Musical Associates: A Chamber Chorus and Orchestra in Lancaster, PA

Musical Associates celebrates the days of our lives with a concert titled Amazing Day! The title is from Eric Whitacre's stunning setting of the e. e. cummings poem, i thank you God for most this amazing day , which opens the program.

e. e. cummings (who usually wrote his name in all lower-case letters) is considered a preeminent voice in 20 th century American poetry. He published around 2,900 poems in his lifetime. i thank you God for most this amazing day is one of his best-known poems, and it is set to music by American composer Eric Whitacre (b. 1970). Whitacre is arguably the most-performed choral composer of his generation, for good reason – his shimmering, ethereal chords are instantly recognizable as a unique and evocative voice.

Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901) was a contemporary of Johannes Brahms, and his music contains a similar lyrical beauty and formal integrity. He is now best-known for his organ compositions, but he was also a prolific choral composer, including twelve masses. The one on our program, the Cantus Missae , opus 109 of 1878, is the only one for a cappella double chorus. It is a magnificent work, utilizing the antiphonal style of composition popularized 200 years earlier by Venetian composers. Our program includes the Kyrie and Gloria movements.

As 2009 is the 250th anniversary of the death of Baroque composer George Frederick Handel (1685-1759), we commemorate that milestone with his Coronation Anthem #2: The King Shall Rejoice. This work, performed with chamber orchestra, is a five-movement celebration of the coronation of King George II. Written in 1727, it is one of four anthems written for that coronation. It contains some of Handel's most sparkling choral writing!

South Carolina composer Arlen Clarke (b. 1954) composed his anthem The Ponder Heart, which was commissioned for the Eudora Welty Film and Fiction Festival, in 1996. This gentle appreciation of Welty's evocative prose, from poetry by Linda Peavy, expresses deep gratitude for her vision. It is accompanied by piano and string quartet.

We return to the music of Eric Whitacre , who had this to say about his gentle and beautiful Five Hebrew Love Songs :

“In the spring of 1996, my great friend and brilliant violinist Friedemann Eichhorn invited me and my girlfriend-at-the-time Hila Plitmann (a soprano) to give a concert with him in his home city of Speyer , Germany . We had all met that year as students at the Juilliard School , and were inseparable.

“Because we were appearing as a band of traveling musicians, 'Friedy' asked me to write a set of troubadour songs for piano, violin and soprano. I asked Hila (who was born and raised in Jerusalem ) to write me a few 'postcards' in her native tongue, and a few days later she presented me with these exquisite and delicate Hebrew poems. I set them while we vacationed in a small skiing village in the Swiss Alps, and we performed them for the first time a week later in Speyer .

“Each of the songs captures a moment that Hila and I shared together. "Kalla Kala" (which means 'light bride') was a pun I came up with while she was first teaching me Hebrew. The bells at the beginning of "Eyze Shelleg" are the exact pitches that awakened us each morning in Germany as they rang from a nearby cathedral.

"These songs are profoundly personal for me, born entirely out of my new love for this soprano, poet, and now my beautiful wife, Hila Plitmann.”

Some of the most beautiful music ever written was inspired by and composed for choirs of women alone or men alone. To celebrate that fact, we offer this set of music:

The women of Musical Associates are featured singing the Alleluia of Luigi Zaninelli . Zaninelli is the composer-in-residence at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg . He was a student and later, a faculty member at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia .

The men of the chorus are performing two pieces: first, a brand-new composition by American composer David L. Brunner (b. 1953), I Am In Need of Music. Dr. Brunner is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at the University of Central Florida in Orlando .

The men will close with a beautiful French lullaby called Bonne Nuit, by Douglas Smith (1953-2004). Before his untimely death, Mr. Smith resided in Elizabethtown , where he was a public school music teacher and church musician. He was also the founder of the Mt. Gretna Handbell Festival, which is still held annually in his honor.

Bonne Nuit was composed for the Penn State Glee Club. We are deeply indebted to Mr. Smith's wife, Michelle, for permission to perform this work, and for providing the music.

British composer Gerald Finzi (1901-1956) created an extensive set of unaccompanied partsongs, all to the poetry of Robert Bridges, between the years 1931 and 1937. We will perform four of these settings, ranging from the gentle I Praise the Tender Flower to the sparkling My Spirit Sang All Day. Interestingly, Finzi had just married his wife Joy (Joyce Black) when he wrote My Spirit Sang All Day – surely he enjoyed the repetition of "Joy" in the text, ending with "thou art my Joy!"

Sing Me to Heaven , by composer Daniel Gawthrop (b. 1949), has proved to be one of the most popular choral compositions of the last decade, selling well in excess of 100,000 copies. Its lyrical beauty perfectly captures the evocative text by his wife, Jane Griner. It is a deeply meaningful anthem to the members of Musical Associates , because it speaks to the central place that song plays in our lives. It is our tradition to end every concert with Sing Me to Heaven , and we offer it to you as a sung blessing for your lives!

Anno Domini! – In the Year of Our Lord! Musical Associates celebrates the breadth and sweep of the years we inhabit, from coldest January through the peak of summer, and back to the chill of December.

Our 2008 series is structured around an amazing five-movement set called Songs of Seasons by West Chester-based composer David Bennett Thomas. The work sets to music 12 haiku poems by Kim Rich, which capture, with a great deal of wry humor, the character of each month. Thomas' musical settings evoke the fine poetry perfectly, and we were delighted when the composer granted us permission to use his work as the structuring element for this concert. Each major section begins with one movement of the Songs of Seasons .

The first movement, January-April , captures the year at its coldest. January is perhaps the month we can embrace the cold (“effervescent, expensive as fine champagne”), before it has worn out its welcome! By February, we begin to frown, perhaps from “old hangovers, still hanging around.” March's winds blow us, and as spring rains visit in April, we aren't quite sure – is the bone-deep pain from “love, or rain?”

We then turn to a chill of quite a different nature: Thomas Morley's April Is In My Mistress' Face evokes the year as portrayed in the visage of a hard-hearted lover. Warm July is in her eyes, cold December in her heart, which leaves us to wonder: is the April we find in her face coldest Winter, or hopeful Spring?

April is in my mistress' face,
And July in her eyes hath place;
Within her bosom is September,
But in her heart a cold December.

Yuan Mei was an 18 th -century Chinese poet famous for his “unusually clear and elegant language”. Carolyn Jennings set his A Feast of Lanterns with equally elegant music, evoking the unexpected subject of this tender love poem: a garden “gleaming fair and white.”

J.S. Bach's cantata Christ Lag in Todesbanden , BWV 4 ( Christ lay in death's bonds ) fits perfectly in this part of the year, because it was written for the feast of Easter, probably in 1707 or 1708. Somewhat unusually, the eight movements of the work are all based on a chorale tune by the same name by Martin Luther. Like many of Bach's cantatas, Christ Lag intersperses rousing chorale fugues with movements featuring soloists, and with a final chorale statement that gives a summation of the work.

Returning to the Songs of Seasons , Thomas chose to set the single poem May as a brief introduction to summer. The poet gives us May as a month of “such soft, scented seas” that “even seasoned sailors drown.” Thomas' shifting harmonies and evanescent accompaniment provide us with the perfect beginning to an ambiguous time.

Thomas Morley, however, has no ambiguity concerning May: his Now is the Month of Maying clearly feels that month is the time for youthful frolic, complete with the “fa-la-la's” so typical of Elizabethan madrigals. In case you're wondering just what sort of frolic, some scholars believe the question “shall we play Barley-break?” is a euphemistic invitation to that familiar game that lovers play…

Now is the month of Maying,
When merry lads are playing,
Fa la la la la.

Each with his bonny lass,
upon the greeny grass,
Fa la la la la.

The Spring clad all in gladness,
Doth laugh at Winter´s sadness,
Fa la la la la.

And to the bagpipes sound,
The nymphs tread out their ground,
Fa la la la la.

Fie then! why sit we musing,
Youth´s sweet delight refusing?
Fa la la la la.

Say dainty nymphs and speak,
shall we play Barley-break?
Fa la la la la.

One of the most beloved poets of the 20 th century was e. e. cummings, whose poem in time of daffodils was set by Minnesota-based composer David Dickau in 2004 as part of a four-movement set called Of Life and Love . This movement occupies the second place in the set. In Dickau's own words, this movement tells the story of “opening oneself to love.”

Summer is full upon us in the next movement of Songs of Seasons: June-September . If we act as “buffoons” in June , and are perhaps sly and shy in July , by the time August rolls around we're just plain HOT! September is definitely a grown-up's poem, as we smile, “smirk, really,” recalling that for us, “school's still out!”

June… Moon… Croon… Buffoon.
Be a sensible Loon,
and learn to laugh at Love.

Sly July eyes…
wisely hide behind sunglasses,
still they fool no-one.

Praise August... If you must…
Me… I'm melting... melting...
just like a Dali watch.

My September Smile…
Smirk, really, when I recall…
for me, school's still out.

Sumer is icumen in ( Summer has arrived ) is probably the oldest piece of notated polyphonic music (that is, music for several independent voices) that exists. The composer is that most famous and prolific of Medieval composers, “Anonymous”, and scholars believe the work dates from around 1260 AD. Sumer is a round, like Row, Row, Row Your Boat , but is actually a double round, with a two-part Pes (“ foot” ) paired with the main canon in four parts. Our rendition uses both voices and instruments. Incidentally, the ever-prolific mind of P. D. Q. Bach parodied this text as Sumer is a cumin seed in his Grand Oratorio The Seasonings.

Sumer is icumen in,
Lhude sing cuccu!
Groweth sed and bloweth med
And springth the wode nu,
Sing cuccu!
Awe bleteth after lomb,
Lhouth after calue cu.
Bulluc sterteth, bucke uerteth,
Murie sing cuccu!
Cuccu, cuccu, wel singes thu cuccu;
Ne swik thu nauer nu.

Summer has come in,
Loudly sing, Cuckoo!
The seed grows and the meadow blooms
And the wood springs anew,
Sing, Cuckoo!
The ewe bleats after the lamb
The cow lows after the calf.
The bullock stirs, the stag farts,
Merrily sing, Cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckoo, well you sing, cuckoo;
Don't you ever stop now.

Twentieth century poet James Agee perfectly captured the combination of peace and longing one feels viewing a starlit sky on a perfect summer night, and Morten Lauridsen's recent setting of Sure On This Shining Night gently leads us through that shimmering night. Lauridsen's signature “gentle dissonances” caress the text, leaving us with our own longing for such a vista, where we sense the face of the infinite night as “kindness.”

As we turn the corner into autumn, David Thomas chose to set a single poem of Kim Rich's set: October . In evoking autumn's scents, we feel what's coming: “half chill, half thrill.”

Autumn is also the time of “the blessings of harvest.” In Aaron Copland's opera The Tender Land, a solo quintet sang a Thanksgiving Song, The Promise of Living , which teaches us that those blessings rise from loving both our friends and our work. Our efforts bring forth the harvest, but always with the blessings of God foremost. And as we sing our song of thanks, the reward is “peace in our own hearts, and peace with our neighbor.”

The final movement of Songs of Seasons , November-December , begins with a single word-phrase from Rich's poem, but still captures her point perfectly: we will soon be teeth-chatteringly cold! But “Grey December” reminds us that the year will also soon be done, and we hope to leave the year wiser than we began it.

Dutch composer Jan Pieters Sweelinck straddled the late Renaissance and Early Baroque, and Hodie Christus Natus Est ( Today Christ is Born ) shows characteristics of both eras in its composition. Its exuberant opening motive in the tenors returns throughout the piece, providing a structural framework upon which the remainder of the text is developed, culminating in a final Alleluia .

Hodie Christus natus est:
Hodie Salvator apparuit:
Hodie in terra canunt Angeli,
laetantur Archangeli
Hodie exultant justi, dicentes:
Gloria in excelsis Deo.
Alleluia.

Today Christ is born:
Today the Savior appeared:
Today on Earth the Angels sing,
Archangels rejoice:
Today the righteous rejoice, saying:
Glory to God in the highest.
Alleluia.

Many composers have set Richard Crashaw's text Summer in Winter , from his 1648 Hymn to the Holy Nativity , but composer Arlen Clarke's setting is particularly apt in marrying music to text. His setting, alternately gentle and stirring, provides a perfect ending to our survey of Anno Domino!

Gloomy night embraced the place
Where the noble infant lay:
The babe look'd up, and show'd His face;
In spite of darkness it was day.
It was Thy day, sweet, and did rise,
Not from the East, but from Thine eyes.

We saw Thee in Thy balmy nest,
Bright dawn of our eternal day;
We saw Thine eyes break from the East,
And chase the trembling shades away:
We saw Thee, and we blest the sight,
We saw Thee by Thine own sweet light.

Welcome all wonders in one sight!
Eternity shut in a span!
Summer in winter! Day in night!
Heaven in earth! And God in man!
Great little one, whose all-embracing birth
Lifts earth to Heaven, stoops Heaven to earth!
Alleluia!

The final piece of our concert is one we sing every time we perform: Sing Me to Heaven by Daniel Gawthrop, with text by his wife, Jane Griner. This gentle poem and exquisite setting speaks very deeply to our identity as singers. Our song touches every part of our lives, including the ending.

Night and Light – a duality that has defined much of human existence and experience. From the earliest days of humankind, we have wondered about the mysteries (and occasional terrors) of the night, and have sung the joys of the warmth of the light. Their interrelatedness defines the edges of the depths and heights of our lives. Naturally, poets and composers (who always speak best about our depths and heights) find fertile ground in these two strong realities, and thus we are able to sing of both!

Josef Gabriel Rheinberger (1839-1901) provides the first of two pieces on our program with the title of Abendlied (Evening Song). Rheinberger's version is for six-part chorus, and uses a Biblical text from Luke 24:29: "Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over." These words were spoken to Jesus (although those speaking didn't know it was He to whom they spoke), after he had walked and talked with them on the road to Emmaus. Rheinberger's gentle setting captures the warmth of a safe place, a haven against the coming night.

The next four songs come from the pen of Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), who also wrote many others on poetry concerning the evening and night. The first, Finstere Shatten der Nacht , is No. 2 of the grand set titled Neue Liebesleider Walzer , Op. 65 (New Love-song Waltzes). Its feverish accompaniment for two pianists and the hushed choral tone speak eloquently to a particular type of night terror: that of night on the sea.