ROSS LEE FINNEY Pilgrim Psalms

HARVARD CHORUSES | ANDREW CLARK , CONDUCTOR ROSS LEE FINNEY (1906-1997) Pilgrim Psalms

HARVARD CHORUSES , Andrew Clark, Conductor

1 | Immortal Autumn Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum 9 | Psalm LI ; 2:52 Charles Blandy, tenor; Christian Lane, organ 6:40 10 | Psalm LV Harvard Glee Club; Charles Blandy, tenor 3:35 2 | Psalm XXIV Harvard Glee Club; Radcliffe Choral Society Christian Lane, organ 3:08 11 | Psalm I Radcliffe Choral Society; Margot Rood, soprano 2:56

3 | Psalm LXIV Harvard Glee Club; Radcliffe Choral Society 2:48 12 | Psalm CXXXVIII Harvard Glee Club; Radcliffe Choral Society 3:39

4 | Psalm CXXXVII Charles Blandy, tenor; Christian Lane, organ 3:22 13 | Interlude on Psalm CVIII Christian Lane, organ 3:45

5 | Psalm V Harvard Glee Club 1:16 14 | Psalm C Harvard Glee Club; Radcliffe Choral Society Christian Lane, organ 3:01 6 | Prelude on Psalm I Christian Lane, organ 2:42 15 | Psalm CXXXIX Harvard Glee Club; Radcliffe Choral Society 7 | Psalm CL Harvard Glee Club; Radcliffe Choral Society Christian Lane, organ 1:54 Christian Lane, organ 1:10 16 | Words to be Spoken Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum 3:01 8 | Psalm XCV Harvard Glee Club; Radcliffe Choral Society Christian Lane, organ 1:29 Total: 47:19

2 solace of people resting from toil. Ed - “Pilgrim Psalms” grew slowly from ward Winslow describes in “Hypocrisie my deep love of this material. I would Unmasked” (1646) the singing of these make no pretense that they either songs as the congregation bid farewell improve upon these old tunes or make to those of their members who were music that can be labeled American. sailing for the new world: I only hope that my settings have notes from the composer not spoiled the spirit of the original “They that stayed at Leyden feasted songs. Great care has been taken to Notes from Ross Lee Finney’s Preface to Pilgrim Psalms us that were to go at our pastor’s evolve a style that springs both from house, (it) being large; where we the old melodies and from my own The Pilgrims brought with them to Plymouth in 1620 a psalm book which refreshed ourselves, after tears, emotional feelings. The quaint charm had been prepared for them in Holland by Henry Ainsworth and published in with singing of Psalms, making of the words which comes from the Amsterdam in 1612. The music in this little volume was sung in America for joyful melody in our old spelling and from a hundred years not only at religious meetings but privately for the “godly” hearts as well as with a certain awkwardness the voice, there being in matching poetic to many of our congre - musical accent, may at gation very expert in first be a problem for music; and indeed it the singer; but in time, was the sweetest as with all such primi - melody that ever tive qualities in folk mine ears heard. ” music, the singer will not wish them differ - These melodies are ent... among America’s great - I would not pretend est folk heritage. They that the Puritan would have influenced sacred approve of the treat - singing through each century. When ment that I have given his psalms. He one sings the First Psalm with lute or was too concerned with the literal guitar accompaniment, it seems no meaning of the Biblical text to permit great leap to such folk spirituals as such freedom as I have taken. But “Wayfaring Stranger” or “I Wonder as perhaps the modern audience, in re - I Wander.” Here, indeed, in these alizing the beauty of these melodies, psalm melodies, is a rich supply of will be less inclined to think of his spiritual song that may perhaps lead Puritan ancestors as unmusical and the Protestant composer of America uncontributive to the musical culture to . of our country.

Landing of the Pilgrims , Michele Felice Cornè, circa 1803-1807 3 the composer

Ross Lee Finney was born in Wells, of the first academic courses dedicated Minnesota in 1906 into a family that to American music. Year laters, he cultivated a lifelong interest in Amer - wrote: ican history and music. By the age of “During the mid-thirties there was twelve, Finney had distinguished him - a growing feeling that the United self as a musician, barnstorming small States should isolate itself from the communities in the Midwest as a political tensions in Europe. One effort cellist in a string trio, playing alongside of this hysteria was an increased em - his two brothers. In 1924, he enrolled phasis on American history. A younger at the , study - group of faculty wanted to organize ing composition with Donald Ferguson. an inter-departmental American studies Finney would transfer to Carleton degree program. I did the course in College where, after graduating, he music, as best I could…To teach a briefly taught cello and music history. course on “Music in America” was After a year in Europe performing in much harder in the 1930s. There were a jazz band to subsidize his study few recordings, few scores, and only with the master teacher Nadia a few studies…I had to get out my Boulanger in Paris, Finney returned guitar and remember the songs I had to the United States in 1928 to teach sung as a child and learn a few that I at the Tilton School for Boys in New had not known. Digging out Waldo Hampshire. Selden Pratt’s Music of the Pilgrims, During his short time at Tilton, I learned to sing several of the Psalms Finney regularly traveled some eighty with my guitar and I made the class miles south to study at Harvard with sing psalms and choral works by composers Billings from scores projected onto (1872-1960) and Walter Spalding the blackboard… It was fun to teach, (1865-1962). The precocious composer but a little unorthodox. I suppose had mixed feelings about his time in now no good university would be Cambridge, writing to his brother that without a course on music in America.” he had “almost uncontrollable hatred Indeed, a revival of interest in early for the academic nonsense around American music swept the country here,” and that “Harvard ain’t all it’s beginning in the 1930s. Later, during cracked up to be.” the Second World War, schoolteachers At age 22, Finney was appointed taught democratic values and national to the faculty at Smith College where pride through song. Performing arts he met his wife Gretchen, herself a organizations, government funding distinguished scholar of 17 th -century agencies, broadcast radio and others English literature and music. In 1942, advanced American pride and princi - Ross Lee developed and taught one ples through a renewed appreciation,

Ross Lee Finney 4 and appropriation, of early sources. published in British North “Simplicity is something nat - Among these included the hymnody America. ural to my background,” he re - of the 17 th -century, the composer Finney channeled his en - flected about his style at the William Billings (1746-1800), and the gagement with the Ainsworth time, “complexity has no music of the Revolutionary War. Psalter into a modernist musi - virtue to me.” As the scholar Annegret Fauser cal idiom, developing an elab - Pilgrim Psalms was pre - writes in her book Sounds of War: orate choral work that set in - miered on June 2, 1946 at the Music in the United States During dividual psalm tunes “planned Cornell University Festival of World War II , the “musical models so as to distribute the perform - Contemporary American Arts. from the Revolution served a dual ance between different school John Kuypers led the first per - function: they embodied a preclassical groups.” He ultimately created formance with Cornell’s Sage sound world because of their modal a suite of fifteen compositions, Chapel and Festival Or - texture, and they grounded this idiom entitled Pilgrim Psalms, based chestra in a version of the in a foundational period of American on the Ainsworth melodies . work for strings and brass. history...the American Revolution Pilgrim Psalms consist of While at Smith, Finney de - gained considerable currency both as movements for a variety of veloped a close friendship with historical evidence of genuinely Amer - choral voicings, both a cap - the Modernist poet and writer ican creativity in art music and as pella and accompanied by or - Archibald MacLeish. Finney nativist inspiration for contemporary gan, as well as two organ in - composed numerous works on composition.” terludes, and a final number MacLeish texts, including a set While teaching his trailblazing enlisting the audience. In of eight songs entitled “Poems course in American music, Finney Finney’s settings, all the by Archibald MacLeish” had discovered the tunes of the Psalms retain the archaic (1935), “Bleheri”s (1937) for Ainsworth Psalter from Waldo Selden spelling of their original Eng - tenor solo and orchestra, and Pratt’s 1921 collection, The Music of lish texts. several choral works: “Words the Pilgrims: A Description of the Having nearly completed the to be Spoken” (1946) and “Im - Psalm-book brought to Plymouth in work, Finney was drafted into military I have never gotten a greater kick out mortal Autumn” (1952), among them. 1620. Henry Ainsworth (1571-1622) service in 1943, where he worked for of working. Time seems too short.” “Words to be Spoken” appears in was an English Nonconformist cler - the Office of Strategic Services in Eu - Pilgrim Psalms reveals Finney’s Modern Canons , a collection of thirty- gyman and scholar of Hebrew who rope. During one of his journeys, he mastery of compositional economy eight contemporary short composi - fled to Amsterdam from in stepped on a land mine and was and craft. He embellishes these early tions published in 1947 that includes 1593. His Book of Psalmes: Englished struck in the back by a shell fragment, 17 th -century tunes with a variety of entries by Alberto Ginastera, Paul both in Prose and Metre transcribed later receiving the Purple Heart and a dexterous techniques: mode-mixture, Hindemith, Vincent Persichetti, Hanns and translated tunes from contempo - Certificate of Merit for his service. He polychoral antiphony, quartal har - Eisler, , and others. rary French and English Psalters for continued work on Pilgrim Psalms mony, theme and variation, bitonal - Finney sets a very short four-part his English-speaking congregation of during the war, writing to his brother ity, mixed meter, textural variety, canon in D-minor that concludes with religious exiles in Amsterdam. The that “it is to be a work of several polyphony and counterpoint, osti - a homophonic coda. MacLeish had Plymouth colonists brought the pieces – each piece a setting of a nato, and other devices. Though he dedicated the poem to the memory Psalter to the Massachusetts Bay Psalm from the Ainsworth Psalter us - treats the tunes with subtle sophisti - of Baoth Wiborg Murphy, a young Colony in 1620. Soon, the Ainsworth ing the one tune as a basis but setting cation and varied artifice, Finney boy who died in 1935 of meningitis Psalter was superseded by the Bay them for mixed chorus in a very free maintains an essential clarity, natu - at the age of 16. Baoth was the son Psalm Book of 1636, the first book manner, sort of like a choral prelude… ralness, and accessibility in the work. of MacLeish’s close friends, the

5 wealthy Jazz Age socialites Gerald and a longtime choral conductor at Finney would veer away from na - Michigan as professor of music and and Sara Murphy. MacLeish described the University of Pittsburgh. “Immor - tionalistic works and move towards composer-in-residence. There, he the couple as “sort of a nexus with tal Autumn” is scored for mixed cho - serialism. “The rampant nationalism mentored a group of gifted com - everything that was going on,” par - rus, tenor solo, and organ and, like that I had witnessed in Europe, and posers, including William Albright, ticularly in the expatriate community the movements in Pilgrim Psalms, is loathed, almost erased my interest in , and George Crumb, living in the south of in the based on a preexisting melody that Americana,” he later explained. “It among others. He would go on to 1920s that included MacLeish, Hem - Finney had sung in his youth. “Oh became clear to me that the quotation write several books and compose nu - ingway, Fitzgerald, Dos Passos, and lovely appearance of Death” is a of folksongs in my compositions merous eclectic works. He was the re - others. hymn from the “the great awakening” could result in a trivial procedure that cipient of the Brandeis Medal (1968), “Immortal Autumn” was written movement in 19 th -century American destroyed my musical intention… The two honorary degrees, commissions for an International Contemporary evangelical Christianity. In “Immortal experiences during the war made me from the Coolidge and Koussevitzky Music Festival at the University of Autumn” , Finney shrewdly disguises feel the need of an expanded musical Foundations, and was elected to the Pittsburgh in 1952. The piece was the hymn tune by composing it back - vocabulary, and gradually I turned to National Institute of Arts and Letters premiered by the Heinz Chapel Choir wards, in retrograde – a serial tech - a more chromatic statement.” in 1962. Finney died in Carmel, Cal - under the directions of Professor nique. Like many of his contempo - In 1949, Finney began a long and ifornia in 1997 at the age of 90. Theodore Finney, Ross Lee’s brother raries in the postwar United States, illustrious tenure at the University of —Andrew Clark

6 the music PILGRIM PSALMS Text: Ainsworth Psalter (1612) 2. Psalm XXIV 1. IMMORTAL AUTUMN Lift up, ye gates, your heads, and ye, I speak this poem now with grave and level voice Dores of eternal aye, In praise of autumn, of the far-horn-winding fall. Be lifed up, that so the King Of glory enter may! I praise the flower-barren fields, the clouds, the tall Unanswering branches where the wind makes sullen noise. This King of glory, who is He? Jehovah, puissant I praise the fall: it is the human season. And valiant, Jehovah, He Now In battel valiant. No more the foreign sun does meddle at our earth, Enforce the green and bring the fallow land to birth, 3. Psalm LXIV Nor winter yet weigh all with silence the pine bough, God, hear my voice when I doo pray to Thee; Preserve my life from dread of th’enemie. But now in autumn with the black and outcast crows From secret of yll-doers hide Thou mee, Share we the spacious world: the whispering year is gone: From rage of them that work iniquitie, There is more room to live now: the once secret dawn Which have their tongue sharp-whetted as a sword, Comes late by daylight and the dark unguarded goes. Have bent their arrow, ev’n a biter word. Amen.

Between the mutinous brave burning of the leaves 4. Psalm CXXXVII And winter’s covering of our hearts with his deep snow Jehovah’s song how sing shal wee We are alone: there are no evening birds: we know Within a foreyn people’s land? The naked moon: the tame stars circle at our eaves. Jerusalem, if I doo thee Forget, forget let my right hand. It is the human season. On this sterile air Cleav let my tongue to my palat, Do words outcarry breath: the sound goes on and on. If I doo not in mind thee bear, I hear a dead man’s cry from autumn long since gone. If I Jerusalem doo not Above my chiefest joy prefer. Amen. I cry to you beyond upon this bitter air. 5. Psalm V — Archibald MacLeish (1892-1982) And all that hope in Thee for stay Shal joy, shal showt eternallie; And Thou shalt cover them; and they That love Thy name, be glad in Thee.

7. Psalm CL O praise Him with sound of the trompet shril; Praise Him with harp and the psalterion; O praise Him with the fute and tymberel; Praise Him with virginals and organon!

7 8. Psalm XCV 10. Psalm LV Come, let us to the Lord showt joyfully, Mine hart is payned in the mids of me; To Rock of our health showt triumphantly Terrours of death eke falln upon me be. Let us prevent His face with thanksgiving, Fear is into me come and trembling dread, Let us with psalms to Him triumphant sing. And quaking horrour hath me covered. Because the Lord is a great God mightie, So that I say, Who wil give me a wing, A great King eke, above al gods is Hee. As dove, that I might fye and fnd dwelling? Loe, wandring fight I would make farr away; 9. Psalm LI Lodge would I in the wildernes. Selah. O God, be gracious to me 11. Psalm I According unto Thy kindnes; As Thy compassions many bee, O blessed man, that dooth not in Wipe Thou away my trespasses. The wicked’s counsel walk Much wash me from my perversenes, Nor stand in synner’s way, nor sit And from my syn me purife. In seat of scornful folk, My trespasses for know doo I, But seteth in Jehovah’s law And my syn ‘fore me alway is. His pleasureful delight, And in His law dooth meditate By day and eke by night.

12. Psalm CXXXVIII With al my hart I’le Thee confess, Before the gods to Thee sing psalme; To pallace of Thy holynes I’le bow down and confess Thy name For Thy mercie and veritee. For Thou Thy word hast magnifed ‘Bove al Thy name. Thou answ’redst mee Then in the day wherin I cried.

8 14. Psalm C 16. WORDS TO BE SPOKEN Showt to Jehovah, al the earth; O shallow ground Sister O shallow Serv ye Jehovah with gladnes; That over ledges Ground you inherit Before Him come with singing mirth; Shoulders the gentle year. Death as we do. Know that Jehovah He God is. Amen. Tender O shallow Your year also 15. Psalm CXXXIX Ground your grass is (The young face Behind and ‘fore Thou doost me strayt inclose; Sisterly touching us: The voice) vanishes. Upon me also doost Thy hand impose. This knowledge is too marveilous for me; Your trees are still: Sister O shallow It’s high, to reach I shal not able be. They stand at our side in the Ground let the silence of O whither shal I from Thy spirit goe? Night lantern. Green be between us And whither shal I fee Thy presence fro? If I clime up the heav’ns, Thou art there; And the green sound. Or make my bed in hel, loe, Thou art there. — Archibald MacLeish (1892-1982)

9 e.m. skinner opus 793 Harvard Memorial Church has two sig - nificant pipe organs. In the chancel, better known as Appleton Chapel, a vintage E.M. Skinner organ is located inside organ chambers above the choir. The three- manual 1929 E.M. Skinner Opus 793 was rebuilt and relocated to the Appleton Chapel by Foley-Baker Inc., and installed in the summer of 2010. Originally made for Second Church of Christ, Scientist in Hartford, Connecticut, Skinner’s Opus 793 is one of the few Skinner instruments from that period that still retains its original style and voicing. The organ console was replaced with one from Aeolian-Skinner Opus 906 (1933), renovated by Richard S. Houghten. The Skinner organ, which is featured in this recording, is complemented by a large C.B. Fisk organ (Opus 139) of con - trasting style in the rear gallery of the church.

Appleton Chapel below the central Palladian windows

10 specifications E.M. Skinner Opus 793, 1929 | Rebuilt and relocated to Appleton Chapel, 2010 — Foley-Baker, Inc.

Great Choir Pedal Combinations: Great 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 16 Diapason 16 Gamba 32 Bourdon (2010 addition) Swell 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 8 First Diapason 8 ’Cello 16 Open Diapason Choir 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 8 Second Diapason 8 ’Cello Celeste 16 Contrebasse Pedal 1-2-3-4-5 8 Harmonic Flute 8 Concert Flute 16 Bourdon General 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 4 Octave 8 Dulciana 16 Gamba (CH) (thumb and toe) 4 Flute 8 Unda Maris (tenor c) 16 Echo Bourdon (SW) General 11-12 2 Fifteenth 4 Fugara 8 Octave (ext.) (righthand, thumb and toe) III Mixture 4 Flute d’Amour 8 ’Cello (ext.) 8 Tuba ( separately enclosed ) 22/3 Nazard 8 Gedeckt (ext.) Great to Pedal (thumb and toe) 8 French Horn ( separately enclosed ) 8 Clarinet 8 Still Gedeckt (SW) Swell to Pedal (thumb and toe) French Horn Tremolo Tremolo 4 Super Octave (ext. C.B.) Choir to Pedal (thumb and toe) Great Unison Off Choir 16 4 Flute (ext.) Swell to Great (thumb) Chimes (2010 addition, in Swell) Choir 4 16 Trombone Choir to Great (thumb) Choir Unison Off 8 Tromba (ext.) Swell to Choir (thumb) Swell Great Reeds on Choir 16 Bourdon (2010 addition) Harp Note: Chimes come to Pedal at 4’ Sforzando (thumb and toe) 8 Diapason Celesta via Great Chimes plus Great to Pedal 8 Salicional Chimes Next 8 Voix Celeste Couplers: Great to Pedal Back 8 Rohrflöte Swell to Pedal All Pistons Next 8 Flauto Dolce Choir to Pedal 8 Flute Celeste (tenor c) Swell to Pedal 4 Memory Up 4 Octave Choir to Pedal 4 4 Flute Triangulaire Swell to Great Memory Down V Chorus Mixture Choir to Great 16 Waldhorn Swell to Choir Crescendo Standard-A-B-C 8 Trumpet Choir to Swell 8 Oboe Great to Choir 8 Vox Humana Swell to Great 16 4 Clarion Choir to Great 16 Console from Aeolian-Skinner Opus 906, Tremolo Swell to Great 4 1933 | Renovated Richard S. Houghten Swell 16 Choir to Great 4 Swell 4 Swell to Choir 16 Swell Unison Off Swell to Choir 4

11 the artists Andrew Clark is the Director Charles Blandy is the product of of Choral Activities and Senior a strong public school arts program Lecturer on Music at Harvard in Troy, NY and graduated from University. He serves as the Oberlin College with a BA in religion. Music Director and Conductor of He received his Master’s Degree from the Harvard Glee Club, the Indiana University. Further training Radcliffe Choral Society, and the was at Tanglewood, where he was Harvard–Radcliffe Collegium awarded the Grace B. Jackson prize Musicum, and teaches courses in for excellence and at the Britten conducting, choral literature, and Pears School in Aldeburgh UK. music and disability studies in the music department. S Prior to his appointment at Harvard, Clark was Artistic

T Charles T

E Director of the Providence R

R Blandy

A Singers, and served as Director of B

R Andrew E Choral Activities at Tufts T Margot Rood , hailed for her “lu - E

P Clark University for seven years. He minosity and grace” by The New York previously held conducting posts with the Worcester Chorus, Opera Times , performs a wide range of reper - , Clark University, the Boston Pops Esplanade Chorus, and the toire across American stages. In addi - Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, the chorus of the Pittsburgh Symphony. tion to opera and oratorio, Ms. Rood He has commissioned numerous composers and conducted important has performed as soloist with some of contemporary and rarely heard pieces as well as regular performances of the United States’ premiere new music choral-orchestral masterworks. His ensembles, and was a 2015 have been hailed as ‘first rate’ ( Boston recipient of the St. Botolph Globe ), ‘cohesive and exciting’ ( Opera Club Foundation’s Emerging News ), and ‘beautifully blended’ ( Provi - Artist Award for her work dence Journal ), achieving performances of in new music. ‘passion, conviction, adrenalin, [and] co - herence’ ( Worcester Telegram ). S Clark earned degrees from Boston Winner of the 2011 Cana - Margot University, Wake Forest, and Carnegie dian International Organ Rood Mellon Universities. His principal teachers Competition and Vice-President of the American Guild of Organists, include Ann Howard Jones, David Hoose, Christian Lane is one of America’s most accomplished, respected, Robert Page, and Brian Gorelick. and versatile young organists. He currently serves as Director of Music and Organist of All Saints Episcopal Parish in Brookline, Massachusetts and in similar capacity for the chaplaincy of Tufts University.

Christian Lane 12 the choirs Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum

The Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum , Harvard’s celebrated mixed-voice chorus, performs works from the fifteenth century to the present. Though the members of the ensemble span the full range of academic concentrations at Harvard, the students are united by the joy of singing in community. Together, they work to sustain and advance the choral art through dynamic performances, adventurous collaborations, and community engagement.

Radcliffe Choral Society Harvard Glee Club

The Radcliffe Choral Society , founded in 1899, is one of the oldest collegiate The Harvard Glee Club is the oldest collegiate men’s chorus in America, women’s choruses in America. The chorus performs a distinctive literature from founded by students in 1858. The ensemble of fifty men strives to further the tra- the medieval era through the present and cultivates the flourishing of women’s dition of men’s choral music, foster lifelong brotherhood, and contribute to the choral music through domestic and international touring, recordings, and commis - community through the love and performance of music. Its alumni include Virgil sioning new works for women’s voices. The Choral Society has won several inter - Thomson, Elliot Carter, William Christie, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin Roo- national competitions and hosts a quadrennial women’s choral festival at Harvard. sevelt, among others.

13 credits

ROSS LEE FINNEY PILGRIM PSALMS HARVARD CHORUSES , A NDREW CLARK , C ONDUCTOR CHRISTIAN LANE , ORGAN Recording dates: April 4, 2011 (tracks 2-15) January 30, 2013 (tracks 1, 16) Recording location: Memorial Church,

Executive producer: Roger Sherman Recording and editing: Joel Gordon Booklet editor: Victoria Parker Cover image: Embarkation of the Pilgrims Robert W. Weir, commissioned in 1837 (public domain) Graphic design: Tim Braun

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o r Catalog Number: G-49 296 & 2016 by Loft Recordings, LLC www.gothic-catalog.com All Rights Reserved

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