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The DeKalb Choral Guild, Inc.
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American Choral Director's Association
Georgia Chapter Annual Convention Concert

Bryan F. Black, Director
Leanne Elmer Herrmann, Accompanist

Friday, July 26, 2002
Spivey Hall
Clayton College and State University
Morrow, Georgia

Tonight's performance is dedicated to the memory of Cheryl Boyd-Waddell, a trusted friend and member of the Guild's Board of Advisors who passed away April 27, 2002.

Aftonbön - Evening Prayer (1990) by Egil Hovland (b. 1924), poem by Karin Boye (1900-1941)
   Linda Rozakis, alto Travis Vaughn III, recorder

Lebenslust (1818) by Franz Schubert (1797-1828), words by Johann Karl Unger (1771-1836)

O Heiland, reiß die Himmel auf (1877) Opus 74, No. 2 by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), hymn by Friedrich Spee von Langenfeld (1592-1635), tune: Augsburg, 1666

Salmo 150 (1993) by Ernani Aguiar (b. 1949)

O Prairie Land (1995) by Stephen Chatman, traditional Manitoba folk song
   Cliff Norris & Paul Williams, baritones

An Old Man He Courted Me (1996) by Stephen Chatman, traditional Ontario folk song
   Paula Keinert & Betsy Gabriel, sopranos

She's Like the Swallow (1996) by Stephen Chatman, traditional Newfoundland folk song

The Grand Hotel (1992) by Stephen Chatman, traditional British Columbia folk song, collected by Philip J. Thomas

Program Notes

One of Norway's most prodigious composers, Egil Hovland, held the position of organist and choirmaster at the Glemmen church in Fredrikstad, Norway, for 46 years. He studied composition with such greats as Brustad, Holmboe, Copland and Dallapicola. Hovland's unique musical style embraces elements of Gregorian chant, neo-classicism, romanticism and atonality. Churchgoers in the Church Norway have benefited from his work in updating its liturgical books and contributing to its new hymnal.

Karin Boye (1900-1941) was a Swedish writer and novelist. As a young woman, she rebelled against her parent's traditional religious background, turning to agnosticism, Buddhism and finally pantheism. Her socialistic views attracted her to Hitler's Nazi party in the early 30's until she learned of the cruel realities of the Nazi regime, leaving her disillusioned, depressed and suicidal. Boye had a partner, Margot Hanel, and was in constant tension between her longing to accept herself as she was and the social conventions of the day. She died, taking her own life in 1941. Egil Hovland writes of tonight's piece: "In Evening Prayer, Karin Boye brings together her personal confession and her deep longing for total surrender." This gives the text a gripping atmosphere that the composer has attempted to capture in his music.

The epitome of the Romantic partnership of music and poetry was the Lied, or song, and its foremost composer none other than Franz Schubert (1797-1828). Schubert was truly a starving artist: ill, destitute, and unknown. Yet in his short life, he wrote over 600 Lieder, 144 of them in the year before he died. To his melodic sensitivity, Schubert added bold, colorful harmonies often modulating far from a song's original tonality. The piano part, although designated an "accompaniment," is absolutely essential to the Lied and to tonight's offering, "Lebenslust," whose author, Johann Karl Unger (1771-1836), would surely be pleased with Schubert's exuberant enhancement of the text.

Just as Johannes Brahms's chamber music discloses a more intimate impression of his personality, a similar comparison is noted between the large choral-orchestral works such as "Ein Deutsches Requiem" and the charming compositions for unaccompanied chorus broadly known as motets. Composed in 1877, Op. 74, No. 2, centers around a sturdy German choral tune ("O Heiland Rieß", first published in 1666) that lends itself well to a thoroughly "Brahmsian" transformation. Each chorale verse becomes a variation shaped by the poetry's changing moods, yet always holding the tune in sharp relief as it passes from soprano to bass to tenor. It culminates in a brilliant, if short, example of imitative counterpoint unmistakably crafted by a master storyteller.

Winner of the Sharp, APCA and Corianos Prizes, Ernani Aguiar (b. 1949) is of the most famous of Brazil's composers. His works for choirs and orchestra have been sung, performed and broadcast all over the world. Mr. Aguiar was a scholarship winner to the Argentine Mozarteum and studied with numerous eminent Brazilian musicians as well as at the "Cherubini" Conservatory in Firenze, Italy. He is currently a professor of music at the University of Rio de Janiero, a fellow of the Villa Lobos Institute and a member of the Academia Brasiliera de Musica. The "Salmo 150" has been performed by choruses across the Americas. The work represents Aguiar's musical style, relying heavily on rhythm and rapid articulations.

"O Prairie Land," "An Old Man He Courted Me" and "She's Like the Swallow" are three of Five Canadian Folk Songs by Stephen Chatman (b. 1950), whose "The Grand Hotel" was commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for the Vancouver Choir. All are traditional folk songs, some tender and passionate, some highly irreverent, all reflective of the pioneer spirit. "O Prairie Land" is from Manitoba, "An Old Man He Courted Me" from Ontario, "She's Like the Swallow" from Newfoundland, and "The Grand Hotel" hails from British Columbia where (it seems) a good time was had by all!

Stephen Chatman, Professor of Composition at the University of British Columbia School of Music in Vancouver, was born near Minneapolis-St. Paul and grew up in Madison, Wisconsin. His music varies stylistically, depending upon the nature of the material with which he works. His writings include works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, choir, band and keyboard. Says Chatman, "One has to write music that one loves to write - that's the first concern. The second is to try to communicate with an audience, for there has got to be an element of appeal. But above all, a composer must be true to himself."

Sources consulted in preparing these notes:
A History of Music by Donald J. Grout, 1973.
Notes to "Aftonbön", written by Egil Hovland.
Biography of Ernani Aguiar from the site of the Academia Brasiliera de Musica: www.abmusica.org.br/acad04.htm.
Earthsongs Music Publishing: www.earthsongsmus.com
The Canadian Music Centre: www.musiccentre.ca