Going Beyond Words

Join host Stan Schmidt this week on Going Beyond Words and ACDA Radio for his annual Christmas In July show.   There are eleven selections that take you from the Medieval style to the glorious sounds of 2017. You will hear works by Anna von Köln from the year 1500; the opening number from the Nativity Suite by Dale Warland; – Welcome All Wonders;  a marvelous look at the 14^th Century Veni, Veni Emmanuel performed on original instruments;  A most beautiful song titled “The Gift” by American Composer J.A.C. Redford; The very popular La Pregrinaçion the Spanish Parade to Bethlehem is sung by the King’s Singers;  A most meaningful spiritual called “Mary Was the Queen of Galilee” sung by a special church choir in Jersey City;  Your ears with thrill to Eric Barnum’s “Carol of the Angels;  A special choral sound comes from the pen of Stephen Sturk… “For Unto Us a Child Is Born”;  Also a special set of words by Alfred Burt, his “What Are the Signs”;

Some of the groups are the Singers Unlimited, The Choir of the West from PLU; The National Lutheran Choir;  Capella Antiqua München;  plus – The Playfords from Germany;   The frosting on the tree will be a hearing of Magnificat by Allesandro Scarlatti offered by Concerto Italiano led by Rinaldo Alessandrini.    Cool off from the heat with Christmas in July….put your feet up and listen.

For a look at the CD’s used and a complete list of the music heard go to the blog of WWW.GOINGBEYONDWORDS.COM website and click on show 2340

This week on Going Beyond Words and ACDA Radio Stan Schmidt; Your sound attention to a program called A Mass for Modern Man by Norwegian composer Ståle Kleiberg released in 2017.  To offer a musical frosting you will enjoy the Cambridge Singers from their CD Lighten Our Darkness and two selections with the voice of Baritone Scott LaGraff from a new disc that brings back some classic sacred works that vocalists were performing in the 1940’s and 50’s.  ……….Composer Kleiberg received a large scale commission for a concert mass scored for two soloists, choir and orchestra from the Munich Cathedral.  As he pondered what to write, he indicated it would have to be about our modern condition and the title fell quickly into place…Mass for Modern Man.  He also felt that the mass must be rooted in the long and rich tradition of the genre.  In other words, his Mass for Modern Man should deal with a contemporary perspective as well as with the perspective of eternity.  The Mass for modern Man is about the lost of the real meaning of life and an antithesis to faith and belief.  The work commutes between these two extremes and raises the following underlying question:  Is belief possible for modern man?  The composer says quote “to me the answer is yes, not a resounding yes, but a yes in spite of all!”  Join me to see how the composer works out this problem.

For a look at the CD’s used and a complete list of the music heard go to the blog of WWW.GOINGBEYONDWORDS.COM website and click on show 2339

This week on Going Beyond Words and ACDA Radio Stan Schmidt  takes you on a journey to view A Map of the Celestial Sky.  You will hear Music created by Joseph Gregorio, Eric Barnum, Tarik O’Regan, Bruno Skulte, Paola Prestini, Orlande de Lassus and Frederyk Chopin.   Musical styles vary by offering a Cosmic Mystery called The Hubble Cantata and a CD of Choral Music by Bruno Skulte of Latvia & two vocal solos by Frederyk Chopin for Soprano and Baritone.  Then three choral works presented at the ACDA convention in Minneapolis featuring the Rutgers University Glee Club and the Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota.  The final work on the broadcast will be a new choral expression by English creator Tarik O’Regan who John Rutter called, “One of the most original and eloquent of British Composers”.  He has lived in NYC since 2004 and like Benjamin Britten his music manages to speak via an extraordinary economy of means: short, distinct and memorable. The work was recorded in 2015 and explores the talents of the Halle Youth Choir and the Manchester Grammar School Choir with conductor Sir Mark Elder.   O’Regan’s composition The Celestial Map of the sky offers some interesting sounds with some great singing by some young choral musicians.

For a look at the CD’s used and a complete list of the music heard go to the blog of WWW.GOINGBEYONDWORDS.COM website and click on show 2338

This week on Going Beyond Words and ACDA Radio Stan Schmidt invites you to a special Fourth of July Celebration called Dreams of the Fallen a 25 minute work composed by Jake Runestad in 2013.  The Premiere was presented by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and Symphony Chorus of New Orleans at the National World War II Museum New Orleans.    The performance you will hear was aired on Minnesota Public Radio on Memorial Day 2017 that took place in 2015 featuring the VocalEssence Singers and Chorus of Minneapolis, Piano Soloist, Jeffrey Biegel and the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra led by Conductor Philip Brunelle.

Dreams of the Fallen was composed by Jake Runestad with Poetry by Brian Turner, an award winning poet and veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The work was commissioned by acclaimed Pianist Jeffrey Biegel.  The composer indicates in his notes that he sought thematic material that would allow the piano to embody a character or person who could speak clearly and directly to the listener.  He found two fundamental needs of returning soldiers: First, a sense of closure to the war experience and  second, support from a community of friends and family.  Runestad states that,”the goal of Dreams of the Fallen is to serve as a ceremony addressing the life changing experiences of war and to reveal these stories through Music.”

A special thanks goes to Philip Brunelle Artistic Director of VocalEssence, Mary Ann Aufderheide, Executive Director of Vocal Essence for helping to make available  the recording for this broadcast and to Andrew Alness for supplying a copy of the performance to share with you.

For a look at the CD’s used and a complete list of the music heard go to the blog of WWW.GOINGBEYONDWORDS.COM website and click on show 2337.

This week on Going Beyond Words and ACDA Radio join Stan Schmidt for a program of Three Musical Perspectives from three very important composers whose genres of expression are very different.  These creators had residence in Argentina, Poland and Germany.  Bartlomiej Pẹkiel was one of the most prominent Baroque Composers of Poland.  The Second Musical Perspective  comes from a composer who said, “Music is above words; it begin where words no longer suffice, therefore it would be futile to attempt to bring music closer to listeners by means of explanation”.  His name was Josef Gabriel Rheinberger.   Then Ariel Ramirez of Argentina released his Misa Criolla in 1964 in 40 countries and it was an instant his, selling more than three million copies.  The Choirs that will help on this broadcast are the Warclaw Baroque Ensemble; The Freibuger Voklensemble and Santa Fe Desert Chorale.

For a look at the CD’s used and a complete list of the music heard go to the blog of WWW.GOINGBEYONDWORDS.COM website and click on show 2336