Vanderbilt Chorale and Symphonic Choir
Tucker Biddlecombe, conductor
Polly Brecht, collaborative pianist
October 25, 2014, 8:00pm
Ingram Hall
Psalmen Davids No. 3: “Ich freu mich des” SWV 26
Heinrich Schütz
(1585-1672)
Vanderbilt Chorale
Polly Brecht, continuo
Consort I: Walter Bitner, lute; Dani Hoisington, violin
Nathan Lowry, violin, Laura Cooke, cello
Consort II: Francis Perry, theorbo; Rama Kumaran, flute
Miles Harlan, oboe; Haley Strauss, bassoon
Quatre Motets sur des thèmes grégoriens
Maurice Duruflé
(1902-1986)
Ubi Caritas
Tota pulchra es
Tu es Petrus
Tantum Ergo
The Monk and His Cat, Op. 29 No. 8
Sure On This Shining Night, Op. 13 No. 3
Vanderbilt Symphonic Choir
Polly Brecht, piano
-pause-
Samuel Barber
(1910-1981)
The Sixty-Seventh Psalm
Charles Ives
(1874-1954)
Chansons Françaises
Francis Poulenc
(1899-1963)
Margoton va t’a l’eau
Clic, clac, dansez sabots
Benjamin Kahan, baritone
C’est la petite fille du prince
Les tisserands
Vanderbilt Chorale
-pause-
Where Your Bare Foot Walks
David Childs
(b. 1969)
Pour Toi, Mêre
Sydney Guillaume
(b. 1982)
The Darkling Thrush
Tim Takach
(b. 1978)
Angela Miller, conductor
Northern Lights
Ēriks Ešenvalds
(b. 1977)
Will Nichols, tenor
Twa Tanbou
Sydney Guillaume
(b. 1982)
Nyon, Nyon
Jake Runestad
(b. 1986)
Vanderbilt Symphonic Choir
Tucker Biddlecombe, director – Polly Brecht, pianist
Soprano
Alison Andrade
Erin Aurednik
Jane Burton
Bridget Claborn
Alicia Guthrie
Nicole Jenkinson
Caslen Johnson
Lauren Johnson
Apurva Jolepalem
Kelsey Karas
Mary Margaret Kelly
Cassidy Lenstrom
Samantha Long
Lindsey Mullen
Emma Phillips
Mandy Ploetz
Angela Miller
Paige Stinnett
Kathryn Speckels
Rose Thompson
Charlotte Ulrich
Lauren Urquhart
Alto
Paige Baker
Marian Dorst
Margaret Hinchliffe
Yoko Kanai
Emily Krasinski
Madeline Laird
Christine Lim
Rebecca Luppe
Bailey Lyttle
Morgan Lyttle
Rebekah Moredock
Katelyn Parcelli
Marisa Peebles
Melissa Roberts
Siyi Shen
Amara Uzoka
Natalie Vlach
Megan Ward
Ariana Yeatts-Lonske
Tenor
Mason Boudrye
Keyton Carr
Joshua Chao
Thomas Driscoll
Brian Entwistle
Andrew Fisher
Garrett Law
Patrick McAlexander
Aidan McCarter
Wilfred Morse
Charles Spencer
Gregory Troiani
Bass
Carson Graham
Max Greene
Luke Harnish
Zachary Kleiman
Collin Lewis
Donovan Miller
George Miller
Alex Schecter
Trevor Schill
Jack Ullman
Justin Westley
Erich Zheng
Vanderbilt Chorale
Tucker Biddlecombe, director – Polly Brecht, pianist
Soprano
Danielle Bavli
Shannon Corey
Sydel Fisher
Melissa Gramling*
Christine Hawn
Sarah Heilman
Leah Hollingshead
Ginny Randall
Alto
Morgan Aszman
Rebecca Burke-Aguero
Maggie Corbett
Michelle Holt
Emma Jackson*
Madeline Manaker
Jacqueline Scott
Maria Servodidio
Illana Starr
Tenor
Christian Arguello
Kelby Carlson
Zachary Ferguson
Carl Hellmers
Will Nichols
Steven Sloan
William Woodard*
Bass
Corey Bowen
Charles Calotta
Steven Fiske*
Benjamin Kahan
Jamal Marcelin
Salvador Miranda
Samuel Trump
Austin Vitaliano
Program Notes
Heinrich Schütz’s Psalmen Davids was composed in Dresden (1619) and were written to
take advantage of the court’s extensive vocal and instrumental resources. This setting of
Psalm 122 is scored for two choirs and two consorts of unspecified instruments. Similar
to the polychoral motets of Gabrieli, this antiphonal setting places voices and consorts in
opposing sides of the performance space. Schütz maintained a keen interest in both
Renaissance and Baroque styles throughout his life, and this psalm setting proves the
composer to be a consummate master of each. While the Psalms of David maintain the
late Renaissance ideals of text clarity demanded by the church, the speech patterns are
rhythmically mirrored to reflect early Baroque ideals of integrated dance forms.
Maurice Duruflé's Quatre Motets sur des thèmes grégoriens, Op. 10 (1960) are written
for unaccompanied chorus. The texts for the four motets come from varied and unique
segments of church liturgy. Ubi caritas was originally the final melody sung at mass on
Holy Thursday during the washing of feet, an action that commemorated Jesus washing
the feet of his disciples at the last supper. Duruflé sets this meditative text so that the
freely flowing motion of the chant is forefront. Intended for the feast of the Immaculate
Conception, Tota pulchra es is the only motet written for three-part women’s voices. This
choice and the soft, sprightly nature of the piece portrays the purity and innocent nature
of Mary. The third motet, Tu es Petrus, is a rousing statement of the Church’s foundation
on the rock of Saint Peter which climaxes with a dramatic crescendo to the only
fortissimo dynamic of the set. Tantum ergo concludes the motets with the familiar
Catholic hymn most often sung during the benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
Duruflé uses this mediation as a characteristically introspective means of bringing the
combined musical ideas of the motets to a reverent and peaceful close.
Samuel Barber set The Monk and His Cat as the eighth of his ten Hermit Songs, from a
poem by W.H. Auden. Be sure to listen for the clever musical depiction of the cat walking
up and down the keyboard throughout the piece. Sure on this Shining Night (text by
James Agee) is arguably Barber’s most well known vocal work, and a quintessential
American art song. Barber personally set these art songs for chorus at the behest of his
publisher, instead of farming out the arranging work to students as many contemporaries
(such as Aaron Copland) often did.
While best known as a pioneer in American experimental music, Charles Ives may yet
be remembered more for his remarkable versatility than for his revolutionary musical
compositions. Throughout the 1890s and early 1900s, Ives composed for the unique
circumstances of each congregation, choir, and denomination at the numerous churches
that employed him. After more than a decade of working as a church organist, Ives took
on the role of choir director and finally could try out his own compositions as he wrote
them, on his own choir. Already a veteran organist, he explored a new musical voice by
stretching the boundaries of choral writing in The Sixty-Seventh Psalm (1898-99). An
analysis of this psalm reveals the hand of an organist in its composition. Set in
conflicting keys (women in C, men in B-flat), the result is a dense, rich texture with each
voice part split into two or more pitches (SSAATTBB). This "choral organ" is used to
achieve variable and marvelous effects, creating a vocal density expressing not only
sacred power, but the hushed awe of the supplicant prayer.
Francis Poulenc wrote the Chansons françaises just after World War II, perhaps as a
patriotic gesture or affirmation of the French people and their history. These folk song
arrangements (eight in total) are very old - sixteenth century settings exist for at least
two of them - and are constructed strophically with multiple verses and refrains. The first
piece, Margoton va, depicts a damsel in distress whose rescuers demand certain favors
for pulling her from the well. She surprises them by responding that her virtue is
reserved for those who pay for the privilege. Clic, clac, dansez sabots is a folk-dance
tune rife with youthful exuberance. The boys arrive at the dance but (alas) there are no
girls present. They set off into the village to find suitable partners, but they are summarily
rebuffed by unsympathetic fathers who maintain that “girls are for working, not dancing.”
After the boys cleverly argue the issue, the fathers reluctantly agree and release the girls
to the dance. C’est la petit’ fill’ du prince tells of another damsel in distress, and
unrequited love. The strophic nature of this piece reflects the one hundred trips the girl
took to learn the boatmen’s song - her musical study seemingly used as an excuse to
see him again and again. Finally, Les tisserands describes the age-old pastime of
procrastinating at work. Any modern manager can sympathize with the owner of the mill
in this song, who can never seem to get his weavers to accomplish anything. Every day
a new excuse follows little productivity, but on payday (Sunday) everyone wants their
money anyway.
Notes for the final portion of the concert will be provide by the composers themselves, as
they have been so kind as to provide recorded video program notes for these final
works.
____________________________________________________________________________
Sources: Matthew Garrett, Program Notes (Tallahassee Community Chorus, 2008)
Gordon/Jeffers, Translations and Annotations of Choral Repertoire (Corvallis, OR: Earthsongs, 2000)
Gayle Sherwood Magee, Charles Ives Reconsidered (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2008)
Dennis Shrock, Choral Repertoire (New York, NY: Oxford, 2009)
Tucker Biddlecombe (Ph.D.) is Associate Professor and Director
of Choral Activities at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music,
where he serves as conductor of the Vanderbilt Chorale and
Symphonic Choir. In addition, he has recently been named Director
of Blair's five-year Bachelor of Music/Teacher Education degree
program offered in conjunction with the Peabody College of
Education.
Over the course of a ten year career as a public school music
educator, he achieved National Board Teacher Certification and was
awarded ‘Teacher of the Year’ at Lawton Chiles High School (FL). Ensembles under his
direction have performed to acclaim at state and division conventions of the American
Choral Directors Association. He is a sought-after clinician and adjudicator, and has
recently conducted honor choirs in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, New York, and
Tennessee, including the Florida All-State Men’s Chorus. He has prepared choruses for
the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, and
recently served as a guest director for the professional early-music ensemble, Music City
Baroque. Upcoming engagements include choral preparation for Roger Waters’ opera
Ça Ira, Britten’s War Requiem, and Adams’ On the Transmigration of Souls with the
Nashville Symphony, as well as conducting Haydn’s Creation with the Vanderbilt
Symphonic Choir and University Orchestra in April. He has been engaged to serve as
the conductor of the Arkansas All-State Male Chorus in 2016.
Dr. Biddlecombe is a published composer and arranger with choral works printed by
Alliance, Hinshaw, and Walton Music. His article on specificity of conductor feedback
was published in the fourth volume of the International Journal of Research in Choral
Singing. At Blair he has presented a lecture-concert on the music of Robert Shaw and
Alice Parker, a centenary celebration of Benjamin Britten, and a lecture-concert of Ariel
Ramirez's Misa Criolla in partnership with Vanderbilt’s Center for Latin American Studies.
He is the most recent recipient of the Blair School’s Faculty Excellence Award.
Professor Biddlecombe holds the PhD in Music Education and a Master of Music in
Choral Conducting from Florida State University, and a Bachelor of Music degree, with
majors in Vocal Performance and Music Education, from SUNY Potsdam. He is a native
of Buffalo, New York, and resides in Nashville with his wife Mary Biddlecombe, Artistic
Director of the Blair Children’s Chorus.
As always, we are extremely grateful for the efforts of the Blair School’s applied voice
faculty for their expert training of many of these students.