The Vancouver Cantata Singers The VCS Board Paula Kremer, Artistic Director President: Sarah McNair Vice-President: Jesse Read Rachel Brown Eric Biskupski Treasurer: Christina Cho Emily Cheung Mark Anthony Briand Secretary: Jim Sanyshyn Missy Clarkson Sam Dabrusin Hannah Gee Dean Edmundson Directors: Boaz Av-Ron, Melody Yiu Wendy McMillan Ray Horst Trevor Mangion, C.D. Saint Benila Ninan Andrew Lennox Singers’ Rep: Sarah McGrath Hilary Piets Daniel Marshall Asha Pratt-Johnson Taka Shimojima The VCS Staff Eve Richardson Nick Sommer General Manager: Michelle Herrewynen Troy Topnik Front of House Manager: Genevieve MacKay

Melanie Adams Peter Alexander Maureen Bennington Andy Booth Thank you to this evening’s volunteers: Ann Chen Derrick Christian Desmond Cooper Elspeth Finlay Doug Colpitts Alan Woodland Mavis Friesen Chris Doughty Hannah Gustafson Philippa Taylor Beth Helsley Matthew Fisher Nina Horvath Gerald Harder Katie Horst J. Evan Kreider www.vancouvercantatasingers.com Sarah McNair Larry Nickel Follow us on Dave Rosborough

Born in Vancouver and educated at the Vancouver Academy of Music and the University of British Columbia, Paula Kremer has studied choral conducting in courses and workshops at Eton, Westminster College, the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan. Holding an ARCT in both piano and voice from the Royal Conservatory of Music, Paula has also studied voice with Phyllis Mailing, Bruce Pullan, Marisa Gaetanne and Laura Pudwell, and piano from Margot Ehling. A full-time faculty member of the School of Music at Vancouver Community College, teaching voice, solfege, and choir, she was also the director of two Vancouver Bach Choir ensembles for young adults from 2009-17, the Vancouver Bach Youth Choir and Sarabande Chamber Choir. Paula joined the alto section of our choir in 1994, and has been the Vancouver Cantata Singers’ Artistic Director since 2013.

2 - THRENODY: REQUIEM AND REMEMBRANCE THRENODY REQUIEM AND REMEMBRANCE

Saturday, November 10, 2018 7:30 p.m. Christ Church Cathedral, Vancouver, B.C.

O Radiant Dawn James MacMillan Hymn to the Creator of Light John Rutter Requiem Herbert Howells I. Salvator mundi II. Psalm 23 III. Requiem aeternam (1) IV. Psalm 121 V. Requiem aeternam (2) VI. I heard a voice from heav’n

Interval Threnody Jean Coulthard Woman Kristi Lane Sinclair A Good-night Richard Rodney Bennett There is an old belief C. H. H. Parry The Turtle Dove Ralph Vaughan Williams Lux aeterna Edward Elgar, arr. John Cameron The Dying Soldier arr. Nigel Short and Mack Wilberg Abide with me Monk, arr. Worthington / Leighton / Kremer / Rosborough The Long Day Closes Arthur Sullivan for Athene

Vancouver Cantata Singers acknowledges that today’s concert takes place on the unceded homelands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.

THRENODY: REQUIEM AND REMEMBRANCE - 3 THRENODY REQUIEM AND REMEMBRANCE Programme notes by J. Evan Kreider1

Preface

People might like to imagine great focusing exclusively on creating wonderful compositions. However, even the most brilliant composers led ordinary lives, and most would gladly have composed more music had they not needed to teach to earn a living. Consider what the noted musicologist Paul Spicer2 says about the life and mind of Herbert Howells, this evening’s featured :

Herbert Howells was a great musician, a complex man, a devoted and devastated father, a loyal but weak and unfaithful husband, a sensualist though not a hedonist, a teacher, adjudicator, examiner, writer and speaker, and almost last of all, a composer. And yet it is because he was a composer that we most celebrate him. Why does this creative act so endlessly fascinate people? What is it about composers which marks them out as extraordinary, so that we imbue them with a kind of sanctity which makes it difficult to imagine that they were actual flesh and blood? The contemporary composers we know and mix with pay their mortgages, have overdrafts, cars and electricity bills just like the rest of us. . . . . Death is a transfiguration. In dying, composers, like writers and artists, leave a key to their souls, through which they live on, furthering the notion of immortality. Unlike most people, they leave part of themselves with us to be rediscovered with each new performance. Somehow, because of the nature of music, the composer speaks more fundamentally for all of us than any other creative artist. He articulates what we are unable to say for ourselves, and each of us hears in the composer’s voice what we want to hear, at any given moment and in our own way.

Programme

O Radiant Dawn James MacMillan

James MacMillan, Scotland’s foremost living composer (b. 1959), added “O Radiant Dawn” (2007) to his ever-expanding Strathclyde Motets, a series undertaken in 2005, which by now has grown to include settings of 14 liturgical texts. This motet is built on one of the seven ‘O Antiphons’ sung before the Magnificat during Vespers on the seven days leading up to Christmas. Written

1 Professor Emeritus of Musicology, UBC, Member of VCS 2 Paul Spicer, Herbert Howells (Bridgend, Wales: Poetry Wales Press, Ltd., 1998), p. 7.

4 - THRENODY: REQUIEM AND REMEMBRANCE for December 21st, the text contrasts people dwelling “in darkness and the shadow of death” (the women’s voices seemingly stumble, jumping by octaves) with the promised “Radiant Dawn”, one of three metaphors used in this ‘O Antiphon’ to describe Jesus. The clearly separated phrases eventually evolve into repeated single words, such as “come . . . come” or the series of gently-rocking Amens which concludes the work.

O Radiant Dawn, Splendour of eternal Light, Sun of Justice, Come, shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

Isaiah had prophesied, ‘The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone.’ Isaiah 9:1

O Radiant Dawn, Splendour of eternal Light, Sun of Justice, Come, shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death. Amen. Medieval ‘O Antiphon’ for The Magnificat, Vespers, December 21st

Hymn to the Creator of Light John Rutter

John Rutter (b. 1945) composed this motet for double choir in memory of Herbert Howells (whose Requiem is heard next), one of England’s most influential composition professors. Rutter dedicated his motet to the three cathedral , Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester (and their respective conductors), which have formed the core of the annual week-long Three Choirs Festival for the past 300 years. This motet about light was premiered by these choirs at the unveiling and dedication of the Howells Memorial Window at Gloucester Cathedral.

Bishop Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626) was a remarkable poet, churchman, and scholar. Being fluent in 21 languages, he chaired the committee of scholars which translated the King James Version of the bible. The first poem in Rutter’s motet is taken from a translation of Andrewes’s prayer in Greek from the “Course of Prayer for the Week: The First Day”. Rutter asks that the beginning of the poem be sung lento misterioso (slowly, with a sense of mystery). In the second half of the first poem (allegro energico), the two choirs give thanks for the law, prophets, psalms, etc.

The motet then transitions from the first poem into the second by eliding the first poem’s last word “light” (as in sun light) with the second poem’s first word “Light” (a metaphor for Christ). The second poem is a translation of a German text associated with Crüger’s chorale tune, Schmücke dich, which is still sung in traditional churches today. Rutter provides a rich modern harmonization, concluding by quoting “Creator of the visible light” one last time.

THRENODY: REQUIEM AND REMEMBRANCE - 5 Lento misterioso Glory be to thee, O lord, glory be to thee, Creator of the visible light, The sun’s ray, the flame of fire; Creator also of the light invisible and intellectual: That which is known of God, the light invisible.

Allegro energico Glory be to thee, O Lord, glory be to thee, Creator of the Light, For writings of the law, glory be to thee: For oracles of prophets, glory be to thee: For melody of psalms, glory be to thee: For wisdom of proverbs, glory be to thee: Experience of histories, glory be to thee: A light which never sets. God is the Lord, who hath shewed us light. Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626), trans. Alexander Whyte (1836-1921) in Lancelot Andrewes and His Private Devotions (1895) Andante tranquillo Light who dost my soul enlighten. Sun, who all my life dost brighten, Joy, the sweetest man e’er knoweth; Fount, whence all my being floweth, From thy banquet let me measure, Lord, how vast and deep its treasure; Through the gifts thou here dost give us, As thy guest in heav’n receive us. Chorale melody: Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele by Johann Crüger (1598-1662); text by Johann Franck (1618-1677), trans. Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878) in The Chorale Book for England (1863)

Requiem Herbert Howells

Howells (1892-1983) composed these individual movements in 1932 at the suggestion of Boris Ord, choirmaster of King’s College, Cambridge. For reasons unknown, Howells delayed sending the manuscripts to Cambridge. Four years later, when the composer’s nine-year-old son Michael died unexpectedly from a virulent form of polio (the sickness had become evident only earlier), Howells associated the texts and music of his Requiem with his “loss essentially profound”. Some four decades later, at the urging of friends and colleagues, Howells allowed Joan Littlejohn to identify and reassemble these manuscripts, which were finally published in 1980.

The overall form of the Requiem is: Motet / Psalm & Requiem / Psalm & Requiem / Motet.

6 - THRENODY: REQUIEM AND REMEMBRANCE I. Salvator mundi

O Saviour of the world, who by thy Cross and thy precious Blood hast redeemed us, help us, save us, we humbly beseech thee, O Lord. Antiphon for the Feast of the Exultation of the Holy Cross (September 14)

II. Psalm 23

[Emily Cheung, Melanie Adams, Eric Biskupski, soloists]

The Lord is my shepherd, therefore can I lack nothing. He shall feed me in a green pasture, and lead me forth beside the waters of comfort. He shall convert my soul, and bring me forth in the paths of righteousness, for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; thy rod and thy staff comfort me. Thou shalt prepare a table before me against them that trouble me; thou hast anointed my head with oil, and my cup shall be full. But thy loving kindness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

III. Requiem aeternam (1)

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Rest eternal grant to them, et lux perpetua luceat eis. and let perpetual light shine on them. Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine. Rest eternal grant to them, O Lord. Opening lines from the Introit to the Mass for the Faithful Departed

IV. Psalm 121

[Dave Rosborough, soloist]

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh even from the Lord who hath made heav’n and earth he will not suffer thy foot to be moved and he that keepeth thee will not sleep. Behold, he that keepeth Israel

THRENODY: REQUIEM AND REMEMBRANCE - 7 shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord himself is thy keeper: he is thy defence upon thy right hand; so that the sun shall not burn thee by day, neither the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: yea, it is even he that shall keep thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out, and thy coming in; from this time forth and forever more

V. Requiem aeternam (2)

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Rest eternal grant to them, et lux perpetua luceat eis. and let perpetual light shine on them Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine. Rest eternal grant to them, O Lord.

VI. I heard a voice from heaven

[Troy Topnik, Peter Alexander, soloists]

I heard a voice from heav’n, saying unto me, Write: From henceforth blessed are the dead which die in the Lord; Even so saith the Spirit; for they rest from their labours. Revelation 14:13

Interval

Threnody Jean Coulthard

Jean Coulthard (1908-2000) was one of Vancouver’s first composers to write choral music. Born in Vancouver, Coulthard eventually studied composition at London’s Royal College of Music under Ralph Vaughan Williams (we will hear his “Song of the Turtle Dove” later this evening). While continuing to compose, she also studied with Bartók, Schoenberg, and Copland. Returning to Vancouver after the war, Coulthard taught music at UBC for 26 years. For “Threnody” (1933), Coulthard set Robert Herrick’s poem, “An Epitaph upon a Virgin”. Of his 2,500 poems, he is best known for “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may”.

Coulthard set this poem as a lullaby “In memoriam to J. R. C.”, her mother, Jean Robinson Coulthard, who died suddenly from a severe appendix attack on July 16, 1933, in the days before antibiotics. Since Coulthard took organ lessons at Christ Church Cathedral as a teenager, she wrote this work imagining it being sung in this cathedral’s acoustics.

8 - THRENODY: REQUIEM AND REMEMBRANCE Here a solemn fast we keep, While all beauty lies asleep. Hush’d be all things—no noise here— But the toning of a tear: Or a sigh of such as bring Cowslips for her covering. Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

Woman Kristi Lane Sinclair

“Raised in the wilds of British Columbia”3 (Prince Rupert), Kristi Lane Sinclair moved to Vancouver, where she studied music at Vancouver Community College. “The Toronto-based singer/songwriter draws equally from her Haida/Cree heritage and her love of both grunge and to create a sound that challenges long-held preconceptions, while telling her own unique story.” She is the co-founder of the Red Ride Tour, a group of 15 Indigenous artists who concertize from coast to coast in Canada and the United States.

The composer told us that she wrote “Woman” as a solo song on Salt Spring Island in 2015 and later arranged it for mixed choir. This is a ceremonial song about missing Indigenous women, written to support the entire community through its time of grieving and honoring. It is also a call to action, asking that “all of you” (not just Indigenous people) address this national crisis so that there will come “a time when Indigenous women are treated with respect and our murdered and missing women are able to find peace.”

She once found me I need all of you She’s the soul Light me Love softly In you I breathe

She heard no warning Night sings softly Why won’t you find me? Believe I need all of you In you I breathe Kristi Lane Sinclair

3For this and other information on Kristi Lane Sinclair, visit: http://kristilanesinclair.ca/#about THRENODY: REQUIEM AND REMEMBRANCE - 9 A Good-night Richard Rodney Bennett

Francis Quarles was equally prolific as a writer of poetry and prose (18 books) and as a father (18 children). Sir Richard Rodney Bennett (1936-2012) composed more than 50 scores for film and television and performed as a jazz pianist. In 1999, he contributed this setting of Quarles’s poem to “A Garland for Linda”, a collection of works honouring Linda McCartney (1941-1998), the wife of Paul McCartney. Linda met Paul while photographing the launch of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Band for The Rolling Stone. They then co-produced albums for his band, Wings.

Close now thine eyes and rest secure; Thy Soule is safe enough; thy Body sure; He that loves thee, he that keepes And guards thee, never slumbers, never sleepes. The smiling Conscience in a brest Has only peace, has only rest: The musicke and the mirth of Kings Are all but Discords when she sings; Then close thine Eyes and rest secure; No Sleepe so sweet as thine, no rest so sure. Francis Quarles (1592-1644), Divine Fancies: digested into epigrammes, meditations, and observations, Book IV (London, 1632).

There is an old belief Charles Hubert Hastings Parry

This wonderful poem was written by the Scottish lawyer, John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854), who is best known for his seven-volume biography of his father-in-law, Sir Walter Scott. Lockhart’s letter of April 1, 1842 to “Dear [Thomas] Carlyle” expressed sympathy to the family for the loss of his wife’s mother.

I have outlived so many friends, and am left with so few, that it is no wonder I should dwell a good deal more in the past than the present; but I am nevertheless quite alive to whatever interests and concerns you, and therefore your wife—never seen by me, alas! but often heard of, and respected for her own sake as well as Thomas Carlyle’s afar off. . . .

The letter then concludes with this poem written the previous year, followed by “Yours very truly, J. G. Lockhart.”

This year marks the centenary of the death of C. H. H. Parry (1848-1918), one of England’s leading composers, teachers, and writers. His music first received national attention at the Three Choirs Festival in 1880. About a decade earlier, he contributed some 120 articles to George Grove’s

10 - THRENODY: REQUIEM AND REMEMBRANCE Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Parry taught at the Royal College of Music, later succeeding Grove as Head. There he mentored Ralph Vaughan Williams, one of this evening’s composers. Throughout his life, he remained an avid supporter of the Three Choirs Festival, occasionally using his own meager salary to keep the Festival going when the crusty Bishop of Winchester would have preferred to close it down.

Parry composed of Farewell during the horrors of World War I. He could hardly imagine Germany, the country which had nourished the composers he so admired, being at war with his beloved England—an entire generation of male musicians dying on both sides. These Songs of Farewell were to be his final compositions, for though he was but 70, he was now having as many as three heart attacks daily. The songs were published in 1918, the year he died. This song was performed at Parry’s funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral, where his ashes are buried.

There is an old belief, That on some solemn shore, Beyond the sphere of grief Dear friends shall meet once more.

Beyond the sphere of Time and Sin And Fate’s control, Serene in changeless prime Of body and of soul.

That creed I fain would keep, That hope I’ll ne'er forgo, Eternal be the sleep, If not to waken so. John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854)

The Turtle Dove Ralph Vaughan Williams

Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) is often considered the founder of England’s nationalist music movement. After studying composition under Parry and Stanford in England, he continued working under Max Bruch in Berlin and Maurice Ravel in Paris. However, his interest in English folksongs gave him a different voice, one ‘without a German accent’.

As is typical of so many favourite folksongs, there are multiple versions for the text of “The Turtle Dove”. In 1907, Cecil Sharp published a version he had heard in Dorsetshire. Later, he would encounter another nine distinct versions in the Appalachian Mountains. Some say that Vaughan Williams learned of this evening’s version from a Mr Pendfold, the landlord of the Plough Inn in Rusper, Sussex. Others claim he jotted it down when hearing it sung by a shepherd. In the biblical Song of Songs, turtle doves were known both for their mourning and for forming strong pair bonds.

THRENODY: REQUIEM AND REMEMBRANCE - 11 [Peter Alexander, soloist] Fare you well, my dear, I must be gone, And leave you for a while; If I roam away I'll come back again, Though I roam ten thousand miles, my dear Though I roam ten thousand miles. So fair thou art my bonny lass, So deep in love am I; But I never will prove false to the bonny lass I love, Till the stars fall from the sky, my dear, Till the stars fall from the sky. The sea will never run dry, my dear, Nor the rocks never melt with the sun, But I never will prove false to the bonny lass I love, Till all these things be done, my dear, Till all these things be done. O yonder doth sit that little turtle dove, He doth sit on yonder high tree, A-making a moan for the loss of his love, As I will do for thee, my dear, As I will do for thee. English folksong

Remember Stephen Chatman

Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) grew up in England with her Italian parents who had been exiled because of their revolutionary sympathies. The children were truly talented. Her brothers founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and its journal, The Germ, in which Christina published as ‘Ellen Alleyn’. She is often named as one of the foremost female writers of the 19th century. For a decade, she also performed volunteer work at the penitentiary for prostitutes and unmarried mothers in Highgate, London.

In the initial eight lines of her contemplative Petrarchan sonnet, Rossetti begins by repeatedly asking that she be remembered. The sixth line possibly criticizes her beloved for planning their future without consulting her. In the second part of the sonnet (lines 9-12), Rossetti changes mood by admitting the possibility of her being forgotten. By the poem’s conclusion (the volta, the final two lines in which the text always ‘turns’ unexpectedly), Rossetti gives her beloved permission to forget her altogether, for it is better that “you should forget and smile/Than that you should remember and be sad.” Here and elsewhere, Rossetti embraces the Pre-Raphaelite philosophy of accepting death. Stephen Chatman (b. 1950) has taught composition at UBC since the 1970s. His compositions, well-known to Vancouver audiences, are also performed internationally. This song was commissioned and recorded by the Vancouver Chamber Choir.

12 - THRENODY: REQUIEM AND REMEMBRANCE Remember me when I am gone away, A Gone far away into the silent land; B When you can no more hold me by the hand. B Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay. A Remember me when no more day by day A You tell me of our future that you plann’d; B Only remember me; you understand B It will be late to counsel then or pray. A Yet if you should forget me for a while C And afterwards remember, do not grieve: D For if the darkness and corruption leave D A vestige of the thoughts that one I had, E Better by far you should forget and smile C [the volta, where the sonnet ‘turns’] Than that you should remember and be sad. E Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

Lux aeterna Edward Elgar, arr. John Cameron

John Cameron (b. 1944) is known for his compositions for stage (including Les Misérables), more than 30 films, and numerous TV productions such as Jack the Ripper and Disney’s Little House on the Prairie. Edward Elgar’s Nimrod from the Enigma Variations for orchestra (Op. 36, 1899) has often been associated with Remembrance Day in the UK. Lux aeterna is John Cameron’s eight-voice choral arrangement (1996) of Nimrod.

Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine: May light eternal shine upon them, O Lord: Cum sanctis tuis in aeternum: With your saints in eternity; Quia pius es. For you are merciful. Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine; Rest eternal give to them, O Lord; Et lux perpetua luceat eis And let perpetual light shine upon them.

Communion for the Mass for the Faithful Departed, taken from 4 Esdras 2:35 & 34

The Dying Soldier arr. Nigel Short and Mack Wilberg

Nigel Short (b. 1965) sang countertenor with The King’s Singers (1994-2000) and now conducts his choir Tenebrae and various orchestras, leads workshops, arranges, records, and is frequently heard on the BBC. For this arrangement, Nigel Short collaborated with Mack Wilberg (b. 1955), well-known composer, arranger, and current conductor of the Tabernacle Choir.

Literature, folklore, poems, ballads, novels, and movies have often portrayed the thoughts and fears of young soldiers finally aware that death is imminent, and that there is no hope of ever again seeing loved ones. This ballad, set during the American Civil War (1861-65), is one of the “Little Johnnie Green” variations which likely descended from “Barbara Allen”, a ballad from Scotland.

THRENODY: REQUIEM AND REMEMBRANCE - 13 Some estimate that as many soldiers perished during the American Civil War as in the “Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War combined.”4 Many men dying in the Civil War were young fathers. The emotional, social, and economic consequences were unthinkable. Families at that time often gathered around a dying person to hear and treasure their last words, for it was believed that a dying person never lied, and that they could offer wisdom when looking back on life. But these soldiers were dying far from home, under deplorable conditions, even wondering if their loved ones would ever know. Since their families would have been particularly concerned about the state of the faith of their loved ones at the moment of death, words such as “I love my Jesus” would have given families considerable comfort.

[Dave Rosborough, soloist] O Brother Green, O brother I O come to me, Am dying now, For I am shot and bleeding. O I do die so easy.

Now I must die, Surely death has No more to see Lost its sting [1 Corinthians 15:55] My wife and my dear children. Because I love my Jesus.6

The fighting foe Go tell my wife Has laid me low She must not grieve. On this cold ground, to suffer. Go kiss my little children.

Stay brother, stay For they will call And lay me away, For me in vain And write my wife a letter.5 When I am gone into heaven. American folksong during the Civil War

4 Drew Gilpin Faust, “The Civil War Soldier and the Art of Dying,” in The Journal of Southern History, Vol. LXVII, No. 1 (February 2001), p. 3.

5 These letters were frequently written by comrades to help the family imagine they had been present at the time of death. Some distraught dying soldiers even asked others to compose appropriate ‘last words’ for them. Other soldiers carried their letters of farewell (with ‘last words’) into battle.

6 To modern ears, this phrase seems out of context, but not to Americans during the Civil War. Five years prior to that war, Frederick Whitfield’s “There is a Name I love to hear” reached the United States from England. Very soon thereafter, some unknown person added the refrain, “Oh, how I love Jesus”, thereby transforming the hymn text into a Gospel Song with a new snappy tune. This song immediately became enormously popular with people and churches molded by the earlier revival meeting movements. Being eventually included in more than 490 hymnals and songbooks, this refrain would have been memorized by hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides of the war.

14 - THRENODY: REQUIEM AND REMEMBRANCE Abide with me Monk, arr. Worthington / Leighton / Kremer / Rosborough The Scottish Anglican minister, Henry Francis Lyte (1793-1847), is best known for this poem which has thus far been included in more than 1,400 hymnals. The poem’s imagery demonstrates the importance of his faith while facing the inevitable approach of death from tuberculosis. His daughter reported that he wrote these lyrics three weeks before his death. The poem was first sung at Lyte`s funeral to the melody he composed for it.

During one of his committee’s editorial meetings for Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1861, William Henry Monk (1823-1889) realized that this poem needed better music, so he composed both melody and harmony (‘Eventide’) in ten minutes while others talked. This version became enormously popular. Survivors said that Titanic’s band played “Abide with me” as the ship slowly slipped to its grave. Since 1927, English sports fans have been singing the hymn’s first and last verses as a tribute to sportsmen who lost their lives in war. This can still be heard before the kickoff of every FA Cup Final (soccer) and every Rugby League Challenge Cup Final.

Abide with me, fast falls the eventide; The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide! When other helpers fail and comforts flee, Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day; Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away; Change and decay in all around I see; O thou who changes not, abide with me.

I need thy presence ev’ry passing hour; What but thy grace can foil the tempter’s power? Who like thyself my guide and stay can be? Through cloud and sunshine, O abide with me.

I fear no foe with thee at hand to bless; Ills have no weight and tears no bitterness. Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory? [1 Corinthians 15:55] I triumph still if thou abide with me.

Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes; Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies; Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee; In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me! Henry Francis Lyte (1793-1847)

THRENODY: REQUIEM AND REMEMBRANCE - 15 The Long Day Closes Arthur Sullivan

Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) is best known for collaborating with W.S. Gilbert to produce 14 comic operas. Before those stage triumphs, Sullivan made a living as a church organist, music teacher, and writer of some 80 songs and ballads. For this evening’s part song, Sullivan set the poem by Henry Fothergill Chorley (1808-1872) to music in 1868 and published it in The Orpheus, a small collection of seven secular part songs for men’s voices. For years, this was sung at the funerals of former performers at the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company. Although Sullivan wrote a piano accompaniment to assist amateurs at home, it can also be sung a cappella.

Quartet: Erik Biskupski, Taka Shimojima, Sam Dabrusin, and Derrick Christian

No star is o’er the lake, The lighted windows dim Its pale watch keeping, Are fading slowly. The moon is half awake, The fire that was so trim Through gray mist creeping, Now quivers lowly. The last red leaves fall round Go to the dreamless bed The porch of roses, Where grief reposes; The clock hath ceased to sound, Thy book of toil is read, The long day closes. The long day closes.

Sit by the silent hearth Henry Fothergill Chorley (1808-1872) In calm endeavour, To count the sounds of mirth, Now dumb for ever. Heed not how hope believes And fate disposes: Shadow is round the eaves, The long day closes.

16 - THRENODY: REQUIEM AND REMEMBRANCE Song for Athene John Tavener

Sir John Tavener (1944-2015) was England’s most famous composer of modern sacred music. After he converted from Protestantism to Orthodoxy, many of his compositions drew upon the rich liturgical tradition of Orthodoxy. Tavener composed this Threnody in 1993 in memory of Athene Hariades, a Greek/English actress and teacher who died in a cycling accident. While standing with others at her graveside, Tavener imagined unison Alleluias being sung over ‘the eternity note F’. When the structure for a completed work eluded him, Tavener asked his mentor and Orthodox nun, Mother Thekla, for assistance. She complimented the Alleluias with single lines of text drawn from Shakespeare (whose plays Athene performed so movingly) and the Orthodox Funeral Service.

The “Song for Athene” was televised around the world to an estimated 2.5 billion viewers when sung at the conclusion of the funeral for Princess Diana in 1997 at Paul’s Cathedral. The sustained bass note on low F becomes the musical metaphor of God’s immutable eternity, and the chant-like melody for “Alleluia” wavers between the downward minor and the upward major third, reflecting the tension we experience as we both mourn death and celebrate life.

[Very tender, with great inner stillness and serenity. Dave Rosborough, soloist] Alleluia. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. Shakespeare, , Act V, Scene ii Alleluia. Remember me, O Lord, when you come into your kingdom. Luke 23:42 and Orthodox Funeral Service Alleluia. Give rest, O Lord, to your servant who has fallen asleep. Orthodox Funeral Service Alleluia. The choir of saints have found the well-spring of life and door of paradise. Orthodox Funeral Service Alleluia. Life; a shadow and a dream. Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act II, Scene ii Alleluia. Weeping at the grave creates the song: Orthodox Funeral Service

[With resplendent joy in the Resurrection] Alleluia. Come, enjoy rewards and crowns I have prepared for you. Orthodox Funeral Service Texts complied by Mother Thekla (1993)

THRENODY: REQUIEM AND REMEMBRANCE - 17 Interested in joining the VCS Board?

The Vancouver Cantata Society is always interested in hearing from individuals who would like to donate some of their time and skills to serve our organization.

We would be delighted to hear from potential board members who have experience relevant to non-profit governance including fundraising, communications, and networking.

Board members serve a two-year term. They support and provide leadership to senior staff, meet bi-monthly from September to May and attend other scheduled Society events. All enquiries may be emailed to [email protected].

18 - THRENODY: REQUIEM AND REMEMBRANCE Do you collect Aeroplan points? Do you know you can donate your points to VCS?

Vancouver Cantata Singers hopes to raise 160,000 Aeroplan points for our raffle fundraiser by November 30th. We are already halfway there. Another 80,000 points will meet our goal. Each charitable donation made through the Aeroplan member donation program will be topped up by a 10% contribution from Aeroplan.

- Log into Aeroplan.com

- Click on Use Your Miles tab

- Donate (search for Vancouver Cantata Singers)

Please note: tax receipts are not issued for donations of Aeroplan Miles. Aeroplan does not release the names of the Aeroplan donors. If you make a miles donation, please email [email protected] so we can acknowledge your contribution.

THRENODY: REQUIEM AND REMEMBRANCE - 19 Thank you to all those who have supported us in the current and past season! $3000+ Margot Ehling Robert & Michele Michaleski Mavis Friesen Scott Griffin $1000-2999 Allan Gautier Lesley & Gordon Finlay Judy Glabb Beth & Robert Helsley Jody Herrewynen Janice & J. Evan Kreider Kathy & Stan Hamilton Dalton Kremer Nina Horvath Paula Kremer Brian & Diane Pratt Johnston Jesse Read & Rapti Dietrich Derwyn & Janet Lea Troy Topnik Adrienne Lyall Alan Woodland & Michelle Herrewynen Daniel Marshall Patrick May (on behalf of the Vancouver Chopin Society) $500-999 Wendy McMillan In memory of Gunnar Brosamler Hilary Piets Darcy & Angela Clarkson Asha Pratt-Johnson Paul Kreider Jo-Anne Preston Dr. Langston Raymond C.D. Saint Paul Thiessen $250-$499 Kenneth Topnik Fiona Lam (in memory of Dr. Bik May Wai Laura Vogt & Dr. Chung Nin Lam) Chris & Wendy Walker Paddy MacLeod Gwyneth Westwick James McDowell James Wright Anthea Piets Anne Wyness Anonymous donor The Pourhouse Restaurant

Up to $249 Maureen Bennington Individuals through Aeroplan.ca points Norma Boutillier Chris Doughty Christina Cho Nina Horvath Mary Lynn Clark Alan Woodland & Michelle Herrewynen Shelagh Davies Anonymous donor

We’re pleased to acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia.