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Madison Symphony Orchestra Program Notes
December 5-6-7, 2008
83rd Season / Subscription Concert No. 4
Michael Allsen
We open with on a forceful note with the Bellsong Fantasy by Minnesota-born
composer and arranger John Wasson
(b. 1956). There is a Wisconsin connection here: Wasson, who now
lives and works in Dallas, had his early musical training at UW–La
Crosse, and marched in the Blue Stars drum corps before moving to
Texas. His Bellsong Fantasy, written in 1996, opens with a mysterious
handbell prelude, but what quickly emerges is the familiar Ukrainian
Bell Carol. The chorus enters, and then the orchestra, in what
becomes a powerful setting dominated by brass, percussion, and organ
The “most serene
republic” of Venice was among the political and economic superpowers of
the Renaissance. Music and ceremony were very much a part of
Venice's civic pride, particularly the stellar musical establishment at
the city's principal church, the basilica of San Marco. After
witnessing a festival at the basilica in 1611, the English tourist
Thomas Coryat wrote that the music at San Marco was “...so good, so
delectable, so rare, so admirable, so superexcellent, that it did
ravish and stupefy all those strangers who had never heard the
like. But how the others were affected by it I know not; for mine
own part I can say this, that I was for the time even rapt up with
Saint Paul into the third heaven.” Among the music that ravished
Coryat was the work of Giovanni
Gabrieli (1553-1612), perhaps the finest of the many composers
who occupied the organ bench at San Marco in this period.
Gabrieli wrote masses and motets for use in the lavish liturgy at San
Marco, organ works and fine instrumental ensemble music, and
madrigals. Though the precise occasion for his motet Jubilate Deo is unknown, it appears
to be among his later works. (Gabrieli set this exultant
Psalm-like text no less than four times.) In this case, he does
not follow the more usual Venetian practice of dividing his forces into
two or more choirs, but instead sets the text in dense eight-part
counterpoint. As in contemporary madrigals, he includes some
subtle “word-painting. For example, at the word conjugat (“binds together”) the
texture suddenly changes to close, intense imitation. Similarly,
he highlights the words in laetitia
(“with gladness”) by shifting to dancelike triple meter. The
choir at San Marco was often supplemented by the many instrumentalists
employed by the basilica. At this program, the vocal lines are
doubled by brass players from the orchestra.
We continue with two works that feature the
Madison Youth Choirs. The music of Englishman John Rutter (b. 1945) has appeared on
nearly all of our Holiday concerts in recent years. Here,
children's voices sing his Donkey
Carol. Rutter’s original carol has a lively
galumphing accompaniment, brightly orchestrated that continues beneath
more lyrical lines in the voices. It ends—of course—with an
orchestral hee-haw. The bells join for an arrangement of It Came upon the Midnight Clear.
This beloved Christmas standard was composed in 1850 by the American
hymn-writer and music critic Richard
Storrs Willis (1819-1900). It is heard here in a lush
arrangement by John Bartsch.
We of course know Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) as the
greatest opera composer of his generation. But he was a member of
a family of church musicians who worked quietly and respectably in the
northern Italian city of Lucca for four generations, stretching back to
the early 18th century, and seemed destined to follow in the
family business: while still a teenager, composed a couple of
large sacred words performed at the cathedral. Though Puccini had
already been smitten with opera, he studied at the local music school
until age 20, and his graduation piece was an impressive setting of the
Latin Mass, published long after as his Messa di Gloria scored for tenor
and bass soloists, chorus, and orchestra. (The title is actually
a bit misleading: a “Messa di Gloria”—as in Rossini’s famous
example—usually includes only a Kyrie
and a Gloria, but Puccini’s
setting includes all five movements.) The Mass was
performed on the eve of Lucca’s patron saint, St. Paolino, on July 12,
1880. Though it was a success, it was filed away: Puccini
left to study at the Milan Conservatory, and spent the rest of his life
in the world of opera. The manuscript lay quietly in his papers
until 1952 when it was finally performed again, in Chicago and Naples.
The Messa di Gloria is
perhaps his finest early work, and gives every indication that Puccini
would become a great musical dramatist. Gratias agimus tibi, a passionate
aria from the Gloria for
tenor and orchestra, spins out a whole series of emotions from quietly
pastoral lines to a sweeping climax, around the tenor’s simple lines of
thanksgiving. Most composers set the Gloria’s final lines, Cum sancto spiritu as a
chorus, and Puccini was no exception. It begins a blustery fugue,
leading to triumphant statement of the Gloria’s opening line (Gloria in excelis Deo), and grand
closing Amen.
The well-known Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an
Open Fire), with all of those cozy wintertime images, was
actually written during the roasting heat of a California summer.
In his autobiography, Mel
Tormé (1925-1999) related the story how in July 1945, he
drove to the home of his lyricist and collaborator Robert Wells in Toluca Lake.
He found the lyrics lying on the piano, and when Wells finally appeared
sweating and hot even in shorts and a t-shirt, he told Torme: “It was
so damn hot today, I thought I'd write something to cool myself off.
All I could think of was Christmas and cold weather.”
Tormé replied: “You know, this just might make a song.” The Christmas Song was written in
about 45 minutes later that day. Torme quickly showed the song to
his friend Nat Cole, whose 1946 hit recording is now a beloved holiday
classic.