Music of World War I
Agnus Dei
Cole Anderson, Peter Takács, Daniel Walden, Jingge Yan, piano
Marilyn McDonald, violin; Lin Ma, clarinet; Michael Rosen, percussion
Chad Grossman, solo tenor
Molly Netter, soprano; Johanna Bronk, alto; Christopher Dunn-Rankin, tenor; Kevin Dee, bass
Friday, March 13, 2009 8:00 P.M.
Tenor Solo
One ever hangs where shelled roads part.
In this war He too lost a limb,
But His disciples hide apart;
And now the soldiers bear with Him.
Kulas Recital Hall
I. Fin-de-siècle
Chorus
Intermezzo in B minor, Op. 119 No. 1 (1892)
Johannes Brahms
(1833-1897)
Four pieces, Op. 5, for clarinet and piano (1913)
Alban Berg
(1885-1935)
La lugubre gondola II (1883)
Franz Liszt
(1811-1886)
Klavierstück, Op. 11 No. 3 (1908)
Agnus Dei,
qui tollis peccata mundi,
dona eis requiem. Lamb of God,
who removes the sins of the world,
Grant them rest.
Tenor Solo
Near Golgotha strolls many a priest,
And in their faces there is pride
That they were flesh-marked by the Beast
By whom the gentle Christ’s denied.
Arnold Schoenberg
( 1874-1951)
Chorus
II. War Music
Agnus Dei,…
From Six épigraphes antiques, for piano four-hands (1914)
Claude Debussy
II. Pour un tombeau sans nom
(1862-1918)
From Le tombeau de Couperin (1916)
Menuet (to the memory of Jean Dreyfus)
Toccata (to the memory of Captain Joseph de Marliave)
From War Requiem (1961)
V. Agnus Dei/One ever hangs where shelled
roads part (Wilfred Owen)
Tenor Solo
The scribes on all the people shove
And bawl allegiance to the state.
But they who love the greater love
Lay down their life; they do not hate.
Maurice Ravel
(1875-1937)
Benjamin Britten
(1913-1976)
Chorus
Agnus Dei,…
Tenor Solo
III. Jazz Age
From Sonata for violin and piano (1926)
II. Blues
From L’histoire du soldat (1918)
Three dances: Tango/Waltz/Ragtime
Ravel
Igor Stravinsky
(1882-1971)
Dona nobis pacem.
Grant us peace.
Program conceived and directed by Peter Takács
THE OBERLIN CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC AT OBERLIN COLLEGE
PRESENTS
Dulce et Decorum Est
MUSIC OF WORLD WAR I
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime . . . Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori.
~Wilfred Owen
Sponsored by Oberlin College Department of History, Frederick B. Artz Lectureship.
FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2009
KULAS RECITAL HALL, 8 PM