announced that, “the whole German opened with Tannhäuser, Leopold with the Lord, to whom my heart empire is only created to aid me in Damrosch conducting. bows down. attaining my object”. And yet, ten Wagner was frustrated with what He has crowned my remorse with of this titanically selfish man’s he saw as the outmoded artistic blessing, thirteen operas rank among the practices of his time. He railed the Lord to whom I raise myh song. supreme cultural achievements of all against the opera of the day The grace of salvation is granted to time. (embodied in Meyerbeer) and saw the penitent. himself as the “artist of the future,’ He shall enter into the peace of Wagner died with hardly a single battling the uncomprehending heaven! friend. One by one he had used them academy. For Wagner, Tannhäuser Hell and death cannot frighten him; all for his own purposes. One by one comprised a revolutionary Therefore I will praise God all the he had lost them by his egoism. transitional moment, a turning point. days of my life. In Tannhäuser the composer Hallelujah, for evermore! As a human being Verdi far emerges “struggling to utter TW outclassed Wagner. Not for nothing himself.” was his funeral the largest public With Tannhäuser, Wagner took Giuseppe Verdi assembly of its kind ever recorded another step away from the on Italian soil. Two hundred conventional opera of the period – Giuseppe Verdi set about thousand people lined the black- with its division into set arias, composing his 17th opera, Il draped streets of Milan to say ensembles and recitatives – toward Trovatore, in November, 1852. farewell to the greatest and most music drama, in which words, music Though probably long pondered and beloved Italian of the 19th century. and action form a dramatic whole. planned, the actual putting of music None of his other works was subject to paper is said to have taken place At the end of their lives, each man to so many changes. Twice more in between the 1st and 29th of that left an enduring testament. From the 1847 and in 1861, Wagner revised month. Only 28 days to write down perspective of their musical legacies, the opera. His revisions were aimed the music of Il Trovatore? One can these dual colossi were geniuses. at making the opera a hardly believe it. But then the Today, both men have the capacity Gesamtkunstwerk, a total work of mysteries of so great a genius are to engross and enthrall us. Both have art. not easily fathomed. It is certain that the unique power to take over our The story of Tannhäuser is laid in the full score was finished by the lives. and near Eisenach where, early in 14th of December. Rehearsals began GH the 13th century, the Landgraves of immediately after Christmas. the Thuringian Valley held sway. Verdi had selected the Teatro Beglückt darf nun dich, o Heimat They were lovers of poetry and Apollo, Rome’s leading opera house from Tannhäuser, Act III, Scene 1 music and at the Wartburg many during the 19th century, to stage the peaceful contests between the first performance of his Trovatore. Wagner completed his libretto for famous minnesingers took place. The opera received its premiere Tannhäuser on his 30th birthday, In the first scene of Act III, near on January 19. 1853. And what an May 22, 1843 and the musical the Castle of Wartburg, in a valley opening night it was! The eagerness setting two years later, on April 13, dark with the shadows of an autumn of the Roman public to hear Verdi’s 1845. Composed between The evening, the approach of a band of new work was extraordinary. The Flying Dutchman and Lohengrin, pilgrims returning from Rome is Tiber had overflowed its banks and Tannhäuser was first performed on heard in the distance. The procession invaded the whole district near the October 14, 1845 at the Dresden nears, then the pilgrims march by. theater. Even so, the public would Hofoper where the 32 year old Triumphant in their faith, they not be deterred; lines began to form composer was court conductor. joyfully greet their homeland. from 8 o’clock, in the morning. The Some of the scenery, ordered from Apollo was besieged by a great Paris, had failed to arrive on time, With joy, my homeland, I now crowd, who, despite everything- and there were problems with the behold thee increased prices for admission, the cast; not until the third performance cold, the mud, their feet in water up to their ankles- squeezed, shoved, assurance of her love. A funeral bell octave. Upon doing so, he was able and disputed in order to get places tolls ominously in E-Flat every to play the whole piece on the for that evening’s performance. By second measure making the menace lowest string of his violin, thus midday the house was sold out! even more palpable. From within the leading to its popular name of Air on The opening evoked frenzied castle come the voices of monks the G String. Swingle moved it back excitement. The audience was chanting miserere for the doomed to its original key of D Major and overwhelmed. Il Trovatore was prisoner. Against this as a sober added a subtle jazz rhythm received with the greatest possible background are projected the accompaniment. enthusiasm. And yet, some critics anguished outcries of Leonora. The second is Jesu, Joy of Man’s were harsh: “Bel Canto has been Finally, from a narrow window in Desiring, the common English title ruined, to be replaced by sobs and the tower we hear Manrico’s of the 10th (!) and final movement of shouts of rage.” plaintive last farewells, ushering in Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben The short-sighted critics failed to one of the most famous ensemble (Heart and Mouth and Deed and see that Verdi had turned away from numbers in all opera. Life). This was only one of over 200 earlier 19th century models toward [translation just before the program cantatas Bach wrote in the space of a more modern vocal conquests. center-fold…Ed.] mere seven years for services at the Verdi, by virtue of his own innate, GH four major churches in Leipzig, irrepressible Italian fury, had burst Germany (St. Thomas, St. Nicholas, through the Victorian crinolines, Bach/Swingle Singers St. Peter, and the New Church), an antimacassars and eiderdown. output that has been called “one of Trovatore is a late flowering of the While studying piano in Paris in the most astonishing creative Italian romantic tradition possible the late 1950s and 1960s, Ward explosions in the history of western only to one who has seen beyond it. Swingle (born 1927) formed an music.” Starting with a melody Heroic singing had been born. eight-member (four women and four written in the previous century by Il Trovatore has enjoyed men) singing group called The violinist Johann Schop (1590-1667), uninterrupted success from the day Swingle Singers. A native of Bach arranged it in the form of a of its first performance. From the Mobile, Alabama and a graduate of four-part chorale, then embedded it Teatro Apollo, Verdi’s remarkable the Cincinnati Conservatory of in an orchestral setting (trumpet, expression in music of the romantic, Music, Swingle was at home in both oboes, strings, and continuo) that hot-blooded drama of chivalry began classical music and jazz. His featured a distinctive counter- its victorious march throughout the arrangements for his group’s melody in fast moving triplets. The operatic world. Its melodies are recordings (five of which won result is one of his most beautiful more widely known than perhaps Grammy Awards) combined the and enduring works. those of any other opera. In spite of music of Bach, Mozart, and others MF Enrico Caruso’s famous dictum to with jazz rhythms and scat singing – the effect that all the opera requires “vocal improvisation with wordless Three Poems Set to Music by is the four greatest singers in the vocables, nonsense syllables, or David Dickau world, and notwithstanding without words at all.” The original imitation, parody, inadequate Swingle Singers disbanded in 1973, David C. Dickau is one of singing and barrel organs, Il but a successor group is still going America’s premier choral writers. Trovatore has survived for over a strong. He has filled over 50 commissions century and a half. That is because it With Nicole Skaggs and Sons of from his first one in 1978, through is a work immense verve, dramatic Orpheus in mind, Michael Fraser his most recent in 2012. power and passionate expression, an adapted two Ward Swingle Dr. Dickau has served as Director explosion of emotional fire. It is the arrangements for solo violin and of Choral Activities at Minnesota Verdi of 40 working at white heat. men’s voices. Both based on music State University, Mankato since Each of the four acts has a title. by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685- 1991. As a part of his duties, he As the curtain rises of the fourth act 1750), the first is the Air or Aria, the conducts the Concert and (Il Supplizio- The Penalty) Leonora second movement from Bach’s Chamber Singers and teaches and Ruiz, faces hidden in their Orchestral Suite in D Major. Many conducting and composition. He cloaks, cautiously approach the will recognize it by another name received the Distinguished Faculty ramparts of the Palace of Aliaferia. because sometime in the late 19th Scholar award from his university in It is night, dark, and clouded. Low century, German violinist August 2008 and in 2012 was named by the clarinets conjure up an atmosphere Wilhelmj (1845-1908) made an student association as the of sinister gloom. Leonora voices arrangement for violin and piano in university's "Teacher of the Year." the hope that Manrico, imprisoned in which he transposed the melody into the tower, will be sustained by the the key of C and moved it down an NM If Music Be the Food of Love Over the roof-tops crowned with snow, Although the title suggests A reign of rest, serene forgetting, Geographical Fugue Shakespeare, the author of this poem The music of stillness holy and low. is an obscure 17th-century poet, Ernst Toch was considered one of Henry Heveningham, who borrowed I will make this world of my devising the leading avant-garde composers the opening line of Twelfth Night. Out of a dream in my lonely mind. in pre-Nazi Germany. Following the The remaining words in the poem I shall find the crystal of peace, – example of many of his fellow are Heveningham’s alone. They above me artists and musicians, Toch took part moved Henry Purcell (1659–1695) Stars I shall find. in the great diaspora of the thirties, to set them in three different the largest migration of brains and compositions. Were it not for i carry your heart with me talent since the days of the court of Purcell's interest in the poem, only Urbino. the dustiest pedant would have Edward Estlin Cummings, or, as In 1929, after a stint in the anything to say about Heveningham. he preferred it, e.e. cummings, was Austrian army, Ernst Toch moved to We sang Dickau’s treatment of the born in 1894 in Cambridge, Berlin and actively pursued a career poem in 2005, and are pleased to do Massachusetts. At the time of his as composer and pianist, writing so again. death in 1962 he was second only to several choral and dramatic works. Robert Frost as the most widely read Among the most striking of these is If music be the food of love, American poet. His fame may have the Fuge aus der Geographie Sing on till I am fill'd with joy; dimmed compared to Frost’s in the (Geographical Fugue) that employs, For then my list'ning soul you move intervening years, but his work is in a strict fugal counterpoint, a To pleasures that can never cloy. still widely enjoyed, even if just for purely spoken treatment of the Your eyes, your mien, your tongue the oddness of the way it looks on names of various exotic locales. declare the page. The Cummings poem Toch had ‘invented’ the musical That you are music ev'rywhere. Dickau has set to music is one every idiom of pieces for spoken chorus. lover would wish to have written. Though Toch considered it little Pleasures invade both eye and ear, more than a trifling diversion, from So fierce the transports are, they i carry your heart with me(i carry it its first performances in June 1930, wound, in at the Fest der neuen Musik in And all my senses feasted are, my heart)i am never without Berlin, the three minute Tho' yet the treat is only sound, it(anywhere Geographical Fugue proved an Sure I must perish by your charms, i go you go,my dear;and whatever is immediate sensation, becoming one Unless you save me in your arms. done of Toch’s most frequently performed by only me is your doing,my darling) pieces. Stars I Shall Find i fear In 1933, after spending time in no fate(for you are my fate,my Paris and London, he emigrated to Sara Teasdale was born in St. sweet)i want Los Angeles. Beginning in 1936, Louis, Missouri in 1884. She no world(for beautiful you are my Ernst Toch taught at the University suffered serious illnesses throughout world,my true) of Southern California. He received her life, a circumstance that must and it's you are whatever a moon three Academy Award nominations: have contributed to the intensely has always meant Peter Ibbetson [1933], Ladies in lonely quality of her work. Greatly and whatever a sun will always sing Retirement [1941], and Address admired for her short, lyrical poems, is you Unknown [1944], and a 1956 she won the 1918 Pulitzer Prize for Pulitzer Prize for this Third poetry. Perhaps one can hear in here is the deepest secret nobody Symphony. Toch was prolific to the Stars I Shall Find a foreshadowing knows end of his days (seven symphonies, of her suicide in 1933. (here is the root of the root and the chamber operas countless quartets, The sheet music for this piece was bud of the bud quintets, and trios, and pieces for purchased by a member of the choir and the sky of the sky of a tree called solo piano). Ernst Toch died in Los and dedicated to the memory of life;which grows Angeles in 1964. The Geographical Raymond Tess (1932–2011), a higher than soul can hope or mind Fugue remains probably the piece stalwart and a longtime can hide) for which he is best known. We member of the Sons of Orpheus and this is the wonder that's keeping perform an English translation by Executive Committee. the stars apart fellow composer John Cage. GH There will be rest, and sure stars i carry your heart with me(i carry it shining in my heart)

Translation of vocal ensemble from Il Trovatore, Act IV, scene I

A wing of the Aliaferia palace; at one corner a tower with barred windows. Very dark night. Two people come in, muffled in cloaks; Ruiz and Leonora

RUIZ We’ve arrived; there’s the tower, Where the State’s prisoners languish. Manrico (from the tower) Ah, the hapless man was brought here! Ah, how slow Death is in its coming. to him who longs to die! Farewell, Leonora Leonora, Farewell! Go…leave me, And don’t fear for me. I can save him perhaps. (Ruiz enters) Leonora Fears for me?...Sure Oh heaven! And ready is my protection. I feel faint! (She looks at a ring on her right hand). Shrouded in this dark night, Monks I’m near you, Have mercy, etc. And you don’t know it! Moaning wind, you who blow here, Leonora Ah, mercifully take my sighs to him. Over the horrid tower, Ah, Death seems On the roseate wings of love with wings of darkness Go, oh mournful sigh; to be poisoned Comfort the flagging spirits A perhaps these doors Of the wretched prisoner. Will be opened for him, Like a breath of hope only when his corpse is already cold! Flutter in that room; Waken in him the memories, Monks The dreams, the dreams of love. Have mercy… have mercy… But, pray, don’t imprudently tell him have mercy… The pangs, the pangs that rack my heart! Pray, don’t imprudently tell him Manrico The pangs that rack my heart, I’m paying with my blood The pangs, the pangs that rack my heart! for the love I bore you! Don’t forget me, Don’t forget me Monk Leonora, Farewell, Leonora, farewell! Have mercy on a spirit approaching The departure which has no return. Have mercy on him, divine Goodness, Leonora Keep him from being the prey of hell. Forget you! Forget you! I feel faint! Etc. Leonora That sound, those prayers, Manrico So solemn and dire, I’m paying with my blood, etc. Fill the air With baleful terror! This distress that fills me Monks Almost deprives Have mercy… Have mercy… My lips of their breath Have mercy…

Second Half Program Notes

Theme from Exodus television scores between 1945 and style with influences from 1992. Among them were the title Stockhausen and Penderecki, but by The year 2013 marks the sixty- songs for the films “It’s a Mad Mad the mid-1970s he developed a less fifth anniversary of the founding of Mad Mad World” and “On the complex sacred minimalist sound of the modern state of Israel. While Beach.” He was the first composer which the Symphony No. 3, Egyptian fighter-bombers flew of film music selected for composed in 1976, is a prime overhead and the last remaining recognition on the Hollywood Walk example. In 1992, fifteen years after British troops prepared to depart, of Fame. it was composed, a recording of David Ben Gurion (1886-1973) and In 1961 Pat Boone (b. 1934), the Górecki’s Symphony No. 3— his cabinet gathered on May 14, white bucks wearing American recorded with Dawn 1948 at the heavily-guarded art singer whose smooth style made him Upshaw and released to museum in Tel Aviv to proclaim a popular performer of the 1950s, commemorate the memory of those that, after twenty centuries of added the lyrics for the “Exodus” lost during the Holocaust—became a wandering, there was now “a Jewish orchestral theme song. It begins, worldwide commercial and critical state in Palestine, to be called “This land is mine, God gave this success, selling more than a million Israel.” A few minutes later, land to me.” True to its long copies, and brought fame to this President Harry S Truman (1884- tradition of singing in foreign Polish composer who until then was 1972) recognized the state’s “de languages, Sons of Orpheus – the little known outside of his facto authority.” The day after the Male Choir of Tucson will perform a homeland. UN-sanctioned Jewish state was version of this rousing song in As surprised as anyone at the born, Arab armies invaded Israel. Hebrew. popularity of the Symphony No. 3, Although Israel emerged victorious Górecki said, "Perhaps people find in its War of Independence, Translation of the Hebrew Lyrics something they need in this piece of thousands of Israeli and Arab My land, my country, my homeland music … somehow I hit the right soldiers died and approximately Israel note, something they were missing. 700,000 Palestinians fled their Songs are dedicated to you eternally Something somewhere had been lost homes, thus creating a problem that In the far reaches of the world to them. I feel that I instinctively continues to trouble the Middle East Where only humans can bless you – knew what they needed." Regarding to this day. Our beautiful land the Symphony’s subtitle, he noted, The Sons of Orpheus will Weeping, brothers & sisters arrive "Many of my family died in commemorate this anniversary by from all countries concentration camps. I had a singing the theme from “Exodus.” Only to be free grandfather who was in Dachau, an Based on the book by Leon Uris and Already for years our soldiers aunt in Auschwitz. You know how it released in 1960, this epic motion- protect the border is between Poles and Germans. But picture dramatization about the (repeat from beginning)… Bach was a German too—and founding of the state of Israel was Ingathering of nations, you are Schubert, and Strauss. Everyone has directed by Otto Perminger (1906- Israel. his place on this little earth. That's 86) and starred Paul Newman (b. GH all behind me. So the Third 1925) and many others. Austrian- Symphony is not about war; it's not born U.S. composer Ernest Gold Symphony No. 3 (Symphony a Dies Irae; it's a normal Symphony (1921-99) won both Academy and of Sorrowful Songs / of Sorrowful Songs." Gammy awards for his soundtrack to The symphony is constructed Symfonia pieśni żałosnych) around simple harmonies, set in a this film. The first notes of the great 2nd movement dramatic theme are identical to the neo-modal style making use of opening theme of a somewhat medieval modes but not adhering obscure orchestral piece by Quincy Henryk Mikołaj Górecki studied strictly to medieval rules of Porter (1897-1966), “New England at the State Higher School of Music composition. The work consists of Episodes,” which premiered in 1958 in Katowice from 1955 to 1960, and three elegiac movements, each in Washington, DC. Gold, who became a leading figure of the marked Lento for their very slow settled in the United States in 1938 Polish avant-garde during the post- tempo. The symphony is scored for after his family fled the Nazi regime, Stalin cultural thaw. In the 1960s he solo soprano and a large string wrote nearly one hundred film and composed in a dissonant modernist section, plus piano, harp and winds. Górecki maintained that the work is including Best Picture, Best Study, children, with great interest, an evocation of the ties between Director, and Best Original Score, as That is what I tell you; mother and child. The first and third well as numerous other awards He who'll know his lessons first, movements’ texts are drawn from (seven BAFTAs, three Golden Will get a banner for a prize. existing songs—a late-15th century Globes). (Refrain) lament of Mary from a song in the John Williams (b. 1932) won the collection of a Polish monastery, and Academy Award for Best Original When you get older, children, a folk song of southwestern Score for Schindler's List, his fifth You will understand that this Poland—both in which a mother win. He was also awarded the alphabet grieves her lost son. In contrast, the Grammy for the film's musical Contains the tears and the weeping second movement’s text is a prayer score. of our people. (Refrain) to the Virgin Mary inscribed in 1944 The composer said to Steven on a cell wall in the basement of the Spielberg (1946), the director and When you grow weary, children Gestapo’s headquarters in Zakopane co-producer of the film, "You need a And burdened with exile, by the 18-year-old Helena Wanda better composer than I am for this You will find comfort and strength Błażusiakówna who was imprisoned film." His longtime musical within this Jewish alphabet. there: collaborator responded, "I know. But (Refrain) they're all dead!" No, Mother, do not weep. After Williams played the main Refrain: Most chaste Queen of Heaven theme on a piano, he then followed See now children, remember dear Support me always. Spielberg's suggestion to hire the ones, Hail Mary. Israeli violinist Itzhak Perlman (b. What you've learned here; 1945). to perform it. Perlman said: "I repeat it again and again According to Górecki, "I wanted couldn't believe how authentic he Aleph with kametz is "o"! the second movement to be of a [John Williams] got everything to highland character, not in the sense sound, and I said, 'John, where did it The Sons of Orpheus will then of pure folklore, but the climate of come from?' and he said, 'Well I had switch to Hebrew to perform the Podhale [Poland’s southern some practice with Fiddler on the patriotic song "Yerushalaim Shel- highlands]... I wanted the girl's Roof and so on, and everything just Zahav." Its first three verses were monologue as if hummed ... on the came very naturally' and that's the written by Israeli singer and one hand almost unreal, on the other way it sounds." songwriter Naomi Shemer (1930- towering over the orchestra." Our own violinist, Nicole Skaggs, a 2004) and sung at a music festival For this setting of Górecki’s winner of the Civic Orchestra of shortly before the Six Day War Symphony No. 3, 2nd Movement, Tucson's 2013 Young Artists' began in the spring of 1967. When Thomas Wentzel has given the men Competitions, will play the theme the Israel Defense Forces captured of Orpheus the job of providing the that Perlman made famous. the eastern part of Jerusalem from sustained, even tones of the strings The Sons of Orpheus will then the Jordanians only three weeks in the original orchestra. The two continue with the popular Yiddish later, Shemer then added the final pianists replicate the deep double folk song "Oyfn Pripetshok (On the verse to celebrate the reunification of the strings as well as the Cooking Stove)." In the scene from of Jerusalem. As the Israelis original piano and harp, while above Shindler’s List where the Nazis are occupied the old city, shofars blew them all, our soprano soloist Lindsey liquidating the ghetto, a children's from Temple Mount, inspiring her to McHugh will tower. choir sings this traditional lullaby, write the line about shofars sounding TW with text and music by Russian from the mountain top. The Knesset Yiddish-speaking folk poet Mark once considered this song as a Theme from John Warshavsky (c.1848-1907). It was possible replacement to "Hatikva," often sung by Spielberg's Israel's national anthem. Williams's Schindler's List, grandmother, Becky, to her and two songs: "Oyfn grandchildren. YERUSHALAIM SHEL-ZAHAV Pripetshok," and (JERUSALEM OF GOLD) "Yerushalaim Shel- OYFN PRIPETSHOK The mountain air is clear as wine Zahav"—arranged by Emily On the hearth a little fire is burning, And the scent of pines And it is hot in the house, Is carried on the breeze of twilight Crocker. And the rabbi is teaching the little With the sound of bells. children. The 1993 epic drama Schindler's The Aleph Bet. And in the slumber of tree and stone List was a box office success and Captured in her dream recipient of seven Academy Awards, The city that sits solitary Milwaukee Children's Choir and unique chapter in American history. And in its midst is a wall. Vice President of Choral The songs we sing for you today are Publications for Hal Leonard our tribute to a hundred years of Chorus: Corporation in Milwaukee and Arizona statehood. Jerusalem of gold Senior Author and Editor of the GH And of bronze, and of light Essential Elements for Choir Behold I am a violin for all your textbook series. Her compositions songs. have been performed around the Home on the Range world, and she has received ASCAP How the cisterns have dried awards for concert music since The market-place is empty 1986. Brewster M. Higley was born in And no one frequents the Temple CD Rutland Township in southeastern Mount Ohio on November 30, 1823. In the Old City. Higley, a physician, left a medical practice in Indiana in 1871 in order And in the caves in the mountain Cowboy Classics to homestead in Kansas. The Winds are howling Homestead Act of 1862 enabled him And no one descends to the Dead A Tribute to Arizona’s to stake a claim on a small plot of Sea Centennial land near the Nebraska border. By way of Jericho. In the summer of 1872, Brewster We celebrate Arizona’s Higley jotted down some lines about Chorus centennial with a group of songs that the beauty of the endless Kansas are closely associated with the prairie, the blue skies and abundant But as I come to sing to you today, Copper state. Arizona is loved the wildlife, lines that were to become And to adorn crowns to you (i.e. to world over for its blazing drama, its Home on the Range. tell your praise) legends, and its music. Cowboy Another recent newcomer to Kansas, I am the smallest of the youngest of songs are one of the most important a fiddler named David E. Kelly who your children (i.e. the least worthy parts of the folk music of Arizona. was a carpenter by trade, helped of doing so) We have strong cowboy ties. Tucson Higley set his poem to music, and a And of the last poet (i.e. of all the is a mecca of Western music. Just quintessential Western anthem was poets born). down the road a-piece, is the birth born. A native of Rhode Island and place of many legendary Western former chief bugler in that state’s 3rd For your name scorches the lips movies: Old Tucson Studios. The regiment during the Civil War, the Like the kiss of a seraph songs and stories of Arizona, its thirty-year-old Kelley had arrived in If I forget thee, Jerusalem, history, its memorable movies excite Kansas in 1872. Which is all gold... the imagination enormously. Higley’s poem was printed in a local A hundred years ago, the reality newspaper, the Kirwin Chief, in Chorus of hardships and lawlessness in the 1873. The song slowly became a Arizona Territory were matters of favorite with the settlers passing We have returned to the cisterns life and death. Our forefathers and through on their way west and with To the market and to the market- mothers had to fight to do whatever the cowboys on the long cattle place was necessary to survive. And in so drives of the 1870s. In time, the A ram's horn calls out on the Temple doing, they helped to shape the tune lost its unique Kansas identity Mount American character. Their struggle and was transformed into a rootless In the Old City. for existence has captured the but timeless and universal song of imagination of the world. the West, a mournful yet stirring ode And in the caves in the mountain Sadly, the Old West has all but to home. Thousands of suns shine - vanished, lost to us a little more each Brewster Higley’s last home was in We will once again descend to the day, drowned in country music and Shawnee, Oklahoma, where he died Dead Sea the asphalt ocean of the New West. on May 17, 1911, the year his song By way of Jericho! Lost, but not forgotten. was first published. It is said that a Over the years Orpheus has group of newspaper reporters sang Chorus collected and performed a large Home on the Range on his doorstep repertoire of classic and modern the night Franklin Delano Roosevelt The arranger, Emily Holt Crocker, is Cowboy songs and ballads, all of was first elected president. In 1932, a leading expert in children's . them mirrors of life in the Old West, President Roosevelt declared that She is the founder-director of the fleeting reminders of an altogether Home on the Range was his favorite song. From then on, every radio Today, many arrangements of this River Rebellion of 1870 in a place station in the land was playing it. classic cowboy love song abound. we know today as Manitoba at a On June 30, 1947, Higley’s magical We have selected Donald Moore’s time of military occupation by anthem of the west became the recent version. Canadian troops sent to put down official song of the State of Kansas. JK the French speaking inhabitants of Today, the old Brewster Higley log the Red River settlement. cabin is a place of historical Corrido de Macario Romero Sung from the viewpoint of a soldier importance. It still stands where he losing his sweetheart, Red River built it one hundred and thirty-three We’ve added some ‘giddy up’ to our Valley expresses the sorrow of a years repertoire. We’d like to sing for you man as his lover prepares to leave ago – along Beaver Creek in Smith now a Corrido – a Mexican narrative him. County just off Highway 8. folk ballad that tells a rather grim GH Here now, in an arrangement by tale of the exploits and death of a well-known contemporary choral fold-hero, the soldier, Marcario Turkey in the Straw composer and arranger Greg Gilpin, Romero. As is typical of the is a famous slice of American folk corridor, the ones selected for this “Turkey in the Straw” is a traditional music, a tune recognized around the arrangement by Bruce Trinkley tell song popularized in the early 19th world, Home on the Range. the compelling story of Romero’s century by black-face performers, JK death. Macario was a brave and several of whom claimed to have courageous man with a big heart. written it. A century later the tune Colorado Trail He was a soldier in the Maximilian was the base melody for the famous War of the 1860s – the event which Mickey Mouse cartoon Steamboat We turn now to a great old saddle gave us Cinco de Mayo. Macario Willie, which produced one of the song that has stood the test of time. Romero loved a woman, disobeyed first successful efforts to A traditional cowboy song, his commanding officers in order to synchronize sound and movement in Colorado Trail was included in Carl see her and, while dancing with his animated films. Sandburg’s classic collection of sweetheart, was shot to death by a American folklore and ballads, The jealous rival. The chorus will be familiar to almost American Songbag, when it was first Warning: Don’t be alarmed, this everyone in our audiences: published in 1927. Dr. T. L. chillingly effective setting of a Chapman, a surgeon, remembered poignant tale climax es with the fie Turkey in the straw. Turkey in the the tune and told Sandburg this gunshots that end Macario’s life. hay story. It seems that a boss wrangler Not to worry, no firearms will be Roll ‘em up and twist ‘em up a high brought a car of ponies to Deluth, used. tuck-a-haw, Minnesota. The next day, after stunt GH And hit ‘em up a tune called turkey riding, he was laid up in a hospital in the straw. after being not only “throwed but Red River Valley trampled” by what the cowboy Perhaps listeners will reflect on the called a “terribly bad hoss.” Dr. Here for you now is a cowboy depth of meaning here. Is there some Chapman’s examination revealed standard, the venerable Great Plains abstruse connection between the that, over the years, the rider had classic, Red River Valley. There are words “turkey” and “straw”? suffered “bones of both upper and Red Rivers in Kentucky, Tennessee, Further, is there significance in the lower legs broken, fractures of the Wisconsin, Delaware and Texas, to subtle shift from “straw” to “hay”? collar bone on both sides, numerous name just a few. Many claim this And what is to be made of “high fractures of both arms and wrists, song, which most folks, even those tuck-a-haw” in the age of the smart and many scars from lacerations.” on the northern plains, think phone? During the unknown cowboy’s originated in Texas. Now I ask you, convalescence, as his strength would a Texas cowboy say to his Instrumentalists Lindsey McHugh, returned, in spite of all his bumps sweetheart, “Do not hasten to bid me Nicole Skaggs, and Caleb Yetman and bruises he would sing across the adieu?” No – Red River Valley is will join our pianist, Brent hospital ward in a mellow tenor unquestionably the best known folk Burmeister, to provide a voice. The other patients always song to come out of the Canadian contemplative foundation for the asked for more. One of the songs the prairies. Red River Valley was text. cowboy sang was The Colorado known in at least five Canadian NM Trail, remembered by Dr. Chapman. provinces before 1896 and was probably first heard during the Red