The AUB Choir and Choral Society
with
Ensemble Polyphonica
Paul Meers, Director
Ramzi Sabra, Organ
 

Assembly Hall December 13 and 14, 2009, 7 pm
The National Evangelical Church, December 21, 7 pm
All Are Welcome
First Come, First Seated

Program to be selected from the following

 I

The choir in procession

II

III

IV

            O magnum mysterium
            Quem vidistis pastores
            Videntes stellam
            Hodie Christus natus est

V

VI

A Selection of Christmas Carols for Audience, Choir,  and Organ

Notes and translations, Christmas 2009

The AUB Choir, Choral Society, and Ensemble Polyphonica warmly welcome you to our annual Christmas Concerts, wishing you the best of holidays. Please join us for more carol singing and Christmas tree lighting at concert’s end. We are very happy that AUB Choir members have been invited to perform Mozart’s Solemn Vespers in New York’s Carnegie Hall in May 2010. Your donations are welcome to help our singers with this exciting project. Look for choir members with collection boxes after the concert.

The Genevan Psalter was a collection of the Psalms, translated in metrical French versions for singing at home. The harmonized versions are attributed to Claude Goudimel and Louis Bourgeois. The Psalter’s composition was supervised directly by John Calvin himself, and was not meant for public use. Thus, it is likely that he would disapprove both of its use in a concert, and especially the instrumental accompaniment. The musical texture of the first section is largely “familiar style,” meaning the four independent voices share the same rhythm and words. The middle section treats the same tune, using independent polyphony.[i] The choir’s pronunciation is based on that of 16^th-century Paris. [ii]

Pseaume 42

Giovanni Gabrieli was a near contemporary of Goudimel’s, but worlds away in style and approach to composition. The two double-choir motets we present here were originally performed in St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice. They display in music all the grandiosity of that church, with its multiple performance spaces around the symmetrical, non-rectangular building, the jewel in the crown of the city called La Serenissima. Even from a single stage platform, the grand, polychoral effects of the two ensembles in dialogue is captivating. The Magnificat text belongs to the Vespers liturgy, and O Magnum mysterium to Christmas Day.

Magnificat

O Magnum mysterium

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s 200^th anniversary year is nearing its end, and we are happy to present part of his beautiful Opus79, Sechs Sprüche (Six Anthems) for eight-part, unaccompanied choir. The group was meant as service music for different parts of the church year; the texts come from Luther’s translations of the Psalms. Mendelssohn was influenced by early composers such as Gabrieli, but his treatment of the eight voices is far different, with the ensemble functioning as one unit instead of split in two.  Variety of texture and traditionally-treated dissonance adds great expressivity to the group.

Im Advent

Neujahrstage

Weinachten

Shireen Abu-Khader is a native of Amman, Jordan, and lives there today. She received degrees in the United States: in composition from Oberlin Conservatory and in choral music from the University of Southern California. An active performer and arranger, she founded Dozan wa Awtar, a music establishment that aims to promote Arab composers and thinkers, and recently hosted a conference of the International Federation of Choral Music. [iii] Miladuka for mixed voices, and Al yaom al 3athra’ for women’s voices, depend on the text for their rhythm; there is no steady beat. Thus, the choir is challenged to create the free rhythm together, led by the long and short vowels and consonants of the Arabic language. By contrast, the Jibrilu ja’a chant has a steady pulse, but it is used freely, and not bound to one meter. Abu-Khader sensitively deploys traditional western chords and polyphony to amplify these expressive chants.

Milāduka

Al yaom al 3athra’

Jibrilu ja’a

Francis Poulenc was born in Provence, and his works for orchestra, choir, solo and chamber music are celebrated examples of musical modernism. Poulenc was a member of Le groupe de six, a group of loosely-confederated composers gathered by Jean Cocteau, as the French answer to the earlier Russian “Mighty Handful” of five nationalistic composers. Les Six were not overtly nationalistic, but embraced contemporary French musical practices, including Debussy and Satie’s avant garde harmonies and structures, melodies reminiscent of cabaret-concert and jazz rhythms.  Poulenc’s early compositions are resolutely secular. However, after a strong spiritual experience at age 37, he began to set traditional church texts while retaining his unique style. This set of Christmas motets come from 1952. The first, O Magnum mysterium, sets its mysterious mood with low minor chords, before introducing the descending scale pattern in soprano, which will unify the piece. As in Goudimel’s Psalm, the texture is largely familiar style, but has passages of Poulenc’s signature leaping voice parts, in contrast to traditional stepwise voice leading.

[See Gabrieli translation above]

Quem visistis pastores dicite is a reserved dance for the shepherds, who were privileged to witness the birth of Jesus. Wordless and highly sophisticated polyphony accompanies the dance tune, which is passed around from section to section. Then comes a middle section with the command “Tell what you saw,” as a great unified question and answer, and rounded out by a return of the dance tune.

Videntes stellam is entirely in the familiar style, but retains Poulenc’s leaping voice parts along with traditional part-writing. Its expression largely comes from extended harmonies influenced by post-romantics such as Debussy, and contemporary jazz.

Hodie Christus natus est rounds out the set with exuberant exclamations influenced by cabaret rhythms and leaping inner voice parts. Syncopated rhythms give the Latin text a decidedly French accent: Poulenc sets most of his phrases here, and in the other motets, with the end-of-word stresses of French, instead of the stresses required by the Roman church’s standard usage. 

Peter Warlock was the pen name adopted by Philip Heseltine, likely as a result of difficulties with the British musical and literary establishment, and also “occult” practices followed during his 1917 stay in Ireland. [iv] His musical mentor was Frederick Delius, and Warlock’s harmonic style is influenced by Delius and his contemporaries. In addition to traditional “common practice” harmony, Warlock adds extra notes to his chords, imparting color and spice.

Adam Lay Ybounden is a modernized medieval English carol text, which Warlock sets very freely in unison, respecting the accents of the words, and accompanied by harmony rich in expressive dissonance.

Balulalow sets a Scots carol text as a folk-like lullaby for soloist, choir, and orchestra.  A drone on the tonic note creates a unique atmosphere, where simple triads become alternately dissonant and consonant with the drone. The text is likely a 16^th-century translation and adaptation of Luther’s hymn, Vom Himmel hoch. Modern English spellings appeared below.[v]

Benedicamus Domino set a medieval English lyric in Latin, for unaccompanied choir.  The alternation between unison passages and leaping polyphony is reminiscent of Poulenc’s Hodie, but with standard text declamation and tonal harmony enriched with dissonant added notes.

~ Paul Meers, 2009

contact Paul Meers
pm05@aub.edu.lb
Nicely Hall 403
AUB telephone outside Lebanon 961-1-350000, ext. 4350 or 4041
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Last updated: 11 November, 2009