A Jubilant Christmas

1. Cradle Hymn (Arnesen, Kim Andre)
2. Comfort, Comfort Ye My People (Helvey, Howard)
3. Christ the Appletree (Scriven, Stanford)
4. Christmas Oratorio (Saint-Saens, Camille)
5. Jingle Bells (Wilberg, Mack)
6. Peace, Peace (Bock, Rick and Sylvia Powell)

Welcome to A Jubilant Christmas, the ninth annual winter holiday offering of Griffin Choral Arts.  This popular concert has become so established as a community “must-go” that this year’s installment expands to two nearly-identical versions of the program, the major difference being our welcome musical guests: once again the Barrister Brass from Macon on December 3 and, for the first time, the Spalding High School Chorus (directed by Brett Duncan) on December 5.

 

An important sub-theme of this year’s program is a spotlight on youth. (Even a lesser-known stanza of Jingle, Bells fits this theme.)  Three of the major works on the program are by young composers (two of them in their twenties). Then we welcome over sixty young voices in the Spalding High Chorus.  Griffin Choral Arts also has a number of young members, several of whom sing solos in this concert. With such promise of youth even in winter, spring can’t be very far away.  Let jubilation reign!

 

Cradle Hymn                                                                                  Kim André Arnesen (b. 1980)

 

This beautiful new carol first reached wide PBS television audiences at Christmastide in 2013 when sung by the girls’ choir of Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, Norway, in their joint concert with the famed St. Olaf College Choir from Minnesota. Griffin Choral Arts sings an SATB arrangement, with lush string ensemble accompaniment.

 

The Anglo-Norwegian connection is also reflected in the music itself.  The composer is a young Norwegian educated at the Music Conservatory in Trondheim who is currrently serving as Composer in Residence with the Kantorei vocal ensemble in Denver, Colorado.  The text is by famous English hymn writer Isaac Watts (1674-1748).

 

Comfort, Comfort, Ye My People                                                 Arr. Howard Helvey (b. 1968)

 

This lively Renaissance-dance-style arrangement sets a tune by French Huguenot composer Claude Goudimel (1514-1572).   The tune was popularized in Protestant hymnals under the Genevan Psalter tune name OLD 42 and later by the German name FREU DICH SEHR.  The modern arrangement may sound familiar to GCA audiences, being similar in character and style (including the use of percussion) to Carol of the Hen, premiered by and dedicated to GCA in December 2012.  The text is an English translation of a hymn by German Lutheran pastor and hymn writer Johann G. Olearius (1611-1684).

 

Howard Helvey lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he is active as a composer, arranger and pianist, also serving as organist and choirmaster of historic Calvary Episcopal Church. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in composition from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a Master of Music degree in composition and piano performance from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music.

 

Christ the Appletree                                                                             Stanford Scriven (b. 1988)

 

GCA audiences are more familiar with the setting of this text by British composer Elizabeth Poston (1905-1987), sung three times in past concerts by the full chorus and by the chamber choir.  This beautiful new 2009 setting is by perhaps the youngest composer GCA has ever presented, Stanford Scriven, a former member of the Saint Olaf Choir and protégé of its director, Anton Armstrong.  Scriven’s rapidly blossoming composing career has won many awards and increasingly frequent nationwide radio-broadcast exposure.  He currently serves as director of a high school choral program in his home state of Oregon.

 

While some may think the Apple Tree carol to be of similar medieval origin as the Cherry Tree Carol, the former is much more modern, the text first appearing in a magazine in London, England, in 1761.  The text first appeared in hymnal form in 1784, in Divine Hymns, or Spiritual Songs: for the Use of Religious Assemblies and Private Christians, complied by Joshua Smith, a New Hampshire lay Baptist minister.  The apple tree references allude to various biblical images, but the origins of the carol may hark back to secular Christmas Eve wassailing traditions in New England apple orchards designed to enhance the fertility of the trees.

 

Especially effective in this arrangement is the fitting of the early American hymn setting to a distinctively American folksong style.  The prevalence of melodic intervals of fourths and fifths evokes other composers of the “American Sound” such as Aaron Copland.  Scriven’s up-and-down use of fifths also helps suggest a “reaching” motion to pluck an apple from the tree.

 

In the score the composer provides this commentary on his setting:  “Christ the Appletree is rooted in the wonderfully simple spirit of the text, in which the author depicts Christ in a familiar symbol of strength and abundant life.  Utilizing musical elements commonly found in the Early American folk canon, this is my best attempt at amplifying the poet’s original intent without clouding its simple yet elegant message.” Listeners familiar with the other settings of these lyrics may wonder why Scriven chooses a new order for the Joshua Smith text.  Most settings of this carol use only five of the original seven stanzas, ending with the stanza opening with “This fruit doth make my soul to thrive, / It keeps my dying soul alive.”  Scriven, however, makes this the penultimate stanza, and ends with the more-traditionally-penultimate stanza “I’m weary with my former toil—Here I will sit and rest awhile. . . . .”  This new ordering may reflect simply the musical desire to end in greater quietness and repose than might be suggested by the “haste” mentioned in the more traditional stanza order.

 

Christmas Oratorio                                                                   Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)

 

Although a nineteenth-century work, the centerpiece of this year’s concert continues the theme of youth, having been composed in only the 23^rd year of the composer’s long life. Born with perfect pitch, French composer Camille Saint-Saëns was a musical wunderkind from his earliest years, nearly rivalling Mozart and Mendelssohn. At age 22 he was appointed chief organist at the Church of the Madeleine in Paris, then, as now, a top-level accomplishment. The following year he composed his Christmas Oratorio, completing the work in less than two weeks, delivering the music to the performers only ten days before the Christmas Day premiere.  The premiere version consisted only of six movements, accompanied by organ and string quartet.  Over the next ten years Saint-Saëns revised and expanded to work to ten movements, also adding parts for harp and double bass.  The complete version we know today was first performed in 1869 in the Madeleine.

 

The composer’s choice of texts is described by Saint-Saëns scholar Lee G, Barrow of the University of North Georgia:  “Saint-Saëns set an assortment of . . .  passages from Latin Vulgate Bible rather than a specific pre-existing text.  Even though these texts do not come from a single source, the traditional liturgies surrounding Christmas clearly influenced Saint-Saëns in his choices. About half of the texts he selected match different portions of two of the Christmas Offices: the First Mass at Midnight and the Second Mass at Dawn. Described by one writer as ‘a musical enhancement of the words of the [Christmas] Office, without interest in the human drama,’ Saint-Saëns’s setting is less dramatic and more reflective than typically found in most oratorios, much like that seen in Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio.”

 

1. The first movement of the Oratorio is a Prelude for organ and strings, which the composer later described as being “in the style of Seb. Bach” in its close imitation of the pastoral siciliana rhythm and melodic lines in which Bach opened Part Two of his Christmas Oratorio, as well as of the Pastoral Symphony which opens Handel’s Messiah.

 

2. Recitative: “Et pastores errant”. In Dr. Barrow’s words, “The second movement relates a segment of the traditional Christmas story from the second chapter of St. Luke as it appears in the last half of the Gospel portion of the Midnight Mass for Christmas.  Saint-Saëns elected to include only the part of the story involving the announcement of Christ’s birth to the shepherds (Luke 2:8-14).  Bach used this same portion of the text in Part II of his Christmas Oratorio, but unlike Bach, who intersperses other texts between the different verses of the narrative, Saint-Saëns delivers the entire narrative at one time. . . . Instead of using a traditional Evangelist, usually a tenor soloist, Saint-Saëns employed several different soloists to deliver the narrative.”

Chorus: “Gloria in altissimis”.  Dr. Barrow continues, “The last half of the second movement features the chorus as the Heavenly Host singing the ‘Gloria’ text as found in the 14^th verse of Luke 2.  Instead of the older and more familiar ‘Gloria in excelsis,’ Saint-Saëns uses ‘Gloria in altissimis’ from the Latin Vulgate Bible, as it appears in the liturgy for the Midnight Mass for Christmas.  Many composers set this joyful text in a fast, rhythmically active, and dramatic manner, but here Saint-Saëns remains relatively subdued, simple, and fairly narrow in range, [the march-like tread being described by one writer as] suggesting discipline in the ranks of the angels.”

 

3. Air: “Exspectans exspectavi”. This is the only movement sung by a single soloist (mezzo-soprano in this case).  The text is the opening of Vulgate Psalm 39 (Psalm 40 in most Protestant Bibles), which emphasized the virtue of patience.  The opening notes of the organ introduction fittingly require the patience of waiting for a two-count half note before moving on the quarter-note third beat, and the vocal line echoes this motif in its own third measure.

 

4. Air and Chorus: “Domine, ego credidi”. This is the first of the new movements added when the original version was expanded.  The text is John 11:27, in which Martha expresses her faith in the lordship of Jesus.  Rather than gives these words to a female soloist Saint-Saëns assigns them to a Tenor, presumably allowing the high range to emphasize the earnest effort of the confession.

 

5. Duet: “Benedictus”.  This difficult call-and-response duet between soprano and baritone expresses the text of Psalm 118:26-28 (Protestant numbering), which is the greater part of the Gradual for the Christmas Mass at Dawn.  The lively major-key setting emphasizes the excitement of the arrival of the longed-for Nativity.

 

6. Chorus: “Quare fremuerunt gentes”. Another of the movements added in the expanded version, the dominant impression is dramatic contrast to the rest of the generally calm, serene work.  The fire with which both the instruments and the chorus open strongly imitates the opening of Beethoven’s String Quartet Number 11 in F minor (although Saint-Saëns employs D minor) and also recalls similar movements in Mozart, particularly the Requiem.  The fugal structure in the middle section imitates the clamoring of different voices in a mob.  The movement ends, however, in a more serene, slower section, shifting both meter (to three beats from four) and tonality (modulating from D minor to B flat major) for the Doxology (Glory be to the Father, . . .), employing a melody echoing the middle section of the peaceful Benedictus movement just completed.

 

7. Trio: “Tecum principium”. While this movement is often sung in English as a version of the Magnificat (the song of Mary) the Latin text is that of Psalm 110:3 (Protestant numbering), more literally in English as “With you is the power on your day of strength, in the splendor of the saints.”  The confession of the limitless power of God is reflected by the high ranges of the solo singers and by the sweeping arpeggios of the instrumental accompaniment.

 

8. Quartet: “Laudate coeli”. The syncopated rhythms and canonic voice entrances emphasize the joy of the Heavenly Choir.  Still, however, the movement is relatively quiet, more graceful than exuberant, even with the added Alleluias, reflecting the second half of the source text, Psalm 49:13b (Protestant numbering): “For the Lord has comforted all people; and will have compassion on the afflicted.”

 

9. Quintet and Chorus: “Consurge, filia Sion”. Dr. Barrow describes this movement thus:  “The last of the four numbers added to the original version of the work, this movement is the only one to incorporate all of the performing forces, although the chorus always sings in unison and the harp plays for only nine measures at the end.  Set in G major, it provided some overall thematic unity by recalling and developing material first heard in the Prelude, just as the final chorale in Part II of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio recalls its opening Sinfonie.  As in the Prelude, this movement originally has the word ‘pastorale’ as a part of its tempo indication.  The first portion of the text comes from the 19^th verse of the second chapter of Lamentations, to which Saint-Saëns added the words ‘Filia Sion’ (found repeatedly in earlier versions of this chapter) and ‘Alleluia.’  The text concludes with a recitation of the last half of Isaiah 62:1.  In response to the previous command from Lamentations to arise and call out for God’s help, the Isaiah text declares God’s assurance of salvation.”

 

10. Chorus: “Tollite hostias”. This is undoubtedly the most familiar movement of the work, sung in various versions by countless church choirs.  In Dr. Barrow’s description, “This text . . . consists of a patchwork of merged phrases from Psalm 96 [Protestant numbering], verses 8 through 13, with the word ‘Alleluia’ added.  The last half of the resulting text serves as the offertory for the Midnight Mass for Christmas.  Reminiscent of a chorale, this movement exhibits a surprising simplicity in its melodic movement, rhythm, dynamics, and harmonic structure.  With no modulations and only one brief visit to a secondary tonal area on the dominant, the harmony never truly departs from the home key of G major.  The only dynamic change comes with a single increase from forte to fortissimo for the final measures of the movement.  Except for a few notes in the organ which link the last two sections, the instruments simply double the voice parts throughout.”

 

Jingle, Bells                                                                                      Arr. Mack Wilberg (b. 1955)

 

Apart from the comma in the title, perhaps the only thing unfamiliar about this most famous of holiday songs (which does not mention Christmas per se) is its history. The text and music are by Massachusetts-born James Lord Pierpont (1822-1893), of the aristocratic family whose most famous member was financier John Pierpont (J.P.) Morgan, the song-writer’s nephew.  Among the earliest “Snow Birds,” James L. Pierpont lived in New England until 1849, when he left his wife and children with his father and traveled to California to open a photography shop during the Gold Rush. At the death of his wife in 1856 and his Unitarian-minister brother’s acceptance of a church post in Savannah, Georgia, James followed, becoming the organist and music director of his brother’s church.  He was to remain in the South, dying in Winter Haven, Florida, and being buried in Savannah.

 

He composed a number of songs, many of them supporting the Confederacy in the war in which he also served as a soldier, ironically in light of the majority of his family’s ardent support of Abolition.

 

None of his songs ever achieved the popularity of “The One Horse Open Sleigh,” which Pierpont copyrighted in Savannah in 1857, weeks before his second marriage. The source of the original composition is still debated between North and South, but clearly the snowy scenario is at least a recollection of New England winters, with some commentators even wondering whether the “Oh, what fun” reference to exposure to the elements may even be comically wry, since many of the original–and hardly ever sung–lyrics are also in that implied tone.

 

Tonight’s arrangement is by a frequent favorite of GCA programming, arranger Mack Wilberg, Music Director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

 

Peace, Peace                                                                  Rick and Sylvia Powell; arr. Fred Bock

 

This popular “closer” at yuletide concerts was composed in 1962 by Rick Powell (1935-2006) and Sylvia Powell (b. 1937) when they were students at Florida State University. Also an FSU alum, GCA director Dr. Steve Mulder has either sung or conducted this choral benediction on every Christmas concert (whether as a student or conductor in church, school/college or community chorus) since 1982.

 

 

Program notes by Bill Pasch, copyright © 2015 except as otherwise acknowledged.  Thanks are expressed to Dr. Lee G. Barrow of the University of North Georgia for his permission to quote passages and texts/translations from his published study Camille Saint-Saëns Christmas Oratorio (BarGraphica Choral Monograph #3).

INSTRUMENTALISTS

 

The Barrister Brass Quintet

Jonathan Swygert, trumpet

Paul McCommon, trumpet

Keith Fitzgerald, trombone

Hollie Lawing Pritchard, trombone

Kyle Krejci, tuba

 

Marcus Reddick, percussion

 

Violin 1

Shawn Pagliarini

Michele Marriage-Volz

 

Violin 2

Ken Lambert

Martha Head

 

Viola

Elizabeth Wood

Kristeen Sorrels

 

Cello

Cynthia Sulko

Mary Horst

 

Bass

Lyn DeRamus

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