TEXT & PROGRAM NOTES
Hear My Prayer, O Lord, Z. 15
Music: composed c. 1682 by Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
Text: Psalm 102:1
Publisher: Novello & Company Limited, 1969
Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my crying come unto thee.
Henry Purcell (1659–1695) was among the most prolific and most well-known English composers in the late 17th century, writing in every genre including opera, orchestral and ballet scores. His music for choir is among the most highly regarded today, whether it be motets, anthems or odes written for figures in the English monarchy or to mark various feast days throughout the church calendar. The two Purcell works Cincinnati Camerata will perform today were both written within the last ten years of his life. Hear My Prayer, O Lord, a setting for 8 voices of words from Psalm 102, dates from around 1682, when Purcell was starting his tenure as organist of Westminster Abbey. Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary, dating from 1695, sets funeral sentences found in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, interspersed with an instrumental canzona (performed here by three trumpets, trombone and field drum).
Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary, Z. 860 (1695)
Music: composed in 1695 by Henry Purcell (1659–1695)
Text: 1662 Book of Common Prayer
Publisher: ed. Martin Straeten via imslp.org
Man, that is born of a woman, hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery.
He cometh up, and is cut down like a flower;
He fleeth as it were a shadow, and ne’er continueth in one stay.
In the midst of life, we are in death;
of whom may we seek for succour, but of thee, O Lord who for our sins art justly displeased?
Yet, O Lord most mighty,
O holy and most merciful Saviour,
Deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death.
Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts;
Shut not thy merciful ears unto our prayer;
But spare us Lord most holy, O God most mighty,
O holy and most merciful Saviour,
Thou most worthy judge eternal,
Suffer us not at our last hour for any pains of death to fall from thee.
Amen.
The Unknown Region from Carols of Death
Music: composed in 1959 by William Schuman (1910–1992)
Text: Walt Whitman
Publisher: Theodore Presser Company, 1959
Darest thou now, O soul,
Walk out with me toward the unknown region,
Where neither ground is for the feet nor any path to follow?
No map there, nor guide,
Nor voice sounding, nor touch of human hand,
Nor face with blooming flesh, nor lips, nor eyes, are in that land.
I know it not, O soul,
Nor dost thou, all is a blank before us,
All waits undream’d of in that region, that inaccessible land.
The unknown region.
American composer William Schuman (1910–1992) may be regarded as one of the most prolific, yet underappreciated, composers of the 20th century. Prolific in genres such as opera, ballet and symphonies (eight in total), he is principally known today for his orchestral score New England Triptych, based on hymn tunes by the early American composer William Billings. Other works of his built on distinctly American themes include The Mighty Casey (an operatic adaptation of the Ernest Lawrence Thayer poem Casey at the Bat) and A Free Song, a choral-orchestral score based on poems of Walt Whitman which won Schuman the very first Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1943. Carols of Death, from which The Unknown Region is excerpted, also set Walt Whitman poems and were composed roughly 15 years after A Free Song. Listen to how each section of the piece is built on variations of the same rhythmic material as well as more angular harmonies.
O Holy Lord
Music: arranged in 1916 by R. Nathaniel Dett (1882–1943)
Text and music: Negro spiritual melody first published in The Story of the Jubilee Singers.
Publisher: ed. Marques L. A. Garrett via mlagmusic.com
O holy Lord, done with sin and sorrow.
Robert Nathanial Dett (1882–1943) was one of the most prolific Black composers in the early part of the 20th century. Also active as a teacher, essayist and poet, his best-known compositions were built around African-American folk songs and spirituals. This is especially evident in choral scores such as Music of the Mine, Listen to the Lambs, and his crowning achievement, The Ordering of Moses (premiered by the Cincinnati May Festival in 1937). Dett’s arrangement of the spiritual O Holy Lord, heard in today’s concert, sets a short melody first collected in an 1880 book by writer J.T.B. Marsh called The Story of the Jubilee Singers. Cincinnati Camerata will perform from a recently published scholarly edition of the score by Marques L.A. Garrett, assistant professor of choral activities at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds
Music: composed in 2023 by Madeline Clara Cheng (b. 2004)
Text: Molly Bendall
Unpublished: madelineclaracheng.wixsite.com/music
The philosopher, impatient for the black to finish smothering the sunset,
wants to tell the Marquise his story of Galileo’s sky and Copernicus’ heaven
and their dark confessions—
How other worlds could be this one.
Their walk leads them away from the others at the party into the groomed yard
Where it’s not so Fragonard white or rose rose,
but where green webs mesh with blue adjectives from petal clusters.
She thinks when he makes each proclamation about the faraway air,
it’s as though he has finished a stanza in a poem, and his breath lowers with
the contentment of the final word. But sometimes he doesn’t finish, and with anticipation
or near-anxiety, she provides the sound, a last rhyme to relax their breaths.
Madeline Clara Cheng (b. 2004), currently a freshman at the University of California studying composition as a presidential scholar, is active as a composer, saxophonist, and pianist. An alumna of the Luna Composition Lab, Cheng is a winner of the National Federation of Music Clubs Junior Composers Contest as well as the ICEBERG New Music Young Composer Scholarship. Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds was commissioned by the Cincinnati May Festival for Cincinnati Camerata as part of its “25 for 25” initiative (25 new choral scores by 25 young, up-and-coming composers) in celebration of the May Festival’s 150th anniversary in 2023. The piece sets a poem by Molly Bendall inspired by the book of the same name written in 1686 by the Enlightenment-era French writer Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle. This source material is written as a collection of lessons given by a philosopher to a marquise explaining Copernicus’s ideas of the universe. Musically it is cloaked in Copland-esque harmonies throughout, with a solo in the middle section inspired by the Broadway musical Hadestown.
Wanting Memories from Crossings
Music: composed in 1980 by Ysaÿe M. Barnwell (b. 1946)
Text: Ysaÿe M. Barnwell
Publisher: Musical Source Publishing, 2002
I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me,
to see the beauty in the world through my own eyes.
Yes, I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me,
to see the beauty in the world through my own eyes.
You used to rock me in the cradle of your arms,
You said you’d hold me till the pains of life were gone.
You said you’d comfort me in times like these and now I need you,
And now I need you, and you are gone.
So, I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me,
to see the beauty in the world through my own eyes.
Since you’ve gone and left me, there’s been so little beauty,
But I know I saw it clearly through your eyes.
Now the world outside is such a cold and bitter place,
Here inside I have few things that will console.
And when I try to hear your voice above the storms of life,
Then I remember that I was told.
I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me,
to see the beauty in the world through my own eyes.
Yes, I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me,
to see the beauty in the world through my own eyes.
I think on the things that made me feel so wonderful when I was young.
I think on the things that made me laugh, made me dance, made me sing.
I think on the things that made me grow into a being full of pride.
Think on these things, for they are true.
And I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me,
to see the beauty in the world through my own eyes.
I thought that you were gone, but now I know you’re with me,
You are the voice that whispers all I need to hear.
I know a “please”, a “thank you” and a smile will take me far,
I know that I am you and you are me and we are one,
I know that who I am is numbered in each grain of sand,
I know that I’ve been blessed again, and over again.
Yes, I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me,
to see the beauty in the world through my own eyes.
Yes, I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me,
to see the beauty in the world through my own eyes.
The daughter of a registered nurse and classical violinist, Ysaÿe Barnwell (b. 1946) is active as a composer, instrumentalist, and vocalist on the contemporary/indie music scene, most notably having spent 34 years as a member of the a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock. As a composer, she has received commissions from groups such as the GALA Festival Choruses and David Rousseve’s New Reality Dance Company. Wanting Memories comes from a more extensive suite called Crossings, written in 1980 for Sweet Honey in the Rock, exploring a journey of loss to rediscovery of purpose.
Remember
Music: composed in 2002 by Stephen Chatman (b. 1950)
Text: Christina Rossetti
Publisher: ECS Publishing, 2002
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand.
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann’d:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
Stephen Chatman (b. 1955) is an American composer who has lived and worked in Canada since the mid-1970s. Among his most well-known compositions are the Due series (four sets of pieces inspired by nature based on the four cardinal directions on a compass) and Remember, which is performed here. The last in a set of Two Rosetti Songs dating from 2002 (setting texts by Christina Rosetti), it was composed on commission from the Vancouver Chamber Choir and its director, Jon Washburn.
Viri Galilaei, qui admiramini
Music: c. 14th century Gregorian chant
Text: Introit for the Mass of the Feast of the Ascension; Acts 1:11 & Psalm 47:1
Publisher: renegoupil.org
Viri Galilaei, quid admiramini aspicientes in caelum?
Men of Galilee, why are you gazing astonishingly at the sky?
Alleluia:
quemadmodum vidistis eum ascendentem in caelum,
ita veniet,
alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
Omnes gentes plaudite manibus:
iubilate Deo in voce exsultationis.
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto.
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper,
et in saecula saeculorum.
Amen.
Alleluia;
just as you have seen him ascend into heaven,
so, in like manner, shall he return,
alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
All nations, clap your hands;
shout unto God with a voice of joy.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
Viri galilei is traditionally sung as the introit for church services celebrating the Feast of the Ascension, which commemorate the ascension of the body of Jesus into heaven. It is sung by the tenors and basses of Cincinnati Camerata in this concert as we reach the pinnacle of our musical journey from death to life.
In Remembrance from Requiem
Music: composed in 1993 by Eleanor Daley (b. 1955)
Text: Clare Harner
Publisher: Gordon V. Thompson Music, 1995
Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow;
I am the diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain;
I am the gentle morning rain.
And when you wake in the morning’s hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there; I did not die.
Canadian composer Eleanor Daley (b. 1955) is active as church choir director, clinician and accompanist throughout North America. Her most well-known choral works include an a cappella setting of the traditional Requiem mass and The Rose Trilogy. In Remembrance, excerpted from the Requiem, sets an English text of unclear origin and was first performed in 1993 by the Elmer Iseler Singers in Toronto.
O Day Full of Grace
Music: arranged in 1943 by F. Melius Christiansen (1871–1955)
Text and music: DEN SIGNEDE DAG by Nicolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig.
Publisher: Augsburg Fortress, 2006
O day full of grace, which we behold
Now gently to view ascending,
Thou over the earth thy reign unfold,
Good cheer to all mortals lending,
That children of light in ev’ry clime
May prove that the night is ending.
How blest was that gracious midnight hour
When God in our flesh was given;
Then flushed the dawn with light and pow’r
That spread o’er the darkened heaven;
Then rose o’er the world that sun divine
Which gloom from our hearts hath driven.
Yea, were ev’ry tree endowed with speech,
And every leaflet singing,
They never with praise God’s worth could reach,
Though earth with their praise be ringing.
Who fully could praise the light of life Who
light to our souls is bringing?
With joy we depart for the promised land,
And there we shall walk in endless light.
F. Melius Christiansen (1871–1955) could be counted amongst the founding fathers of the Lutheran choral tradition, particularly in Minnesota. He served as founding director of the St. Olaf Choir in Northfield, Minnesota, from 1912 to 1944, helping establish the refined timbre, breathtaking sound and wonderful musicality audiences have grown to highly appreciate throughout the last 110 years. O Day Full of Grace (based on a melody by Christopher E.F. Weyse and set to a 15th-century Danish text), first published in 1943, was one of over 250 works Christiansen composed and certainly ranks among his most well-known amongst Lutheran collegiate and church choirs, along with Beautiful Savior.