A Joyful Noise

Nov 30, Dec 1, Dec 2, 2007

Program Notes by Sanford Dole

Tonight’s program includes a variety of festive works for chorus, brass, and organ that are intended to get you in the mood for the Christmas season. To help us take this musical tour we welcome as guest artists the Menlo Brass Quintet, whose membership includes composer Brian Holmes, and composer/organist T. Paul Rosas. From delightful arrangements of familiar carols to exciting new additions to the Christmas repertoire, we hope you will feel both entertained and filled with the holiday spirit at the conclusion of the show.

We open with a set of motets for double chorus from the Renaissance era. While all of these works could be performed by double choir, a cappella, it is likely that when originally performed some or all of the parts were doubled by instruments. In the spirit of that practice, I have created arrangements specifically for this concert using the resources of our choir and instruments to best represent the composers’ intent.

Giovanni da Palestrina was the great maestro di cappella at St. Peter’s in Rome in the mid-sixteenth century. His Hodie Christus natus est is not scored for two equal choirs. Rather, the first choir has more upper voices and the second, more lower voices. To maximize the effect of the writing I’ve distributed the singers and the brass across both choirs.

Farther north, Michael Praetorius worked for the court at Dresden, where he composed a large body of works, many in the polychoral style of the great Venetian composer Giovanni Gabrieli. Both Ein Kindelein so löbelich and In dulci jubilo display his skill in handling these large forces.

Heinrich Schütz also studied with Gabrieli and, twenty years after the death of Praetorius, assumed the same post working for the Elector of Saxony in Dresden. He is considered to be the most important German composer prior to J. S. Bach. This Deutsches Magnificat—one of his several settings of the Song of Mary and one of two he set in German—was composed at the end of his life, published posthumously in a collection titled Der Schwanengesang (The Swan Song).

Speaking of Bach, our version of In dulci jubilo opens with Bach’s famous harmonization of the chorale tune. Hearing this familiar version first should help you appreciate how, in an earlier era, Praetorius plays with and expands upon the tune.

I am delighted to be showcasing the talents of some of our local composers! Paul Rosas is our longtime rehearsal accompanist and has performed with us in past concerts on both piano and organ. In addition to his keyboard skills he is a talented composer, so I have asked him to contribute a solo performance of one of his compositions to tonight’s proceedings. Inspired by Celtic music heard on a trip to Ireland in 2006, his Festive Gigue was recently accepted for publication.

Brian Holmes is another member of our esteemed cast of players. By day a PhD physics professor at San Jose State University since 1983, Brian has been equally active as a professional musician, playing French horn with San Jose Symphony, Opera San Jose, the Peninsula Symphony, and now with the Menlo Brass Quintet. An avid composer as well, his works are frequently performed and recorded. After creating a full-length score for a production with Revels, Inc., his interest in creating Christmas-themed music continued. Five Medieval Carols is one such endeavor, and includes the prize-winning song I Saw a Fair Maiden.

My Two Christmas Motets were originally composed in 1994 for a performance of the Sanford Dole Ensemble. Quite contrasting in style and affect, each piece easily stands alone, although I quite enjoy the effect one has on the other when performed together. Let me know what you think! If you would like to hear O magnum mysterium again, you may find it on Cantabile’s first commercial recording, The Seasons of Christmas, available in the lobby during intermission.

The music of Englishman Jonathan Willcocks is new to me. Born in Worcester and educated at King’s College Cambridge, he is the conductor of two choruses and a professional chamber orchestra in Portsmouth. His compositions, many of which are for chorus with brass and organ, are often performed throughout the UK and across Europe. Regina caeli deftly combines a more ancient style and a very modern sensibility that, in the tradition of Vaughn Williams, Howells, and Stanford, sounds very English to me.

Coventry Carol dates from the sixteenth century, when it was performed in Coventry Cathedral as part of a mystery play called “The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors.” The play depicts the portion of the Christmas story from the Gospel of Matthew in which Herod orders all male infants in Bethlehem killed. The lyrics of this haunting carol “Lully, lullay, thou little tiny child” represent a mother’s lament for her doomed child. Keith Snell, a professor and trumpet teacher at Cal-State Northridge and Long Beach, created this haunting and delicate arrangement in 1981, reflecting the “early music” roots of the melody.

The collection of familiar and less familiar Classic French Carols, arranged by Paul Trepte, another Englishman, is a relatively straightforward presentation of these beautiful melodies. The addition of the simple brass and organ parts lends an elegant grace to the cycle.

Daniel Pinkham was one of the leading composers of choral music in America until his death, last December, at the age of 83. A lifelong resident of Massachusetts, his work is particularly well-known to residents of New England. Although he wrote in every genre and over the years embraced many of the musical styles that came into vogue over the course of the twentieth century—including medieval modality, 12-tone serialism, electronic music, and lyrical romanticism—he always strove to make his music approachable to listen to and “technically accessible” to perform. Hence his music has found a permanent home in the repertoire of choruses—in particular, his Christmas, Advent, and Wedding cantatas. The Christmas Cantata is a joyful and upbeat finale to our concert.

Thank you for attending our show tonight. We look forward to seeing you in March at our next set of concerts, a program of unaccompanied anthems spanning all eras of Western music titled “In Praise of Mary: An Incomplete Musical History of Marian Devotions.”