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The Sweetheart of the Sun, by Eric William BarnumHowells was a British composer known for his large body of works for Anglican Church choirs and services. Sing Lullaby comes from a set of three “Carol-Anthems,” of which he said, “This was the third in the set. Here too a poet found the verses for me. F.W. Harvey, the Gloucestershire poet, friend of Ivor Gurney had written and published the poem only a short time before this setting was made.” The beginning of the piece creates a soothing lulling theme under the melody, contrasted by the treatment of the second stanza of the poem, which alludes to Jesus’ crucifixion.
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Sing Lullaby, by Herbert HowellsHowells was a British composer known for his large body of works for Anglican Church choirs and services. Sing Lullaby comes from a set of three “Carol-Anthems,” of which he said, “This was the third in the set. Here too a poet found the verses for me. F.W. Harvey, the Gloucestershire poet, friend of Ivor Gurney had written and published the poem only a short time before this setting was made.” The beginning of the piece creates a soothing lulling theme under the melody, contrasted by the treatment of the second stanza of the poem, which alludes to Jesus’ crucifixion.
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Good Night, Dear Heart, by Dan ForrestComposer Dan Forrest writes: “A few years ago, my brother and his wife found out that the four month old girl that they were soon to adopt from Ethiopia had fallen ill and passed away. For me, life circumstances (whether euphoric or tragic) don’t usually translate into musical inspiration; the two typically remain separate. The night they received this news, though, I found myself longing to pour out a musical elegy. My search for a suitable text led me to a picture from a cemetery in my hometown (Elmira, NY), where the great American author Mark Twain and his family are buried. My brother and I, from our youth, have known the poem that Twain placed on the tombstone of his beloved daughter Susy, when she died unexpectedly at age 24 and left him heartbroken. I wrote this setting that night; it was quickly added to an upcoming concert and premiered only one week later, as an elegy for Etsegenet and a reminder of the orphans of Ethiopia.”
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At the Round Earth's Imagined Corners, by Williametta SpencerWilliametta Spencer’s At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners, which won the 1968 Southern California Vocal Association Competition for composition, masterfully sets the text of Holy Sonnet VII, one of a collection of nineteen sonnets written by John Donne in the early 17th century. In this particular sonnet, the speaker contemplates Judgment Day.
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O Radiant Dawn, by James MacMillanThe “O antiphons” are among the most well-known Christian liturgical texts. They are traditionally said during the 7 days before Christmas as a component of Vespers (evening prayer), and serve as the basis for the well-known advent hymn O come, O come Emmanuel. This piece by the Scottish composer James MacMillan sets the fifth of these antiphons, using a bold proclamatory motive to plead for the arrival of the unborn Christ, depicted here as the rising morning sun that gives light to a world darkened by sin and death.
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Heaven-Haven (A Nun Takes the Veil), by Samuel BarberSamuel Barber is one of the most prolific composers in American history. Having studied at the Curtis Institute of Music as a young teenager, studying voice, piano, and composition, Barber had already shown the potential to become one of the most celebrated American composers in recent memory. A Nun Takes the Veil’s musical interest lies very much in the chords used in the harmony throughout the song. Barber harmonizes the piece almost as a recitative, though using chord progressions that take listeners through many different keys, indicating a lack of grounding, a sort of searching for a home, that can also be found in the text.
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O Weisheit, by Arvo PärtThe O antiphons are one of the most well-known Christian liturgical texts. They are a set of short verses prayed as part of the Vespers (evening prayer) service in the seven days before Christmas in many Christian traditions. The famed O Come, O Come Emmanuel text is a paraphrase of these antiphons. Because the verses are recited before the Magnificat prayer (which Pärt has also famously set to music), they are sometimes known as the Magnificat Antiphons, and it is under this title that Arvo Pärt set all seven (in a German translation rather than the original Latin). This is the first one: O Wisdom; in Latin, O sapientiae; in German, O Weisheit. The piece is classic Pärt: the choir is treated almost like bells and the rhythm is simple and in full service to the text.
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Coventry Carol, by Ola GjeiloThe Coventry Carol is an English carol that dates to the 16th century. It gets its name from the town of Coventry, where it was originally performed as part of a mystery play. The text refers to the Massacre of the Innocents, in which King Herod feels threatened after the Magi inform him that they have come to worship a king, and decides to have all children under the age of three executed. The original music contains an extremely jarring dissonance in one line, unusual for music of the day but quite fitting for the horrifying subject matter. Here, however, Gjeilo takes the melody and writes a waltz-like choral accompaniment around it, which eventually grows into his trademark thick eight-part texture, which somehow retains the coldness necessary for the brutal text.
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In the Bleak Midwinter, by Ola GjeiloThis beloved hymn portrays the birth of Christ. Christina Rosetti's text, with its "bleak" midwinter and frozen landscape, is not representative of mild Palestinian winters, but its vivid imagery was relatable for the English parishioners it was composed for. Gustav Holst set the poem to music in 1906, and it quickly became a classic across denominations. The irregular meter requires the occasional melismatic setting, like on the word "snow" in the first verse, but Holst was able to keep all four verses almost entirely strophic, like a traditional hymn.
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My Lord Has Come, by Will ToddThis heartfelt setting of words by the composer begins with a very soft drone over which the sopranos introduce an expressive melody. This melody is passed around the choir throughout the piece, never straying from its calm and content nature except to accentuate God’s love for the speaker, further brought out by the open by breaking the strophic form of the text.
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Silent Night, by Jonathan RathboneSilent Night is one of the most famous carols of all time, and recently celebrated its 200th anniversary (on December 24, 2018). The lyrics were written by Joseph Mohr, who walked 3 kilometers from his home on Christmas Eve to bring it to his friend Franz Gruber and asked him to compose a simple melody for it that could be played on the guitar. The piece was premiered at mass that night and has been of the most beloved Christmas carols ever since. This gorgeous, simple arrangement by Jonathan Rathbone begins with a soprano and alto arrangement, then transitions to the tenors and basses, before combining in 8 parts for a rich third verse.
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Christus Factus Est, by Anton Bruckner
One of Austrian composer Anton Bruckner's most famous motets, the text is drawn from St. Paul's letter to the Philippians, and is traditionally used in the Catholic liturgies of Holy Week. Bruckner set the text three times, this being the third setting. The piece's expressive dissonance represents the darkness of the crucifixion.
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The Road Home, by Stephen PaulusThe Road Home, commissioned by the Dale Warland Singers, is a simple adaptation of a tune from the famed 1835 American Southern Harmony collection published by William Walker. We’re performing this work in memory of Daniel E. Boyer (1970-2018), beloved director of choirs at Huntington High School, who passed away tragically in February. Alto Taylor Hinds, one of his former students, writes: “I struggled a lot with choosing a song for him just because I felt like nothing was quite worthy of him, but in the end, I really loved The Road Home because it is about going home to the place that’s good and where he belongs, and thinking about how he’s at home with God now helped me cope with his death.”
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A Basque Lullaby, Dan ForrestA Basque Lullaby was written for composer Dan Forrest’s first daughter before she was born. It eventually won a prize in a choral composition contest, leading to its performance and publication. The text is by an anonymous poet, and the connection to Basque culture is unclear.
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Prayer of the Children, arr. Andrea KlouseIn the middle of a rehearsal on June 13, 2017, we got the news of Zach Misleh’s tragic death that same day. Lux originates with a group of friends who attended DeMatha Catholic High School around the same time, and that group forms most of our current tenor and bass sections. Zach, a 2016 DeMatha graduate, was a beloved member of the DeMatha community, as well as a good friend of several of our members. In his honor, we performed Prayer of the Children, which Zach, who had deep empathy for the poor and marginalized, found extremely moving when the Voices of DeMatha performed it many years ago. Composer Kurt Bestor wrote the piece out of pain and frustration with the civil war in the form Yugoslavia, where he had lived in the 1970’s.
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Sainte-Chapelle, by Eric WhitacreDespite its title, the music for this piece was inspired less by the exquisite French Gothic chapel, and more by Angoni Gaudi's as-yet-unfinished Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família in Barcelona, especially its Passion Façade encircled with the text “Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus.” The Tallis Scholars commissioned Sainte-Chapelle in celebration of their 40th anniversary, and premiered the piece in 2013.
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O Adonai, by Arvo PärtThis is the second of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen (Seven Magnificat Antiphons). The text is one of the seven ‘O’ antiphons upon which the famous Advent hymn ‘O come, O come Emmanuel’ is based. O Adonai uses Pärt’s famous “tintinnabuli” (bell-like) technique, but, unusually, applies this technique for male chorus rather than mixed.
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Crucifixus, by Claudio Monteverdi
Claudio Monteverdi’s Crucifixus uses harsh dissonances to represent the events of the crucifixion of Christ. Monteverdi also created a main theme featuring a chromatic descent, which depicts Christ’s descent into Hell upon his death. In the style of the period, this performance features countertenors singing the alto line.
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Second Eve, by Ola GjeiloGjeilo writes, “In some of my pieces, the text is somewhat more the servant of the music than the other way around, and Second Eve is one of those works. The music is mainly inspired by a breathtaking photograph taken by one of my favorite photographers, Jake Rajs, featured in the book These United States (Rizzoli)... The Sancta Maria text seemed to kind of fit into what I was looking for in this piece, expressing something mystical, and kind of regal, which Mt. McKinley [the subject of the photograph] is in every way.”
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Enjoy the Silence, by Eric WhitacreEnjoy the Silence is a song originally by the English electronic band Depeche Mode, from their seventh studio album, Violator. The song was released as a single in 1990 to enormous critical and commercial success. Among its fans was the then 20-year-old Eric Whitacre. Whitacre, of course, became one of the most celebrated choral composers of his time, and set about transforming the song into an achingly beautiful choral work, turning the keyboard part into a soaring soprano solo and adapting the harmonies to fit his unmistakeable pandiatonic style.
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