The
Com munity Concert Association
,
. presents
THE DALEWARLAND SINGERS
DALE WARLAND', Conductor
COMMUNITY CONCERTS
a division of
COLUMBIA ARTISTS Management Inc.
165 West 57th Street, New York, N.Y. 10019
Season 1991-92
Program
(Please hold applause until the end of each section during the first
half of this evenings program. Thank you.)
THREE AMERICAN MADRIGALS
The Uncertainty
Cary john Franklin
of the Poet
William
10 Son la Primavera (I am Spring)
Hawley
Norman Delio loio
Of Crows and Clusters
II
RELIGIOUS MOTETS
Tomas Luis de Victoria
Vere languores nostros
Geistliches
johannes Brahms
Lied (Op, 30)
Imant Ramish
Ave Verum Corpus
III
MUSIC OF OUR TIME
R. Murray Schafer
Snowforms
Kasar Mie La Gaji (Venezuela)
Intermission
Alberto
Grau
IV
FRAGMENTS FROM THE MASS
Kyrie (from "A Thanksgiving Mass")
Knut Nystedt
Gloria (from "Missa Misericordiae")
Egil Hovland
Vincent Persichetti
Agnus Dei (from "Mass")
V
Selections from The Warland Cabaret Singers
(To be announced from the stage.)
VI
FOLK MUSIC
American
Cindy
(Carol Barnett)
Eskimo Hunting Song
Canadian
(Derek Healey)
French-Canadian
Le Pont Mirabeau
(Lionel Daunais)
Sing A Song of Sixpence
English
(John Rutter)
liTHE AUDIENCE IS RESPECTFULLY REMINDED THAT RECORDING OF
THIS PERFORMANCE, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED"
THE DALE WARLAND SINGERS
120 North Fourth Street
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55401-1708
Program Notes and Texts
By Brian Newhouse
The Uncertainty of the Poet
From: With a Poet's Eye: A Cycle of Five Songs (1987)
Cary John Franklin (b. 1956)
I am a poet.
Fond of Am I bananas?
I am very fond of bananas.
Am I? - a very poet.
I am bananas.
I am very fond of bananas.
Bananas of a poet!
Am I fond? Am I very?
I am a poet of bananas.
I am very fond.
Poet bananas! I am.
I am fond of a very.
A fond poet of I am. I am Very bananas.
I am of very fond bananas.
Am I a poet?
Cary John Franklin began his musical studies at the age of five, studying accordion
in his hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. That's an uncommon instrument for a youngster,
but it must've served him well. Today, he's the Chorus Master of the Opera Theatre of St.
Louis, Music Director of the First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis, and sits on the Minnesota Composer's Forum Board of Directors. He has a sparkling eye and bright red hair
- which fit him perfectly; you'll know why after listening to this short funny piece.
10 Son la Primavera (I am Spring)
From: Six Madrigals (1985)
William Hawley (b. 1950)
I am Spring,
who gladly, lovely women, returns to you
with my beautiful, embellished mantle
to dress the countryside in greenery and flowers
and to arouse in your hearts new loves.
For me Zephir sighs,
for me the earth laughs, and so the serene heavens;
from breast to breast fly
the charm ing Amoretti by the thousands,
armed with arrows and with torches.
An you, again delighted,
Take pleasure in my coming amidst laughing and song;
Love your lovers
now, while April adorns lovely faces with flowers;
Spring for you will not return forever.
Trained as a singer, William Hawley says he writes "from the heart," and - ask any
of The Dale Warland Singers - his vocal music is as beautiful to sing as it is to hear. This
native New Yorker is also a linguist (5 languages) and he's set these Italian words (I am
Springtime) as naturally as a native. His musical language is that of jazz - 2nds and 9ths
and 7ths - but he couches these intervals so lushly that there's a classical beauty, even
a sense of antiquity to his score.
Of Crows and Clusters (1972)
Norman Delio lolo (b. 1913)
This nonsensical text dates from the turn of the century, when poet Vachel Lindsay, like
many Americans, was enamored of fantasies like "Alice in Wonderland." Here, we've two
bumbling black birds- sitting on a fence. "Thinking of cause and effect ... effect and
cause, and of nature's laws." One of them stutters, the other mutters, a bee buzzes by
and scares them both off, and that's that. Don't look for ultimate meaning here, but enjoy
the wit and snap of a great composer sporting with a goofy poem.
Vere languores nostros (1572)
Tomas Luis de Victoria (b. 1549 d. 1611)
Surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows.
And with his stripes we are healed.
Sweetest wood, and sweetest iron,
sweetest weight is hung on thee.
Thou alone wast counted worthy
this world's ransom to uphold.
The Spaniard Victoria traveled to Rome as a fifteen year old to study for the priesthood,
and, surprisingly, discovered there an audience eager to hear his motets. He eventually
did become a priest but spent most of his career writing music exclusively for the church
- in a style considered today to be the pinnacle of Renaissance mysticism. "Vere languores
nostros" was in his first collection of published pieces, brought out in his twenty-fourth
year. Its dark melancholy makes it especially effective for the Holy Week services for
which it was intended.
Geistliches Lied (Op. 30)
johannes Brahms (b. 1833 d. 1897)
Let trouble never move you or grieve you, but bear it;
what God has sent be' your delight, my spirit.
Why contemplate with sorrow tomorrow?
His action makes all things new and gives to you your portion.
Be strong in all temptation and passion, not ceasing;
what God ordains, that still remains your blessing.
This quiet, dignified work dates from 1856, the year Brahms' idol Robert Schumann
died, and the year before Brahms began his masterpiece - "A German Requiem." Perhaps'
the opus 30 helped assuage the young man's grief, perhaps it helped him prepare for the
larger, similar-sounding
Requiem. Whatever his motivation, he poured an uncommon
amount of heart into these four minutes of music, giving special attention even to the
final "Amen": it builds to a lovely blossoming climax, then settles into the same restful
mood that characterizes much of the "Requiem .."
Ave Verum Corpus
Imant Raminsh (b. 1943)
Hail, true body, born of the Virgin Mary,
Who has tru Iy suffered,
was sacrificed on the cross for mortals.
Whose side was pierced,
whence flowed water and blood.
Be for us a foretaste (of heaven)
during our final examining,
lesu sweet, 0 lesu pure,
lesu, Son of Mary,
have mercy upon me. Amen.
o
o
Many of this Canadian composer's choral works have been written for the Vancouver
Chamber Choir, including this setting of the traditional Communion text. Raminsh shuns
novelty here, and gives these words a simple, yet deeply reverent music.
Snowforms (1983)
R. Murray Schafer (b. 1933)
R. Murray Schafer has led Canada's musical avant-garde for years. He writes: "It has been
the habit of observing the soft foldings of snow from my farmhouse window in Ontario
that inspired 'Snowforms'. Sometimes I have given children sight-singing exercises in
which they are asked to 'sing' drawings. Thus, in 'Snowforms' - which is really intended
for children to sing, listen to and perhaps draw pictures to - a graphic notation is used,
augmented by pitches, written close to the lines. A time log is given to suggest durations.
The words which alternate with the humming are some of the many Eskimo words for
snow (i.e. first snowfall, soft snow, falling snow, snow like salt, etc.)"
Kasar Me La Gaji (1990)
Alberto Grau (b. 1938)
Alberto Grau is Venezuela's leading choral conductor and composer, and in recent years
has increasingly championed environmental causes. This score is a lament for the earth,
and a howling indictment against those who spoil her. The men begin chanting quietly the
words of the African Sahel (The earth is tired) in a death-march rhythm. Falling protamentos
at the end of each phrase cement that feeling of fatigue. The women enter, and the music
soon turns militant, getting louder and faster, till a crashing climax leads back to that
initial song of sadness. But not for long. Grau is angry, and directs the singers to clap their
hands, stamp their feet, hiss and scream to get the point across: 'The Earth is tired!"
Fragments from the Mass
The mind continually seeks order and form, and, not surprisingly, humans have codified
the natural urge to worship. The Roman Catholic Church developed and standardized the
many parts of the Mass in the several hundred years after jesus Christ, whose life, death
and resurrection are celebrated in the service of the Eucharist. Since the Middle Ages,
musical settings of the Mass have been crucial for the development of not only a vital
expression of faith, but for music's evolution as well. Our greatest musical minds [osquin, Palestrina, Bach, Schubert, Stravinsky - have all tackled these ageless texts and
moved Western music forward.
Kyrie (1974)
Knut Nystedt (b. 1915)
The Mass begins with a cry for mercy that has its roots in both pagan antiquits and Old
Testament judaism. The Norwegian Knut Nystedt's 1074 setting is an emotional three-part
work which opens with women's voices moving in swift currents of pleading (Lord have
mercy); the powerful middle section (Christ have mercy) is built of the most basic blocks
in music - the intervals of a perfect fourth and fifth; the closing "Kyrie eleison" is tranquil,
filled with the repose of divine assurance.
Gloria (1973)
Egil Hovland (b. 1927)
Egil Hovland is a leading figure in Norway's choral and liturgical circles. His setting of
this early Christian praise text (Glory be to God on high) comes from 1973, and it bristles
with rhythmic and harmonic energy.
Agnus Dei (1960)
Vincent Persichetti (b. 1915 d. 1987)
Throughout his life, Persichetti confounded those who would pigeon-hole him: first as a
teacher at juilliard, then as head of a large music publishing house, then as conductor of
college. choruses. He scored equal successes in each. As a composer he moved just as
easily between traditional and avant-garde styles," always maintaining his Italianate love
for melody. You'll hear that lyricism throughout his 1969 setting of "Agnus Dei" (Lamb of
God, who takes away the sin of the world), the quiet close of the mass.
Le Pont Mirabeau
(The Mirabeau Bridge)
Under the Mirabeau bridge the Seine runs
I must remind myself of our loves;
joy came always after struggle;
night comes, the loon sounds
the days disappear, I remain.
Love flows away like this running water
Love flows away like life is slow
and like hope is violent
night comes, the hour sounds,
the day disappears, I remain.
Days pass, and weeks pass,
Neither the past nor loves return.
Under the Mirabeau bridge runs the Seine.
Night comes, the hour sounds,
the days disappear, I remain.
\
THE DALE WARLAND
SINGERS
Founded in 1972, The Dale War/and Singers have become one of the world's premier
professional choral ensembles. Based in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, the
chorus has gained countless fans from twenty years of concert tours, festival appearances,
radio broadcasts and sixteen critically acclaimed recordings.
Regarded as leaders in the performance of twentieth century choral music, Dr. War/and
and The Singers performed at The Second World Symposium on Choral Music in August
1990 in Sweden and Finland. As the sole North American choir in residence at the festival,
the ensemble presented concerts featuring American choral works, and joined with_ other
leading choirs from around the world in a series of workshops, concerts and broadcast
activities. The concerts were broadcast live on Swedish and Finnish radio and television
and later were distributed by the Symposium for international broadcast in the Soviet
Union, North and South America, Asia and Africa.
Noted for performing a vast repertoire of a cappella music, The Singers inspire audiences with programs ranging from the great choral classics to American folk songs and
vocal jazz. With a special focus on the works of living American composers, the organization is committed to providing increasing opportunities for composers and to keeping
the choral genre fresh and alive with new musical ideas. Regular commissioning projects
have involved such composers as Dominick Argento, George Shearing, Mary Ellen Childs,
and Peter Schickele. In addition, as one of the first choral ensembles to receive a National
Endowment for the Arts Composer-in-Residence grant, The Dale War/and Singers recently
appointed Minnesota composer Stephen Paulus to serve as its composer-in-residence.
The Dale War/and Singers perform an annual subscription series in the Twin Cities
and tour extensively throughout the Upper Midwest and other parts of the United States.
The group has also toured internationally and has been broadcast over German, Swedish
and Finnish state radio. The ensemble can be heard frequently on American Public Radio's
"St. Paul Sunday Morning" as well as rebroadcasts of Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home
Companion." The 1990 Dale War/and Singers "Echoes of Christmas" concert was carried
by 177 public radio stations and reached an estimated seven million listeners.
As The Dale War/and Singers celebrates its twentieth season, it continues to be
committed to setting a national example of choral excellence through its ambitious programming, commissioning projects, and performances of new music by today's composers.
For additional information about The Dale War/and Singers call or write: The Dale
War/and Singers, 120 North Fourth Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55401; 612/339-9707.
DALE WARLAND
Founder and Music Director
Dale War/and has devoted his professional life to attaining the highest musical level in
choral singing. Consummate musicianship and attention to detail have been Dr. War/and's
tools in building one of the finest choral groups in the country: The Dale War/and Singers.
Under War/and's leadership, the ensemble has thrilled choral music lovers not just in their
Twin Cities home, but throughout North America and Europe. Tours, radio broadcasts and
fifteen recordings have won Dr. Warland and The Singers countless fans wor/dwide.
In addition to his active schedule as music director of The Dale War/and Singers,
War/and is in demand as a guest conductor, lecturer and composer. He has guest conducted
such groups as the Swedish Radio Choir, Danish Radio Choir, Oregon Bach Festival
Chorus, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and Israel's Cameran Singers. In August of 1990/
Dr. War/and prepared the chorus for performances of the Penderecki's Polish Requiem as
part of The Second Wor/d Symposium on Choral Music in Sweden and Finland.
A member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP),
War/and is a former co-chair of the choral and recording panels of the National Endowment
for the Arts. In June 1988, he was named Choral Advisor to Oxford University Press, U.S.A.
In this capacity, Dr. Warland is assisting with the expansion of the Oxford American choral
list and will create a Dale War/and Choral Series. Dr. Warland is a recipient of major
grants from the Ford Foundation, the Bush Foundation, and the Minnesota State Arts Board.
He has served as professor of music at Macalester College, and recently received the
Distinguished Alumnus Award from St. Olaf College as well as the Outstanding Alumnus
award from the University of Southern California. Dr. War/and's advanced degrees include
a master's degree from the University of Minnesota and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree
from the University of Southern California.
JERRY RUBINO
Assistant Director, The Dale War/and Singers
Music Director, The Cabaret Singers
Jerry Rubino attended the Curtis Institute of Music as a cellist and holds degrees in piano,
music education and conducting from Temple University and the University of Minnesota.
An active free-lance musician, Mr. Rubino is regularly featured at the grand piano in
Dayton's Department Store, serves as organist and chair director of the Golden Valley
United Methodist Church, and often performs in solo and chamber music recitals and
with the Minnesota Opera and Minnesota Composers Forum. A published arranger with
Jenson and Word, he was named in "Who's Who in Rising Young Americans" in 1989
and frequently serves as a choral clinician and adjudicator. Jerry maintains private voice
and piano studios.
THE WARLAND
CABARET SINGERS
Founded in 1983, The Cabaret Singers has quickly gained a devoted following of jazz
enthusiasts. Presenting sophisticated renditions of swing era ballads and searing jazz
selections the ensemble has thrilled audiences in every performance. Selected from the
40-member Dale Warland Singers, the 12 member Cabaret Singers represent a broad
musical spectrum, including voice teachers, big band soloists and free-lance musicians.
Under the direction of pianist/conductor Jerry Rubino, The Cabaret Singers has developed
its own sound, rich in vocal integrity and virtuosic precision. Whether it's a Gershwin
classic or a Broadway show tune, The Cabaret Singers perform with panach and style.
The Dale Warland Singers
Soprano:
Janice Hunton
Kathy Josselyn
Polly Buchanan Jutsum*
Julie Ann Olson
Deborah J. Osgood
Lea Anna Sams-McGowan
Marie Spar
Tenor:
Brent Benrud
Philip W.R. Blackburn
Paul Gerike
Thomas Larson
Steven J. Sandberg
Ti mothy Sawyer*
Randall Speer
Alto:
Lisa Barry
Patricia Bather
Linda Danilewski
Joanne Halvorsen*
Lynette R. Johnson
Anna Mooy*
Rachael Dawn Nelson
Mary lo Oldakowski
Bass
Tom James .
Jerry johnson"
Dan Kallman
Iin Kim
Arthur LaRue
Jerry Rubino
Paul Theisen
Scott 1. Toperzer
*Alternate
PIONEER
ENTERPRISES,
INC. WEST FARGO, N.D.
PRINTED IN U.S.A.
Program
There has been a change to the program and order. The correct program and the
program note and text for Jeffrey Van's A Procession Winding Around Me follow.
I
THREE AMERICAN MADRIGALS
Cary John Franklin
William Hawley
Norman Dello Joio
The Uncertainty of the Poet
10 Son la Primavera (I am Spring)
Of Crows and Clusters
n
RELIGIOUS MOTETS
Thomas Luis da Victoria
Imant Raminsh
-I ere languores nostros
Ave Verum Corpus
m
MUSIC OF OUR TIME
d
Jeffrey Van
A Procession Winding Around Me:
Four Civil War Poems of Walt Whitman
Jeffrey Van, guitar
Intermission
IV
MUSIC OF OUR TIME
R. Murray Schafer
Alberto Grau
Snowforms
'Kasar Mie La Gaji (Venezuela)
V
Selections from The Dale Warland Cabaret Singers
(To be announced from the stage)
VI
FOLK MUSIC
~indy
arr. Carol Barnett
Eskimo Hunting Song
arr. Derek Healey
Sing a Song of Sixpence
arr. John Rutter
A Procession Winding Around Me: *
Four Civil War Poems of Walt Whitman (1991)
Jeffrey Van (b. 1941)
1.
2.
3.
4.
By the Bivouac's Fitful Flame
Beat! Beat! Drums!
Look Down Fair Moon
Reconciliation
,
Jeffrey Van, Guitar
* Funding assistance for the performance of A Procession Winding Around Me
received from The American Choral Works Performance Program of Chorus
America.
Program Note by Brian Newhouse
J
A Procession Winding Around Me: Four Civil War Poems of Walt Whitman
The guitar in composer Jeffrey Van'slap is spotlighted. Poor thing: in the next
eighteen minutes while the singers enjoy lines of 'elegant simplicity, it'll take a literal
beating.
Two years ago, Van toured the fields of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where, in July
1863, 43,000 lost their lives. He still struggles to describe the profundity of that
experience (as do others who visit, for instance, Dachau or the Somme), saying only
that there was an "immeasurable, palpable sadness there." Shortly after, he
received a commission from the Lancaster, Ohio Festival and began setting these
poems, continuing work on them while watching the superb PBS documentary The
Civil War.
His choice of Whitman was not difficult. No other poet witnessed America's
bloodiest 'conflict as closely or wrote of it as strikingly. Whitman, a Yankee, never
fired a shot and was only drawn into the War in 1862 when his brother George
became wounded. Whitman's visits to that fly-infested Virginia hospital where his
brother lay, seared him; for the rest of the War he lived in Washington, regularly
visiting the wounded, bearing gifts of conversation .andwriting paper, sometimes
even assisting the surgeons. He died 100 years ago, March 26, 1892.
Van's score describes an arch, starting with the quiet just before battle, rising to the
actual fury of battle, then the silence after the guns, and repose again. While the
singers tell his story, his guitar makes you feel it. Listen in the second movement foi'
the haunting rasp of the snare drum; the strummed strings "above the nut" in the
third, and how it 'evokes the brittle silence after Gettysburg or any other killing field;
(also, the fantastically eerie men's whistling in the third piece!); and the echo of
distant drums in the very last strummed chords. Van's musical picture, drawn in
shades of blue and gray, reminds us the next war is always ours to start.
1. By the Bivouac's Fitful FI,ame
By the bivouac's fitful flame,
A procession winding around me, solemn and sweet and slow -~but first I note,
The tents of the sleeping army, the fields' and woods' dim outline,
The darkness lit by spots of kindled fire, the silence, .
Like a phantom far ornear an occasional figure moving,
The shrubs andtrees, (as 1lift my eyes they seem to be stealthily watching me.)
While wind in procession thoughts, 0 tender and wondrous thoughts,
Of life and death, of home and the past and loved, and of those that are far away;
A solemn and slow procession there as I sit on the ground,
By the bivouac's fitful flame.
2. Beat! Beat! Drums!
Beat! beat! drums! --blow! bugles! blow!
Through the windows--through the doors--burst like a ruthless force,
Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation,
Into the school where the scholar is studying;
..
Leave not the bridegroom quiet-no happiness must he "havenow with his bride, .
Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, ploughing his field or gathering his grain,
So fierce you whirr and pound you drums--so shrill you bugles blow.
Beat! beat! drums! --blow! bugles! blow!
Over the traffic of cities--over the rumble of wheels in the streets;
Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the houses? no sleepers must sleep in
those beds,
No bargainers' bargains by day--no brokers or speculators--wouldthey continue?
Would the talkers be talking? would the singer a~te,mptto sing?
Would the lawyer rise in the court to state his case"before the judge?
Then rattle quicker, heavier drums--you bugles wilder blow.
Beat! beat! drums! --blow! bugles! blow!
Make no parley--stop for no expostulation,
.
Mind not the timid--mind not the weeper or prayer,
Mind not the old man beseeching the young man,
Let not the child's voice be heard, nor the mother's entreaties, .
Make even the trestles to shake the dead where they lie awaiting the hearses,
So strong you thump 0 terrible drums--so loud you bugles blow.
3. Look Down Fair Moon
Look down fair moon and bathe this scene,
Pour softly down night's nimbus floods on faces ghastly, swollen, purple,
On the dead on their backs with arms toss'd wide,
Pour down your unstinted nimbus sacred moon.
4. Reconciliation
Word over all, beautiful as the sky,
Beautiful that war and all its deeds of carnage must in time be utterly lost,
That the hands of the sisters Death and Night incessantly softly wash again, and ever
again, this soil' d world;
For my enemy is dead, a man divine as myself is dead,
I look where he lies white-faced and still in the coffm--I draw near,
Bend down and touch lightly with my lips the white face in the coffin.
-- Walt Whitman
Final concerts of The Dale Warland Singers' 20th Anniversary Season
3 pm, Sunday, 29 March 1992
Neo-Choral n
Walker Art Center
Program Highlights:
Charles Hoag: The Ogallala Aquifer (world premiere)
Anthony Davis: Voyage through Death to Life Upon These Shores
Vincent Persichetti: Winter Cantata
plus works by Darius Milhaud and Samuel Barber
For tickets, call 690-6700
6:~0 pm, Friday, 24 April 1992
Gala Benefit for TheDale Warland Singers
Lafayette Country Club
For Benefit infonnation, call 339-9707
3pm, Sunday 3 May 1992
Twentieth Anniversary Concert
with The Eastman Brass and Friends
Wooddale Church, Eden Prairie
Program:
C. Hubert Parry: I Was Glad
Bengt Hambraeus: Motetum Archangeli Michaelis
R. Murray Schafer: A Garden of Bells
Stephen Paulus: Visions from Hildegard, Part I for chorus, brass quintet;
timpani (world premiere)
ImantRaminsh: Ave Verum Corpus
Carol Barnett: The Last Invocation
Norman Dello Joio: To Saint Cecilia
plus selections by the Eastman Brass and Friends
For tickets, call 690-6700
..........-'