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Read Michael Driscoll's Progam Notes FROM THE MUSIC DIRECTOR The idea for this program began with Haydn’s Missa in angustiis, which roughly translates as “Mass for Troubled Times.” The exact reasons why Haydn titled this Mass as being for “troubled times” are not known for sure, but scholars have suggested several possible reasons for this particular title. One is that Haydn, by then in his mid‐ 60s, had recently been quite ill. Another is that he had to compose the Mass in a short six‐week period. A third possibility is that the usual orchestral forces available to him were restricted because his patron, Nikolaus II, was experiencing financial troubles as a result of political and financial instability in Europe. Related to that, Napoleon and the French were threatening Austria yet again. Perhaps it was a combination of all of these factors that prompted Haydn to label the work “in angustiis.” (The work later also became popularly known as the “Lord Nelson Mass,” though the reason for this association is not entirely clear.) Once I settled on the Haydn Mass, I began thinking about other works which might complement it. I eventually discovered David Conte’s September Sun, a work written in memory of those who perished on September 11, 2001. September Sun depicts the chaos of that dreadful day before concluding on an elegiac tone. Given the conflict inherent in both the Haydn and Conte works, I wanted to end the concert on a more optimistic note, and so I added Mack Wilberg’s arrangement of the African‐American spiritual Peace Like a River. The hopeful and uplifting message of the song is remarkable when one considers that it was originally sung by an enslaved people who would have had little reason for optimism. In January, one of our chorus members, Nurt Villani, suggested that since we were planning to do a Haydn work, perhaps we might be interested in having her nine‐year‐old son, Gabriel, play a Haydn keyboard concerto on which he had been working. Nurt sent me a YouTube clip of Gabi playing part of the Haydn work. I was immediately impressed with both Gabi’s musicality and his technical ability. I am thrilled to be able to feature him on today’s program with our professional orchestra accompanying him! ‐Michael Driscoll, music director PROGRAM NOTES By Michael Driscoll David Conte (b. 1955) David Conte has composed over 100 works, including six operas; a musical; and works for chorus, solo voice, orchestra, chamber music, organ, piano, guitar, and harp. He has received commissions from Chanticleer; the San Francisco Symphony Chorus; the Dayton, Oakland, and Stockton Symphoniees; the American Guild of Organists; the Sonoma City Opera; and the Gerbode Foundation.. In 2007 he received the Raymond W. Brock MMemorial Commission from the American Choral Directors Association. Conte was honored as aa Fulbright Scholar in Paris (where he studied with Nadia Boulanger), a Ralph Vaughan Williamss Fellow, and an Aspen Music Festival Conductinng Fellow. He has served on the faculties of Cornell University, Colgate University, and the Interlochen Center for the Arts. While at Cornell, he served as both the assistant director and the acting director of the Cornell Uniiversity Glee Club, for which he composed numerous works. He has been Professor of Composition and Conservatory Chorus conductor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music since 1985 and Composer‐in‐Residence with the theater company Thick Description since 1991. Conte earned his bachelor's degree from Bowling Green State University, where he studied with Wallace DePue, and his master’s and doctoral degrees from Cornell University, where he studied with Karel Husa and Steven Stucky. September Sun Soon after the events of 9/11, my dear friend and colleague William Trafka, Director of Music at St. Bartholomew's Church in New York, asked me to compose a memorial piece tto be performed at the one‐year Anniversary. Having recently completed with poet John Stirling Walker another memorial piece (Elegy for Matthew ‐ in memory of Matthew Shepard), I turned again to him for a text. “O Sun” (the second movement of “September Sun”) was written in a week in May of 2002; the rest of the work was composed in about three weeks the following July. The work was premiered at St. Bart's in September, 2002. “September Sun” is cast in four movements: I. Prelude (strings aloone); II. "O Sun" (for a cappella chorus): III. “In New York” (for chorus and strings): and IV. Postlude (musically identical to the Prelude). Remembering that Barber's “Adagio for Strings” had been played at President Roosevelt's funeral, I attempted to create a somewhat similar mood for this occasion of national mourning in my Prelude and Postlude. The second movement, “O Sun,” is in a loose rondo form, with a plaintive refrain of the words “O Sun” alternating with the text. Just before the final refrain, the words “Just as God's love shown on good and bad alike…” are set as a fugue. The third movement, “In New York,” is a relentless Allegro, meant to deepict the tension and fury of that day. The music of this movement suddenly becomes slow and reflective, setting the words “Tell me then, O glorious Sun” for unison chorus over a gently pulsating ostinato of repeated notes in the strings. This leads directly into the final Postlude, thus concluding the work with the elegiac tone of the opening. ‐David Conte September Sun The text for September Sun began with the unforgettable experience of being in New York with a Danish philosophy professor on the day before the attacks, when we satt together in a travel agency trying to get a flight out that night or the next morning. He was in the country for a speaking tour I had helped arrange, and had to interrupt it suddenly to attend his father‐in‐law's funeral back in Denmark. Wee flew out together the night of Monday the tenth, he back to Aarhus, I to Wyoming, where I was living at the time. My awareness of the attacks began with the sound of the gasps of fellow teachers (the next morning I was substitute teaching second grade in a public school on the quiet Wyoming prairie) who were watching the television in a classroom adjacent to mine. The professor and I had driven around the World Trade Cennter on Sunday night — it was his first visit to the United States – talking about the role of America in the world and the way it is perceived by its enemies. The experience led to a poem Great Towers, which I was later asked to read at a poetry conference in Switzerland. When David told me about the St. Bartholomew commission, I offered that text, but the commissioners found its somewhat Old‐Testament‐prophetic tone too jarring for a memmorial. I then composed an acrostic for the work based on the sentence "God dwells in joy in the midst of sorrow" that gave expression, instead, to the feeling of grace I later felt descending on New York when, on one of my frequent visits, I noticed beams of sunlight falling on buildings downtown in a way that became possible as a consequence of the tragedy's having removed the obstacle the towers had presented to the sun's rays. John Stirling Walker Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) The second of 12 children, Joseph Haydn spent his early childhood living in a dirt‐floored farmhouse in Rohrau, a little village about 35 miles southeast of Vienna. As a young child, he took violin, organ, and harpsichord lessons. In 1739 or 1740 he was recruited to sing at the Stephansdom (St. Stephen’s Cathedral) in Vienna. In 1757 Haydn was appointed Kapellmeister (music director) at the court of Count Morzin, where he led the small court orchestra. Haydn also composed his first symphonies for this ensemble. In 1761 Haydn was appointed Vice‐Kapellmeister at the court of Prince Paul Anton, head of the immensely wealthy Esterházy family. Upon the death of Kapellmeister Gregor Warner in 1766, Haydn was elevated to the position. Although the duties were immense, the position provided an outstanding opportunity for a young musician. Haydn remained in the employment of the Esterházy family for the remainder of his life. In 1791 Haydn made his first trip to England, staying until 1792. English audiences received Haydn enthusiastically. While there he composed and conducted a number of works, including the first six of his 12 “London” symphonies. He also heard productions of several of Haandel’s oratorios, which became the stimulus for his first oratorio, The Creation. Haydn returned for a second London visit in 1794. When Prince Anton died in 1794, Haydn became entirely free of the Esterházy court. Although Haydn considered remaining in London, Anton’s son, Nicolaus II, revived the Esterházy musical establishment and asked Haydn to return as Kapellmeister. Haydn took up the position in 1795 on a part‐time baasis. His primary duty to Nicolaus II was to compose a Mass each year to celebrate the nameday of Nicolaus II’s wife, Princess Maria. In all, Haydn composed six of these “late” Masses, including the Missa in angustiis, which is part of today’s program. Over the 77 years of his life, Haydn composed over 750 works, including 14 Masses, three oratorios, 53 piano sonatas, 108 symphonies, and over 80 string quartets. Keyboard Concerto in D major Haydn composed the Keyboard Concert in D major between 1780 and 1783. Structured in three movements, it was originally scored for orchestra and harpsichord or fortepiano, an early precursor to the modern piano.
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