What’s on Great Sacred Music, Sunday, May 24, 2015

 

Gregorian chant: Requiem aeternam
Trad. spiritual, arr. by Norman Luboff: Deep River
Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, Timothy Brown
Reuben Thomas, bass

 

Dr. Edward Fissinger (1920-1990) was a charter member of the American

Choral Directors Association. He was a student of Leo Sowerby. Reuben Thomas

earned his PhD in Computer Science from Cambridge University.

 

08:16:22
Joel Feig: Uvashofar Gadol Yitaka
Chicago a cappella

 

Antonin Dvorak, arr. Robert Prizeman: Going Home
Libera, Robert Prizeman

 

Daniel E. Gawthrop: Nocturne
Mary Mozelle, organ
Mander organ in the Princeton University Chapel

 

From the high holidays liturgies comes a setting of the text “Uvashofar gadol

yitaka . . . vekol demmamah yishama” (and the Great Shofar will be sounded,

and the soft murmuring sound [still, small voice] will be heard). Libera is a British

boy band with many recordings, concerts and tours to its credit. The English firm of

Mander renovated and rebuilt the Aeolian-Skinner organ in Princeton University Chapel in the early 90s.

 

08:32:31
Samuel Barber: Agnus Dei
Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, John Scott
Joshua Ross, treble

 

Leo Sowerby: Arioso
Larry King, organ
Aeolian-Skinner organ in Trinity Church, Wall Street, New York

 

Samuel Barber (1910-1981) arranged his Adagio for Strings (1937) for choir

in 1967 using the text from the Agnus Dei section of the mass. Dr. King (1932-1990)

plays the Aeolian-Skinner organ in Trinity Church, Wall Street. This magnificent instrument

was destroyed in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.

 

08:49:35
Tiffany M. Skidmore: Peace
Kiev Philharmonic; Chamber Choir KYIV, Robert Ian Winstin

 

Steffe: Battle Hymn of the Republic

Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Alexander Schreiner and Frank W. Asper, organ
Richard P. Condie

 

The text for American composer Tiffany Skidmore’s “Peace” is “an amalgamation

of quotations from the Dhammapada, the Bible, The Tao, The Quran, and the

Promulgation of Universal Peace”. The work is scored for double choir and orchestra.

The Battle Hymn of the Republic was written by Julia Ward Howe in November 1861.

 

09:01:03
J.S. Bach: Cantata 172, Erschallet, ihr Lieder
Holland Boys’ Choir; Netherlands Bach Collegium, Pieter Jan Leusink
Ruth Holton, soprano; Sytse Buwalde, alto; 
Nico van der Meel, tenor; Bas Ramselaar, bass

 

The German title of this cantata written for Whit Sunday translates as “Ring out, you

songs, resound, you strings!” It was first performed on May 20, 1714 at Weimar.

 

09:20:56
Rene Clausen: Mass for Double Choir
Kansas City Chorale, Charles Bruffy
Sarah Tannehill, soprano; Pamela Williamson, soprano

 

Rene Clausen (1953-) is Professor of Music at Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota.

 

09:47:17
Dan Locklair: Salem Sonata
Marilyn Keiser, organ
Casavant Frères organ Opus 3856 in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Indianapolis

 

Dan Locklair (1949-) is Composer-in-Residence at Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

 

10:00:32
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Dona nobis pacem
Utah Symphony Orchestra; University of Utah Civic Chorale, Maurice Abravanel
Blanche Christensen, soprano; William Metcalf, baritone

 

Vaughan Williams’ cantata “Dona nobis pacem” speaks to people in 2015 just as powerfully as it did

in 1936 when it was first performed. The San Francisco Choral Society has a wonderful appreciation of

Vaughan Williams which is worth bookmarking.
 

10:37:31
Howard Hanson: Lumen In Christo
Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Chorale, Gerard Schwarz

 

American composer Howard Hanson wrote his Lumen in Christo for women’s voices and orchestra on the subject of light.