An Evening of Carols

The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology presents the thirty-third annual Holiday Cathedral Choral Concert Concert Choir University Choir Master Chorale directed by James D. Feiszli An evening of carols Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Rapid City, SD December 5 & 6, 2015, 7:30pm Carols evolved from folkdance traditions. Sung at winter and spring solstice celebrations, carols existed before pre- Christian times. The early church overlaid pre-Christian celebrations with Christian holidays (“holy-days”), but the elements of boisterous joy and dance remained in the songs that became popular with the uneducated populace of Western Europe. Since the general populace did not speak, read, or write Latin, macaronic carols (songs using both Latin and the local language) arose. Nativity plays in the Middle Ages frequently used carols to teach biblical doctrine to the illiterate. This development is partially responsible for the spread of the carol through Europe. As Europe emerged from the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the influence of the Church waned – particularly after the Reformation and the secularism of the Enlightenment. Holiday celebrations became associated with other ancient traditions which, in turn, led to a re-birth of carols as Christian musicians and clergy sought to reclaim the awe and joy of the Christmas season. The four-part hymn-like carols of the nineteenth century became what most of us think about when we hear the term. Tonight we present an entire concert of carols both old and modern from Europe and the U.S. I – Candlelight Carols Jesus Christ the Apple Tree ……………….….. Elizabeth Poston Infant Holy, Infant Lowly ………………………… David Willcocks Carol of the Drum ………………..…………… Katherine K. Davis We Three Kings ….. Stephen Hopkins, arr. Darmon Meader II – University Choir Pat-a-Pan …………………………….……………………… David Conte Good King Wenceslas ………….. Robert Shaw / Alice Parker Still, Still, Still ……………………………..…………… Norman Luboff Ding Dong Merrily on High …………………..…. James D. Feiszli III – Master Chorale The Hills are Bare at Bethlehem …………..…… Ralph Johnson Fum Fum Fum …………………………………. Joaquin Nin-Culmell Maria Walks Amid the Thorn ……………….………… Ron Jeffers Riu, riu, chiu …………………….…………………… Noah Greenberg IV - Concert Choir Wassail Song………….…………………. Ralph Vaughan Williams Es ist ein Ros entsprungen ………………… Michael Praetorius Es ist ein Ros entsprungen ………………………..…. Hugo Distler Wexford Carol ……………………………………………… John Rutter V – Combined Choirs In dulci jubilo …………………………………… Michael Praetorius Night of Silence …………………………………………. Daniel Kantor I – Candlelight Carols Jesus Christ the Apple Tree Banks Music / Hal Leonard, 1967 Elizabeth Poston; a highly regarded English composer, musicologist, and music director for the British Broadcasting Company; was an authority on carols and folk-music. Jesus Christ, the Apple Tree, included in her Cambridge Hymnal (1967), is an original composition paired with the words found in the collection Divine Hymns or Spiritual Songs (1784) by Joshua Smith of New Hampshire. Poston gives the text a folksong-like sound, setting the verses in a variety of voices – unison women, four-part women, mixed chorus, and finishing in unison on the dominant tone (fifth note of the scale). This gives a feeling of haunting incompleteness that is both mystical and ethereal. Hannah Covey, soloist Infant Holy Infant Lowly Oxford University Press, 1961 This traditional Polish carol is a lullaby, but not one being sung to baby Jesus, but rather about him. Willcocks, famed director of the Cambridge Kings College Choir for decades and co-editor with John Rutter (see below) of the well-known Carols for Choir series, set this carol for SATB choir, giving the sopranos the melody line. The altos, tenors and basses sing in what seems to be an ordinary hymn-like harmony but as the arrangement progresses, each individual part becomes its own line of melody. This sequence begins with the tenors followed by the other parts. Carol of the Drum Mills Music / Alfred Music, 1941 Katherine K. Davis wrote her first composition at the age of 15. A native of Missouri, she studied music at the all-female Wellesley College in Massachusetts (1910-1914). After graduation, Davis remained an assistant in the music department while pursuing a graduate degree at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Carol of the Drum was composed in 1941. Davis never identified the original source, but her original manuscript reads, “Czech carol freely transcribed.” Originally recorded in 1955 by the Trapp Family Singers, Carol of the Drum was recorded again in 1957 after Henry Onorati re-arranged it for the Jack Halloran Singers. In 1958, Onorati introduced the music to his friend Harry Simeone, a conductor and arranger who worked as the music director for a television show called The Firestone Hour. Simeone re-arranged it again and re-titled it The Little Drummer Boy. His recording was a huge success, scoring on the U.S. music charts from 1958 to 1962. Tonight we perform Davis’ original setting in which the sopranos have the melody overlaid with alto harmony, while tenor and bass voices produce a drum-like rhythm. We Three Kings Carl Fischer, 2004 J. H. Hopkins was an ordained minister and amateur musician who wrote both the lyrics and the music for this traditional Christmas hymn. The piece, composed around 1857, was written for a Christmas pageant that took place while Hopkins was serving as the music director of the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York City. It was first printed in Hopkins’ Carols, Hymns and Songs (1863). Set in a minor key to capture an “Oriental” feel, Hopkins’ carol has become a classic part of the Christmas season. This arrangement is by one of the premier vocalists and arrangers in the jazz vocal and instrumental world today, Darmon Meader. As founder, member, and music director of the New York Voices, he has performed and recorded with artists such as George Benson, Bernadette Peters, and the Count Basie Orchestra. II – University Choir Pat-a-Pan E. C. Schirmer, 2015 Originally titled Guillô, Pran Ton Tamborin (Willie, Take Your Little Drum) Pat-a-pan was written in 1720 by a French lawyer turned poet, Bernard de La Monnoye. Pat-a-pan is told from the perspective of shepherds playing flutes and drums. Throughout the piece singers repeat the phrase “pan pat a pan.” This is meant to mimic the sound of shepherds playing their drums. Likewise, the phrase “tu la ru la ru” is meant to mimic the sound of a flute. Traditionally, Pat-a-pan has three verses, but David Conte, an American composer, repeats the first verse after the second and third verses of the original carol (ABACA style). In the first, fourth, and fifth verses, the women have the melody while the men sing an onomatopoetic drum beat. In the second verse, the men have the melody and the women sing the drum beat. The sopranos lead the melody echoed by the basses in the third verse while the tenors and altos sing the drum beat. Still, Still, Still Walton Music, 1958 Still, Still, Still is both a lullaby and a Weihnachtslieder (Christmas song). It conveys the joy of Mary at her newborn son and savior, as well as creates a sonic image of Mary gently sending Jesus off to sleep. This message is conveyed through simplicity in the harmony, melody, and lyrics. Throughout the piece, there is a gentle sequential rise and fall of notes which is meant mimic the motion of a cradle. In verses one and two, sopranos sing the melody while the other three parts sing harmony. In the third verse, sopranos retain the melody, but the harmony changes as the basses drop down an octave, and the tenors and altos also sing in lower registers. The words of Still, Still, Still are attributed to G. Götsch and appeared in 1865. The tune of this Austrian carol, however, is from a collection of folk songs by Maria Vinzenz Süß, the founder of the Salzburg Museum in Austria. Norman Luboff, a twentieth century American music arranger, publisher, and choir director, introduced much non-U.S. music to American audiences and this arrangement is one of his best-known. Good King Wenceslas G. Schirmer, 1953 Good King Wenceslas is not a traditional carol in either origin of tune or subject matter. Published in 1853 by English clergyman John Mason Neale, it is one of many pieces that Neale created from various sources. Based on a thirteenth- century song about spring, Tempus Adest Floridum, the text is a translation of a poem by a Czech poet. While it conveys messages of kindness and selflessness that exemplify the Christmas season, it has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus. The story is of a good king braving a winter storm to bring aid to a peasant on the Feast of Stephen (Dec. 26). However, Wenceslas was not actually a king. Wenceslas was the duke of Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) from 921-935. He was known as a charitable man, but there is nothing to indicate that the events of Good King Wenceslas actually happened. This arrangement is one of 223 choral arrangements produced by Robert Shaw and Alice Parker for Shaw’s professional choir. They divided Good King Wenceslas is into five verses. All singers sing in a homophonic manner in the first and last verses. In the second, third, and fourth verses, male and female voices sing the dialog between King Wenceslas and his page. Male semi-chorus: Adrian Epp, Nick Kenaston, Mathew Volkmer Female semi-chorus : , Antoinette Brumbaugh, Rachel Lere, Katie O’Rourke, Nishanthi Perera, Elizabeth Pierce Ding Dong Merrily On High Musikhaus Publications, 2015 Ding! Dong! Merrily on High! is another non-traditional carol. The tune is Branle de L'Official, found in Jehan Tabourot’s Orchésographie (1589), a book of sixteenth century French dances.

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