The Tallis Scholars Peter Phillips, Director
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CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS Saturday, March 23, 2013, 8pm First Congregational Church The Tallis Scholars Peter Phillips, director Soprano Alto Tenor Janet Coxwell Patrick Craig Chris Watson Amy Haworth Caroline Trevor George Pooley Ruth Provost Bass Amanda Morrison Rob Macdonald Tim Whiteley PROGRAM Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525–1594) Magnificat (for double choir) Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) Magnificat John Tavener (b. 1944) The lamb Tavener As one who has slept John Taverner (ca. 1490–1545) Quemadmodum Taverner Mater Christi INTERMISSION Gregorio Allegri (1582–1652) Miserere Eric Whitacre (b. 1970) Sainte-Chapelle (40th anniversary commission) Pärt Nunc dimittis Palestrina Nunc dimittis (for double choir) Palestrina Laudate pueri (a 8) This performance is made possible, in part, by Patron Sponsors Charles and Helene Linker. Cal Performances’ 2012–2013 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. CAL PERFORMANCES 27 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES he end of all our exploring will be Although not originally composed as a set, mirrored in the swift musical developments of approached me with an invitation to write a Tto arrive where we started and know the Pärt’s Canticles work naturally together—a the period, developments that would culminate piece in celebration of 40 years of one of the place for the first time.” So writes T. S. Eliot pair of coloristic variations on a spiritual theme. in the music of Byrd and Tallis. Dating possibly Tallis Scholars. At around the time of the in- in his Four Quartets, and so it is with tonight’s Here in his Magnificat he places a solo soprano from Taverner’s latter years, Quemadmodum is a vitation I visited Paris and was captivated by its concert. A program of cycles and circles, of re- voice—less a character than a texture—chant- work of mature skill. Although surviving only in sheer beauty, and particularly Sainte-Chapelle, visions and reinventions, this evening’s perfor- ing on a single pitch against a series of homo- untexted, instrumental sources, the motet’s title the 13th-century ‘Holy’ chapel. Some 6,458 mance finds history repeating in works from phonic choral ensembles, creating a contempo- points us to Psalm 42, “Like as the Hart,” whose square feet of tall stained glass windows lead the Renaissance and the present day. Setting rary take on the Renaissance fauxbourdon tech- text has since been editorially added. Although relentlessly to an intricate rose window within the music of Palestrina against Pärt, Taverner nique of harmonized chant. The Nunc Dimittis, only some five minutes in length, the exquisite this mesmerising, Gothic edifice. I turned to against Tavener, exposes the common musical by contrast, sees Pärt’s voices deployed in rather ingenuity of the imitative counterpoint, and my long-time friend, collaborator, poet, and fabric of two ages, exploring the long shadow more flexible units, sustaining by turns a rock- spacious sonority of the six-part writing give the historian, Charles Anthony Silvestri, to work on cast by the polyphonic masters and the values ing dialogue between upper voices over chanted work a certain grandeur. The psalm-poet yearns the text for the piece, and he crafted the story of clarity, expression and drama they share with men’s-voice pedal notes, and latterly a denser after God, and so too do Taverner’s rising open- of an innocent young girl, hearing angels in the today’s choral composers. chorale-like homophony, collapsing ultimately ing scales, reaching upwards in an impassioned stained glass gently singing the ‘Sanctus’ text.” We open with a classic 16th-century back into the familiar waves of echoing sound pursuit he sustains all the way through the mo- We finish, as we began, in 16th-century Magnificat from the height of Rome’s poly- for the Gloria. tet’s two sections. Rome and the music of Palestrina. The joyous phonic flourishing. Written characteristically Another contemporary composer heavily in- Text is also at the fore in Taverner’s Mater Psalm 112 Laudate Pueri (“Praise the Lord, for double choir, the punchy, dynamic exchang- fluenced by the music of the Russian Orthodox Christi Sanctissima—a short, Marian motet ye Children”) is not entirely typical however. es of Palestrina’s two SATB groups follow the tradition is John Tavener. Not to be confused possibly intended for use during the Mass. The Though written once again for double-choir, conventions of the composer’s later style; each with Renaissance composer John Taverner rather matter-of-fact counterpoint takes heart- Palestrina here rejects antiphonal conventions is heard first in antiphonal isolation before com- (from whom he claims direct descent), Tavener’s felt pause at the first mention of the name “Iesu,” and instead treats his two choirs as fluid units, ing together climactically in the full eight parts. English origins tell only tell half the story of his and voices come together in emphatic chorus dovetailing entries and combining voices from Unremarkable in its harmony, the piece gains distinctive choral writing, which often takes for the invocation “nam precibus nitentes.” For both freely without the customary introductory descriptive subtlety and drama through textural both text and idiom from the East. The Lamb the most part, however, Taverner sets his two exchanges. The effect—if less translucent than manipulation of the vocal forces. The second is a rare exception—an immaculate, organic upper voices in antiphonal opposition to the many polychoral motets—is of far greater flu- choir entry, “omnes generationes,” for example— musical miniature, whose modal harmonies and three lower. But just when we feel as though idity, expressing the text as a single continuous the piece’s first eight-part section—crowds in chant-like refrain hark back to an earlier age, but we have the measure of this motet, the com- musical gesture of celebration. unexpectedly upon choir one, joyously enact- whose daring concision and chromatic shading poser produces an unexpectedly lovely “Amen,” ing the abundant “all generations” described in epitomise the “new simplicity” of his generation. dominated by the trebles, carrying this musical Notes by Alexandra Coghlan the text. Although apparently written in a single after- prayer heavenward. Palestrina’s Nunc Dimittis employs the same noon, The Lamb represents the peak of the com- Of the many settings of Psalm 51 it is techniques to altogether more contemplative poser’s skill, reflecting Blake’s multifaceted text Allegri’s that casts the longest shadow. Said effect. As befits the gentler nature of the text, in all its artful artlessness. to date from 1638, the Miserere was the papal “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in Written like Allegri’s Miserere (heard later choir’s greatest musical triumph, its status and peace,” phrases are longer and more sustained, tonight) for Easter Week, As One Who Has Slept mystique heightened out of all proportion by favoring initially a smooth homophony rather creates a similarly meditative and timeless at- a papal ban preventing any copy from leaving than the rhythmically articulated polyphony of mosphere. Repetition once again is central to the Sistine Chapel. Composed in traditional the Magnificat. the work’s impact, using a very gradual shift fauxbourdon style, it alternates its Holy Week In contrast to Palestrina’s vivid word-set- in dynamics coupled with a series of dramatic psalm text between a full SSATB choir, a solo ting, the music of contemporary Estonian com- key changes to transform the significance of the SSAB group, and a third ensemble of unison poser Arvo Pärt is stark indeed—an exercise in repeated text. The double-choir format is used male voices. While all three vocal groups sing aural simplicity. Derived, mongrel-like, from rather differently here however, with the sec- what is essentially a harmonized psalm chant, his studies of Gregorian chant, Renaissance po- ond choir sustaining a wordless chordal “ah” the music of the solo quartet is embellished with lyphony, and Russian Orthodox music, Pärt’s throughout, underpinning but never sharing the melodic ornaments, including the famous top C signature technique—a reverberant choral ho- melodic movement of the first choir. in the treble part—a 19th-century addition only mophony he terms “tintinnabuli”—places his The career of John Taverner (ca. 1490–1545) adopted as standard as late as the 1930s. voices in a constantly shifting yet strangely static spanned a particularly volatile period of English Eric Whitacre says of his new piece: “I harmonic relationship. ecclesiastical history. Political change was was thrilled and honored when Peter Phillips 28 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 29 TEXTS & TRANSLATIONS TEXTS & TRANSLATIONS Giovani Pierluigi da Palestrina John Tavener Magnificat (for double choir) The Lamb Magnificat anima mea Dominum. My soul doth magnify the Lord Little Lamb, who made thee? Et exultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo. and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. Dost thou know who made thee? Quia respexit humilitatem ancillæ suæ: For he hath regarded: the lowliness of his handmaiden. Gave thee life, and bid thee feed Ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes generationes. For behold, from henceforth: all generations shall call By the stream and o’er the mead; me blessed. Gave thee clothing of delight Quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est: et sanctum no- For he that is mighty hath magnified me: and holy is Softest clothing, woolly, bright; mens eius. his Name. Gave thee such a tender voice, Et misericordia eius a progenie in progenie timentibus And his mercy is on them that fear him: throughout Making all the vales rejoice? eum. all generations. Little Lamb, who made thee? Fecit potentiam in brachio suo: dispersit superbos He hath showed strength with his arm: he hath scat- Dost thou know who made thee? mente cordis sui.