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The DeKalb Choral Guild, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

A Holiday Celebration

Mary Evelyn Root, Director
Toni Jove, Associate Director
Leanne Elmer Herrmann, Accompanist

In conjunction with Arts & Ideas at Oglethorpe University

Saturday, December 11, 1999
Lupton Auditorium
Oglethorpe University
Atlanta, Georgia

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

Ave Maria by Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)

Ave Maria by György Orbán (b. 1947)

O Come, All Ye Faithful, traditional carol, arr. Robert Shaw and Alice Parker

Joy to the World, George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), arr. Robert Shaw and Alice Parker

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

How Far is it to Bethlehem? arr. Stephen Paulus (b. 1949)
   Malie Umbach, mezzo-soprano
   Stephen Asip, tenor
   Ben Buchanan, oboe

Mary Had a Baby, arr. William Dawson (1898-1900)
   Paula Keinert, soprano

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

Hava Nageela, Israeli folk song, arr. Maurice Goldman

Carol Selections by The Chamber Singers
   The Boar's Head Carol, traditional English carol
   Lo, How a Rose, old German tune, arr. Praetorius
   Carol of the Bells, by Leontovich, arr. Wilhousky
   Coventry Carol, 16th century tune
   Ding Dong, Merrily on High, 16th century French tune
   Silent Night (1818) by Franz Gruber
   We Wish You a Merry Christmas, traditional carol from western England

Gloria by Antonio Vivaldi (1669?-1741)
   I. Gloria in excelsis
   II. Et in terra pax
   III. Laudamus te
      Anna Lange, soprano
      Mary Slaughter, soprano
   IV. Gratias agimus tibi
   V. Propter magnam gloriam
   VI. Domine Deus
      Barbara Pettitt, soprano
   VII. Domine Fili Unigenite
   VIII. Domine Deus, Agnus Dei
      Hillary Copp, alto
   IX. Qui tollis
   X. Qui sedes ad dexteram
      Betsy Gabriel, mezzo-soprano    XI. Quoniam to solus sanctus
   XII. Cum Sancto Spiritu

      Cindy Patterson, violin I
      Chip Epsten, violin II
      Carl Emerson, viola
      Rob Chapman, cello
      Ben Buchanan, oboe
      Joe Bader, trumpet
      Leanne Elmer Herrrmann, harpsichord

Program Notes

by Michaelene Gorney

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

Heitor Villa-Lobos, born in Rio de Janeiro, studied at the Institutio Nacional and journeyed to remote villages to gather and preserve folk songs and native lore. After a sojourn in Europe, made possible by the Brazilian government, he proceeded to change the entire Brazilian school system though teacher training programs, devised a choral method for teaching choral music without scores, established a conservatory, published choral arrangement of popular songs, and founded community-based performance groups and festivals. His Ave Maria was composed in 1938.

Gyõrgy Orbán, composer of tonight's Latin setting of the prayer Ave Maria ("Hail, Mary"), is a Rumanian-born Hungarian composer who studied at the Cluj Conservatory. He taught theory there until 1979, then settled in Hungary, where he worked as a music editor for Editio Musica Budapset.

The three traditional carols performed by the Guild this evening -- O Come, All Ye Faithful; Joy to the World; and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing -- were arranged by Alice Parker and Robert Shaw. Of the two arrangers, Robert Shaw is more widely known as the esteemed choral and orchestral conductor who led the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for 31 years and who died in January, 1999. Alice Parker, who collaborated with Shaw on arrangements that are now standards in the choral literature, is an American composer and conductor born in Boston and now living in New York. Her works include operas, cantatas, song cycles, works for chorus and orchestra (two of which were commissioned by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra), chamber music, and setting of sacred and secular melodies. As a conductor and teacher, she travels extensively, performing her own works, as well as masterworks, with choruses around the country.

According to The International Book of Christmas Carols, compiled by Walter Ehret and George K. Evans, both the Latin text ("Adeste fideles") and the music of "O Come, All Ye Faithful" were written between 1740 and 1745 by J. F. Wade, an English music teacher at the Roman Catholic Center in Douay, France. Its English translation (c. 1841) comes from Rev. Francis Oakley, an Anglican cleric who later became a Roman Catholic. The original translation began "Ye faithful, approach ye, joyfully triumphant"; the translation heard today is from an 1842 revision. The publication from which we sing describes this tune as "traditional," and traditional it certainly has become!

Although "Joy to the World" is usually attributed to Handel, some sources claim that its origins are "undetermined" or "anonymous." The words are taken from Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament by Isaac Watts (1719). His work is an adaptation of Psalm 98, which includes the lines, "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth."

The traditional words of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" were adapted from a 1739 hymn by Charles Wesley, who originally intended the hymn to celebrate the Incarnation. Over a hundred years later, William Cummings, an organist, set the words to the chorus of a cantata by Felix Mendelssohn (the Festgesang), written to celebrate the invention of printing. Thus the tune established itself as the standardized and popularly accepted carol we sing today.

Carl Schalk is a professor of church music at Concordia College, St. Paul, Minnesota. An active participant in today's Lutheran musical world, he is renowned for articles and books on church music as it is practiced today and for his settings of hymns for congregational use. The text of "Before the Marvel of this Night" was written by Jaroslav Vajda, also an active composer of original church music.

Frances Chesterton's "How Far Is It to Bethlehem?" is set to an English West County tune and is as much a folk song as a carol. As arranged by Ralph Vaughan Williams in the Oxford Book of Carols, it is called "Children's Song of the Nativity." The arrangement heard today is by Stephen Paulus, former composer-in-residence of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

William Levi Dawson, composer, conductor and trombonist, is well-known for superb arrangements of spirituals, including "Mary Had a Baby." Having run away from his Anniston, Alabama, home to attend Tuskegee Institute, he later organized Tuskegee's School of Music and for 25 years conducted the Tuskegee Choir. In 1934, his Negro Folk Symphony was premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra with Leopold Stokowski conducting. Dawson was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1989, receiving a Lifework Award for Non-Performing Achievement.

"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 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 tune of "Hava Nageela" originated with the Chassidim, a sect of Jewish mystics founded in Poland about 1750. According to sources at Atlanta's Jewish Educational Services, the text, which does not lend itself to a literal translation, translates roughly as: "Let's be happy, let's be joyful. Wake up, brothers, with a happy heart." Enthusiasm and awakening through singing together - hey!

Antonio Vivaldi, known as "il pretto rosso" ("the red priest") for his flame-red hair, was a highly-renowned and prolific Baroque composer and impresario. He traveled extensively throughout Italy, and, as a violin master, maintained ties to the Ospedale della Pieta, one of four Venetian orphanages where foundling girls received an education. Although Vivaldi wrote over 700 works, -- operas, serenatas, oratorios, sonatas, and orchestral works, including over 500 concertos -- only Les Quatre Seasons (The Four Seasons, concertos for violin and string orchestra), and the Gloria are played repeatedly.

Vivaldi composed two known setting of the Gloria for soloists, chorus and orchestra. The setting performed tonight was written for the Pieta between 1713 and 1719 and received its first modern performance in 1939. The twelve contrasting sections are marked by abrupt mood changes and variations in vocal combinations and color. In the "Quonianm tu solus sanctus," Vivaldi repeats music heard in the opening section of the Gloria, and the last section is based on a fugato from a Gloria by Veronese composer Giovanni Maria Ruggieri.