Dynamic mass in convergence B minor Featuring DuruFlé’s Requiem By J. s. Bach June 5 & 6, 2010 June 12 & 13, 2010 2009-2010 season 1 Dynamic convergence mass in B minor featuring Requiem by Maurice Duruflé by Johann Sebastian Bach Conspirare Symphonic Choir Conspirare VICTORIA BACH FESTIVAL Victoria Bach Festival Chorus Victoria Bach Festival Orchestra ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Judith and Gerre Hancock, organ Soloists from the ensembles Keely Rhodes, mezzo soprano The Sunday, June 6 performance of David Farwig, baritone Saturday, June 12, 8:00 pm Dynamic Convergence is generously underwritten by: Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, Victoria Saturday, June 5, 8:00 pm Presented in collaboration with the First Victoria University Presbyterian Church, Austin Victoria Bach Festival W e l l s Fa r g o B a n k H a r r i s & g r e e n W e l l , l . l .P. Sunday, June 6, 4:30 pm Sunday, June 13, 7:00 pm r e B e c c a k i e s c H n i c k Corpus Christi Cathedral, Corpus Christi Pre-concert talk by Margaret Perry, 6:00 pm l aW Off F i c e o F P erry & Haas Presented in collaboration with the Dell Hall, Long Center for the s H e l i a & r i c k r o g e r s Victoria Bach Festival Performing Arts, Austin e n g l i s H & c l e m o n s , l . l .P. P e g g y g i r od & Warren W. Freeman in memory o F r e V. m o n s i g n o r r o B e r t e . Freeman P.H. Craig Hella Johnson, Artistic Director & Conductor tes A Andrew Y COVer PHOtO: PAlACe Of wiesbAden-biebriCH GermAnY bY JOACHim sCHerf 2 3 D y n a m i c c o n v e r g e n c e D y n a m i c c o n v e r g e n c e program PROGRAM NOTES requiem Maurice Duruflé, one of several generations of gifted French organist-composers, Ubi Caritas Plainsong Chant produced only about fifteen compositions, yet their quality is such that he is particularly celebrated among this group of artists. Reading: Where the mind is without fear Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) From the earliest days of his musical education, beginning around his tenth birthday, Cantos Sagrados (Sacred Songs) James McMillan (b. 1959) Duruflé was steeped in the literature of Gregorian chant, and this influence is frequently I. Identity present in his compositions. Upon his move to Paris in 1919 for studies at the Conservatory, II. Virgin of Guadalupe two influences emerge: Charles Tournemire at St. Clotilde, who was strongly rooted in III. Sun Stone Gregorian chant, and Louis Vierne at the Cathedral of Notre Dame, from whom he particularly gained a sense of compositional structure and form. Geistliches Lied, Op. 30 Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Duruflé’s Requiem was commissioned in 1947 by the French music publishing company Durand and was written in memory of the composer’s father. Gregorian chant is often I nt e r m I s s I o n present in the Requiem, either by quotation or as a kind of musical shadow. Sometimes, as in the first movement, the chant melody is quoted verbatim in one of the chorus parts; other times it appears as an echo. Only occasionally are all of the voices completely new- -“Osanna in excelsis” and the later portions of “Agnus Dei.” Requiem Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986) Introit A second influence in the Requiem can be discerned in that Duruflé’s selection of Kyrie liturgical texts is the same as that used by Gabriel Fauré in his Requiem, completed in Domine Jesu Christe 1877: “Dies Irae” is omitted except for its last phrase (“Pie Jesu Domine”), and “Libera Sanctus me” and “In Paradisum” are borrowed from the Burial Service. The general mood of Piè Jesu Duruflé’s music also emulates Fauré: not merely peaceful, but at peace amid grief through Agnus Dei the gift of God’s grace. Lux Aeterna Libera Me The richness of Duruflé’s Requiem stems from his combination of chant, counterpoint, In Paradisum and church modes with the sumptuous harmony of the French compositional tradition. The early movements of the composition have a deeply felt beauty that leads to, but doesn’t reduce the surprise of, the other-worldliness of “In Paradisum”: whatever we were or had in this world melts completely away as we are drawn to God’s own ineffable presence. cantos sagraDos The Scottish composer and conductor James MacMillan, whose substantial list of works manifests a distinctive artistic and spiritual voice, is still finding new audiences. Stephen Johnson in the New Grove Dictionary describes the “characteristically intense expressivity” of MacMillan’s music, an intensity that is often expressed in soft dynamics and with seemingly reduced forces. 4 5 D y n a m i c c o n v e r g e n c e D y n a m i c c o n v e r g e n c e MacMillan writes, “In writing [Cantos Sagrados] I wanted to compose something which TExts and TranslationS was both timeless and contemporary, both sacred and secular. The title (Sacred Songs) is therefore slightly misleading as the three poems are concerned with political repression in Latin America and are deliberately coupled with traditional religious texts to emphasize Ubi caritas a deeper solidarity with the poor of that sub-continent.” Ubi caritas et amor Where there is charity and love, Deus ibi est. God is there The first of the three songs is the most overtly dramatic, with agitated phrases almost Simul ergo cum in unum congregamur: Likewise, therefore, when we come together Let us be united as one; shouted between sections of the chorus. The motion suddenly stops as the volume drops Ne nos mente dividamur, caveamus. Let us be careful, lest we be divided in intention. to a horrified whisper in a central interlude. The Latin text is heard last as a kind of coda. Cessent jurgia maligna, cessent lites. Let us cease all quarrels and strife. In the second and third songs, one portion of the chorus sings the Latin text in very slow Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero. And from a sincere heart let us love one another. note values while the other sections interject the text of the poem. Where the mind is without fear This is not music that will make complete sense at first hearing, nor will MacMillan’s handling of his texts. The emotional communication in these songs, on the other hand, Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free is immediate and direct. In an era in which there are few thoroughly original ways to Where the world has not been broken up into fragments juxtapose contrasting texts, MacMillan in the Cantos Sagrados finds striking ways to By narrow domestic walls compel the listener to consider the larger moral significance of what are customarily Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection reported as simple political events. Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit geistliches lieD Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action In 1856, Johannes Brahms was still in his early twenties and already wrestling with Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. demons. Among them was the burden imposed on him by Robert Schumann’s ecstatic article, “New Paths,” hailing Brahms as the hope of German art music. The younger - Rabindranath Tagore composer determined that living up to such expectations required him to gain total Cantos Sagrados technical control over his musical materials. The result was a collection of counterpoint exercises that he exchanged starting in February 1856 with Joseph Joachim. One of these I. Identity exercises had sufficient artistic merit for Brahms to publish it as the Sacred Song for What did you say – they found another one? – I can’t hear you – this morning chorus and organ, Opus 30. another one floating / in the river? talk louder – so you didn’t even dare As a contrapuntal exercise, this five-minute movement is a virtuoso performance. The no one can identify him? the police said not even his mother four-part chorus sings two interlocking canons: the sopranos begin, with the tenors not even the mother who bore him imitating them exactly, singing pitches a ninth lower; the altos and the basses have their not even she could own canon, also at the interval of a ninth. The organ part, while not strictly canonic, is they said that? the other women already tried – I can’t understand what you’re saying, freely imitative, often built from motives sung by the voices. they turned him over and looked at his face, his hands they looked at, right, The text by 18th-century German poet Paul Fleming voices the poet’s determination they’re all waiting together, to rest peacefully with God’s ordained plans for him. Brahms sets the three strophes in silent, in mourning, on the riverbank, an A-B-A form in a soothing mood, but the greatest beauty is in the coda, which sets they took him out of the water “Amen” in less strict counterpoint. There is a moment of joyful catharsis, followed by a he’s naked classic “Amen” cadence.