Program Notes
Today's retrospective program is a celebration of the breadth and diversity of styles of music Coro Allegro has performed over 25 years. There are six sets, exploring intertwined aspects of our quarter century of musical history, the world premieres and commissions by living composers we have introduced to our audiences; the works of social justice with which we have proudly raised our voices; and our commitment to performing music by women, LGBT, and other underrepresented groups of composers.
Each set ends with a different setting of "Alleluia," a Greek transliteration of a Hebrew two-word phrase "hallelu," (praise!) and "Yah," (God). In its noun form, "hallel" means a joyous praise. Thus "Alleluia!" is both call (Rejoice!) and response (Rejoicing!). Countless composers have set the word’s four syllables, playing with variations of vowel color, the light percussion of consonants, and the endless possibilities of word stress, rhythm, and meaning. In popular culture, Alleluia has become a universal exclamation – of joy, accomplishment, enthusiasm, and gratitude. What better way to celebrate 25 years!
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Our first set revisits the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and the All Night Vigil by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Both works draw upon Rachmaninoff's love of church music, from his childhood listening to choruses in the St. Petersburg cathedrals to his early morning pilgrimages as an adult to the Andronief Monastery, to hear the old chants sung by the monks.
Rachmaninoff was constrained by the rules of the Russian Orthodox Church to write a capella movements that were primarily homophonic (all the voices singing in the same rhythm), so as not to obscure the text. Although he chose to work within these austere confines, there were no limits to the variety of his invention. Rachmaninoff used techniques of “counter-voiced polyphony” developed by the New School of Russian church music: although the music is tonal, the modes of early Russian music are strongly in evidence; there are no fugues; parallel voice leading is allowed; melodies are set against drones; and melodic variation is more common than the harmonic variety. If you are reminded of folk music it is with good reason, as many of these practices stem from Russian folk song.
"Glory to the Father," No. 3 in the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, opens with radiant high chords to contrast the glory of God against the dense, humble prayers of humanity. Connecting the two are the sharp, painful, jumping intervals with which Rachmaninoff sets the crucifixion.
"Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos," No. 6, is perhaps the most well known hymn of the All Night Vigil. Rachmaninoff's homophonic writing is rich, warm, and melodious, pregnant with beauty. The angel's greeting to Mary rises up above the texture while the altos answer with the warm human voice of Mary's awestruck awareness.
"Today Salvation Has Come," No. 13, a hymn to the resurrection, opens with an intake of wonder. Waves of inspiration swell up and recede, before soaring upwards in a song of gratitude made more glorious by ringing pairs of voices celebrating the victory of life over death.
No. 8, "Praise the Name of the Lord," is great theater. At this point in a traditional orthodox service, all the lights in the church are turned on, the doors open, and clergy in full vestments march into the center of the church to stand with the assembled congregation. You can hear this clearly depicted: The altos and basses march in on a sturdy vigorous Znamenny chant, while above them float ringing wreaths of sound from an angelic choir of sopranos and tenors. All come together to sing Alleluia!
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The second set, featuring French works, opens with "Dieu! qu'il la fait bon regarder" from Trois Chansons de Charles d'Orléans by Claude Debussy. The revival of interest in medieval ideals related to the Art Nouveau and Pre-Raphaelite movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries led to several important works by Debussy, including his opera Pelleas and Melisande. The Trois Chansons are another example of his fascination with the past. Though the texts are medieval poetry by the 15th-century poet Charles d'Orléans (1394-1465), the musical language is clearly Debussy's, particularly the pure, simple beauty of the first movement.
"Aussi bas que le silence" is the third movement of Francis Poulenc's Figure humaine, a work conceived in secrecy during the darkest days of World War II. In this a cappella cantata, Poulenc set a sequence of poems by Paul Éluard, a leading poet of the French Resistance, written in hiding, that bear stark witness to the ugliness, violence, madness, and desolation of war while maintaining faith in the ultimate face of humanity.
The poignancy of Élaurd’s war poetry lies in its destabilizing shifts between ugliness and hope. With equally destabilizing shifts of tonal centers, Poulenc manages to evoke not only Élaurd's contrasting visions of monsters and beautiful faces but also his underlying sense of a world turned upside down.
Maurice Duruflé wrote his exquisite and transcendent Requiem in 1947 just after the turbulence of World War II and the death of his father. Duruflé used sketches from an organ suite based on chant from the Mass for the Dead as the source of the Requiem. Duruflé clearly pays homage to Fauré’s Requiem of sixty years before. Instead of bringing out the dramatic “Day of Wrath” texts explored by Mozart, Berlioz, and Verdi, Duruflé’s Requiem resonates with forgiveness, consolation, and eternal light.
In setting the chant Duruflé did "my best to reconcile, as far as possible, Gregorian rhythm as established by the Benedictines of Solesmes with the demands of modern meter." The meter shifts constantly and word stress often still takes precedence over downbeat. The melodies of the chants shape the gracefully arcing structure of the Requiem's movements. All are joined together by the underlying tonal palate of shimmering dissonant 7ths, 9ths, and 11ths. It is this fusion of the bones of chant clothed in the vibrant and undulating tonal colors of 20th century modern French composition that gives this piece such life.
César Franck composed his grand choral and organ setting of Psalm 150in 1883 for the inauguration of an organ at the Institute for Blind Youth in Paris. It was a fitting text as Psalm 150 is a call to praise God with the music and dance of all the instruments -- the shofar, the harp and lyre, the organ and the lute, the clash and resonance of cymbals, etc. Franck's celebration of music as praise opens with a pedal tone in the organ and arpeggios that accumulate in clouds of chromatic colors. The chorus enters with trumpet calls. The stirring melodic line alternates with the more antiphonal dance of the instruments, before "all who have breath to breathe" come together in a soaring Hallelujah!
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Composer Peter Eldridge on the premiere of "To Be Nobody," written for David Hodgkins and the 25th anniversary of Coro Allegro:
"I had carried a crumpled up piece of paper containing an e. e. cummings quote (along with a few other quotes I found inspiring) in my wallet for a number of years, waiting for the perfect opportunity to set it. When David asked me to write a piece for the group, I thought the moment had finally arrived. The quote is particularly timely these days, given the current administration we are having to deal with, and with the underlying feelings of uncertainty and segregation getting the best of so many people. And obviously the quote applies in a loving and respectful way to the LGBT community, saying that being true to whom you really are is ultimately all that matters in life. I feel like the music represents something of a slow meditative march, coming face to face with those who might feel differently, and ultimately (and peacefully) rising above it all."
Eldridge wrote Come Home (1991) for the Grammy-winning a capella jazz ensemble New York Voices of which he is a founding member. Initially trained as a pianist, Eldridge says: "singing initially scared me to death – something about the vulnerability of the voice was daunting to me." The beautiful exposed harmonies of Come Home draw their expressive power from that very vulnerability: "It’s the blessing and the curse of singing. The best thing about it is you just feel like you’re letting people into who you are, but it’s also really terrifying. There’s nothing to hide behind."
Alleluia (1940) is probably the best known and most beloved piece by American composer and educator Randall Thompson (1899-1984). Thompson was commissioned by Serge Koussevitsky to write an anthem to be performed by the entire student body of the Berkshire Music Center for its opening exercises in 1940. Deeply affected by events in Europe, particularly the fall of France, Thompson decided against a triumphant and celebratory choral fanfare, submitting instead a quiet, lento meditation on a single word, "Alleluia," followed by a simple "Amen." As he would later explain, he took inspiration from the book of Job 1:21, "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." In Alleluia, the shape of the word and the stress of its syllables dictate the contours and rhythms of the musical phrase. Yet the meaning of the "text" belies any translation. With one word, Thompson's setting takes us on a journey of emotions through reverence, introspection, uncertainty, anxiety, and exuberant hope, before ending in a quiet invocation of peace.
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The second half of the program opens with three settings of the poems by Robert Frost, "Hannibal," "Devotion," and "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Kenneth Fuchs, from In the Clearing, the first of many works by American choral composers commissioned and recorded by Coro Allegro.
Artistic Director David Hodgkins:
Through a chance meeting, Ken Fuchs was commissioned to write a set of three pieces based on texts by Robert Frost. Ken liked our performance so much that he expanded the set to eight. The result is the cycle In the Clearing which Ken dedicated to Coro Allegro and which Coro premiered in Boston and also performed at the GALA V Festival in Tampa, FL, to critical acclaim.
All of the pieces were composed in an expanded tonality, with many rich colors in stacked chords, utilizing thirds, sixths, ninths, 11ths and 13ths. The choral voices are arranged with great breadth and beauty. Also, part of Ken's intent in setting the Frost poems to music was to create a song cycle about the seasons of gay life as expressed through metaphors from nature.
Fuchs found his experience of working with Coro Allegro to be resonant with Frost's poetry:
What a joy it has been to compose In the Clearing for Coro Allegro. I first had the pleasure of hearing the group perform in the spring of 1994, and I was deeply touched by their musical sensitivity and sense of community. As I worked on these choruses throughout the fall and winter, their sound and musical spirit were an ever-present source of inspiration.”
“Robert Frost's lovely poems are ideally suited to Coro Allegro's gentle sensibility. On one level, this selection of poems is about nature and a walk through the seasons. On another level, they are about the impermanence of the world around us and, perhaps, the uncertainty we often feel in our relationships to other people and the things we cherish. I am proud to have my music performed by Coro Allegro, and it is with much affection that I composed these choruses especially for them.
Pulitzer and Grammy Award winner Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962) is one of America's most acclaimed composers. Her orchestral tone poem blue cathedral is probably the most frequently programmed work by any living composer. According to Higdon, it never occurred to her not to be out, and so far it has not hurt her career: "Maybe it's because classical music has a real history with gay male composers" she says, noting "there aren't that many lesbian classical composers." She is conscious of the importance of role models in a field dominated by men. “I know that women who came before me had a really rough time and a lot of them paved the way for people like me,” she says. "Little old ladies come and say, 'Honey, I love that you're a woman.'" And yet, as she says: "I spend so much time composing. I never stop to think that I'm a woman composer, a lesbian composer; it does not enter my mind. I'm always thinking I've got to write the best music that I can."
Higdon's Alleluia is dedicated to Alan Harler, the retired Artistic Director of the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, and a mentor of Coro Allegro Artistic Director David Hodgkins.
Excerpt from the program notes of the world premiere, courtesy of the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia:
Higdon has added an additional text to the "alleluias," but unusually for her, wrote it as she composed rather than working from a written text. The text is fragmented, with words or syllables distributed among the voice parts, rippling through the music in flashes like sunlight glinting off a fast-moving stream. The highly rhythmic, syncopated music periodically gives way to more homophonic sections, where the text briefly coalesces into longer phrases before exuberantly dashing off again.
This piece gives us a sense of what a chorus might sound like if it were a set of handbells. The choir intones individual syllables that make up words, and words that make up sentences, as a joyous background to charming melodic fragments. This bell-like backdrop is punctuated by homophonic (all voices singing in the same rhythm) refrains of "Let us give thanks" that seem to delight in new and interesting harmonies. "Sing this Alleluia" begins a low-to-high pealing of the bells from the basses to the sopranos, while the fragmented "Hear us sing these words for you... Alleluia" moves from high to low before a joyous final cheer.
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Cantos Sagrados (1990), by the leading Scottish composer James MacMillan, is a provocative choral drama in three movements that portrays the anguish surrounding the "disappearance" of political prisoners. The first movement,"Identity," sets a vividly descriptive poem by Argentian-Chilean American author and human rights activist Ariel Dorfman. MacMillan masterfully weaves sacred Latin texts into the texture to create his vision of a work meant to be "both timeless and contemporary, both sacred and secular."
"Identity," is in four distinct sections. The opening "scene" is a chaotic public gathering place where declamatory cries of the discovery of a dead body which no one can or dares to identify crackle through the air in mixed meter, punctuated by sharp, pungent chords in the organ. The second section represents the quiet, mournful lament of the women whose hearts ache with the notion that "he doesn’t belong to anybody." This leads to a rise in anger as one woman bravely steps up to claim the body with her name and her family's name in order to give worth to the life once lived, and for the body to be buried with an identity and dignity. The movement ends with a chanted excerpt from the Requiem Mass: "Deliver the souls of the faithful departed…that they not fall into obscurity."
In 1945, Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera was blacklisted by the Perón regime and stripped of his teaching positions. He found refuge in the United States with the aid of a Guggenheim and soon after wrote the Lamentations of Jeremiah, (1946). The text is a compilation of verses from the Book of Lamentations, selected and re-ordered by Ginastera to create a narrative of the fall of Jerusalem that echoes with the devastation of war, the pain of exile, and the persecution of the opposition in his homeland. Ginastera was a great admirer of the Spanish 16th-century composer Tomás Luis de Victoria, an influence immediately apparent in the haunting "Ego Vir Videns," whose suspensions and sudden harmonic shifts are reminiscent of Victoria's style, textures, and pathos.
The longstanding relationship between Patricia Van Ness and Coro Allegro is a model of how musicians and composers can work with an LGBT organization to advance the universal theme of our shared humanity. In Paradisum, Coro Allegro's second CD with Navona Records, features performances of two commissioned works by Van Ness. In 2011, Coro Allegro presented the Daniel Pinkham Award to Patricia Van Ness, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to classical choral music and the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities.
Patricia Van Ness on Psalm 116 (Alleluia), May 2017:
Psalm 116 opens as a love song of gratitude to the Divine for deliverance from death, sorrow, and tears; it is followed by the aching "O, how can I repay you?" and then the singing of an Alleluia. This is a deeply moving Psalm to me, revealing that the offering of gratitude alone can be enough for a debt of love too great to be repaid.
At Coro Allegro's 25th Anniversary, I'm filled with gratitude toward the chorus and David Hodgkins, both for their unflagging commitment to their mission, and for the immense support given my work over the past 18 years. I am honored to have this commissioned piece be part of their 25th Anniversary. Thank you, and congratulations!
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Our final set opens with Shine on Me by Rollo Dilworth, a noted arranger of African-American spirituals. This song poses a question, "I wonder if the lighthouse will shine on me," born of the oppression of Black lives, which resonates with all who have been marginalized. The text does not answer, but the music does. Dilworth's gospel-style arrangement, with the support of its piano accompaniment, vigorous counter-melodies, and voices rising – is an affirmation of hope.
Precious Lord, Take My Hand, a plea for courage, strength, and solace, was written in 1932 by Thomas A Dorsey, the "father of gospel music," in response to a catastrophic event in his own life – the death of his wife in an automobile accident. Profoundly moving in its simplicity, "Precious Lord" has inspired in many the ability to endure in the face of great adversity. It has become an unofficial anthem of Coro Allegro, bringing consolation and comfort to singers and audience members alike.
We close with the "Hallelujah Chorus" from George Frideric Handel's Messiah (1741), the best-known Alleluia in the world. Handel is quoted as saying at its composition, "I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself!" King George II rose to his feet for it and since then audiences have stood to hear it all over the world. It is sung at the most joyous of occasions. It the breadth of time since its premiere, it is still performed annually by great choruses and communities gathering for the joy of singing together in celebration. Hallelujah!
Program notes © David Hodgkins and Yoshi Campbell, except where noted. These notes are published here for patrons of Coro Allegro and other interested readers. It is permissible to use short excerpts for reviews. For permission to copy, publish or make other use of these notes, please contact office@coroallegro.org and make a donation to Coro Allegro.