PROGRAM NOTES the Classical Master Josef Haydn and The

Program Notes The Classical master Josef Haydn and the idiosyncratic minimalist Arvo Pärt may seem like a musical odd couple, but this afternoon’s pairing brings to- gether two composers who share some fundamental characteristics. Both are men of a deep personal faith which is often reflected in their music. And both were unafraid to reference contemporary events in their music. Haydn’s title Missa in Tempore Belli (Mass in a Time of War) was his own, and refers to the Napoleonic wars, which were played out in large measure on Austrian soil. Pärt dedicated his 2008 Symphony No. 4 “Los Angeles” to Mikhail Khodoro- vsky, the Russian oil magnate, philanthropist, and vocal critic of the Putin government, whose imprisonment was widely thought to be politically mo- tivated, and his selection of the text for Adam’s Lament is his response to the ongoing tensions between Islamic and Christian worlds. Estonian-born Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) reinvented his compositional style after making an early name for himself as an avant garde composer. His early com- positions were fiercely atonal and serial, but he also experimented with aleatoric music, where he might indicate the range of pitches for a given voice but not specify discrete pitches, rhythms or durations, and collage music, in which he layered phrases of music from composers like Bach onto his own 12- tone music. The premiere of Pärt’s 1968 Credo, a choral collage piece, caused something of an uproar. The use of the liturgical text had not been approved by the Soviet composers’ union and the work was subsequently banned in the Soviet Union. He stopped receiving commissions and was forced to sup- port himself by writing film scores. He retreated from composing for sev- eral years, devoting himself to an intensive study of Gregorian chant and medieval sacred music. He also became a convert to the Russian Orthodox Church. Pärt’s musical style was considerably altered when he returned to serious composition in the mid-1970’s. He focused increasingly on choral music, much of it of a religious character and set either in Latin or in the Church Slavonic of the Orthodox liturgy. And he developed a technique that he calls tintinnabuli, little bells in Latin. Pärt uses the technique to define the relation- ship between two musical voices or lines, which typically come in and out of consonance with each other. His scores are often spare, with just a few voices, and tend to stay within the key which defines that triad. He explains, “I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played. This one note, or a silent beat, or a moment of silence, comforts me. I work with very few elements – with one voice, with two voices. I build with the most primitive materials – with the triad, with one specific tonality. The three notes of a triad are like bells. And that is why I called it tintinnabulation.” The Salve Regina is a medieval Marian hymn, best known today as the con- cluding prayer of the rosary and, in paraphrase, as a popular anthem, Hail Holy Queen. Pärt’s setting was composed in 2001 and set for choir and organ.

4 In 2011, he rescored the piece for choir, string orchestra and celeste. The ac- companiment is spare – strings with gently arpeggiated chords like a sort of figured bass provide an unvarying ¾ tactus, with the other-worldly sound of the celeste softly laid over it. The chorus enters first in a quiet, chant-like unison and then in long, drawn out, shimmering chords which barely seem to move. The music slowly increases in intensity, suddenly becoming thicker and “more concentrated” (as Pärt puts it) at the words “turn your eyes of mercy towards us.” The final line of the text is set as a sort of coda, now in 4/4 meter, with each phrase – O clemens, O pia, O dulcis – softly repeated three times. Pärt may be honoring the tradition that the last line of the hymn was inspired by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who was so moved on hearing the Salve chanted one Christmas Eve that he fell to his knees, improvising that threefold invocation which has been appended to the Salve Regina ever since. Adam’s Lament, set for chorus and string orchestra, was a joint commis- sion from the Istanbul and Tallin Capitals of Culture to celebrate a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Istanbul Music Festival in 2010, where it received its premiere at the historic Hagia Eirene (Holy Peace) cathedral. Pärt was looking for a theme that would speak to both the Christian and Islamic worlds, and chose the story of Adam, the father of all mankind. For Pärt, Adam is not just an archetype for humanity, but represents all individu- als as well. He explained, “For me, the name Adam is a collective term not merely for the whole of humanity, but for each individual, regardless of time, era, social class or religious affiliation. And this collective Adam has suffered and lamented on this earth for millennia. Our ancestor Adam foresaw the human tragedy that was to come and experienced it as his own guilty re- sponsibility, the result of his sinful act. He suffered all the cataclysms of humanity into the depths of desperation, inconsolable in his agony.” And for a text, he returned to the writings of the remarkable St. Silouan. St. Silouan (1866-1938) entered the Russian Ortho- dox Monastery of St. Panteleimon on Mt. Athos in Greece at the age of 27, after completing military service. He initially struggled with his vocation but eventually embraced a life of simplicity and asceti- cism. He developed a reputation for great humility, compassion and wisdom, and pilgrims flocked to the monastery for his spiritual guidance. His ser- mons and discourses were collected by a disciple and fellow monk, edited and published, which gained him a wide following among people of di- verse religious faiths. Although he was not well-educated, there is a poetic beauty to his writing which can be quite compelling. Silouan was canonized in 1987. The music of Adam’s Lament is highly expressive, but largely dark and an- guished, conveying the deep despair of Adam as reflected in Silouan’s text, with the repeated refrain that he has become estranged from God’s love. The score is much more complex than one might have expected. While the or- chestration, set only for strings, is characteristically lean, there are sections

5 with a thickly textured, divisi chorus, which lend the music an air of gravity and import. The music modulates through a number of keys, and makes ex- tensive use of the Phrygian mode, the early chant mode that is most closely related to a minor key and very fitting for Adam’s long and plaintive lament. Pärt meticulously uses effects like dissonance and polytonality (music set simultaneously in more than one key) to enhance the text. When Adam la- ments that he will be the father of peoples who live in enmity and seek to slay each other, the orchestra is at its most strident and dissonant, and the choral parts move through a progression of polytonal chords, a very graphic representation of the violence and divisions among men. In the last lines of the piece, Silouan breaks off the narrative and adds his own voice to Adam’s impassioned plea for mercy. The prayer ends quietly, with another polytonal chord gradually resolving to a consonant one, but with the tonal ambiguity of an open fifth. It leaves the listener with the very human feeling of both hopefulness and uncertainty. Josef Haydn (1732-1809) is a paradoxical figure for us, a truly innovative composer who was content to remain in the employ of four different Prince Esterházys for 48 years. It was Haydn who developed the modern symphony and invented the string quartet. When the impresario Johann Peter Salomon attempted to recruit both Haydn and Mozart to Lon- don in 1790, it was the sixty-year-old Haydn who accepted the offer and went on to compose some of his greatest works during his six years in London. It was the seventy-year-old Haydn who revived an art form dormant since the days of Handel, the oratorio, and created one of the most stunningly original works in The Creation. And it was Haydn more than anyone else who developed the concert mass as a musical form. Haydn’s musical career began as a boy soprano at the Cathedral of St. Ste- phen in Vienna. He took the opportunity to learn violin and keyboard as well as singing, and was kept on as an instrumentalist after his voice changed. His love of practical jokes proved his undoing, and he found himself at 17 on the streets of Vienna with no job, no lodging and no prospects. He barely sup- ported himself by giving lessons, playing organ at one church and singing as tenor soloist at another and performing with the many impromptu musical ensembles which were a feature of musical life in Vienna. His musicianship progressed well enough that he made important contacts which furthered his career: imperial court poet Pietro Metastasio, who engaged him as a clavier teacher; opera composer Nicolo Porpora, who tutored him in music theory; and the Dowager Princess Esterházy, who persuaded her son to hire Haydn as Kapellmeister. Prince Nicolas I Esterházy was imperious, as anyone who styled himself “Il Magnifico” might be expected to be, but he respected Haydn and fully ap- preciated Haydn’s musical genius. He entertained lavishly and lost no opportunity to showcase his increasingly famous Kapellmeister, arranging elaborate musical evenings and even building an amphitheater where Haydn

6 presented operas. The prince gave Haydn the opportunity to accept outside commissions and to publish, and there arose such an insatiable demand for his music that pirated editions abounded and unscrupulous publishers also affixed his name to music by his brother, his pupils, and even random composers. The Missa in Tempore Belli was the first of six masses written for the name day celebrations of the wife of Prince Nicolas II, Haydn’s fourth and last Esterházy. It was composed in 1796, during that expansive compositional period that also saw his late symphonies and The Creation, and it is indeed symphonic in concept and scale. It was also the first Mass he had written in fourteen years. As Mass settings had become increasingly elaborate, the musical form had become disconnected from the underlying liturgy. There had been a number of attempts to scale back the musical Mass, but when Emperor Joseph II put strict limitations on the use of instruments in a Mass in the early 1780s, Haydn’s response was to stop writing Masses. Haydn was clearly interested in something more than merely setting the text of the Mass. The Kyrie opens with a slow, stately introduction, much like a Classical symphony, before moving on to the main thematic material. The opening also marks the first appearance of the timpani which give the Mass its sub- title Paukenmesse (Kettle-drum Mass). The timpani reappear throughout the Mass, especially in unexpected places like the Sanctus and Agnus Dei, like the sound of distant cannons. It would have been fashionable at the time to divide long sections like the Gloria and Credo into a series of arias, duets, trios, quartets and choruses, but Haydn preserves their essential unity. Music for the soloists and chorus are interwoven here and throughout the Mass, an effect he also used to great advantage in The Creation, which he was writing at the same time. The music does change character according to the sense of the text, generally moving from allegro to adagio to allegro like miniature Italian symphonies. The adagio of the Gloria features an unusually lyrical bass solo and an equally lyrical cello obbligato. Haydn foregoes the customary “Cum Sancto Spiritu” fugue, instead closing the movement with a brilliant and elaborate “Amen.” Haydn’s treatment of the Credo is equally unusual. After the opening phrase, each overlapping voice part enters with a different line of text. This may have been a device to shorten the Mass, but it also quickly dispenses with the more didactic parts of the text, and allows Haydn the opportunity to lavish more attention and musical color on the more dramatic parts relating to Christ’s incarnation, death and resurrection. The “Et vitam venturi” text was another traditional place for a fugue. Haydn starts the fugue but breaks off after the first subject and ends the Credo, like the Gloria, with a magnificent Amen“ ” stretto. The war intrudes more insistently in the last three sections. The rather stately opening of the Sanctus is interrupted by the timpani and an ominous forte like a trumpet call on the text “pleni sunt coeli.” A rather subdued Benedictus is the one section set mainly for the solo quartet. The chorus joins the soloists at the end with the Osanna, unexpectedly set to a different medody than the

7 same text in the Sanctus. The sense of foreboding continues into the Agnus Dei, with the “miserere nobis,” punctuated by the timpani, again sounding ominously underneath, the plea for mercy heartfelt. The music brightens with trumpet fanfares, ending with a joyful, dance-like “dona nobis pacem.” The war is over, peace returns, and the people rejoice. France had been at war with Austria almost continuously since the French Revolution in 1792. Haydn composed the Missa in Tempore Belli in 1796 while Austria was mobilizing its troops again after an ineffectual peace accord. If the upbeat ending reflects Haydn’s faith in the Austrian army, it was sadly misplaced, and Haydn would not live to see the end of the war. The Austri- ans endured a series of resounding defeats by the French, and Napoleon’s armies occupied Vienna twice. Ironically, the French revered Haydn and set an honor guard around his house to make sure he was not disturbed. Pärt composed the Estonian Lullaby and a companion Christmas Lullaby in 2002. They were originally set for two solo women’s voices but later were arranged for women’s choir and strings. Pärt writes, “Lullabies are like little pieces of lost Paradise – a small consolation combined with the feeling of profundity and intimacy. I wrote these two lullabies for adults and for the child within every one of us.” – Michael Moore

8 The Texts Pärt: Salve Regina Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiæ, Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve. our life, our sweetness and our hope, hail. Ad te clamamus exsules filii Evæ, To thee do we cry, poor banished children Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes of Eve; in hac lacrimarum valle. to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears. Eia, ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte; Turn then, most gracious advocate, Et Jesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, thine eyes of mercy toward us; nobis post hoc exsilium ostende. and after this our exile, O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria. show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

Pärt: Adam’s Lament Adam, otyets vsyelyennoy, v rayu znal Adam, father of all mankind, in paradise sladost lyubvi Bozhïyey, i potomu, kogda bïl knew the sweetness of the love of God; izgnan iz raya za gryekh i lishïlsya lyubvi and so when for his sin he was driven Boshïyey, gorko stradal i s vyelikim stonom forth from the garden of Eden, and was rïdal n vsyu pustïnyu. Dusha yevo tyerzalas widowed of the love of God, he suffered ot mïsli: Lyubimovo Boga ya oskorbïl. grievously and lamented with a mighty moan. And the whole desert rang with his lamentations. His soul was wracked as he thought: “I have grieved my beloved Lord.” Nye tak zhalel on o raye i krasotye yevo, He sorrowed less after paradise and kak o tom shto lishïlsya lyubvi Bozhïyey, the beauty thereof – he sorrowed that katoraya nyenasïtno kazhduyu minutu he was bereft of the love of God, which vlechet dushu k Bogu. insatiably, at every instant, draws the soul to Him. Tak, vsyakaya dusha, poznavshaya Boga In the same way, the soul which has Dukhom Svyatïm, no potom potyeryavshaya known God through the Holy Spirit but blagodat, ispïtivayet Adamovo mucheniye. has afterwards lost grace experiences the Bolno dushe, i silno shaleyet ona, kogda torment that Adam suffered. There is an oskorbit lyubimovo Gospoda. aching and a deep regret in the soul that has grieved the beloved Lord. Skuchal Adam na zyemlye i gorko rïdal, i Adam pined on earth, and wept bitterly, zyemlya bïla yemu nye mila. On toskoval o and the earth was not pleasing to him. Bogye i govoril: He was heartsick for God, and this was his cry: Skuchayet dusha moya o Gospodye, i “My soul wearies for the Lord, and I slyezno ishchu Yevo. Kak mnye Yevo nye seek Him in tears. How should I not iskat? Kogda ya bïl s Nim, dusha moya seek Him? When I was with him my bïla vyesyela i pokona, i vrag nye imyel ko soul was glad and at rest, and the en- mnye dostupa; a tyepyer zloy dukh vzyal emy could not come nigh me. But now vlast nado mnoyu, i kolyeblyet, i tomit the spirit of evil has gained power over dushu moyu, i potomu skuchayet dusha me, harassing and oppressing my soul, moya o Gospodye sazhe do smyerti, i ryevtsa so that I weary for the Lord even unto dukh moy k Bogu i nishto na zyemlye nye death, and my spirit strains to God, and

9 vyesyelit myenya i nichem nye khochet there is naught on earth can make me dusha moya utyeshïtsya no snova khochet glad. Nor can my soul take comfort in vidyet Yevo i nasïtitsya Im, nye mnozhestva any thing, but longs once more to see the skorbi stonom plachu ya: Pomiluy mya, Lord, that her hunger may be appeased. Bozhe, padsheye sozdaniye Tvoye. I cannot forget Him for a single moment, and my soul languished after Him, and from the multitude of my afflictions I lift up my voice and cry: ‘Have mercy upon me, O God. Have mercy on Thy fallen creature.’” Tak rïdal Adam, I slyozï lilis po litsu yevo Thus did Adam lament, and tears na grud i zyemlyu, i vsya pustïnya slushala streamed down his face on to his beard, stonï yevo; zvyeri i ptitsï zamolkali v on to the ground beneath his feet, and pyechali; a Adam rïdal ibo za gryekh yevo the whole desert heard the sound of vsye potyeryali mir i lyubov. his moaning. The beasts and the birds were hushed in grief; while Adam wept because peace and love were lost to all men on account of his sin.

Vyelika bïla skorb Adama po izgnanii iz Adam knew great grief when he was raya, no kogda on uvidyel sïna svoyevo banished from paradise, but when Avyelya, ubitovo bratom Kainom, to yeshcho he saw his son Abel slain by Cain his bolsheyu stala skorb yevo, i on muchïlsya brother, Adam’s grief was even heavier. dushoyu, i rïdal, i dumal: Ot myenya His soul was heavy, and he lamented proizoydut i razmnozhatsya narodï, i vsye and thought: “Peoples and nations will budut stradat i zhït vo vrazhdye, i ubivat descend from me, and multiply, and drug druga. suffering will be their lot, and they will live in enmity and seek to slay one another.” I eta skorb yevo bïla vyelika, kak morye, i And his sorrow stretched wide as the ponyat yeyo mozhet tolko tot, chya dusha sea, and only the soul that has come to poznala Gospoda i kak mnogo On nas lyubit. know the Lord and the magnitude of His love for us can understand. Iya potyeryal blagodat i vmyestye s Adamom I, too, have lost grace and call with zovu: Milostiv budi mnye Gospodi. Daruy Adam: “Be merciful unto me, O Lord! mnye dukha smiryeniya i lyubi. Bestow on me the spirit of humility and love.” – Saint Silouan – translation by Rosemary Edmonds

Haydn: Missa in Tempore Belli

Kyrie Kyrie eleison. Lord, have mercy. Christe eleison. Christ, have mercy. Kyrie eleison. Lord, have mercy.

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10 Gloria Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax Glory to God in the highest, and peace hominibus bonæ voluntatis. on earth to men of good will. Laudamus te, benedicimus te, adoramus te, We praise you, we bless you, we glorificamus te. worship you, we glorify you. Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam We give you thanks for your great glory. tuam. Lord God, heavenly king, God the father Domine Deus, Rex cœlestis, Deus Pater almighty. omnipotens. Lord Jesus Christ, only begotten son. Domine Fili unigenite, Jesu Christe. Lord God, Lamb of God, son of the Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris. father. Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis. You who take away the sins of the Qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe world, have mercy on us. deprecationem nostram. You who take away the sins of the Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, miserere world, receive our prayer. nobis. You who sit at the right hand of the Quoniam tu solus sanctus, tu solus father, have mercy on us. Dominus, For you alone are holy, you alone are the tu solus altissimus, Jesu Christe. Lord, Cum Sancto Spiritu in gloria Dei Patris, you alone are the most high, Jesus amen. Christ. With the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the father, amen.

Credo Credo in unum Deum Patrem I believe in one God, the Father almighty, omnipotentem, creator of heaven and earth, factorem cœli et terræ, of all things seen and unseen. visibilium omnium et invisibilium. And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, Et in unum Dominum, Jesum Christum, only begotten Son of the Father. Filium Dei unigenitum. Born of the Father before the world was Et ex Patre natum ante omnia sæcula. made. Deum de Deo, lumen de lumine, God of God, light of light, Deum verum de Deo vero. True God of true God. Genitum, non factum, consubstantialem Begotten, not made, of one being with the Patri, Father, per quem omnia facta sunt. by whom all things were made. Qui propter nos homines et propter nostram Who for us men and for our salvation salutem came down from heaven. descendit de cœlis. And was conceived by the Holy Spirit of Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria the Virgin Mary virgine: and became man. Et homo factus est. He was also crucified for us: Crucifixus etiam pro nobis: He suffered under Pontius Pilate and was sub Pontio Pilato passus et sepultus est. buried. Et resurrexit tertia die secundum Scripturas. And he arose on the third day according to Et ascendit in cœlum: the Scriptures. sedet ad dexteram Patris. He ascended into heaven Et iterum venturus est cum gloria where he sits at the right hand of the judicare vivos et mortuos: Father. cujus regni non erit finis. And he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead: his reign will never end.

11 Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et And in the Holy Spirit, Lord and giver vivificantem: of life: qui ex Patre Filioque procedit. who proceeds from the Father and the Qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur et Son. conglorificatur: Who with the Father and the Son is qui locutus est per Prophetas. worshipped and glorified: Et unam, sanctam, catholicam et apostolicam who has spoken through the Prophets. Ecclesiam. And in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem Church. peccatorum. I confess one baptism for the forgiveness Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum of sins. et vitam venturi sæculi. And I await the resurrection of the dead Amen. and the life of the world to come. Amen. Sanctus Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, Dominus Deus Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts. Sabaoth, Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Pleni sunt cœli et terra gloria tua. Hosanna in the highest. Osanna in excelsis. Benedictus Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. Blessed is he who comes in the name of Osanna in excelsis. the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Agnus Dei Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miser- Lamb of God, you who take away the ere nobis. sins of the world, have mercy on us. Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miser- Lamb of God, you who take away the ere nobis. sins of the world, have mercy on us. Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona Lamb of God, you who take away the nobis pacem. sins of the world, grant us peace.

Pärt: Estonian Lullaby Kuus-kuus, kallike, Hush, hush, darling, Kuus-kuus, kallikene. Hush, hush, my little darling.