The Mystic & the Storyteller
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Deconstructing David Lang's the Anvil Chorus
Columbus State University CSU ePress Theses and Dissertations Student Publications 2014 Deconstructing David Lang's The Anvil Chorus Brandon M. Smith Columbus State University Follow this and additional works at: https://csuepress.columbusstate.edu/theses_dissertations Part of the Music Education Commons Recommended Citation Smith, Brandon M., "Deconstructing David Lang's The Anvil Chorus" (2014). Theses and Dissertations. 113. https://csuepress.columbusstate.edu/theses_dissertations/113 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Publications at CSU ePress. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of CSU ePress. Deconstructing David Lang's The Anvil Chorus by Brandon Michael Smith A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of Requirements of the CSU Honors Program for Honors in the Degree of Bachelor of Music in Music Education College of the Arts Columbus State University Thesis Advisor Committee Member Dr. Sean Powell Honors Committee Member J&^^ f Date [g^SjLS ' Dr. Susan Tomkiewicz Honors Program Director ^trkO^h^C^^ Date £&Q indy Ticknor 1 Usually, when a piece of music is taken out of context, that is, when it is learned and performed without studying the piece, the composer, the musical genre, or the historical significance, the understanding of it for the performer is narrow and limited and the performance is less than ideal. This leads to a substandard realization of the music. Contrarily, a musician should integrate research with the learning process as to enhance the comprehensive understanding of the piece, which ultimately results in a high level of performance. This idea is important for the complex and extensive musical repertoire of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. -
COMPASSION a Festival of Musical Passions JUNE 5–15 GREAT ARCHETYPAL STORIES of SUFFERING, EMPATHY, and HOPE
COMPASSION A FESTIVAL OF MUSICAL PASSIONS JUNE 5–15 GREAT ARCHETYPAL STORIES OF SUFFERING, EMPATHY, AND HOPE CONSPIRARE.ORG 1 COMPASSION Diversify your Assets: FESTIVAL Invest in the Arts. PIETÀ JUNE 5-7, FREDERICKSBURG & AUSTIN CONSIDERING MATTHEW SHEPARD DURUFLÉ – REQUIEM JUNE 8, AUSTIN A GNOSTIC PASSION JUNE 10, AUSTIN J.S. BACH – ST. MATTHEW PASSION JUNE 14-15, AUSTIN We applaud the artists and patrons who invest in our community. CRAIG HELLA JOHNSON Artistic Director & Conductor ROBERT KYR & JOHN MUEHLEISEN Composers & Speakers SEASON SUSTAINING UNDERWRITER tm 2 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION .................................................................. 5-6 PROGRAM: PIETÀ ...............................................................................................7 ARTISTS: PIETÀ ..................................................................................................8 PROGRAM NOTES: PIETÀ ............................................................................ 9-10 PROGRAM: CONSIDERING MATTHEW SHEPARD/REQUIEM .......................... 11 Welcome to the Conspirare comPassion Festival. ARTISTS: CONSIDERING MATTHEW SHEPARD/REQUIEM .............................. 12 Whether you find yourself in the middle of a PROGRAM NOTES: CONSIDERING MATTHEW SHEPARD/REQUIEM .............. 13 performance or at a workshop, I invite you to PROGRAM: A GNOSTIC PASSION.................................................................... 14 take this time to deeply experience -
Suffering and Social Conscience in the Passion Genre from JS Bach's
Messiahs and Pariahs: Suffering and Social Conscience in the Passion Genre from J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (1727) to David Lang’s the little match girl passion (2007) Johann Jacob Van Niekerk A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts University of Washington 2014 Reading Committee: Giselle Wyers, Chair Geoffrey Boers Shannon Dudley Program Authorized to Offer Degree: School of Music ©Copyright 2014 Johann Jacob Van Niekerk University of Washington Abstract Messiahs and Pariahs: Suffering and Social Conscience in the Passion Genre from J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (1727) to David Lang’s the little match girl passion (2007) Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Giselle Wyers Associate Professor of Choral Music and Voice The themes of suffering and social conscience permeate the history of the sung passion genre: composers have strived for centuries to depict Christ’s suffering and the injustice of his final days. During the past eighty years, the definition of the genre has expanded to include secular protagonists, veiled and not-so-veiled socio- political commentary and increased discussion of suffering and social conscience as socially relevant themes. This dissertation primarily investigates David Lang’s Pulitzer award winning the little match girl passion, premiered in 2007. David Lang’s setting of Danish author and poet Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Match Girl” interspersed with text from the chorales of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (1727) has since been performed by several ensembles in the United States and abroad, where it has evoked emotionally visceral reactions from audiences and critics alike. -
The Little Match Girl Passion a CONDUCTOR’S GUIDE
DAVID LANG’S the little match girl passion A CONDUCTOR’S GUIDE JOHANN JACOB VAN NIEKERK Johann Jacob Van Niekerk Assistant Professor of Music Centre College [email protected] 8 CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 56 Number 2 David Lang’s the little match girl chorus version in 2008, published passion is an unusual piece on many by Red Poppy Music and available levels. Lang (b. 1957) combines the for rent from G. Schirmer Inc. It is story of Christ’s crucifi xion—based most suitable for professional choirs on Bach’s treatment thereof in his and more experienced university and St. Matthew Passion (1727) —with the community groups. story of “The Little Match Girl,” a The passion genre is a genre that fairytale by Hans Christian Ander- extends back more than seven cen- sen that tells the harrowing tale of turies, and Lang reworks this format a little girl who freezes to death on into a vehicle that allows the audience a cold New Year’s Eve in Denmark. to not only witness the slow demise The music for the little match girl pas- of the innocent girl but more impor- sion is equally unusual. Lang’s use of tantly to feel as if they were somehow minimalist cells, expanded over fi fteen part of this injustice. It is this sense of movements, is unlike any other stan- complicity that has largely contrib- dard piece in the choral repertoire. uted to the work’s universal success. The composition, while tricky at fi rst Reactions have been astounding: on sight, eff ortlessly weaves these cells a critical level it has been lauded since into an approachable and relatable its premiere and was awarded the idiom for singers and audiences alike. -
FLOWER INTO KINDNESS by Jake Runestad (Choral Score
JR0066-2 - RUNESTAD: FLOWER INTO KINDNESS Jake Runestad FLOWER INTO KINDNESS for chorus & string quartet Piano/Vocal Score Music jakerunestad.com TEXT FLOWER INTO KINDNESS The soul is made of love and must ever return to love. There is nothing so wise, nor so beautiful, nor so strong as love. (Mechthild von Magdeburg) Above all, love. I shed my words on the earth as the tree sheds its leaves. Let my thoughts unspoken f lower into kindness. (Rabindranath Tagore) PERFORMANCE TIME c. 5:30 ABOUT THE WORK This work is a movement from “Into the Light,” an extended work for chorus and orchestra, originally commissioned by Valparaiso University in commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Christopher M. Cock, conductor, Valparaiso University Chorale, and director of the Bach Institute. Funded through the Hoermann-Koch Sacred Music Endowment at Valparaiso University. This new arrangement was created for Craig Hella Johnson and Conspirare, featured on their all-Runestad album “The Hope of Loving.” ABOUT THE COMPOSER Considered “one of the best of the younger American composers” (Chicago Tribune), award-winning composer and conductor Jake Runestad has received commissions and performances from leading ensembles such as VOCES8, the Philippine Madrigal Singers, Washington National Opera, the Netherlands Radio Choir, Seraphic Fire, the Swedish Radio Symphony, the Dallas Symphony Chorus, the Pacific Chorale, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, and an all-Runestad album from Grammy-winning Craig Hella Johnson and Conspirare. Jake’s visceral music and charismatic personality have fostered a busy schedule of commissions, residencies, workshops, and conducting engagements, enabling him to share his passion for creativity, expressivity, and community with musicians around the world. -
Story Time by Alex Ross the New Yorker April 28, 2014
Story Time by Alex Ross The New Yorker April 28, 2014 Zankel Hall, the coolly futuristic space beneath the main auditorium of Carnegie Hall, opened a decade ago, amid what turned out to be a golden age of adventurous programming at the Carnegie complex. John Adams oversaw a crazyquilt festival; farseeing composers like Frederic Rzewski and Meredith Monk shared space with Youssou N’Dour and Ustad Vilayat Khan; John Cage and Morton Feldman, musical leaders of the heroic midcentury generation that also produced Abstract Expressionism, were celebrated more than five decades after their first meeting, which took place in the Carnegie lobby, as both men fled a performance of Rachmaninoff’s “Symphonic Dances.” These days, Carnegie follows a more conservative line: Rachmaninoff takes precedence over Cage and Feldman. But Zankel remains a welcoming space for wayward artists, and this month it will host “Collected Stories,” a sixconcert series curated by the Pulitzer Prizewinning composer David Lang, who occupies the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair at Carnegie. Lang explores the various ways in which music suggests a narrative: each program is tagged with a topic (“hero,” “spirit,” “love/loss,” “travel,” “(post)folk,” “memoir”), and yet each presents a sharp internal contrast, with seemingly disparate styles juxtaposed. The tone is set by the first event, at which Benjamin Bagby’s bardic recitation of “Beowulf” will give way to the barbaric yawps of Harry Partch, who found an epic breadth in nineteenthirties hobo culture. In later concerts, audiences will hear “Passio,” Arvo Pärt’s impassive meditation on the Crucifixion of Christ; a spell of Tuvan throatsinging; folktinged pieces by Julia Wolfe, Nico Muhly, and Donnacha Dennehy; and, in a detour back into the Romantic mainstream, Liszt’s sprawling pianistic travelogue “Années de Pèlerinage.” Such groups as Alarm Will Sound, Ensemble Signal, and the earlymusic collective TENET participate; Louis Lortie, in a threehour marathon, confronts the Liszt. -
| Generational Frontiers |
CON L’ADESIONE DEL PRESIDENTE DELLA REPUBBLICA Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo via G. Palombini, 6 - 00165 Roma - Tel. +39.06.96519200 - Fax +39.06.96519220 [email protected] - www.tertiomillenniofilmfest.org | GENERATIONAL FRONTIERS | CON IL SOSTEGNO DI: IN COLLABORAZIONE CON: SPONSOR: 14 PROGRAMMA | PROGRAMME | Cinema Sala Trevi - Vicolo del Puttarello, 25 - Roma | | GENERATIONAL FRONTIERS | dicembre | december 2010 dicembre | december 2010 08 EVENTO SPECIALE | SPECIAL EVENT 09 VARIAZIONI SUL TEMA | 16.30 VARIATIONS ON THE THEME Intonazija. Sergej Slonimskij, kompositor 16.30 dicembre | december 2010 di | by Aleksandr Sokurov | 45’ Park Mark EVENTO SPECIALE | SPECIAL EVENT di | by Baktash Abtin | 42’ 07 EVENTO SPECIALE | SPECIAL EVENT Introduce | Introducing by Federico Pontiggia 16.30 17.30 Intonazija. Boris Averin, filolog Intonazija. Vladimir Yakunin, president OAO EVENTO SPECIALE | SPECIAL EVENT di | by Aleksandr Sokurov | 33’ Rossijskie železnye dorogi 18.15 EVENTO SPECIALE | SPECIAL EVENT di | by Aleksandr Sokurov | 45’ Intonazija. Boris Averin, filolog di | by Aleksandr Sokurov | 33’ 17.00 EVENTO SPECIALE | SPECIAL EVENT Intonazija. Arsen Kanokov, 18.30 EVENTO SPECIALE | SPECIAL EVENT president respubliki Kabardino-Balkaria WEDNESDAY Intonazija. Valerij Zor’kin, predsedatel’ 19.00 di | by Aleksandr Sokurov | 41’ | Konstituzionnogo suda Rossijskoj Federazii Intonazija. Arsen Kanokov, 18.00 di | by Aleksandr Sokurov | 50’ president respubliki Kabardino-Balkaria THURSDAY di | by Aleksandr Sokurov | 41’ Incontro con | Meeting with TESTIMONIANZE | PERSONAL STORIES | | Ornella Muti e | and Andrea Facchinetti 20.00 20.00 20.00 La morte rouge Incontro con | Meeting with TUESDAY Incontro con | Meeting with Aleksandr Sokurov di | by Víctor Erice | 32’ Mahamat-Saleh Haroun | 2010 | | | e presentazione del libro | and book presentation: Introduce | Introducing by Alberto Barbera Modera | Chairman Valerio Sammarco Osservare l’incanto. -
AAR Magazine
AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME MAGAZINE SPRING 2017 Welcome to the Spring 2017 issue of AAR Magazine. This issue of AAR Magazine offers a summation of a very productive year. We feature the scholars and artists in our creative community at the culmination of their research and look at how the Fellows’ Project Fund has expanded their possibilities for collaborat- ing and presenting their work in intriguing ways. We update this year’s exploration of American Classics with reports on a February conference and previews of events still to come, including an exhibition fea- turing new work by artist Charles Ray. You will also find a close look at AAR’s involvement in archaeology and details of a new Italian Fellowship sponsored by Fondazione Sviluppo e Crescita CRT. And, of course, we introduce the Rome Prize win- ners and Italian Fellows for 2017–2018! Vi diamo il benvenuto al numero “Primavera 2017” dell’AAR Magazine. Questo numero dell’AAR Magazine riassume il lavoro prodotto in un anno eccezionale. Vi presentiamo gli studiosi e gli artisti della nostra comunità creativa al culmine della loro ricerca e siamo lieti di mostrare quanto il Fellows’ Project Fund abbia ampliato le loro possibilità di collaborare e presentare le proprie opere in modo affascinante. Aggiorniamo la pan- oramica fatta quest’anno sugli American Classics con il resoconto del convegno tenutosi a febbraio e con le anticipazioni sui prossimi eventi, tra i quali una mostra con una nuova opera dell’artista Charles Ray. Daremo uno sguardo da vicino all’impegno dell’AAR nel campo dell’archeologia e alla nuova Borsa di studio per Italiani finanziata da Fondazione Sviluppo e Crescita CRT. -
THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL PASSION Redeemer Presbyterian Church
TEXAS 3-SHOW PERFORMING SUBSCRIPTIONS ARTS $ UNDER 2016/17 ESSENTIAL SERIES 100 Folk Music, Georgia (Europe), Traditional, Vocal Ensemble, World Music Ensemble Basiani NOV 4 | MCCULLOUGH THEATRE Masterworks from the noble choral tradition of Georgian folk song and chant. Upcoming Performances Grupo Corpo OCT 6 Love and Duty A Celebration of the Music of Brahms NOV 9 & 11 Lost Girl A Texas Theatre and Dance Production NOV 9–20 Spectrum Dance Theater + Donald Byrd Rambunctious NOV 17 & 18 National Theatre of Scotland Let The Right One In JAN 18–29 September 30 & October 1, 2016 texasperformingarts.org $10 STUDENT | $12 MILITARY TICKETS 1 autumn song featuring THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL PASSION Redeemer Presbyterian Church FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 8PM SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1, 8PM Craig Hella Johnson, Artistic Director & Conductor Stefanie Moore, soprano Kathlene Ritch, alto Dann Coakwell, tenor Cameron Beauchamp, bass Thomas Burritt, percussion guest vocalist, Wravan Godsoe pre-concert talk each night at 7pm post-concert reception following Friday’s performance Season Sustaining Underwriter 1 1 Dear Friends, PART ONE 7iViÌÕÀwÀÃÌVViÀÌvviÀ} The Little Match Girl Passion Words and Music by David Lang (b.1957) in the 2016-2017 Conspirare season. after Hans Christian Andersen, H.P. Paulli, Picander and Saint Matthew It is our great privilege and joy to sing for you. We regularly boast that 1. Come, daughter 9. Have mercy, my God we are fortunate to sing for the most 2. It was terribly cold 10. She lighted another match extraordinary audience members 3. Dearest heart 11. From the sixth hour anywhere. We experience a deep level 4. -
The Role of Program Notes in Nonmusicians' Enjoyment of Choral
Texas Music Education Research 2016 The Role of Program Notes in Nonmusicians’ Enjoyment of Choral Music Samuel M. Parrott Texas State University Amy L. Simmons The University of Texas at Austin Background Performing musicians have a vested interest in understanding factors that can influence concertgoers’ enjoyment of live music, particularly when those in attendance have no extensive music training, no developed preference for the genre of music being performed, and are listening to music that is unfamiliar. The more information musicians have about factors that may increase listening enjoyment for nonmusicians, the better able they may be to deliberately enhance the concert experience. Psychologists and musicians have long studied variables that affect listeners’ responses to unfamiliar music and have described both musical and extra-musical factors that contribute to enjoyment. Regarding repertoire, we know that compositional elements of music typically affect listeners’ enjoyment (for a review, see Teo, 2003). Listeners tend to like melodies that follow scalar patterns, are predictable, and employ repetition that generates a measure of familiarity in the moment. Open and consonant harmonies (e.g., 4ths, 5ths, and octaves) are enjoyed more than dissonant ones (e.g., 2nds, 6ths, and 7ths), and listeners tend to like upbeat music that maintains tempo and incorporates steady rhythms. Taken together, Teo’s data suggest that listeners tend to like relatively simple music more than complex combinations of compositional elements. Teo’s review also states that the typical listener prefers instrumental over vocal music (with the exception of popular songs). Although this review did not address the influence of song lyrics or the text of classical choral pieces on listeners’ responses, the idea that lyrics and text may play a role in the enjoyment of these genres of music is worthy of investigation. -
Considering Matthew Shepard Composed & Conducted by CRAIG HELLA JOHNSON CONSPIRARE Craig Hella Johnson (B
Considering Matthew Shepard Composed & Conducted by CRAIG HELLA JOHNSON CONSPIRARE Craig Hella Johnson (b. 1962) Considering Matthew Shepard CONSPIRARE Commissioned by Fran and Larry Collmann and Conspirare CRAIG HELLA Johnson Dedicated to Philip Overbaugh PrologUE 1 (1 ) Cattle, Horses, Sky and Grass MA 7’14 1 (18) Recitation VI KRh 0’22 2 (2) Ordinary Boy KRi, HK, MA, CH 6’56 2 (19) The Fence (one week later) MG 3’20 1 3 (3) We Tell Each Other Stories SM 4’06 3 (20) Recitation VII TS 0’28 2 56’22 4 (21 ) Stars JMi 3’17 49’04 Passion 5 (22) Recitation VIII MD 0’29 4 (4) Recitation I SB 0’36 6 (23) In Need of Breath DC 5’25 5 (5) The Fence (before) CB 2’33 7 (24) Gently Rest (Deer Lullaby) 4’22 6 (6) Recitation II DF 0’56 8 (25) Recitation IX JCC 0’43 7 (7) The Fence (that night) DB 5’52 9 (26) Deer Song SDT, EG, SM 4’12 8 (8) Recitation III MG 1’18 10 (27) Recitation X DB 0’33 9 (9) A Protestor 3’22 11 (28) The Fence (after) / The Wind 4’57 10 (10) Keep it Away From Me 12 (29) Pilgrimage SAW, CB, DF, RG, HK, JMi, KRi, SM, MG, SB, JCC, JMc 5’14 (The Wound of Love) LMW, Trio: SAW, SM, EG 3’51 11 (11 ) Recitation IV SAW 1’04 EpilogUE 12 (12) Fire of the Ancient Heart DB, CB 4’51 13 (30) Meet Me Here KRi, SAW 4’24 13 (13) Recitation V RG 0’39 14 (31 ) Thank You SM, DF 2’36 14 (14) Stray Birds 1’33 15 (32) All of Us SDT, MD, SM 6’06 15 (15) We Are All Sons (part 1) 0’40 16 (33) Cattle, Horses, Sky and Grass (Reprise) MA 2’35 16 (16) I am Like You/We Are All Sons (part 2) Quartet: EG, KRi, CH, JP 7’35 17 (17) The Innocence MA 3’17 CONSPIRARE CRAIG HELLA Johnson Artistic Director and Conductor Soprano Alto Tenor Bass Instrumentalists Mela Dailey Sarah Brauer Matt Alber Cameron Beauchamp Vanguel Tangarov, clarinet Melissa Givens Janet Carlsen Campbell J.D. -
Passion Settings of the 20Th and 21St Centuries Focusing on Craig Hella
PASSION SETTINGS OF THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURIES FOCUSING ON CRAIG HELLA JOHNSON’S CONSIDERING MATTHEW SHEPARD Robert Clark Ward, B.M., M.M. Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS August 2016 APPROVED: Richard Sparks, Major Professor and Chair of the Division of Conducting and Emsembles Stephen Austin, Committee Member Greg Hobbs, Committee Member Benjamin Brand, Director of Graduate Studies in the College of Music John Richmond, Dean of the College of Music Victor Prybutok, Vice Provost of the Toulouse Graduate School Ward, Robert Clark. Passion Settings of the 20th and 21st Centuries Focusing on Craig Hella Johnson’s Considering Matthew Shepard. Doctor of Musical Arts (Performance), August 2016, 72 pp., 1 table, 3 musical examples, bibliography, 47 titles. Craig Hella Johnson (b. 1963) has emerged as a leader in choral music over the last 20 years. As the conductor of the Austin, TX based chorus Conspirare Johnson implemented the European model of bringing singers together from all over the country to assemble for concerts and recordings over a short period of time. He is known for his collage programs which bring together many styles of music bound by a central theme. Through these programs he has written and arranged many pieces which are now published and being performed by choirs across the globe. Johnson's most significant work to date is a 90 minute passion oratorio which details the story of Matthew Shepard, a college student murdered in a hate crime in 1998. Considering Matthew Shepard (2016) is a wonderful example of Johnson’s composition and programming style.