A Few Notes
For both singers and listeners
Set II
I. Good Christian Men, Rejoice
Tune: In Dulci Jubilo from Piae Cantiones
Transcribed by: Thomas Helmore
Original Text: Heinrich Seuse
Paraphrased by: John Mason Neale
II. In Dulci Jubilo
See above, without Neale and Helmore
messing with it
Arr. Laura Hawley
III. Star Song
Ed Henderson
Text: Luci Shaw
IV. Cold Moon
Nicholas Ryan Kelly
V. This Endris Night
15th-century English Carol
Arr. Sarah Quartel
VI. Angels From Heaven Came
Music: Jonathan Quick
Words: Quick's clever mashup of two well-known texts from the Gospel of Luke
VII. Song For A Winter's Night
Gordon Lightfoot
Arr. Robin Salkeld
VIII. The First Nowell
Trad. English Carol (Sandys, 1833)
Harm: John Stainer
Arr. Paul Halley
"Tell me, I forget. Show me, I remember. Let me do, I understand."
Carl Orff
Neale and Helmore collaborate again to bring seven centuries of musical and textual evolution together in the macaronic text of a German Dominican mystic, and a 14th-century tune from the Piae Cantiones. Interestingly, the familiar "News! News!" pulse we all fervidly sing is a result of Helmore misreading the rhythm in his transcription from the medieval manuscripts, and Neale having to make something up in his English paraphrasing to cover it. Sing along! LISTEN
Hawley ditches Victorian restraint, and goes back to the 14th-century ecstatic roots of this carol's underlying vision, and it's Gerlatin text. Inspired by the idea of being drawn into a heavenly dance by an angel, the work discovers, rather than presents the well-know melody, unfolds the story gradually, and plays 6/8 and 3/4 time off of each other to give a sense of spinning movement. If that sounds challenging to sing, just ask the sopranos and altos about it. LISTEN
This is a piece about standing under the night sky and being the best kind of overwhelmed. Piquant contrast between stillness and movement make this a "stop and listen" work for both the audience and the choir. For the audience, it's about sitting on the edge of your seat anticipating melody, as human voices breathe and shape words together, and for the choir, it's about stopping at the same time (!), and intently listening to each other. It's a piece that truly exemplifies what it is to sing in a group together.
We've navigated what comes out of Kelly's brain before, and will let the composer himself take this one: "A Christmas song for people who hate Christmas songs. As usual, this piece is about a sort of transformation, so the music gradually blossoms into something quite different from what it started as. Listen until the end to find out: why is Carol of the Bells being quoted? Will the speaker(s) in the lyrics ever overcome their seasonal depression? Will we finish in D minor, D major, or BOTH?" LISTEN
A poetic dialogue between Mary and the Christ child that actually humanizes the relationship quite a bit, in way by tackling some of the weirdness of it. Quartel - with whom we're also quite familiar, from last December - has re-imagined a medieval melody, built a modal sound from simple triads, and coloured it in with lovely bits of gentle dissonance and filigree. It's an absolute joy to sing, and the choir's lower register gets a rare opportunity to explore melody. LISTEN
This is wonderfully theatric. Quick has the upper and lower registers of the choir simultaneously operating as separate entities, within (sometimes loosely) the same harmonic framework. The men are narrators of the whole "And there was in the same country shepherds" bit from Luke Chapter 2, while the women (appropriately as a host of angels) sing the text associated with "Gabriel's message" (The Annunciation, from the previous chapter). It works brilliantly, but maintaining autonomy without dominance as a section while navigating Quick's close harmonies and dissonances is a distinct challenge. LISTEN
Gordon Lightfoot is unmatched when it comes to painting a distinctly Canadian emotional landscape. That he wrote this in July from a hotel room in Cleveland just makes us that much more impressed. Kudos to Robin Salkeld for taking the private solitude of a brilliant songwriter alone with his memories and a guitar, and giving us the opportunity to present it collectively.
We'll cap off the evening by giving you a fabulous arrangement by Paul Halley, Director of Music at The Cathedral of All Saints in Halifax. Halley has amped up John Stainer's 1871 SATB harmonization of this old English gem by returning to some of it's folk-like irregularities and sense of unfolding narrative; the arrangement establishes the well-known melody, and then builds momentum with changes in texture and vocal grouping, to finish with a soaring descant that transforms the familiar tune into something extraordinary. Merry Christmas! We dare you not to sing along.