Joy to the World

Good evening and welcome to our holiday concert. The last time we were here was in June, for the major baroque feast of Bach's St. Matthew Passion. Tonight we are treating you to a different type of cuisine, one that we hope you will find just as delicious.

All the music for tonight's program comes from our 20th century; but our five composers all come from different places. We have one Italian, one Frenchman, one Brit, and two Americans - a Bostonian and a San Francisco Bay Area native.

Music director Sanford Dole has written wonderful program notes and I will just expand on them - give you a little more biographical background, and explain some of the musical terms.

Daniel Pinkham, born in 1923, is still alive and working in Boston, where he is a faculty member at the New England Conservatory. He is an organist, conductor, and major American composer. He's written 4 symphonies and works for large ensemble, chamber music, cantatas, oratorios, concertos, theatre works, chamber opera, electronic music, and scores for 20 TV documentaries. His bio reads like a Who's Who in music - he studied composition with Aaron Copland, Arthur Honneger, Samuel Barber, Nadia Boulanger; organ with E. Power Biggs; harpsichord with Wanda Landowska.

Pinkham's earlier works, like his popular Christmas and Wedding Cantatas from the late 50's, were more neoclassical - harkening back to renaissance motets. Since then, his composing style has gone through an evolution. The Advent Cantata which we perform tonight is one of Pinkham's later works, commissioned in 1991. Tonally it contains lyric and melodic phrases that you can walk away humming <Hum “O oriens”> but also stark and gripping dissonances - all in service to the text.

When we were rehearsing this piece, a chorister commented "One of the O's, sapientia - wisdom, had this marvelously dissonant path (isn't that always how it is when you look for wisdom - so confusing, so dense, so unclear) and then opened up into a wonderful major chord at the end ... good word painting." Our program editor Norm Proctor has provided excellent translations in BIG print, so you can read along and appreciate the word-painting.

Before I leave Pinkham, in the program notes Sanford talks about 12-tone melodies or 12-tone rows. I just want to make sure that you all know what that means. Commonly our music occurs in a 7-note scale, with the 8th note the same as the first, and then we repeat the pattern. It could be a major scale - think Julie Andrews in Sound of Music <Do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do>. Or it could a minor scale - think the Count on Sesame Street <1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8.> The scales could be in different keys - depending on where you start, high or low <3 examples>.

When you look at a piano keyboard, you see that in every octave, there are actually 12 different notes - the 7 that are commonly used in a major or minor scale plus 5 extras that aren't used, except for special effect. <Oh say can you see etc, w/ augmented 4th in "ear-LY light."> The chromatic scale uses all 12 notes. <chromatic scale> In 12-tone melodies all 12 notes are utilized.

Not all of our music tonight is chromatic or 12-tone. Francis Poulenc's composition did not evolve in that direction. Always faithful to melody and tonal harmony, he said of himself "I know perfectly well that I'm not one of those composers who have made harmonic inventions ... but I think there's room for new music which doesn't mind using other people's chords."

Poulenc (1899-1963) was born in Paris, into wealth. His Parisian mother came from a family of artists and craftsmen. His father, from the Aveyron region of southern France, was director of the family's pharmaceutical business. Poulenc himself claimed his artistic heritage from his mother and his deep Catholic faith from his father. Musically he exhibited something of a split personality. His extremely popular secular works were noted for their simplicity and light-heartedness while his sacred pieces are deeply expressive of spiritual humility. The French music critic Claude Rostand said "In Poulenc there is something of the monk and something of the rascal."

Largely self-taught, he was at first considered someone who composed as a hobby - especially since he was a) rich and b) not a product of the Paris Conservatory. He was introduced to the piano at age six, and his musical talent was obvious. However, he received a conventional classical education, according to his father's wishes. While in his teens he was a pupil of pianist Ricardo Viĝes, and through him met other composers, poets and writers. He made his public debut in 1917, when he was 18 years old. Stravinsky took note of him, and helped get his first works published by Chester in London. He became a member of a group of composers (all followers of Erik Satie) known as Les Six, whose works were light, straightforward, and above all unpretentious. He was and perhaps still is most famous for his Melodies - songs. He wrote 150 of them, 90 for his partner Pierre Bernac, whom he accompanied in recitals from 1934-1959.

In 1936 Poulenc experienced a re-conversion to his Catholic faith. This took place during his visit to the Shrine of the Black Virgin at Rocamadour, during a working summer holiday he was taking with Bernac. Just a few days earlier he had learned of the tragic death of a colleague. Poulenc said "pondering on the fragility of our human frame, the life of the spirit attracted me anew." He immediately wrote Litanies a la vierge noir - the first of his sacred choral works.

Four Little Prayers of Saint Francis of Assisi were written in 1948. They are restrained treatments of rustic French prayers, composed for the monastery choir at Champfleury, where one of his great-nephews was a monk. Poulenc said "I put the best and most authentic side of myself into my choral music," and hoped that he would be remembered for this, rather than his more frivolous works.

We move on to our next piece which, though I wouldn't describe as "frivolous," is certainly the product of facile and playful creativity.

Sanford Dole was born in 1955 of musical parents - a cellist mom and both parents longtime church choir singers. In fact, his early upbringing resulted in Sanford becoming what we call a "choral animal."

His first choral singing experience was with a church "cherub choir" - at age 3. By the time he entered high school he had already decided he would make music his career. He sang professionally for the San Francisco Symphony Chorus from 1974 - 1998, serving as their Assistant Conductor for 10 years. In 1978 he was a founding member of Chanticleer, singing and touring with them for four years. He was also a professional chorister at Grace Cathedral from 1980-1992. He has sung with and conducted church and community choruses. Currently, besides directing the Baroque Choral Guild, he is also Music Director of St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco, as well as a member of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra Chorale. He directs his own Sanford Dole Ensemble and teaches voice in his private studio. And he composes.

The piece we are performing tonight is a sampler of compositional devices. There are six verses. The first is the melody, simply stated. <Sing it> Following that are variations. First in organum, or parallel fifths. Parallel fifths means one voice part sings the whole melody in one key while another voice sings the same melody in another key - five tones away. <Sing two lines> Two lines, sung simultaneously, creating a rather stark sound. The third verse is in close harmony, which means only one part sings the melody while other parts sing harmony in tight, close-together chords. Verse four ventures (or rather skips) way out into the land of pops. Verse five is a more sedate canon, where one voice starts the melody, then the others enter at different times so that the melodies overlap. Finally the piece concludes with a cantus firmus in grand polyphony - one voice part sings the melody in notes of long duration while the other parts sing florid, independent lines that weave around the slow-moving tune.

Mr. Dole is quite a bit more "contemporary" than our other composers so finding biographical information about him might have been difficult; but luckily he's handy enough to just ask. Since I'm a native Hawaiian I have to share with you the factoid that our Sanford Dole is indeed related to the first governor of Hawaii and the pineapple company. However he is not a direct lineal descendent of his ancestor-of-same-name, but is a sideways relative, a nephew of a nephew. Now that's something I couldn't find in any encyclopedia.

Our next composer has so much written about him it was hard to condense it all; luckily I can save some of it for next June when we perform another work by him.

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) was born in Lowestoft, on the North Sea. His father was a music-loving but not music-making dentist; his mother a singer/pianist who gave him his first piano lessons. That he was born on St. Cecilia's Day might have been some sort of sign. He was precocious - started composing at age five and by age 14 had 100 opus numbers. He studied at London's Royal College of Music from 1930-32. By his 21st birthday he had already gained international notice in the new music community, he was performed on BBC, and Oxford Press decided to publish more of his works. (The following year he signed an exclusive contract with Boosey.)

While job-hunting in 1935, he landed work on a documentary and connected with W.H. Auden who offered Britten the position of composer for his (Auden's) circle of artists and writers. Britten, who was tormented by feelings of alienation, non-acceptance, as well as guilt over his homosexuality, joined this supportive community of artists who were all left-wing, pacifist, agnostic, and gay. In 1937 he first began his long partnership with tenor Peter Pears and in 1939 the pair followed Auden to America, fleeing England and the gloom of fascism that was spreading through Europe.

Despite a number of successes here, including his winning of the Coolidge Medal for "eminent services to chamber music," his US sojourn only convinced him that he belonged back in England. During his years in this country he matured as an artist and as a person. When he returned to England in 1942 he was on his way to defining his relationship with British musical tradition.

By 1945 Britten had established himself as England's premier composer - matching Vaughan Williams's achievements and even one-upping him by composing for opera. VW did not do opera; Britten wrote 15 of them - as well as large orchestral works, chamber music, songs and song cycles, and large and small choral works. He was known as the "greatest English composer since Purcell," but was also recognized for his compassionate understanding of his fellow man. The year he turned 50 Britten won two citations from the New York Music Critics Circle for his opera A Midsummer Night's Dream and his choral/orchestral War Requiem. He also won the Robert O. Anderson Aspen Award for being "the individual anywhere in the world judged to have made the greatest contribution to the advancement of the humanities."

Tonight our women perform the Ceremony of Carols as it was originally composed for treble voices and harp. It is a collection of nine carols based on old English poems. That's old, English poems; not Old English poems. (Although there are some archaisms in the language - explained in the program notes - we will not be singing in an unintelligible older-than-Chaucer tongue.) The texts are by 16th century poets Robert Southwell, William Cornish, and James, John, and Robert Wedderburn plus 14th and 15th century "Anons." The piece begins and ends with plainsong chant and the overall spirit has been described as "gloriously medieval."

Speaking of gloriously medieval, we conclude our program with the Laud to the Nativity by Ottorino Respighi. His dates (1879-1936) make him the earliest of the composers we perform tonight. But besides that, stylistically, he was the most backward-reaching. His love of medieval and renaissance music and his identification with his Italian musical past manifested itself in a "new old music."

Respighi was born in Bologna, studied and worked there (except for the two summers he was in St. Petersburg); but by 1913 had settled in Rome. His most famous pieces are about his adopted city - three nostalgic, evocative symphonic poems: The Fountains of Rome, The Pines of Rome, and Roman Festivals. (How many of you have seen the movie Roman Holiday - Paramount, 1953, Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, princess runs off with a reporter for a day. The music for that movie was composed by Georges Auric, one of Poulenc's pals in Les Six; but when I hear the opening sequence - I'm SURE Auric was inspired by Respighi.)

The Laud to the Nativity we perform tonight is based on text by Jacopone da Todi, a 13th-C Franciscan poet. Jacopone himself has an interesting background that's worth mentioning. Born in Todi (circa 1230) of the noble Benedetti family, he studied law and became a successful practitioner. In 1267 he married a pious noblewoman who did penance for her husband, whom she considered too worldly. The following year Jacopo insisted that his wife attend a public tournament against her wishes. The stands in which she sat collapsed and she was killed. Her tragic death changed Jacopo completely. He renounced his profession, gave away his belongings, and after 10 years of penance, joined the Franciscan order and became a writer of laude (psalms) - he composed 200 of them. His activities in the Spiritual movement, which called for the Church to embrace utter poverty, eventually got him excommunicated. He was imprisoned 1298 for signing a manifesto against the pope. After his release in 1303, he retired to a hermitage and spent the last three years of his life writing mystical poems. He died on Christmas day.

Respighi's Lauda, written in 1930, uses a number of archaic elements - madrigals <contenti ne andremo>, Monteverdi-like arioso <seignor tu sei descieso>, some chant, and even a bit of fugue in the Gloria section. The piece depicts the nativity scene, but viewed through the eyes of the shepherds. The music is very rustic, and pastoral - Respighi uses the tonal colors of woodwinds to create a sense of quaint simplicity.

My record-jacket notes say that Respighi was "the only 20th century Italian symphonist who has managed to carve out a permanent place for himself in the standard repertory." It's true - what Italian composers come immediately to mind? Palestrina, Gabrieli, Monteverdi - renaissance/baroque. Verdi, Puccini - 19th C. opera. It's just ironic that the only 20th C. Italian to secure a place in the standard repertoire did so with compositions that were based on centuries-old sources.

During his career Respighi gained world-wide fame from his international travels as he conducted his own music, accompanied singers, and sometimes even played in performances of his works. He lived a relatively short life, dying at 57; but his musical lifespan was more than doubled by the efforts of his widow.

Elsa Respighi was 15 years younger than Ottorino. She was a fine singer and composer in her own right, but after their marriage in 1919 she abandoned her own musical pursuits and dedicated herself entirely to her husband's career. After his death in 1936 she continued to preserve his memory by publishing books; organizing conferences, performances, recordings and new editions of his music; completing unfinished compositions and making transcriptions. In 1969 she established Fondo Respighi in Venice, to promote music education in Italy. Elsa died in 1996, almost 102 years old. Inside the scores that we are using are printed Elsa's "Suggestions for Staging of the Laud to the Nativity" - complete with her autograph. This kind of devotion certainly deserves recognition.

And on this note of love I will conclude, except to add: Our concert tonight begins with a supplication for wisdom and ends with a promise of peace on earth. I think those are excellent ideas, don't you? Thank you for coming.

December 2001
Audrey Wong