Program Notes

Sunday, June 4, 2006 4:00 p.m.
Ford Community & Performing Arts Center
Dearborn, Michigan

Vanguard Voices
• G. Kevin Dewey, Director

Stanley Waldon, Accompanist
Guest Soloist - Gina Maria D’Alessio, Soprano

Come, Gentle Spring from “The Seasons”  Franz Joseph Haydn
Ave Verum Corpus   W. A. Mozart
Alleluia from “Exsultate, Jubilate”  W. A. Mozart
Laudate Dominum   W. A. Mozart
The Hymn of Kassiane   George S. Raptis
The Promise of Living   Aaron Copland
Season Sonnets   Stuart Scott - world premiere
Voi, che sapete from “Le Nozze di Figaro”   W. A. Mozart
Son pochi fiori from “L’Amico Fritz”   Pietro Mascagni
Easter Hymn from “Cavalleria Rusticana”   Pietro Mascagni
Hallelujah from “Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration”   G. F. Handel, arr. Mervyn Warren, et al.

Reserved Tickets: $11, $8; call (313) 943-2354

Program Notes
by Pamela Willwerth Aue

COME, GENTLE SPRING
Our Music for the Seasons opens with a chorus from “The Seasons,” by Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), based on a poem of the same name by James Thompson (1700-1748) of Scotland. The oratorio, first performed in the spring of 1801, combines elements of both opera and cantata, with arias, recitatives, and choruses sung by “characters” including a farmer and his daughter, and a young man who is in love with the daughter. Following the oratorio’s tumultuous overture that marks the end of winter’s icy grip, a chorus of country folk sing Come, Gentle Spring—the women rejoicing in the first sweet signs of new life, the men gruffly arguing that a touch of warmth in the air is no guarantee that winter’s chill is gone.

AVE VERUM CORPUS
2006 marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791). In recognition of this year-long season of remembrance, we include works on today’s program that represent several seasons of the great composer’s all-too-brief lifetime. Ave Verum Corpus was composed in June 1791 for the Feast of Corpus Christi, which is observed in the Roman Catholic Church eight weeks after Easter. One of Mozart’s most enduring choral works, its brevity belies the spiritual and emotional power it holds more than two hundred years after it was written, barely six months before the composer’s death.

ALLELUIA
By contrast, the Alleluia from the motet “Exsultate, jubilate” is one of Mozart’s early vocal masterpieces. The three-part motet for solo soprano was first performed in January 1773, not long before the composer’s 17th birthday. (Of course, by the time he was 18, he had already composed many instrumental works, including 26 of his 41 numbered symphonies, as well as nine operas.) In the traditional Holy Saturday Mass of the Roman Catholic church, which is observed the day before Easter Sunday, joyous “Alleluias” are heard for the first time following their absence during the period of Lent. And just as the Holy Saturday liturgy features Alleluias immediately followed by the psalm of praise, “Laudate Dominum,” so, too, is the progression from one to the other in today’s program.

LAUDATE DOMINUM
Mozart’s 1780 setting of the Office of Vespers employed the texts of Psalms 110, 111, 112, 113, and 117, along with the traditional Magnificat canticle. Perhaps because the Laudate Dominum is the only one of the Psalms set mainly for a solo voice, it is more frequently performed on its own than any of the others. The lilting, lyrical soprano aria is justifiably considered one of the most beautiful melodies found in any of Mozart’s sacred works. A choral echo features the liturgical “Gloria patri” text, and the soloist rejoins the choir with a luminous, soaring “Amen” that closes the work—and this brief tribute to Mozart and his contributions to choral literature of the ages.

THE HYMN OF KASSIANE
Kassiane, an educated woman and poet of the Byzantine Empire (ninth century), became a nun rather than risk a scandalous love affair with the Emperor Theophilus. In the ancient poem that serves as the text for this Greek anthem, she writes in the voice of the woman who anointed the feet of Jesus with myrrh to demonstrate her repentance from a life of sin. The scripture that recounts this event has its seasonal spot in the orthodox church liturgy on the Wednesday of Holy Week, which leads up to Easter. Accordingly, that is when The Hymn of Kassiane, by Detroit composer George S. Raptis, is traditionally sung.

THE PROMISE OF LIVING
The Promise of Living is a choral favorite derived from “The Tender Land,” the only full-length opera written by Aaron Copland (1900-1990). The action takes place on a Midwestern farm during the 1930s. Laurie, eldest daughter of the family, is about to graduate from high school. Two drifters seeking work are invited to help with the spring harvest. One takes a shine to Laurie and ponders settling down, while she contemplates the freedom she might gain by running away with him. Sung as a quintet by Laurie, her mother, her grandfather, and the drifters, The Promise of Living voices the shared and divergent dreams and aspirations of three generations of Americans who find themselves together in the same place and time, yet at different seasons in their lives.

SEASON SONNETS
Season Sonnets was commissioned as part of the Vanguard Premieres program. Each of the texts that comprise the work is a sonnet—a poem in iambic pentameter that follows prescribed rhyme schemes and is precisely fourteen lines long. The composer writes of his fascination with the form, noting that despite its strict framework, each sonnet possesses unique characteristics which vary “from author to author and poem to poem. The four texts selected attest to this diversity. The ‘glue’ that brings them together is their respective titles, which reflect the four seasons.”

Season Sonnets opens with “Summer,” a poem penned by British writer Josiah Conder (1789-1855). Scott uses what he describes as “a slow, lazy tempo with just a hint of blues,” to portray the pre-dusk hush of a hot, humid summer’s eve. Subdued in the mugginess, all creatures are still—but wary—as daylight lingers, evening mist rolls in, and storm clouds darken the horizon.

“Autumn” captures the classic New England season so familiar to poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1897-1882): farmers gather crops by harvest moonlight; forests are ablaze with the colors of exotic Asian tapestries. The composer notes that while the poet’s words paint the images, “the piano plays an idea that at times suggests rain and at others, falling leaves.”

The bitter chill of the dark season of the year finds expression in the 1895 sonnet “Winter,” by Canadian poet Ethelwyn Wetherald (1857-1940). Solo voices rise above chords frozen in time, illuminating a mood described by the composer as “stark . . . and empty . . . reflecting the season.” Yet even at its loneliest ebb, nature reminds the attentive listener that joy, though distant, is merely dormant.

Virtually nothing is known about American poet Eugene A. Woodward, whose “Spring” was published in his 1916 volume of verse, Sonnets and Acrostics. But imagine how surprised he would be to hear how effortlessly his text fits the rhythmic 7/8 and 7/4 of Scott’s playful melodies and harmonies, which provide a “joyful contrast to ‘Winter’,” according to the composer. Could either the music or the text truly exist without the other?

VOI, CHE SAPETE
“Le Nozze di Figaro” (The Marriage of Figaro) is a comic opera composed by Mozart in 1786. In Voi, che sapete, Cherubino (a male servant traditionally acted by a female singer) sings about the pleasure and pain of being in love. Mozart isn’t specific about the season, but how could it be anything other than springtime?

SON POCHI FIORI
Italian composer Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945) is best remembered for his premiere opera (see below). Son pochi fiori, from his romantic second opera, “L’Amico Fritz,” is an aria sung by a young girl as she presents a bouquet of spring flowers—April violets—to Fritz on his birthday.

EASTER HYMN
Mascagni’s one-act opera “Cavalleria Rusticana” led to overnight fame in 1890 and was one of the first operatic works to focus on common folk as primary characters. Early in the action, a church choir begins to sing the Latin text of Regina Coeli, summoning the Sicilian parishioners to Easter Sunday Mass. On the streets, a chorus of peasants and villagers replies, in Italian, “O sing praise to the Lord who is risen!” The jubilant Easter Hymn with its soaring soprano solo line, closes with both choirs singing together.

HALLELUJAH
Although many people associate Handel’s Messiah with the Christmas season, it was originally performed at Easter, in celebration of the risen Christ, the Messiah. In the spirit of this season and the composer’s intent, could there be a more appropriate way to follow Mascagni’s Easter Hymn than with Hallelujah, the Grammy award-winning, gospel version of the famous oratorio’s most famous chorus? We hope you’ll agree this is the perfect way to bring to a close our celebration of Music for the Seasons.