©1998-2008
The DeKalb Choral Guild, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

Freedom in Song

Bryan F. Black, Director
Leanne Elmer Herrmann, Accompanist

Featuring the world premiere of “A Celebration Mass” by Dr. Sharon J. Willis, commissioned as a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Presented with members of the Peachtree Symphony Orchestra

Co-Sponsored by the Arts and Ideas Series of Oglethorpe University

Saturday January 15, 2005, 7:00 PM
Conant Center for the Arts
Oglethorpe University
Atlanta, Georgia

Great Day! (1989), traditional spiritual arranged by André J. Thomas

We Remember Them (1999) by Donald McCullough (b. 1955), words by an unknown author

The Promise of Living (1954) by Aaron Copland (1900-1990).
Thanksgiving Song from The Tender Land, Words by Horace Everett
Leanne Elmer Herrmann and Bob Amar, piano

Ride On King Jesus (1999), traditional spiritual arranged by Moses Hogan (b. 1957)
Janet Carmichael, soprano

— Remarks and Introduction —

Lift Every Voice and Sing (1900), words by James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938), music by James Roasmond Johnson (1873-1954)
Directed by Dr. Sharon J. Willis
The audience is invited to sing the hymn with the chorus.

A Celebration Mass (2005)
A Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Composed by Dr. Sharon J. Willis
Commissioned by the DeKalb Choral Guild

Prelude: Meditation, Portraits of a King Piano

Litany - Leader and People

Overture - Chamber Orchestra

Kyrie Eleison: Lord Have Mercy, I Want Jesus to Walk With Me - Bass Solo and Chorus
Jonathan Blanchard, Bass

Gloria in Excelsis: Glory to God in the Highest; Since I laid my burdens down - Chorus

Credo: I Believe in God; I believe we can live together - Tenor Solo and Chorus
Oliver Sueing, tenor

Sanctus: Holy, Holy, Holy, God of Hosts; Some say Deo - Chorus

Benedictus: Blessed is He Who Cometh in the name of the Lord Solo - Quartet
Lauren Pickard, soparano; Mary Slaughter, alto; Bob Amar, tenor; John Scott, bass

Agnus Dei: Lamb of God - Soprano Solo
Victoria Lawson, soprano

Dona Nobis Pacem: Give Us Peace; For those who died for justice
Mezzo Soprano and Chorus
Laurie Swann, mezzo soprano

Program Notes

by Michaelene Gorney

According to Larry Marietta, Music Director of the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, "'Great Day' originated during the Civil War with the promised Great Day when all the slaves would be emancipated. Characteristically, this spiritual carries images from several passages of scripture: from Nehemiah (restoration of the walls of Jerusalem), Revelation (a look at the walls of the New Jerusalem at the end of time), and Leviticus (the year of Jubilee when all will be liberated). The tune was eventually written down and arranged by Joseph T. Jones (1902-1983), a Presbyterian minister born of slave parents, who is credited with establishing the Sunday School Movement of the [southern] Presbyterian Church of the U.S."

André J. Thomas, Director of Choral Studies and Professor of Choral Music Education at Florida State University arranged this evening's version of "Great Day." In addition to his work as a conductor and a clinician in the United States, Europe, Asia, New Zealand, and Australia, Dr. Thomas has distinguished himself as a composer and arranger with many publications to his credit. Our conductor fondly remembers singing this arrangement with Dr. Thomas during his years at FSU. Performed with a solid stately tempo, "Great Day" is a solemn processional moved forward by sweeping arpeggios in the piano and a rhythmic choral response to the expansive opening three-note motive. The arrangement builds to a strong finale as massed voices swell in unison, lending their collective strength to the final proclamation. "Great day, the righteous marchin'…"

Donald McCullough, Music Director of the Master Chorale of Washington and the Master Chorale Chamber Singers, has published several arrangements and original compositions. He serves on the board of directors of Chorus America, holding degrees in organ and voice from Stetson University and in sacred music and voice from Southern Methodist University. McCullough's "Holocaust Cantata: Songs from the Camps," a tribute to victims of the Holocaust in the form of arrangements of concentration camp victims' songs and poems, was presented by the DeKalb Choral Guild at the The Temple Atlanta on April 19, 2001; and his "Let Music Be the Food of Love," a setting of text by Henry Heveningham, was commissioned by the Guild and premiered at its Silver Anniversary Gala Concert on May 17, 2003.

Annotator James Carman writes: "The author of We Remember Them is unknown, but the sense of this poem's powerful text is universal, and given eloquent voice by McCullough's bittersweet melody. It serves as an appropriate coda….to the people whose words and music are offered here. It is not enough that the victims of the Holocaust be remembered on special occasions, nor even that the burden of that remembering fall on only one segment of the world's population. We must all remember and carry with us constantly the knowledge of what can occur when bigotry and oppression go unchallenged. If this recording helps bring that message to new hearts and minds, if it helps put a human face on what all too often becomes a list of statistics, then it will have achieved an important purpose. Let the voice of this anonymous poet have the final word: 'For as long as we live, they too shall live. For they are now a part of us, as we remember them.' "

"The Promise of Living" by Aaron Copland (1900-1990) is the choral finale to Act I of The Tender Land, commissioned by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II as a television opera, with a libretto by Horace Everett, the pseudonym of Erik Johns, a dancer and painter. In the opera, "The Promise of Living" is sung at Thanksgiving dinner, where it serves to voice the varied dreams, hopes and aspirations of three generations of an American farm family. Copland intended to provide operatic material that would be natural for young Americans to sing and to perform; thus his setting preserves the rhythm of natural speech, largely as unrhymed free verse and with one note per syllable. The result is a "folk-like" music that does not actually quote folk music. Director Bryan F. Black envisioned The Promise of Living as a fit tribute to the peaceful existence because it so realistically describes us all as we work, rehearse and perform: loving our labor, sharing our love, growing, singing in joy, knowing the fields, working together, and bringing forth a harvest. "And let our song be heard...The promise of living…is labor and sharing and loving."

Pianist, conductor, clinician, and arranger, Moses Hogan (1957-2003) graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, later studying at the Juillard School and Louisiana State University. As a pianist, he won first place in the 28th annual Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Competition in New York. At the time of his untimely death, greatly mourned in the worldwide choral community, he was artist-in-residence at Dillard University in New Orleans and, since 1993, had been artistic director of the Moses Hogan Chorale, an outgrowth of the New World ensemble he organized in 1980 to explore choral music. In 1995, he was commissioned to arrange and perform several compositions for the PBS documentary, "The American Promise," later recording and conducting with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. As editor of The Oxford Book of Spirituals, Hogan contributed to the recognition of the spiritual as an art form, and his own settings of spirituals and original compositions, widely performed and recorded, are now staples among school, community and professional musicians. Hogan's arrangement of the traditional spiritual "Ride On, King Jesus" was commissioned by Spelman College, dedicated to Dr. Audrey Forbes Manley, then President of Spelman College, and was premiered by the Spelman Glee Club, Dr. Norma Raybon, Director.

"Lift Every Voice and Sing," composed in 1900 by brothers James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) and John Rosamond Johnson (1873-1954), is traditionally known as the Negro National Anthem. James Weldon Johnson's creativity and inner drive led him to a life filled with several "careers" and creative pursuits. During his life he was a journalist, a professor of English, the first African-American admitted to the Florida bar after Reconstruction, founder of the Daily American (a newspaper for the black community), a writer, and the United States consul to Venezuela and Nicaragua during the administration of Theodore Roosevelt, and executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). John Rosamond Johnson graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1897. Many of Rosamond's early compositions were musical settings of his brother's poetry. For a time, both brothers even created compositions for Broadway musicals.

In the year 1900, James Johnson was the principal of the Stanton School in Jacksonville, Florida. He was invited to be the speaker at an event celebrating the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, and decided to use his creative talents to deliver a poem instead of a standard speech. As the time for presenting the poem drew near, he called on his brother to assist him in preparing a song instead. After the event, the brothers sent their hastily written composition to their publisher in New York, not expecting to hear any more about it. The song grew in popularity first in the South, then across the United States, becoming an anthem of the Civil Rights movement. Today, "Lift Every Voice and Sing" is included in church hymnals of many denominations and still inspires those working on issues of social justice. NAACP chairman Julian Bond says of the song, "When people stand and sing it, you just feel a connectedness with the song, with all the people who've sung it on numerous occasions, happy and sad over the 100 years before."

Tonight the DeKalb Choral Guild presents the world premiere of A Celebration Mass in honor of the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), composed by Dr. Sharon J. Willis (b. 1949) and commissioned for this occasion by the Guild. Dr. Willis, a composer and conductor who holds a master's degree in Music Theory and a doctorate in Vocal Performance, studied at Clark College (now Clark Atlanta University), Georgia State University, Scarritt Graduate School in Nashville, and The University of Georgia in Athens. She is a member of Ensemble Jubalaté, in which she performs with her husband, tenor Oliver R. Sueing; a member The American Composers Forum; Associate Professor of Music and Liberal Arts Chair at Morris Brown College; and Director of Music Ministry at Riverdale First United Methodist Church. Willis is the Founding Director of the Americolor Opera Alliance, established to meet the performing needs of African-American and other Atlanta area singers whose talents are underutilized by previously established opera companies. She is also active as a lecturer, poet and African-American program specialist and, as a soprano soloist, has performed leading roles with the Georgia Opera Company and the Pheonix Opera Company. Her compositions include arrangements of spirituals, cantatas, an orchestral tone poem, and "We Shall Overcome," a four-movement organ suite published by Vivace Press, and she has been commissioned by The American Guild of Organists to write an organ suite for the AGO's Chicago Conference in 2006. "We Shall Overcome," a set of vignettes from the Civil Rights Movement, has been performed extensively by organist Calvert Johnson and recorded by Trey Clegg, who also performed the work at Martin Luther's home church in Wittenberg, Germany. Dr. Willis, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, is recognized in the exhibit of Georgia Classical Composers at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in Macon.

Since 2000, Willis has written five operas, both libretti and music. Her first, The Opera Singer, focuses on casting obstacles facing African-American singers in the field of opera. LaRoche tells the tale of Joseph Phillipe LeMercier LaRoche, the only black person known to be aboard the Titanic and whose forced move from first- to second-class quarters ensured his death. The Herndons: The Opera, is an operatic biography of Atlanta's first African-American millionaire businessman. Willis' "petite opera," The Candlers of Callan, to be premiered later this month at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, follows three generations of Candlers from Callan Castle in Ireland to Callanwolde, the family home in Atlanta. The composer's fifth opera, The Great Divide, will be premiered November, 2005, at Trinity United Methodist Church. Based on the Lewis and Clark expedition, it features York, the Black slave who accompanied them, and Sacagawea, the Shoshone Native American who served as interpreter.

And amidst the operas was written A Celebration Mass in honor of the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Not a requiem, the traditional Mass for the Dead, but a celebration "for those who died for justice"; for those who were not perfect, but who knew what was right; who knew upon waking that they were going to march; and who knew that, in marching, they were going to die. Though written within the space of two weeks, the Mass is truly a synthesis of the composer's lifetime of experience, representing deepened convictions drawn together in retrospect through a lens of maturity to acknowledge the historic significance of events taken for granted by this child of those times – events such as English Avenue Elementary School, booby-trapped with a bomb only ninety minutes before she was to arrive; the service at Washington High School dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr., who was assassinated during her senior year; and conversations with Ralph David Abernathy, Sr., whom she met and befriended.

It is hard to imagine a more honorable tribute to these events on the occasion of what would have been the 76th birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., than A Celebration Mass, embodying as it does an appreciation of, and respect for, history; an affinity for the flow of words, whether spoken or sung; skillful and effective vocal and choral writing; an appropriate sense of drama; fluency in musical styles; and keen musicianship. What might be simply a juxtaposition of varied and different ideas becomes instead a unified whole, a purposeful combination texts and styles that do not contradict, but rather complement and balance each other. In retrospect, it is hard to imagine anyone other than Sharon J. Willis having fulfilled this commission for the DeKalb Choral Guild.

Composer's Commentary: A Celebration Mass

by Dr. Sharon J Willis.

This work was not composed to reflect a traditional requiem mass, for its inspiration is celebratory. Although it presents the ordinary of the service mass in Latin, English texts have been interpolated to express the spirit of Martin Luther King, Junior's life as a civil rights leader or, as he was sometime called, The Drum Major for Justice. In that sense, it is not a requiem of the man, but a celebration of his message for justice, equal opportunity, racial equality and peace on earth.

The program is set in nine parts: The Prelude, The Litany, Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei, and Dona Nobis Pacem. Each part, outside of a spiritual message, encodes a global message bound in struggle and hope still seeking resolution.

The Prelude represents a reflection of a dream gone by – fragments of melodic motifs from protest march themes to a funeral processional and tolling of the bells to announce his death. Sub-titled Meditation on Portraits of a King, it presents "Portrait" themes of King in the Civil Rights Movement. There are eight themes: Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round; The March Theme; The Processional and Tolling of the Bells; Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child; and America.

The Litany is but a statement of purpose. It announces King's birth and death dates, presents his message and presents the setting of the ordinary of the mass in conjunction with a civil rights message for each part except the Agnus Dei and the Benediction.

The Overture, a presentation of themes, is a reflection of what was and an introduction to The Kyrie. As Dr. King and Dr. Abernathy, Hosea Williams and Andrew Young marched with locked arms, their prayer was I Want Jesus to Walk with Me. All along my pilgrim journey, Lord, I want Jesus to walk with me. There was prayer, courage, trust, faith and more prayer that marched before them.

The Gloria celebrates God and gives thanks for the journey: I may not get there with you – Glory, Glory Hallelujah, since I laid my burdens down. And let his death be a light as we find our way toward realizing the dream of world peace.

Credo – I believe in God, maker of heaven and earth. But while on earth, can't we live together in peace? I believe in peace and liberty. I believe that one day that one dream can live true.

Sanctus – Holy is the Lord God of hosts. We believe in this one God who is called by many different names, but God is still Holy.

Benedictus – Blessed is He who cometh in the name of the Lord. No interpolation of words here, only a joyous expectation of the promised one.

Agnus Dei – Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world, have mercy and give us peace. This peace must be inward – surely a peace that passeth all understanding.

Dona Nobis Pacem – For all the trouble we have caused others and ourselves, we yet ask for peace. For those who have died for justice, for all nations, for every man, women, and child – give them peace. Deep in my heart I believe that we shall have peace, we shall overcome. But today I ask, for The Drum Major for Justice – Give him peace, give us peace.

These sentiments and experiences were the inspirations for setting this celebration mass to music. Composing this work has surely given me an opportunity to share another part of America's history and Dr. King's message. Let his life, his work and his message encourage us all to build a better world upon it.

References:

• First Congregational Church of Berkeley, Music and Art, Music Notes, http://www.fccb.org/music/m990117.html

• Florida State University School of Music, André J. Thomas, http://www.music.fsu.edu/bios/thomas.htm

• Primarily A Cappella, Moses Hogan, http://www.singers.com/choral/moseshogan.html

• The Master Chorale of Washington, Donald McCullough, Music Director, http://www.masterchorale.org

• BBC Radio 3, Classical Programmes, http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/classical/archive

• The Atlantic Monthly, January, 2000, "Music: Who Was That Masked Composer?" by David Schiff, http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/01/001schiff

• "Lift Every Voice and Sing – Present at the Creation," David Person, National Public Radio, February 4, 2002, http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/liftvoice/

• "James Weldon Johnson's Life and Career," Herman Beavers, http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/johnson/life.htm

• "Ensemble Jubalate' Concert Tonight," The Times Herald, Newnan, Georgia, March 18, 2001, http://times-herald.com/archives/news/2001/0318.html

• Woodruff Arts Center Mini-Grant Recipients, http://www.woodruffcenter.org/woodruff1/press/200211_wac_minigrants.htm

• "Opera without Prejudice," a review of The Opera Singer by Keely Brown, Creative Loafing, April 3, 2002, http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/2002-04-03/earshot.html

• "Women and Children First," a review of LaRoche by Mark Gresham, Creative Loafing, July 17, 2003, http://www.atlanta.creativeloafing.com/2003-07-17/vibes_feature2.html

• Callenwolde Calendar of Events, January-March, 2005, http://www.callanwolde.org/events/

• Atlanta AGO website/New Music Exchange, http://www.agoatlanta.org/newmusic.htm

• "Critic's Notebook: Coming of Age in Berlin, On the Road with the Atlanta Symphony Chorus: A Travel Diary" by Pierre Ruhe, December 28, 2003, http://www.asochorus.org/Review_AJC_follow-up.pdf