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The DeKalb Choral Guild, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

A Caroling We Go

Mary Evelyn Root, Conductor
Leanne Elmer Hermann, Accompanist

Sunday, December 7, 1997
Emory Presbyterian Church
1886 North Decatur Road
Decatur, Georgia

Processional: Dona Nobis Pacem

This is My Song from Finlandia by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)

Gaudete from Piae Cantiones (1592), arr. Robert Batastini
Larry Roddam and Judy Thompson, soloists

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence by Gustav Holst (1874-1934)
Betsy Gabriel and Jay Richardson, soloists

Hark the Herald Angels Sing by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), arr. Shaw-Parker

The Blessed Son of God by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

O Virgo Splendens 14th Century Spanish Carol

Nativity Carol, Op. 77, No. 3, by William Mathias (b. 1934)

The Tears of the Infant Jesus by Pablo Casals (1876-1973)

Jesus Child by John Rutter (b. 1945)

The Godly Stranger by G. Winston Cassler

Wexford Carol, arr. Catherine Bennett
Malie Umbach, solist

This Little Babe by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

Pat-a-Pan, French Burgundian Carol
Betsy Williams, flute

The Chamber Singers Selections

Here We Come A-Wassailing, English Traditional Carol
Deck the Hall, Welsh Traditional Carol
O Christmas Tree, German Folk Song
The Boar's Head Carol, English Traditional Carol
Coventry Carol, 16th Century Tune
Sans Day Carol, Cornish Traditional Carol
Ding, Dong! Merrily on High, 16th Century French Tune
I Saw Three Ships, English Traditional Carol
The Twelve Days of Christmas, English Traditional Carol

Lo Yisa Goy, traditional Jewish
Kevin Spears, soloist

Shalom Chaverim! traditional Jewish

Final Chorus from L’Enfant et les Sortilèges by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Throw the Yule Log On, Uncle John by P.D.Q. Bach (1807-1742)?

The Banquet Fugue from The Reluctant Dragon by John Rutter (b. 1945)

A Little Christmas Music, arr. Darryl Runswick
Paula Keinert, soprano

Program Notes

By Michaelene Gorney

The origins of "Dona Nobis Pacem" are virtually unknown, although the tune is often attributed (incorrectly) to Palestrina of the 16th century. Its melody lives on, though its composer's name does not.

"This Is My Song" is a harmonization of the well-known melody from the orchestral tone poem, Finlandia. by Jean Sibelius. The DeKalb Choral Guild has proudly adopted this piece as its theme for the 1997-98 season. This particular harmonization is a composite of versions found in The Church Hymnary (Revised, 1927), The Hymnal (Presbyterian, 1933), and Sibelius' own piano score for Finlandia.

Many works featured on today's concert are found in the Oxford Book of Carols, a collection of traditional tunes celebrating various holidays, holy days, and the seasons. The word "carol" had its origins in dance, once meaning "to dance in a ring," and may go back to the Greek "chorus," which was a circling dance. The carol as we know it took form in the 15th century, when medievalists combined secular song and religious drama. Though many carols are indeed dance-like and light-hearted, some are dramatic, hymn-like, and serious. They may be sacred or secular, reflecting both folk tradition and the popular tendencies of the times in which they were sung. Though carols are by no means limited to England, the English have been foremost in the performance and preservation of carols from the British Isles and Europe.

"Gaudete" comes from the Piae Cantiones, 1582, a collection of Latin hymns and carols. It was the best European collection of religious folk songs of its time. The writing of English words to fit these tunes began a flow of European carols toward England.

"Let All Mortal Flesh" combines a traditional melody of the 17th century with words translated from the Greek language. As arranged by English composer Gustav Holst, it is the first piece of his Opus 36, Three Festival Choruses. Holst respected the simplicity of folk music and, wisely, did not feel bound to overpower its simplicity with musical complexity. His artistic discretion allows this beautiful hymn to speak for itself.

Sometime after Felix Mendelssohn's death in 1847, W.H. Cummings purloined a dance-like tune by the composer and fit it to texts by eighteenth century writers Charles Wesley, George Witfield, and Martin Madan. The result was "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," which established itself in 1856 as the standardized and popularly accepted carol we sing today.

"The Blessed Son of God" is from Hodie, (This Dav), a Christmas cantata for solo voices, chorus and orchestra. Vaughan Williams, considered an English nationalist, evoked the past in his works but always felt free to apply, in his own fashion, modern techniques of harmony and counterpoint.

"O Virgo Splendens" is a sacred chant from the 14th century Spanish manuscript Libre Vermell, which contains music from Montserrat in Catalonia. At this pilgrimage site resides a black wooden image of the Virgin Mary, who reportedly has performed many miracles. "O Virgo Splendens" is a round in which the melody, first stated in one voice, is repeated literally by those following. This imitative technique was often used in sacred motets of the period.

"Nativity Carol" is a musical setting of "words traditional" by Welsh composer William Mathias. Though most of his works are for orchestra, Mathias has written many songs, anthems, carols and psalms for both chorus and organ. He was commissioned by Prince Charles of Great Britain in 1981 to write a choral work for his bride, the late Princess Diana.

"The Tears of the Infant Jesus" is taken from the choral cantata El Pessebre (The Manger) by the renowned cellist, composer, and conductor, Pablo Casals. Written in a traditional musical style, this sacred work is simple and deeply felt. In 1962, Casals used El Pessebre to launch a worldwide campaign for peace.

John Rutter, born in London and educated at Clare College of Cambridge University, is known as the founder of the Cambridge Singers, as a choral conductor, and as a masterful arranger of songs, anthems and carols. His own compositions, written in a traditional style, are almost exclusively choral, but he has also written large orchestral works, opera, pop and light music, and music for BBC television. "Jesus Child" and "The Banquet Fugue," from an "entertainment" called The Reluctant Dragon, are only a sample of his versatility in the effective use of choral voices.

"The Godly Stranger" by G. Winston Cassler is a narrative of the Christmas story, with the flow of music guided by natural rhythms of the text. The juxtaposition of voices moving in pairs often results in harmonies reminiscent of soft jazz, while the musical interval of a fifth between paired voices harks back to medieval chant.

The "Wexford Carol" receives its title from County Wexford, where the tune was first recorded as sung by a French singer. The tune is Irish, but the words, having been revised several times, reflect both English and Irish origins. Unique to Bennett's arrangement is the insertion of a quadruple meter into what is traditionally a tune in triple meter. Unique to the tune is a shift to the Mixolydian mode (easily heard on the word "bear" in the first verse), a reminder of the ecclesiastical modes of the Middle Ages.

"This Little Babe" from A Ceremony of Carols was written by Benjamin Britten - as was his "Hymn to Saint Cecilia" - on a Swedish cargo boat traveling from America to England. An ardent pacifist, Britten was returning home to face a government tribunal as a conscientious objector to World War II. He was subsequently exempted from military service provided that he perform as a pianist in a series of wartime concerts.

The melody of "Pat-a-Pan" is that of a French Burgundian carol, "Guilla, pran ton tambourin," from Noël Bourgignons de Bernard de a Mannoye, who lived from 1641 to 1728. The "tambourin" in the French translates as "drum" in English and refers to a small, elongated drum, hung from the shoulders, which was originally played with the hands. The tune is also known by the first line of its English text, "Willie, take your little drum."

"Lo Yisa Goy" and "Shalom Chaverim!," two familiar traditional tunes, are sung here as rounds. In the second chapter of Isaiah, from which the text of "Lo Yisa Goy" is taken, the establishment of the "house of the God of Jacob" in Jerusalem is prophesied.

L'Enfant et les Sortilèges (variously translated as "The Child and the Sorcerers," "The Enchanted Child," or "The Bewitched Child") is a two-part divertissement composed by Ravel after a tour in the motor corps during World War I. It tells of a mischievous boy who, when scolded for refusing to study, breaks the furniture and tortures his pets. Out of a book he has destroyed - his favorite - comes a Princess who expels him from the house. Outside, he is threatened by animals, but stops the ensuing commotion to care for a squirrel hurt in the fray. Impressed with the boy's kindness, the animals lead him home to his mother who awaits him. Critics of the time saw the mischievous child as Ravel himself, who loved fantasies of all kinds.

Professor Peter Schickele says of P.D.Q. Bach: "'Nobody's Perfect.' There is no more convincing illustration of that adage than P.D.Q. Bach, whose father Johann Sebastian Bach's record with regard to bringing beauty into the world was otherwise unblemished and perhaps unequaled. P.D.Q. Bach, who was called 'a pimple on the face of music' by his brother J.C. Bach, apparently left no musical form undisturbed. This set of thankfully secular Christmas carols ('Throw the Yule Log On, Uncle John,' 'O Little Town of Hackensack' and 'Good King Kong Looked Out') was probably composed during the final years of P.D.Q.'s stay in Wein-am-Rhein, a time of transition from the clumsy excesses of the Soused Period to the clumsy excesses of the Contrition Period. As is the case with most of P.D.Q.'s vocal music, the original manuscript has never been found. The only extant copies are those published, in English and without any lyricist or librettist mentioned, by the composer's old friend Jonathan 'Boosey' Hawkes, who left Wein-am-Rhein and returned to his native Liverpool soon after P.D.Q.'s timely death. He also married P.D.Q.'s cousin Betty-Sue, but that's another story."

Continuing in the tradition of P.D.Q. Bach, "A Little Christmas Music" is arranged by Darryl Runswick "with apologies to Mozart!" It combines the carol "Deck the Halls" with irreverent references to Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and the G Minor Symphony, showing once again that no one makes better (affectionate) fun of music than a musician. Surely Mozart, with his penchant for practical jokes, would have approved.