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INTRODUCTION
Welcome to The Musical Food Groups. Food is so much
fun that this is our third concert about food in thirteen
seasons. The first two were called Tastes of Paradise,
inspired by the book of the same title, tracing the history of
certain special foods throughout the ages.
Tonight’s concert looks at food more broadly. Apart from
birth, death, and sleeping, there is no greater experience
common to all humanity than that of eating and drinking. With
this performance, we are connecting food to love, to tenderness,
to excitement and manic intensity (as in Witches’ Blues).
I like to think of our passion for food as a lens through
which to view our wide human family, in all its quirkiness and
majesty. Our feelings for food are sometimes remarkably like
those we have for other people. Black Coffee is a
masterpiece of feeling, sparse in its bleakness and dejection;
Tea for two evokes domestic comforts and the Brits’ love of tea.
Bagel-Shop Quartet is in a class by itself.
Paul Carey’s cycle, Play With Your Food!, is the
centerpiece of the second half. This is a hilarious, tender,
poignant set of five songs. (Make sure that you catch the last
words of “Mashed Potato/Love Poem.”) Speaking of potatoes, we
have a total of three songs tonight that involve potatoes, that
staple of nourishment. For those of you who attended our spring
Gala at the Union League Club, I hope you’ll fondly recall the
mashed potatoes served in martini glasses. For some people, that
food table was almost as memorable as our singing!
We all do it, this eating thing—some too much, many not
enough. The recent events of Hurricane Katrina point up how
vulnerable even the world’s most prosperous nation is when it
comes to providing food and shelter for millions of displaced
people. May our celebration of food and drink be tempered with
our thoughts and concerns for those who are much less fortunate,
and for those indeed whose lives will never recover.
Happy eating,
Jonathan Miller
Founder and Artistic Director
Recommended reading:
Schivelbusch, Wolfgang. Tastes of Paradise: A Social History
of Spices, Intoxicants, and Stimulants. Vintage Books, 1993
(paperback).
NOTES ON THE MUSIC
pseudo-Tallis: The Psalme of Food
This piece was discovered only recently, in an astounding stroke
of good luck. The eminent musicologist and gourmet, Sir Hamish
Smithfield “Ham” Cuisinart, found it written on the back of a
fish-and-chips wrapper while hiking near Hadrian’s Wall in
northern England. The music, clearly an exemplar of
post-Reformation performance practice, follows the traditional
formulas of Anglican chant. The biggest unsolved mystery about
the text is its set of references to present-day commercial
activities.
Anders Edenroth: Chili con carne
Don’t forget the Mexican spices! This piece has been one of our
biggest hits since we introduced it to our audiences in 1998.
The whimsical recipe finds perfect dressing in a salsa-like
arrangement by the high male voice and driving force behind The
Real Group, Sweden’s blockbuster vocal quintet.
Oakland/Drake, arr. Kirby Shaw: Java Jive
The connection with coffee may not have been foremost in their
minds, but during their early years, as the Ink Spots were
trying out different names for their group, they existed for a
while as the “Percolating Puppies”! Huge songwriting talent went
into this tune’s success. The lyricist, Milton Drake, is also
known for “Mairzy Doats” and “Hotta Chocolotta.” Ben Oakland,
the composer, had a big film-music career and was nominated for
an Oscar for “Mist over the Moon” (lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein
II) from The Lady Objects. Kirby Shaw’s light-hearted
arrangement keeps the swing moving.
Robert Cohen: Bagel-Shop Quartet
This endearing tune comes from Suburb, The Musical, which
ran nationally and won the 2000 Richard Rodgers Development
Award for both lyricist David Javerbaum and composer Robert
Cohen. Bob was also co-author of the musical In My Life,
for which he obtained the exclusive theatrical rights to the
Lennon/McCartney song catalogue. In this song—a Chicago a
cappella favorite for years—bagel flavors become terms of
endearment.
Webster/Burke, arr. Jonathan Miller: Black Coffee
One of the most distinctive of all torch songs, Black Coffee
has been covered by swing-era singers like Ella Fitzgerald,
Sarah Vaughan, and Peggy Lee (not to mention Bobby Darin). The
song’s more recent champions include k.d. lang and even Sinead
O’Connor. Our custom arrangement was created for Chicago a
cappella, specifically for these performances.
Bob Chilcott: The Pie and Harvest In My Croft
In 1998, Chicago a cappella gave the U.S. premiere of a
remarkable cycle of songs about food, Fragments from his
dish, by former King’s Singer Bob Chilcott. We shared the
cycle with our Chicago-area audiences again in 2002 and recorded
the entire cycle on our Eclectric CD. “The Pie” sets an
18th-century newspaper article, while “Harvest In My Croft” uses
a medieval epic poem, much-loved by the English. Together, the
songs provide a long view on humans’ need for, and indulgence
of, food.
The Pie
Monday last was brought from Howick to Berwick, to be shipped to
London for Sir Henry Grey, bart, a pie, the contents whereof are
as follows: two bushels of flour, twenty pounds of butter, four
geese, two turkeys, two rabbits, four wild ducks; two woodcocks,
six snipes, and four partridges, two neats tongues, two curlews,
seven blackbirds, and six pigeons; it is supposed a very great
curiosity; was baked by Mrs. Dorothy Patterson, house-keeper at
Howick; it was near nine feet at circumference at bottom,
weighed about twelve stones; it will take two men to present it
at table; it is neatly fitted with a case, and four small wheels
to facilitate its use to every guest that inclines to partake of
its contents at table.
—Newcastle Chronicle, January 6,
1770
Harvest in My Croft
‘I have no penny’ quoth Piers
‘Pullets to buy,
Nor neither geese nor pigs,
Only two green cheeses.
A few curds and whey
And an oatcake
And two loaves of beans and bran
Baked for my infants.
I have no salt bacon nor no egg by Christ
Collops for to maken.
However I have parsley and leeks
And many cabbage plants
And also a cow and calf
And a cart-mare to draw to the field my dung
Whiel the drought lasteth.
And by this state of life we must live till Lammastime,
And by then I hope to have
Harvest in my croft.’
—William Langland (c. 1330-1387)
from Piers Plowman
Daniel Pinkham: Three movements from Bugs
Born in 1923, Daniel Pinkham has had a distinguished career as a
composer, choral conductor, scholar, and teacher. He is senior
professor in the Musicology Department at the New England of
Conservatory of Music. Pinkham’s music always displays fierce
intelligence and often, as in the case of Bugs, endearing
humor. Pinkham wrote these short texts himself and set them for
a two-part vocal ensemble. Chicago a cappella first
performed these in 1997 on our program about musical texture,
as rose petals open.
I. BEE
Would you like to live in a hive,
working from six until five?
Would you like to learn to make honey?
—a sweet enough job but no money.
Would you gladly drone for your queen?
(She’s thought to be terribly mean!)
To be a bee or not to be a bee—
That is the question.
III. MOSQUITO
In the dark of my room I hear you whining.
Mosquito!
Hnnn.
Then the dreaded silence and you strike.
I switch on the light and rub my swollen hand.
Where have you gone, small vampire insect?
Does this rude
extraction of my blood
make for you delicious food?
Have you found in me as meal
A delectable gourmet taste appeal?
V. CATERPILLAR
With measured gait you munch your way along the branches
in my garden.
Caterpillar, are you already pondering your transformation?
Are you ready to spin your silken shroud, not for death, but
for resurrection?
Four-winged air-borne beauty,
Butterfly, now you may drink the nectar of my flowers.
—poems by Daniel Pinkham. (c)1996
by Ione Press, Inc., a division of ECS Publishing. All rights
reserved. Reprinted by permission.
Irving Caesar/Vincent Youmans, arr. Gritton: Tea for two
Peter Gritton is a rising star on Britain’s choral-arranging
scene. This a cappella chart comes in a collection from
Oxford University Press. The charming setting captures both the
innocence of the tune and, at the instrumental “break,” the
desire for something slightly more than mere innocence.
Paul Crabtree: Marge
A composer with a giant-size sense of humor, Paul Crabtree put
himself in the headlines (and on the Chicago and San Francisco
affiliates of Fox television) with his composition, Five
Romantic Miniatures from “The Simpsons.” While all five
songs carry tender, loving sentiments—not exactly the first
emotion that springs to mind when one thinks of Matt Groening’s
cartoon show—this is the most charming among the set.
Malcolm Dalglish, arr. Carol Barnett: Little Potato
A hammer-dulcimer virtuoso and singer, trained at the American
Boychoir school, and now a prolific choral-music composer in his
own idiosyncratic folk-based idiom, Malcolm Dalglish first
released this song with the folk trio Metamora, penned upon his
becoming a father. The Minneapolis-based composer Carol Barnett
put it into an all-vocal form, cleverly adapting hammer-dulcimer
lines into sung harmony.
Attributed to Henry Purcell: Say, good master Bacchus
Ah, for an ode to wine! Few things open the heart and induce men
to song like a good glass of the fermented grape. This is a
“catch,” a part-song written for men’s voices to be sung in a
round, made popular in men’s clubs in England during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Paul Hillier, the renowned
choral conductor and scholar, has assembled more than a hundred
of them in his publication The Catch Book, among which this is
one of the best.
Robert Applebaum: Witches’ Blues
Following a career teaching chemistry and physics at New Trier
High School, Bob Applebaum has emerged as a new force in
American choral music. Often based on jazz, in which he is well
versed as a pianist, his choral settings draw on
carefully-chosen poetry; like Pinkham’s work, Applebaum’s
carries an infectious rhythmic drive. The text for Witches’
Blues comes from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, in the famous
scene where the witches are brewing their charm in a cauldron
with manic, evil intent. Applebaum composed this piece for our
all-Shakespeare concerts in 2003, and an energetic rendition
appears on our new Shakespeare CD.
* * * * * * *
I N T E R M I S S I O N
Robert Applebaum: Raisin Pie (world premiere)
This poem is by Edgar Guest, a Detroit newspaperman whose
longevity in writing columns about everyday life rivals that of
Lou Gehrig in baseball.
There’s a heap of pent-up goodness
in the yellow bantam corn,
And I sort o’ like to linger round a berry patch at morn;
Oh, the Lord has set our table with a stock o’ things to eat
An’ there’s just enough o’ bitter in the blend to cut the sweet,
But I run the whole list over, an’ it seems somehow that I
Find the keenest sort o’ pleasure in a chunk o’ raisin pie.
There are pies that start the water circulatin’ in the mouth;
There are pies that wear the flavor of the warm an’ sunny south;
Some with oriental spices spur the drowsy appetite
An’ just fill a fellow’s being with a thrill o’ real delight;
But for downright solid goodness that comes drippin’ from the
sky
There is nothing quite the equal of a chunk o’ raisin pie.
I’m admittin’ tastes are diff’runt, I’m not settin’ up myself
As the judge an’ final critic of the good things on the shelf.
I’m sort o’ payin’ tribute to a simple joy on earth,
Sort o’ feebly testifyin’ to its lasting charm an’ worth,
An’ I’ll hold to this conclusion till it comes my time to die,
That there’s no dessert that’s finer than a chunk o’ raisin pie.
—Edgar Guest (1915)
Paul Carey: Play with your food!
Trained at Yale, Paul Carey has a broad background as a pianist,
choral conductor, and composer. His music, published by Oxford
and Boosey & Hawkes, has gained wide appeal and recognition; he
received an ASCAP special award in 2004 and is active with
commissions nationwide. Play with your food! is a
five-movement cycle, moving from the driving rhythms of
“Summer’s Bounty” to the hilariously overwrought narrative
voices of “Mashed Potato/Love Poem” and “After the Muffin” to
the multi-layered “Fred.” The movement titled “Vending Machine”
perfectly captures the whimsy of a child, absorbed in his own
world. The composer writes: “This whole group of songs started
out with my setting of ‘Summer’s Bounty,’ which was read through
by the Princeton Singers at the Oxford Institute in 2003. Even
with what I thought were attempts at being subtle, the
read-through produced many guffaws and chortles from the chorus
and the piece gained a certain quirky notoriety amongst those in
attendance.”
Lyle Lovett, arr. Jonathan Miller: Church
The one-of-a-kind R&B singer Lyle Lovett released this song
as the first cut on his album Joshua Judges Ruth. It's a
gospel-infused story about an endless church service, where the
preacher threatens to preach all day and his parishioners are
fainting in the pews for lack of food. Jonathan Miller arranged
the music, which originally had piano, bass, and drums, for
Chicago a cappella's voices. As absurd as Bob Chilcott's
The Pie in its own way, Lovett's tune (listen carefully
to the lyrics!) packs high energy and wry humor into a
deceptively simple package.
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. |
