formerly
Jane Ring Frank, Conductor
Timothy Evans, Accompanist
present
Songs of Spring
featuring
Gwyneth Walker’s Songs for Women’s Voices
Ronald Perera’s Earthsongs
Camille Saint-Saëns’ Three Songs, Op. 151
Gregg Smith’s Latin Madrigals
and traditional madrigals and folksongs
4 pm Sunday, May 7, 2006
Trinity Episcopal Church - 81 Elm St., Concord, Mass.
Program
Latin Madrigals [1991]
“Redit Aestas” (“Summer Returns”)
Gregg Smith
Summer returns, pleasing to all, the grass is green in the meadows; the wood is
adorned with leaves; thus is summer renewed. Vile winter, foggy and misty, was
tiresome for us. When pleasant April returns accompanied by flowers, the nightingale
fills the pleasant places of the grove once again with its song, and girls perform
elaborate dances throughout the streets. Anonymous Text
“Importuna Veneri” (“Unfavorable to Love”)
Unfavorable to love, the ice of winter returns, Jove’s inclemency returns on a swift
horse: my face is rough with an old scar. Love is in my heart, no freezing can make it
cold.
Now my skin is shriveled, while love’s flames make me strong; at night I am sleepless
and during the day I am tormented; if I live this way very long, I fear worse things will
come. Love is in my heart…You, Cupid, who put your foot on the necks of the gods,
why do you harass me with your torches? The cruelty of the cold does not put you to
flight, cruel one. Love in my heart…The elements change their qualities periodically,
sometimes they are slowed by the snow, other times they feel the heat; but my throat
is always gaping open, and sobbing: Love is my heart, no freezing can make it cold.
Text by Walter of Châtillon
Elaine Chertavian, soloist
Rowena Nelson, soloist
“Ver Redit” (“Spring Returns”)
The longed-for spring returns with joy, bedecked with purple flowers. The birds sing
so sweetly, the woods are green again, and pleasant song fills the air. Let young men
take maidens eagerly, and go into the flowery meadows with them to gather flowers
and refresh themselves with their fragrances. Text from Carmina Burana
Once I Had a Sweetheart [arr.1997]
Traditional/arr. Stephen Hatfield
Cynthia Sorn, soloist
Priscilla Stevens, soloist
“With Drooping Wings, Ye Cupids Come”
Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
from Dido and Aeneas [1689]
Come, Lasses and Lads
Traditional 17 century (c. 1670)/arr. Katherine K. Davis
“Le Sourire”
The smile, it’s of the sun! Who erupts from the mouths love, and puts all the hearts on
warning, at the most somber of our griefs. Let’s smile always, at the place of all despite of
the ages. Our lips full of rays are going to illuminate the faces. Let’s smile at the brilliant
skies that are born out of fair dawn; my sister, let’s smile at the spring, at all the nests that
it brings to life. Let’s smile at the happy children who run, their souls in full bloom. Let’s
smile at the very old spouses who will love each other all their lives. Let’s smile when
the hour of the ball – we dreamt of a white dress. And of a young man who, in a gallant
way, himself bows. Let’s smile if he holds our hand after some brief words, he who makes
us see a beautiful path flowered with mystery and dreams. You smile at the wounded
ones sleeping on a bed of sufferings – so that they themselves feel soothed by the charm
of hope, to reconcile this soft calming. Let’s smile tenderly in order that some happiness
surrounds us. The smile, it’s of the sun!...
“Salut au Chevalier Printemps”
The sky is more blue; the air more limpid; fiery sun, in a sky without ripples,
floods the plain and deep valley with golden liquid.
What is this mystery? It is the earth at last, yesterday a prisoner of sad wintry weather,
now a thousand future joys adorn its head.
Princely Springtime crowned with roses and white lilies, to our closed doors by sullen,
wintry daylight, you come to prepare at last all happiness.
Open the doors quickly, that we may celebrate his visit and invite him to flavor
the countryside under our vast skies.
So here is April! Under the cover of the forest all creatures above the earth with tender
prattle, prepare with dance-like steps, an alouette, to greet you with the sweetest songs.
We will all be beautiful in this new season! Like a pure jewel spring’s grace glitters,
When suddenly the happy spring appears. Marvelous Spring!
His beauty and grave ravish our eyes, and already the space where so many birds passed,
is no longer empty and cold like with the frozen weather.
All lives and breathes excitingly, and in the forceful wind, insects flutter and lightly fly
away; the unhappy days are finally past!
Precious moments! What sweet things! Princely Springtime! Give us roses on all of your
paths, come lavish on us exquisite feelings.
The intoxicating springtime lives to chase away tears with laughter! Sing and dance!
Let us throw to the winds our most joyous songs, be it of zephyrs or bise, all work to
intoxicate us! Drunken craziness of the newly-born spring inspires our songs.
“Women Should Be Pedestals”
Women should be pedestals
moving pedestals
moving to the motions of men
Or they should be little horses
those wooden sweet old-fashioned painted rocking horses
the gladdest things in the toyroom
The pegs of their ears so familiar and dear to the trusting fists to be chafed
feelingly and then unfeelingly
To be joyfully ridden rockingly ridden until the restored egos dismount and the legs
stride away
Immobile sweet-lipped sturdy and smiling women should always be waiting
willing to be set into motion
Women should be pedestals to men
“Mornings Innocent”
I wear your smile upon my lips
Arising on mornings innocent Your laughter overflows my throat
Your skin is a fleece about me
With your princely walk I salute the sun, ah, people say I am handsome
Arising on mornings innocent birds make the sound of kisses of kisses
I wear your smile upon my lips
Leaves flicker dark and light like eyes
I melt beneath the magnet of your gaze
Your husky breath embraces my ear
Alert and fresh as grass I wake and rise on mornings innocent
“The Name Is Changeless [God]”
They said there was a Thing that could not Change
They could not Find it so they Named it God
They had to Search so then it must be There
It had a Name it must exist Somewhere
The name was God the Thing that could not Change
They could not find it What is Lost is God
They had to Search for what could not be Found
What cannot be Found is Changeless It is God
The name is clue the Thing is Lost Somewhere
They Found the Name
The Name is Changeless God
“Love is a Rain of Diamonds”
Love is a rain of diamonds in the mind
the fruit of the soul sliced in two
a dark spring loosed at the lips of light
under-earth waters unlocked from their lurking
to sparkle in a crevice parted by the sun
a temple not of stone but cloud
beyond the roar of the heart and all violence
blue permanence
“O sweet spontaneous earth
O sweet spontaneous
earth how often have
the doting
fingers of
prurient philosophies pinched
and poked
thee
has the naughty thumb
of science prodded
thy beauty
how often have religions taken
thee upon their scraggy
knees squeezing and
buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive
gods
but
true
to the incomparable
couch of death thy
rhythmic
lover
thou answerest
them only with
spring
“in Just-spring”
in Justspring
when the world is mudluscious the little lame baloonman
whistles
far
and wee
and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it’s
spring
when the world is puddle-wonderful
the queer
old baloonman whistles
far
and
wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing
from hop-scotch and jump-rope and
it’s
spring
and
the
goat-footed
baloonMan
whistles
far
and
wee
“as is the sea marvelous”
as is the sea marvelous
from god’s
hands which sent her forth
to sleep upon the world
and the earth withers
the moon crumbles
one by one
stars flutter into dust
but the sea
does not change
and she goes forth out of hands and
she returns into hands
and is with sleep….
love,
the breaking
of your
soul
upon
my lips
“All in green went my love riding”
All in green went my love riding
on a great horse of gold
into the silver dawn.
four lean hounds crouched low and smiling
the merry deer ran before.
Fleeter be they than dappled dreams
the swift sweet deer
the red rare deer.
Horn at hip went my love riding
riding the echo down
into the silver dawn.
four lean hounds crouched low and smiling
the level meadows ran before.
Troix Choeurs pour 3 Voix de Femmes, Op. 151 [1917]
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
“Le Sourire” (“The Smile”)
“Salut au Chevalier Printemps”
(“Greetings to Princely Springtime”)
Songs for Women’s Voices [1993]
Gwyneth Walker (b. 1947)
Poems by May Swenson (1913-1989)
“Women Should Be Pedestals”
“Mornings Innocent”
Jennifer Kobayashi, soloist
Susan Avery, soloist
Softer be they than slippered sleep
the lean lithe deer
the fleet flown deer.
Four fleet does at a gold valley
the famished arrows sang before.
Bow at belt went my love riding
riding the mountain down into the silver dawn.
four lean hounds crouched low and smiling
the sheer peaks ran before.
Paler be they than daunting death
the sleek slim deer
the tall tense deer.
Four tall stags at a green mountain
the lucky hunter sang before.
All in green went my love riding
on a great horse of gold
into the silver dawn.
four lean hounds crouched low and smiling
my heart fell dead before.
“The Name Is Changeless [God]”
“Love is a Rain of Diamonds”
Priscilla Stevens, soloist
Debbie Minns, soloist
Earthsongs [1983]
Ronald Perera (b. 1941)
Texts by e.e. cummings (1894-1962)
“O sweet spontaneous earth”
“in Just-spring”
Liz Megerle, soloist
“as is the sea marvelous”
“All in green went my love riding”
Please join us in the Parish Hall after the concert
for refreshments and conversation.
If you would like to be on our mailing list for concert
announcements, or if you sing and would like to audition
with the Concord Women’s Chorus, please leave your name,
address, and phone number on the list by the door.
The Concord Madrigals
Jane Ring Frank, Conductor
Timothy Evans, Accompanist
Acton
Susan Avery
Arlington
Jennifer Kobayashi, Peytra Maxwell, Debbie Minns,
Rowena Nelson
Bedford
Liz Megerle
Carlisle
Wendy Davis, Cynthia Nunan, Priscilla Stevens,
Cynthia Sorn, Penny Zezima
Concord
Melissa Apperson, Sara Ballard, Liz Berk, Kate Blair,
Kathleen Chapman, Pamela Dritt, Patsy Eickelberg,
Anne Hayden, Lydia Lauderdale, Jane Luckner,
Cindy McLean‑Greeley, Judy Perkins, Mary Rubel,
Bozena Smith, Helen Stewart, Laura Weiss
Devens
Isabel Geller
Groton
Edith Tompkins
Harvard
Susan Leeming
Lincoln
Gay Anderson, Dolly Curtiss
Maynard
Karen Meyn
Newton
Kathy Wangh
Sudbury
Carol Haigh
Waltham
Rosemary Carter
Wayland
Elaine Chertavian
Westford
Joy Hamel, Ginny Huettner
The Concord Women’s Chorus thanks
Stoney Ballard for graphics and audio recording,
Trinity Episcopal Church and Robert Barney, Director of Music,
for rehearsal facilities, and for hosting our concert