Program Notes
Silence and Music
October 22, 2023
All things shall perish from under the sky
All things shall perish under the sky. How with just a few words can this folk song capture something truly beautiful about our world? Everything on this earth has its time; it’s time to be magnificent. Maybe it’s time is seconds, maybe it is years, or maybe it is centuries. But everything has a finite amount of time.
Music alone shall live. Music is a living and breathing thing. There are very few things in our world that lives on like music. This is why we have national anthems and folk songs. This is why, as choral singers, we continue to perform the music of great composers of the past such as William Byrd, W. A. Mozart, J. S. Bach and why we continue to perform the music of our favorite composers such as Dan Forrest, Gwyneth Walker and Debra Scroggins.
Never to die. Do you remember the first CD that you bought? Do you remember the first concert you attended? Do you remember the music that made your summer special? We often associate music with special times and moments in our lives. The memory associated with music is deeply embedded in our minds and truly never dies.
We begin tonight’s concert in silence with this folk song being performed in sign language. As the singers slowly begin contributing the sound of notes and rhythm and time and space to this beloved tune, the silence becomes heard and proclaimed. Tonight, enjoy the moments of silence as well as the music as we perform the opening concert of our 51st season, Silence and Music.
Music, When Soft Voices Die by Lloyd Pfautsch (1921-2003)
This poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley was written in 1821 and published in 1824 in London. The theme of the poem is the endurance of our memories.
Lloyd Pfautsch spent most of his career at Southern Methodist University in Dallas where he was Professor of Sacred Music and Director of Choral Activities from 1958-1992. He was an active composer and arranger with over 300 piece published by 15 different music publishers.
You are the Music by Dan Forrest (b. 1978)
This sonnet written by Amy Lowell (187-1925) entitled Listening, confesses her love for a person using images from nature. In the poem, Amy Lowell is literally “listening” to the beauty of this person. This person is implied to be a musician, but rather than their songs, the poet falls in love with the person rather than their music. In the poem, she compares the different shades of this person to that of the ocean and woods. No matter what mood the ocean has, its brilliance is always eternal and prevailing.
Silence and Music by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
The poet, Ursula Wood married Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1953 after his first wife, Adeline passed away in 1951. After putting off composition during his first wife’s illness, Vaughan Williams set Ursula’s poem to music in the year of their marriage. The poem is from a set of poems, A Garland for the Queen, a collection of ten tributes to the newly-crowned Queen Elizabeth II.
Ralph Vaughan Williams attended the Royal College of Music where he studied with Parry, Wood and Stanford. During his service in the Royal Garrison Artillery as a Second Lieutenant, Vaughan Williams had developed some hearing loss that, by the time of his death in 1958, left him completely deaf. And despite the condition of his hearing, he continued to compose music throughout his life. He believed in the value or music education which lead him to write music for all levels of performance. His sensitivity to the 20th-century human condition and his great imagination combine to make him one of the key musical figures of 20th century music.
Serenade to Music by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Vaughan Williams composed this piece in 1938 in dedication to the great British conductor Sir Henry Wood. The text is taken from the William Shakespeare play The Merchant of Venice Act V, Scene I, where the glories of music are described.
Ralph Vaughan Williams attended the Royal College of Music where he studied with Parry, Wood and Stanford. During his service in the Royal Garrison Artillery as a Second Lieutenant, Vaughan Williams had developed some hearing loss that, by the time of his death in 1958, left him completely deaf. And despite the condition of his hearing, he continued to compose music throughout his life. He believed in the value or music education which lead him to write music for all levels of performance. His sensitivity to the 20th-century human condition and his great imagination combine to make him one of the key musical figures of 20th century music.
Jubilate Deo by William Walton (1902-1983)
This work was written for the English Bach Festival and was first performed in 1972 in Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford. This setting of Psalm 99 captures the grandeur and enthusiastic celebration of God through the relentless organ dotted rhythms and grand use of double choir. The middle section is much more somber as the organ transitions into long note values accompanying a trio of singers and the sopranos and altos of the chorus. The original musical idea returns at the end of the piece with the Gloria Patri text.
William Walton, an English composer, celebrated a sixty-year career writing music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera. His best known works include Façade¸ the cantata Belshazzar’s Feast, the Viola Concerto¸ the First Symphony and the British coronation marches Crown Imperial and Orb and Scepter. His patronage and relationship with the Sitwell family brought him notoriety as a modernist composer. One of the best-known and most frequently performed works is the cantata Belshazzar’s Feast for large orchestra, chorus and baritone soloist. The piece intersperses a choral and orchestral depiction of the Babylonian excess and depravity, barbaric jazzy outbursts, and the lamentations and finally the rejoicing of the Jewish captives.
Sing Joyfully by William Byrd (1543-1623)
This setting of Psalm 81 is most likely the most popular English anthem written by William Byrd. With each section of the text, Byrd captures the specific meaning with his spirited polyphonic writing.
William Byrd is one of the greatest composers of the height of Renaissance music. He had a profound influence on his contemporaries in England and on the continent of Europe. His superior polyphonic writing continues to influence and teach modern composers. He contributed music for use in the Anglican service as well as the Roman Catholic Mass.
Cantate Domino by Hyun Kook (b. 1967)
The Latin text translates:
Sing to the Lord a new song,
sing to the Lord all the earth.
Sing to the Lord,
and bless his name;
Proclaim his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his wonders among all people.
For the Lord is great
and greatly to be praised;
he is to be feared above all gods.
This lively setting of Psalm 95 presents vigorous and rhythmically exciting themes that are heard throughout the piece.
Hyun Kook is a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and runs a government-supported research grants to find new therapeutics for heart diseases in South Korea. As a self-taught musician, he started writing music in 2005. He is an accomplished composer and writes regularly for internationally recognized choirs that include Ewha Chamber choir, Ansan City Chorale, Gwang Myeong City Chorale and Kammerchor Manila (Philippines). His extensive compositions are frequently performed world-wide.
Sing Unto God by Paul Fetler (b. 1920-2018)
American composer Paul Fetler earned degrees in music from Northwestern University, Yale and the University of Minnesota. Most notably he studied composition with Paul Hindemith and taught composition to Stephen Paulus, Libby Larsen and Carol Barnett. Fetler described his style of composition as “the merger of listener and music.” Much of his music focuses on subtlety, richness and intimacy. This rhythmic and lively setting of Psalm 68: 32-34, has been a favorite of choirs since it was first published in 1959.
A Silence Haunts Me by Jake Runestad (b. 1986)
A Silence Haunts Me was commissioned by the American Choral Directors Association for the 2019 Raymond W. Brock Commission to be premiered at the National Convention of that year. Runestead had the idea of setting the text based on the famous Heiligenstadt Testament, a letter written by Ludwig van Beethoven to his brothers, while traveling in Europe and reading this letter for the first time. This letter can be viewed in four parts, the first, his admission to his brothers that he was going deaf, then a suicide note, letter of forgiveness and a prayer of hope. Because of the length of the letter, Runestad turned to his friend and collaborator, Todd Bass to write a poem based on Beethoven’s letter. The poem and thus this music became a monologue in Beethoven’s voice for choir. The libretto written by Todd Boss places the reader/listener into the same small, rented room as Beethoven. Runestad sets this text with an intense, emotional directness and uses some of Beethoven’s own musical ideas to provide context. Stitched into the work are hints of familiar themes from the Moonlight Sonata, the 3rd, 6th and 9th Symphonies, and Creatures of Prometheus, but they are, in Runestad’s words, “filtered through a hazy, frustrated, and defeated state of being.” (taken from program notes written by Dr. Jonathan Talberg)
Jake Runestad, an award-winning composer and conductor has received commissions and performances from leading ensembles such as Voces8, Washington National Opera, the Philippine Madrigal Singers, the Netherlands Radio Choir, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Seraphic Fire, the Dallas Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, the Pacific Chorale and the Santa Fe Desert Chorale. The first album of his choral music, “The Hope of Loving,” was recorded by Craig Hella Johnson and Conspirare and received a 2020 Grammy nomination.
How Can I Keep From Singing by Gwyneth Walker (b. 1947)
Gwyneth Walker’s music is widely performed throughout the country and beloved by performers and audiences alike for its energy, beauty, reverence, drama, and humor. Dr. Gwyneth Walker is a graduate of Brown University and the Hartt School of Music. She holds B.A., M.M. and D.M.A. degrees in Music Composition. A former faculty member of the Oberlin College Conservatory, she resigned from academic employment in 1982 in order to pursue a career as a full-time composer. For nearly 30 years, she lived on a dairy farm in Braintree, Vermont before returning to live in her childhood hometown of New Canaan, Connecticut. A composer since age two, Gwyneth Walker has always placed great value on writing in a broad array of genres. More than 400 commissioned works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo instruments, chorus, and solo voice have been created—all arising from the impetus of performers and collaboration with musicians. Over the decades, she has traveled throughout North America to attend performances of her works and to meet her musician colleagues.
How Can I Keep From Singing is a setting of the popular American folksong originating as a Christian hymn. The author of the lyrics was known as “Pauline T,” and the original tune was composed by American Baptist minister Robert Lowry. Walker’s new setting of this hymn emphasizes the celebratory and life-affirming aspects that are prevalent in the text.
All things shall perish under the sky. How with just a few words can this folk song capture something truly beautiful about our world? Everything on this earth has its time; it’s time to be magnificent. Maybe it’s time is seconds, maybe it is years, or maybe it is centuries. But everything has a finite amount of time.
Music alone shall live. Music is a living and breathing thing. There are very few things in our world that lives on like music. This is why we have national anthems and folk songs. This is why, as choral singers, we continue to perform the music of great composers of the past such as William Byrd, W. A. Mozart, J. S. Bach and why we continue to perform the music of our favorite composers such as Dan Forrest, Gwyneth Walker and Debra Scroggins.
Never to die. Do you remember the first CD that you bought? Do you remember the first concert you attended? Do you remember the music that made your summer special? We often associate music with special times and moments in our lives. The memory associated with music is deeply embedded in our minds and truly never dies.
We begin tonight’s concert in silence with this folk song being performed in sign language. As the singers slowly begin contributing the sound of notes and rhythm and time and space to this beloved tune, the silence becomes heard and proclaimed. Tonight, enjoy the moments of silence as well as the music as we perform the opening concert of our 51st season, Silence and Music.
Music, When Soft Voices Die by Lloyd Pfautsch (1921-2003)
This poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley was written in 1821 and published in 1824 in London. The theme of the poem is the endurance of our memories.
Lloyd Pfautsch spent most of his career at Southern Methodist University in Dallas where he was Professor of Sacred Music and Director of Choral Activities from 1958-1992. He was an active composer and arranger with over 300 piece published by 15 different music publishers.
You are the Music by Dan Forrest (b. 1978)
This sonnet written by Amy Lowell (187-1925) entitled Listening, confesses her love for a person using images from nature. In the poem, Amy Lowell is literally “listening” to the beauty of this person. This person is implied to be a musician, but rather than their songs, the poet falls in love with the person rather than their music. In the poem, she compares the different shades of this person to that of the ocean and woods. No matter what mood the ocean has, its brilliance is always eternal and prevailing.
Silence and Music by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
The poet, Ursula Wood married Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1953 after his first wife, Adeline passed away in 1951. After putting off composition during his first wife’s illness, Vaughan Williams set Ursula’s poem to music in the year of their marriage. The poem is from a set of poems, A Garland for the Queen, a collection of ten tributes to the newly-crowned Queen Elizabeth II.
Ralph Vaughan Williams attended the Royal College of Music where he studied with Parry, Wood and Stanford. During his service in the Royal Garrison Artillery as a Second Lieutenant, Vaughan Williams had developed some hearing loss that, by the time of his death in 1958, left him completely deaf. And despite the condition of his hearing, he continued to compose music throughout his life. He believed in the value or music education which lead him to write music for all levels of performance. His sensitivity to the 20th-century human condition and his great imagination combine to make him one of the key musical figures of 20th century music.
Serenade to Music by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Vaughan Williams composed this piece in 1938 in dedication to the great British conductor Sir Henry Wood. The text is taken from the William Shakespeare play The Merchant of Venice Act V, Scene I, where the glories of music are described.
Ralph Vaughan Williams attended the Royal College of Music where he studied with Parry, Wood and Stanford. During his service in the Royal Garrison Artillery as a Second Lieutenant, Vaughan Williams had developed some hearing loss that, by the time of his death in 1958, left him completely deaf. And despite the condition of his hearing, he continued to compose music throughout his life. He believed in the value or music education which lead him to write music for all levels of performance. His sensitivity to the 20th-century human condition and his great imagination combine to make him one of the key musical figures of 20th century music.
Jubilate Deo by William Walton (1902-1983)
This work was written for the English Bach Festival and was first performed in 1972 in Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford. This setting of Psalm 99 captures the grandeur and enthusiastic celebration of God through the relentless organ dotted rhythms and grand use of double choir. The middle section is much more somber as the organ transitions into long note values accompanying a trio of singers and the sopranos and altos of the chorus. The original musical idea returns at the end of the piece with the Gloria Patri text.
William Walton, an English composer, celebrated a sixty-year career writing music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera. His best known works include Façade¸ the cantata Belshazzar’s Feast, the Viola Concerto¸ the First Symphony and the British coronation marches Crown Imperial and Orb and Scepter. His patronage and relationship with the Sitwell family brought him notoriety as a modernist composer. One of the best-known and most frequently performed works is the cantata Belshazzar’s Feast for large orchestra, chorus and baritone soloist. The piece intersperses a choral and orchestral depiction of the Babylonian excess and depravity, barbaric jazzy outbursts, and the lamentations and finally the rejoicing of the Jewish captives.
Sing Joyfully by William Byrd (1543-1623)
This setting of Psalm 81 is most likely the most popular English anthem written by William Byrd. With each section of the text, Byrd captures the specific meaning with his spirited polyphonic writing.
William Byrd is one of the greatest composers of the height of Renaissance music. He had a profound influence on his contemporaries in England and on the continent of Europe. His superior polyphonic writing continues to influence and teach modern composers. He contributed music for use in the Anglican service as well as the Roman Catholic Mass.
Cantate Domino by Hyun Kook (b. 1967)
The Latin text translates:
Sing to the Lord a new song,
sing to the Lord all the earth.
Sing to the Lord,
and bless his name;
Proclaim his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his wonders among all people.
For the Lord is great
and greatly to be praised;
he is to be feared above all gods.
This lively setting of Psalm 95 presents vigorous and rhythmically exciting themes that are heard throughout the piece.
Hyun Kook is a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and runs a government-supported research grants to find new therapeutics for heart diseases in South Korea. As a self-taught musician, he started writing music in 2005. He is an accomplished composer and writes regularly for internationally recognized choirs that include Ewha Chamber choir, Ansan City Chorale, Gwang Myeong City Chorale and Kammerchor Manila (Philippines). His extensive compositions are frequently performed world-wide.
Sing Unto God by Paul Fetler (b. 1920-2018)
American composer Paul Fetler earned degrees in music from Northwestern University, Yale and the University of Minnesota. Most notably he studied composition with Paul Hindemith and taught composition to Stephen Paulus, Libby Larsen and Carol Barnett. Fetler described his style of composition as “the merger of listener and music.” Much of his music focuses on subtlety, richness and intimacy. This rhythmic and lively setting of Psalm 68: 32-34, has been a favorite of choirs since it was first published in 1959.
A Silence Haunts Me by Jake Runestad (b. 1986)
A Silence Haunts Me was commissioned by the American Choral Directors Association for the 2019 Raymond W. Brock Commission to be premiered at the National Convention of that year. Runestead had the idea of setting the text based on the famous Heiligenstadt Testament, a letter written by Ludwig van Beethoven to his brothers, while traveling in Europe and reading this letter for the first time. This letter can be viewed in four parts, the first, his admission to his brothers that he was going deaf, then a suicide note, letter of forgiveness and a prayer of hope. Because of the length of the letter, Runestad turned to his friend and collaborator, Todd Bass to write a poem based on Beethoven’s letter. The poem and thus this music became a monologue in Beethoven’s voice for choir. The libretto written by Todd Boss places the reader/listener into the same small, rented room as Beethoven. Runestad sets this text with an intense, emotional directness and uses some of Beethoven’s own musical ideas to provide context. Stitched into the work are hints of familiar themes from the Moonlight Sonata, the 3rd, 6th and 9th Symphonies, and Creatures of Prometheus, but they are, in Runestad’s words, “filtered through a hazy, frustrated, and defeated state of being.” (taken from program notes written by Dr. Jonathan Talberg)
Jake Runestad, an award-winning composer and conductor has received commissions and performances from leading ensembles such as Voces8, Washington National Opera, the Philippine Madrigal Singers, the Netherlands Radio Choir, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Seraphic Fire, the Dallas Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, the Pacific Chorale and the Santa Fe Desert Chorale. The first album of his choral music, “The Hope of Loving,” was recorded by Craig Hella Johnson and Conspirare and received a 2020 Grammy nomination.
How Can I Keep From Singing by Gwyneth Walker (b. 1947)
Gwyneth Walker’s music is widely performed throughout the country and beloved by performers and audiences alike for its energy, beauty, reverence, drama, and humor. Dr. Gwyneth Walker is a graduate of Brown University and the Hartt School of Music. She holds B.A., M.M. and D.M.A. degrees in Music Composition. A former faculty member of the Oberlin College Conservatory, she resigned from academic employment in 1982 in order to pursue a career as a full-time composer. For nearly 30 years, she lived on a dairy farm in Braintree, Vermont before returning to live in her childhood hometown of New Canaan, Connecticut. A composer since age two, Gwyneth Walker has always placed great value on writing in a broad array of genres. More than 400 commissioned works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo instruments, chorus, and solo voice have been created—all arising from the impetus of performers and collaboration with musicians. Over the decades, she has traveled throughout North America to attend performances of her works and to meet her musician colleagues.
How Can I Keep From Singing is a setting of the popular American folksong originating as a Christian hymn. The author of the lyrics was known as “Pauline T,” and the original tune was composed by American Baptist minister Robert Lowry. Walker’s new setting of this hymn emphasizes the celebratory and life-affirming aspects that are prevalent in the text.