What a pleasure to return to the music of the Christmas season! Our music for this concert runs from the 15th century to our own. We are so glad you are here to share old favorites, less familiar treasures and wonderful new pieces, to warm and cheer us through these wintry days.
We begin with “Personent hodie” but quickly transition to the more familiar English version, often titled “Ideo” for the refrain that ends each verse. Despite the Latin words, the song has Scandinavian origins. Jaakko Suomalainen, a Finnish Lutheran cleric, collected it, along with over 70 other late medieval songs, and published them all in 1582 as Piae Cantionse (Holy Songs). Jane M. Joseph produced this popular English translation in the early 20th century.
Norwegian American composer Ola Gjeilo (b. 1978) arranged “Away in a Manger,” based on the tune by American church musician William Kirkpatrick (1838-1921). The lyrics first appeared in a Boston magazine in 1884, and some claim they were based on a cradle song by Martin Luther. Choral Arts is proud to have sung many of Gjeilo’s works, including several West Coast premieres, most recently at our October concert this year with the composer himself at the piano.
The words for “Noël nouvelet” first appeared in the late 15th century. Some have suggested that the simple French lyrics provided a good way to teach the Christmas story to children or to illiterate peasants, as church services were still conducted exclusively in Latin, which most people could not understand. Interestingly, an Easter hymn (“Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green”) uses the same tune. Irish composer Michael McGlynn (b. 1964) arranged this setting for Anúna, a group he founded in 1991 to explore and redefine aspects of Celtic music; note, for instance, the drone that continues under the melody in this setting
Jackson Berkey (b. 1942) based his rich arrangement “Still, still night” on “Silent Night.” Berkey began his musical career as a concert pianist, later becoming the accompanist for the Norman Luboff Choir. There he met his future wife, Almeda, and Chip Davis, with whom he formed Mannheim Steamroller, a group that pioneered what Davis called “18th-century rock.” When Almeda became director of choral music at the University of Nebraska, her husband began writing many arrangements for her choirs; later they jointly founded Nebraska’s professional chorale called Soli Deo Gloria Cantorum.
Dutch composer Jan Pieters Sweelinck (1562-1621) wrote the lively and joyous “Hodie Christus natus est” and was among the first major keyboard composers of Europe. Contemporaries nicknamed him the Orpheus of Amsterdam. Although he himself was a Calvinist at a time when his faith remained undecided whether instrumental music was appropriate in worship, he composed liturgies in 3 different religious traditions: Catholic, Lutheran, and Calvinist, all the while being employed by the city rather than by any church. His vocal music demonstrates his easy command of counterpoint and rhythmic complexity, as this piece shows.
Ralph Vaughan-Williams (1872-1958) produced works in nearly every musical genre, including symphonies, operas, choral music, and film scores. He became a leading English collector of folk songs that were disappearing around the turn of the 20th century, due to mass literacy and the availability of printed music; once a standardized version appeared in print, regional variations tended to die out. No one knows the age of the carols in this Fantasia, though the language implies Elizabethan or earlier origins. A collector himself, Vaughan-Williams carefully noted who collected each and where (the counties of Hertfordshire, Somerset, and Sussex). The words and tunes may recall carols that modern listeners already know (like “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and “The Wassail Song”), but Vaughan-Williams treasured these quirky regional variants.
Jake Runestad (b. 1986) hails from the Midwest and is based in Minneapolis; he has written choral, orchestral, jazz, and operatic works. Deeply committed to using the power of music to bring about positive change, he has set numerous religious texts and created works that address painful social issues. For instance, his Dreams of the Fallen (2013) sets poetry by Iraq War veteran Brian Turner, and focuses on soldiers’ war-time experiences. By contrast, his “Alleluia” brims with barely contained joy and praise.
Arguably the greatest English composer of the 20th century, Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) began composing at age 5. Throughout his life, he drew on an astonishing array of sources, from Japanese Noh dramas to World War I poetry to medieval miracle plays; he also had a strong commitment to making complicated texts speak movingly to even the youngest listeners. He based “Hymn to the Virgin” on an anonymous Middle English lyric, with alternating Latin and English phrases, just as in the medieval original.
The next two songs focus not on Christmas but on winter. Famed for his Enigma Variations and ceremonial pieces like Pomp and Circumstance, Edward Elgar (1857-1934) composed a wide variety of music, including quiet, subdued songs like “The Snow,” based on a poem by his wife, Alice Roberts Elgar. Although he was eventually knighted, Elgar considered himself an outsider in English musical circles because of his working class background, his Catholic faith, and the fact that he was self-taught. At the time they married, Alice Roberts was already a well-connected, published author and was able to aid her husband’s professional prospects both artistically and socially. “The Snow” compares the fleeting loveliness of snow to the enduring strength and beauty of the soul.
Randall Thompson (1899-1984) composed his collection Frostiana (1959), which sets several poems by Robert Frost (1874-1963), for the bicentennial of Amherst, Massachusetts. “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening,” written in 1922, at first seems like a quaint vignette, a pretty scene, but the unexpected repetition of the last line—“And miles to go before I sleep”—hints that the speaker may be thinking of his final sleep. Thompson captures the essence of the poem perfectly: the gently falling snow, the pause in the speaker’s steps, the horse’s bells, and then the dark undercurrents in the piano part on the last verse.
“Sleep, Little Baby, Sleep” demonstrates Jake Runestad’s musical versatility. Where “Alleluia” bursts with almost percussive energy, this lullaby brims with tender protectiveness. English poet Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) wrote the original poem. Like much of her work, this poem, “Holy Innocents,” has a strong religious component; the title refers to the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt to escape Herod’s wrath—and our desire to keep vulnerable children safe from harm.
“The Shepherd’s Chorus” comes from Amahl and the Night Visitors, an opera composed for television and first performed live on NBC on Christmas Eve 1951. Italian-American composer Gian Carlo Menotti (1911 -2007) wrote both the words and the music for this opera, as he frequently did. The story focuses on Amahl, a young boy who needs a crutch to walk and is visited by the Magi as they follow the star. In the poor village, a miracle happens. Because Amahl wants to give his most precious possession–his crutch–to the newborn king, he becomes able to walk and accompanies the Magi on their journey. In this chorus, Amahl’s neighbors welcome the royal visitors with traditional Middle Eastern hospitality – sharing their food and their news, and entertaining their guests.
Samuel Longfellow (1819–1892), brother of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, was an American Unitarian pastor and hymn writer greatly influenced by Transcendentalism, a philosophy that holds that both humanity and nature are inherently good. This view shows through in Longfellow’s words to “A Winter Carol.” Set here to “Danby,” an English hymn tune, this carol does not mention Jesus but reflects how God’s love remains present and sustaining in even the bleakest seasons of our lives.
Russian-born Irving Berlin (1888-1989) composed the words and music of “White Christmas” for the film Holiday Inn in 1942. Sung originally by Bing Crosby, the song quickly sold over 50 million records in the early days of World War II. With so many families and loved ones separated by deployments overseas, the song conjured up a warm, nostalgic image of home and togetherness in a difficult time. It won the Academy Award for best song and also appears in the 1954 musical film of the same name. We can’t think of a better way to end our program than in Berlin’s own words: “May your days be merry and bright.” Best wishes for the holidays and for a happy, peaceful new year!
— Susan Wladaver-Morgan
We hope to see you at the concerts this weekend! Tickets are available online and at the door at both performances. Remember that you can save 15% off at-the-door prices by buying your tickets in advance!
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