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“CAC +1” is underwritten in part by a generous
grant from the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation
NOTES AND INTRODUCTION
Welcome to CAC+1, an unprecedented collaboration between Chicago a
cappella and the virtuoso percussionist Debbie Katz Knowles. We have had an
especially enjoyable time preparing the music for tonight’s concert and hope
that you enjoy it thoroughly as well. Extended thanks go to the composers who
have shared with us their creations—some brand-new, adapted just for us, and
some in their original forms.
Why CAC+1? A cappella singing is glorious on its own. This ensemble
has been around for twelve years, and we singers like what we do. Together, our
nine vocalists cover more than four octaves, from my own low C (a fifth below
the bass staff) to Kathleen’s and Amy’s high D (a fifth above the treble staff).
Our voices can produce a wide variety of styles and colors and shades and
dialects.
At the same time, it can be instructive, refreshing, and just plain fun to
shake things up a bit. Two years ago, I was wishing to experiment with sounds
that are created in ways different from how the human voice does it. I wanted to
stretch our sound-world by adding a single instrument, perhaps once every two or
three years. How best, then, to inaugurate an occasional series called “CAC+1”?
Which instrument should we use first—something blown, plucked, or struck?
I mentioned the idea offhandedly to the singers two summers ago and was
surprised when e-mails kept trickling to my inbox, saying mostly, “What about
percussion?” A group of us sang at the National Storytelling Festival in July
2003 and heard A Spiritual Journey, a percussion ensemble, and that cemented the
choice. I had worked with Debbie Katz Knowles a few years before, and I knew
that she could easily handle a program like this. She was enthusiastic about the
collaboration and suggested musical styles, especially swing, that she would
relish playing with us. Another advantage of working with Debbie is that she
comes with a variety of instruments—in this case, timpani, tambourine, hand
drums of all sorts, and the pitched percussion of vibraphone. The result is the
program you have in your hand.
Once the decision was made that CAC+1 would mean voices-plus-percussion, it
was time to select repertoire. Doing so was harder than I expected, for much of
the literature for choir and percussion also includes piano. Persistence and a
little luck paid off, however. The Brazilian conductor Vladimir Silva led me to
Eli-Eri Moura’s Salmo 150, which Prof. Moura has reworked into a glorious
piece; he took pains to give the piece its own nature in its new form, avoiding
a simpler reworking that would have had half of the singers simply imitating the
original strings. Similarly, Glenn Meade adapted Cookin’ School from his recent
set of Latin dance-based music.
My affection for Bob Applebaum’s Exodus Suite, the centerpiece of this
program, stems in part from the circumstances of its creation. Bob wrote the
original version for SATB choir and piano in early 2002; the occasion was a
concert by Oak Park’s Heritage Chorale, which I was directing at the time.
Heritage had just sung the entirety of Handel’s oratorio Israel in Egypt
oratorio a month earlier (for Handel Week) and was now mounting its own spring
concert. Bob Applebaum was remarkably cooperative for the challenge I gave him:
to replace several of the solo arias and duets from Handel’s work with new music
on the Hebrew version of the same verses. Bob also said “yes” when, in summer
2004, I asked him if he would rework the cycle for CAC+1, replacing the piano
parts with a combination of pitched percussion and a redistribution of the
voices. As was the case with Eli-Eri Moura’s Salmo 150, Bob gave the new
piece a true life of its own. Bob added a new solo opening and a new ending to “T’vieimo,”
and he added a tenor solo to “Onward,” the final movement, which I regard as the
best new piece of choral counterpoint I’ve heard in years. For Bob’s twofold
generosity, first in creating the original version and now in fashioning a
special suite for CAC+1, we are much in his debt.
In many ways, CAC+1 remains very much a typical concert for this ensemble. As
in all of our concerts, you’ll go on a journey of many styles, languages,
rhythms, and harmonic idioms. We hope that you’ll be delighted, refreshed as we
are, moved to tears by the sheer beauty of the sounds, and touched in some way
by the words that we sing.
Please do feel welcome, and sit back and enjoy the concert. Most of all, in
this era of iPods, XM Radio and wide-screen TVs, we thank you deeply for making
the effort to come and hear this live performance. Despite all our culture’s
gadgets, we at Chicago a cappella are dedicated to the proposition that
there’s still nothing like placing yourself in a room with real musicians,
hearing music being made on the spot, and both absorbing and contributing to the
electricity of the moment. That doesn’t happen without participation, and it
very much matters that you are here. Thank you again.
—Jonathan Miller
Founder and Artistic Director
Naomi Stephan: Alleluia
A resident of California, award-winning composer Naomi Irene Stephan composes
music for a number of different forces: women’s choirs, and men’s choruses,
mixed choruses, both with and without instruments. Her music is published both
by Yelton Rhodes music and by her own firm, Life Mission Associates. She
received a B.A. in Voice in Berlin and a PhD in German and musicology from
Indiana University, and taught at Valparaiso University. She writes: “I like
small combinations of voices and instruments, combining neo-medieval styles with
fugal, percussive, or rhythmic experimentation. My influences include Aaron
Copland, J. S. Bach, and German Romanticism, especially present in a Requiem for
my mother, Mater in Memoriam: For Irene.”
Alleluia was originally written for a Christmas service, when a group of
singers was looking for a processional and did not have one. This work exists in
several versions, each of which has proven successful.
Martin Luther / Johann Walther, arr. Gunnar Eriksson: Ein feste Burg
Upon hearing this splendid tune, one can easily imagine Luther making his
famous statement that “He who sings, prays twice!” Martin Luther, the catalyst
of the Protestant Reformation, wrote many song texts and even melodies,
including this one, familiar in English as “A Mighty Fortress is our God.” The
16th-century polyphonist Johann Walther was a close colleague of Luther and
arranged the tune in a four-voice setting. The familiar melody appears here not
in the soprano line but rather in the tenor, as was common at the time. Our
performance follows the principles of semi-improvised choral music set forth by
Gunnar Eriksson, the renowned Swedish choral conductor and arranger, who for
many years has been an inspiration to Chicago a cappella’s music-making.
Eli-Eri Luiz de Moura: Salmo 150
Eli-Eri Moura is professor of composition and director of Compomus, the
electronic music studio at the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), in the city
of João Pessoa in northeastern Brazil. He received master’s and doctoral degrees
in composition at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, before returning to
Brazil. At Compomus, his influential teaching has helped to launch the careers
of several important young Brazilian musicians, among them Antonio Coelho, or
“Tone K.” Moura’s output includes film scores, arrangements of popular songs,
and atonal, avant-garde pieces for instruments. He directed the University Choir
at UFPB and also recently has been writing what he calls ”neoconservative tonal
music,” accessible scores for mixed chorus, among them Salmo 150.
Originally scored for four-part mixed chorus, string quintet and timpani,
Salmo 150 was re-scored for this CAC+1 concert. Prof. Moura specifically asked for two of
the singers to play percussion, so that the castanet and tambourine could help
create the rhythmic profile he wanted. The piece is in three main sections: a
slow, almost processional-like opening with delicious harmonies reminiscent of
Brazilian piano jazz; a fast triple-time section, evocative of Schütz and
Gabrieli; and another slow section which, after recalling the opening, ends with
a flourish.
trad. Irish, arr. Keane/Faulkner: Mouth Music
Celtic mouth music (also called port-a-beul, “tunes from the mouth”) is a
remarkable form of oral tradition. There are several stories about its origins.
One story relates that during the suppression of all things overtly Irish by the
British in the 17th and 18th centuries, the British rulers decreed that
instrumental music and dancing were particularly offensive (probably because
they were strongly Irish in character) and therefore illegal. Unable to play
fiddles, flutes, bagpipes or drums in public, the resourceful Irish peasants
instead created an underground language of music. Their songs, with nonsense
syllables like this one has, incorporated the rhythms and lilt of traditional
Irish music into something that could be transmitted only from the lips to the
ears, hence “mouth music.” Because it springs from the dance rhythms essential
to Irish culture, mouth music has been credited with the survival of Irish dance
rhythms and even of Irish dance itself.
This rendering, published by the firm earthsongs in Oregon, is a direct
transcription of the version sung for many years by the famous Irish musicians
Dolores Keane and John Faulkner. The tune comes from the Hebrides, a chain of
islands off the west coast of Scotland.
George Harrison, arr. Eric Freeman: Within You Without You
The Pacific Mozart Ensemble (“PME”) is a group of singers in the East Bay
area of California. The PME puts on a pops concert every spring. That show has
been the occasion for its gifted troupe of arrangers to unveil brand-new
arrangements of songs by the Beatles. Chicago a cappella first learned of
this chart by Eric Freeman during research for “Baroque and Beatles,” but as it
calls for significant percussion throughout, the piece seemed more suitable for
CAC+1. The original tune comes from the Sgt. Pepper album, which
incorporated in significant ways George Harrison’s devotion to the rhythms,
instruments, and philosophies of India. The original version by the Beatles
included sitar in the scoring, replaced here by “drones” in the voices which
create their own version of overtone harmonics.
Bob Applebaum: from Exodus Suite
Versatile at setting poetry from Shakespeare to May Swenson, Bob Applebaum is
also one of the nation’s most prominent composers of choral music in the Hebrew
language. His works, many now published by ECS in Boston, have been performed
regularly at the North American Jewish Choral Festival and by choirs around the
country. Following a distinguished career teaching physics and chemistry at New
Trier High School, he has turned full-time to music. An accomplished jazz
pianist, he is also composer-in-residence at JRC, the Reconstructionist
synagogue in Evanston. Chicago a cappella has recorded his songs “Oh
Chanukah / Y’mei Chanukah” and “Funky Dreidl” on the Holidays a cappella Live
album.
Exodus Suite was originally a major work for four-part choir and
piano. For CAC+1, Applebaum put much of the piano’s left hand into the low bass
voice, making a choral setting for five-part mixed voices, along with
percussion, including vibes, snare, timpani, low tom tom, and tambourine. (See the “Notes and Introduction” to this concert for more details
on the work’s creation.) Unlike Israel in Egypt by Handel, which ends
with a note of triumph, Exodus Suite ends on a slow, contemplative, and
more ambiguous note. Stating simply that the Israelites followed their victory
over Pharaoh by going into the wilderness, the unceasing counterpoint in the
final movement recalls their relentless journey in the desert for the next forty
years.
arr. Aleksandar Vujić: Urukumbuzi Song
This rousing work actually combines two songs from Rwanda. One means
“nostalgia”; the other, “challenge.”
I N T E R M I S S I O N
arr. Gunnar Eriksson: Salve Regina / To The Mothers in Brazil
Gunnar Eriksson is an internationally acclaimed Swedish choral conductor, who
studied under the legendary Eric Ericson. Gunnar is professor of choral
conducting at the School of Music and Musicology, University of Gothenburg, in
Sweden. Gunnar is in demand throughout Europe and Asia as a clinician and
workshop leader, partly because of his great technical command and skill, but
also because of his sense of playfulness, which he uses to teach the art of
choral improvisation (as in his book Kör ad lib).
This piece is, as are many of Gunnar’s works, a rethinking of existing
material. “To the mothers in Brazil” is a jazz composition by Grammy-winner Lars
Jansson, who recorded it with his Trio on their CD titled A Window Towards
Being. To this instrumental material, Gunnar has added some (not all) words
from the traditional Marian antiphon, Salve Regina. The result is a
multi-layered, thickly textured, semi-improvised setting which has a tremendous
life of its own.
Bob Chilcott: Grace / The Clean Platter
We now move into the section of the program which might be called “Rhythm and
Food.” Bob Chilcott is one of our time’s most prolific choral composers, writing
full-time now for Oxford University Press following a ten-year term as the tenor
(and one of the chief arrangers of pop charts) for the King’s Singers. This
piece is the opening movement from Fragments from his dish, a playful,
brilliant choral song cycle about the pleasures of eating and drinking.
Chilcott’s cycle is one of the all-time favorite pieces among Chicago a
cappella’s singers and appears on our upcoming CD from Centaur Records,
Eclectric. The piece opens with a slow, serious, almost procession-like
passage on a text by the dignified Robert Herrick, of “All Creatures Great and
Small” fame. It moves deftly into a fast swing section, with an irreverent,
witty lyric by the great Ogden Nash.
Ulf Långbacka: En visa om öl
This song comes from the album Skål i öl och brannvin! (“Cheers with beer and
schnapps!”), a collection of drinking songs, recorded by a boisterous
combination of Swedish men’s and women’s university choirs. Ulf Långbacka hails
from the Swedish-speaking part of Finland, where he directs a number of
acclaimed choirs. Ulf simply said, “Jo, du kan det bra göra” (Yes, you can do
it) when asked if we could add a timpani part to his song about beer. The song
is simple and effective, just stating what is desired.
Glenn Meade: Cookin’ School
Glenn Meade, composer and sound designer, has been writing contemporary
orchestral, chamber, vocal, and musical-dramatic works since 1975. He received
his musical education at both the Peabody and American Conservatories of Music,
and has had numerous works performed by professional ensembles. Introduced to
MIDI control of synthesizers and audio processors in 1986, he quickly became
proficient at using the technology to produce dynamic and complex works for a
“synthesizer orchestra.” While continuing to write new works for both acoustic
and electronic media, he has been designing sound for film, video, and
theatrical productions, and teaching electronic composition.
A versatile composer, Glenn Meade has written works for jazz piano,
synthesized orchestra, chorus, strings, and various combinations of these
forces. His CDs include Open Road, a suite for jazz piano; two
full-length choral works, Gloria and Patmos, recorded by Chicago
a cappella with synthesized orchestral accompaniments; and Perils of
the Great Ulysses, recorded with the Revolution Ensemble String Quartet. He
recently completed a new suite for jazz piano, recorded by Stuart Leitch, and a
Latin-dance suite. This last project gave rise to Cookin’ School, which is based
on one of the movements in the Latin suite, rescored for CAC+1 with new words
added by the composer. The playful, jazz-tinged choral writing splits into eight
parts at the end, while the vibraphone line combines notated riffs and
improvisation.
Billie Holiday / Arthur Herzog, Jr., arr. Mark Mazur: God Bless the Child
Mark Mazur studied in the legendary jazz program at the University of
Northern Colorado, one of the leading programs for vocal jazz in the USA. His
chart owes much to the setting by Blood, Sweat, and Tears, to which we have
added Debbie’s slow swing rhythms.
Luo spiritual, arr. S. A. Otieno: Sigalagala (Let there be ululation)
A sister piece to our Christmas-time audience favorite Nyathi Onyuol, this
joyous piece comes from the same Luo tribe of Kenya. Sigalagala is likewise in
the repertoire of Muungano, the National Choir of Kenya, founded by Boniface
Mganga to showcase the many linguistic and cultural traditions of his nation and
to spread harmony among the many ethnic subcultures in Kenya. As with most of
that choir’s repertoire, the song is religious in nature, reflecting the
nation’s Christian traditions. The song features many 3-against-2 rhythms in the
opening section and infectious syncopation in the main body of the piece.
All program notes are copyright © 2005 Jonathan
M. Miller. These texts may not be reproduced or transmitted by any means,
in whole or in part, conventionally or electronically, without the express
permission of the author.
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