Reflections: Old Texts, New Tunes
by Gary Wood, Music Director
"Reflections: Old Texts, New Tunes" was performed on May 6 & 7, 2006

Which came first, the text or the tune? Think of some of your favorite music. Was the text written first or did the tune pre-exist? Our concert features choral works with some highly regarded old texts set to new tunes that seek to reflect the multi-faceted words.

Our program’s centerpiece is Aaron Copland’s “In the Beginning.” We are fortunate to feature our guest artist, Pamela Dellal, as soloist for this choral masterpiece. Written for the Harvard Symposium on Music Criticism in May 1947, Copland chose the opening 38 verses of the Old Testament (Genesis I through II:7), setting it for mixed chorus with mezzo-soprano solo. The rich Creation story, with its marvelous images and mysterious wonders, is spread across 17 minutes of challenging choral writing, guided by the sweeping lines of the solo voice. Nearly 60 years after its composition, “In the Beginning” still sounds like a new tune for a very old text.

Howard Hanson wrote primarily for the symphony orchestra, sometimes with chorus. At age 80, he wrote “A Prayer of the Middle Ages,” his first work for unaccompanied chorus in eight parts. From the opening of this work, Hanson arranges a majestic choral landscape to amplify the 8th-century poetry: “We declare unto all the ages…There wert Thou, O God.”

César Alejandro Carrillo (b. 1957) set “O Magnum Mysterium” in 2000, and it has quickly become a favorite of our singers. Carrillo sets the first two verses of this Christmas Day text, including the radical message of God coming to earth among the meek and lowly. The juxtaposition of modern harmonies and 2000-year-old text manifest beautiful sweet music from this South American composer.

Saint Francis of Assisi wrote “To You, O God, All Creatures Sing” in 1225 while ill and temporarily blind. He died a year later. Julian Wachner, a California native well-known in the Boston area, set this text for chorus and organ in 1992, using the translation “All Creatures
of our God and King.” The familiar hymn tune is heard throughout this arrangement, often accompanied by contemporary, flowing chords and melodies from the organ.

The question arises, is this all religious music? Are these composers advocating a particular religious view by choosing particular texts? I think not. These texts are evocative sacred stories, reflected through the lens of time: they provide a composer with opportunities to re-cast their meanings and inflections within a modern musical idiom.

Further, and far more important, these texts offer an intellectual and musical challenge, as the composer asks “What does this text offer so that I can create a musical work of value that others will want to hear and perform?” The idea that composers sit silently and wait for religious inspiration is generally a myth. Musical composition is hard work, sweat, tears, and blood. By looking at some of Beethoven's original scores, you can almost see this great man struggling to create something. For me, a composer seeks to provide a conduit to excellence,
to cause humankind to experience something beyond the day to day, something greater than the small worlds in which we exist. Do we dismiss Beethoven's music as religious? Certainly not! Each of you will take something different away from each work we perform.

We will also hear Ms. Dellal as soloist with the men of Cantemus, in Franz Schubert’s beautifully moving love song “Ständchen.” This “serenade” depicts the restless lover knocking at his beloved’s door.

Our program also includes a musical setting of a Shakespeare sonnet, a work for women’s chorus from the Song of Songs, three musical “pictures” of nature from the American northwest, and a spirited arrangement of songs by Stephen Foster, one of America’s most important 19th-century composers.

We humbly offer this wide array of choral works, these “old texts” as a vehicle for “new tunes.” We hope that our performance reminds you of the timeless, regenerative, redemptive, and unending creativity that is music, as we sing a new song!