arr. Gene Puerling

R. Nathaniel Dett

John Scott

arr. Stefan Claas

Janika Vandervelde

Richard Rodney Bennett

Richard Rodney Bennett

Richard Rodney Bennett

Moses Hogan (based on the spiritual “Go Tell It on the Mountain”)

James Pierpont, arr. James Clemens

arr. J. David Moore

Elizabeth Poston

Gerald Cohen

Mikhl Gelbart, arr. Mark Zuckerman

arr. Juan M. V. Garcia

Traditional Hebrew folk song, arr. Robert Applebaum

Joshua Fishbein

Traditional Hebrew folk song, arr. Robert Applebaum

arr. Robert L. Morris

Mykola Leontovych, arr. Peter J. Wilhousky

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Made popular by Chicago’s own The Singers Unlimited in their 1972 recording Christmas, Gene Puerling’s arrangement features the traditional melody wrapped in the harmonies of vocal jazz. A melancholic waltz provides a contrasting middle section, yielding to a reprise of the more boisterous opening. A classic tune from a classic album!

Robert Nathaniel Dett was a Black, Canadian-American composer and performer whose life work involved integrating African American music into the structures and styles of European classical music. His Ave Maria is a prime example of this, with its largely pentatonic melody yielding to the chromatic harmony of the Romantic composers of the 19th century in the setting of a Latin text. It may strike you as similar in feel to parts of Dvorak’s New World Symphony, which should come as no surprise: both composers, despite their differences in background, believed that classical music could be greatly enriched by the beauty and depth of the African American musical tradition.

John Scott was an English organist and choirmaster (this is the term for choir director in the Anglican tradition) who held prominent posts at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, and St. Thomas Church in New York City. He died suddenly in 2015 at the age of 59, survived by his wife Lily (also an organist) who gave birth to their son shortly after John’s death. The text of There is No Rose dates from perhaps the 14th or 15th century, and interweaves Middle English and brief Latin interjections. Scott’s setting traverses many keys and harmonic styles, mainly juxtaposing the medieval with the modern. Special thanks to Lily Scott for allowing us to perform this unpublished work.

Luke 1:39-40 tells the story of Mary’s travel to visit Elizabeth:

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.

This relatively modern German Advent carol (the current version of the text dates to the 19th century, but some suspect it existed in some form as early as the 17th century) attempts to fill in some of the gaps in the timeline, as it were. Mary walks through a dead thornwood, and it springs to life with blooming roses. This arrangement, which was popularized by VOCES8 a few years back, begins in a simple unison, becoming more lush and expressive as it goes.

In this captivating work, Wisconsin-born Janika Vandervelde adapts a text by 12th-century German abbess and polymath Hildegard of Bingen. Vandervelde captures the flair of medieval rhythm and harmony while adding her own twists. One such twist is the use of percussion instruments: tabla, castanets and wood block. These parts will be performed in typical Chicago a cappella fashion–vocally!

Bennett wrote a set of five carols early in his career in 1967; we will present numbers two, three, and five. These delightful miniatures generally present the text in a straightforward manner, with only very occasional polyphony. This might give the listener the illusion that they are rather simple settings, but they are intricate little gems!

Glory to the Newborn King has the rhythmic drive one associates with Moses Hogan, but also a call and response introduction and gospel choir-style layered entrances over a tenor/bass ostinato. This arrangement of Go, Tell it on the Mountain is a perennial favorite and was featured on CAC Holidays programs in 2006 and 2008.

This rather difficult arrangement of a very simple song was written for founding Artistic Director Jonathan Miller and Chicago a cappella almost twenty years ago. After a pair of contrasting introductions, the well-known melody is present as a fugue subject in 7/8. Subjects, answers, countersubjects, modulations, and episodes–it has all the hallmarks of a late-Baroque fugue; however, in using the harmonies of vocal jazz and a mix of meters, Jingle would never be mistaken for a work by Bach!

This popular French tune is presented without much variation. The arranger has simply given the melody various contexts in which to assert itself. It is generally quite festive, as one might imagine for a carol with a celebratory text, but the final verse is sung at half speed and with a more restrained character. This leads to a reprise of the first verse and a very brief coda, ending the arrangement as it began with Alleluia!

While this work is diatonic–there isn’t a sharp or flat to be found–and beautiful in its simplicity, its wide-ranging melody requires more than a modicum of vocal ability. Fortunately, that’s something we are happy to provide. Enjoy this setting of an 18th-century text by Elizabeth Poston, a 20th-century English composer of some 300 works.

Composer Gerald Cohen has been praised for his “linguistic fluidity and melodic gift,” creating music that “reveals a very personal modernism that…offers great emotional rewards” (Gramophone Magazine). Cohen is a noted synagogue cantor and baritone, and his experience as a singer informs his dramatic, lyrical compositions. His best-known work, his Psalm 23, has received thousands of performances from synagogues and churches to Carnegie Hall and the Vatican. Recent instrumental compositions include Voyagers, a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Voyager spacecraft, which had its premiere at New York’s Hayden Planetarium; and Playing for our Lives, a tribute to the music and musicians of the WWII Terezin concentration camp near Prague. He received degrees in music from both Yale University and Columbia University, and he has been awarded commissioning grants from Meet the Composer and the National Endowment for the Arts.  The composer writes:

“Chanukah Lights” was written in 2005 as a piece for treble choir with optional piano, for the wonderful A Cappella Choir of the PEARLS Hawthorne School in Yonkers NY, conducted by Emme Kresek. (In addition to being an excellent choir, the school is a block from my home, and our daughter was a 5th grader there at the time.) Its simple melody and words, focusing on the importance of light in celebrating the holiday, are infused with ensemble and rhythmic challenges for the choir. In 2019, Chicago a cappella asked me to compose a new version for their professional ensemble, giving me the opportunity to write a 7-voice a cappella version of the piece that they would perform and record. After delays because of COVID, the premiere of this version is finally taking place.

The traditional Hanukkah melody finds a playful setting at the hands of acclaimed composer Mark Zuckerman. Gelbart’s original Yiddish remains intact here, with a small amount of English added for contrast by Zuckerman, whose accomplishments in the field of Yiddish song are significant. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1948, Zuckerman began composing music in early childhood, with his first public performance at age 11. He studied at Julliard and did graduate work with Milton Babbitt and J.K. Randall at Princeton, where he later joined the faculty. In addition to original settings of Yiddish poetry, he has written a dozen a cappella arrangements of classic Yiddish songs such as this one. Here he has the lower three voices begin by singing the names of the sides of the dreidl, each of which has one of the four Hebrew letters: nun, shin, hey, and gimel.

You might be wondering: What is this carol doing in a set with two Hanukkah pieces? Well, it is actually not a Christmas carol, it is an Epiphany carol, and both Hanukkah and Epiphany have much to do with light. This popular Puerto Rican villancico celebrates the brilliant star that leads the Magi to the baby Jesus and includes in its refrain the angels’ cry to the shepherds: Gloria in excelsis Deo! Glory to God in the highest!

In this first song of Applebaum’s Three Pieces for Chanukah, he infuses new life into traditional Hanukkah melodies.  The composer comments:

Many will be more familiar with the first line in English reading, “Oh Chanukah, oh Chanukah, come light the menorah.” Technically, the menorah is different from the candelabrum used for Chanukah. The correct term for Chanukah candelabrum is chanukiah as reflected in the words of this setting.

A choral conductor, singer, pianist, and music educator, Dr. Joshua Fishbein (b. 1984) composes and arranges vocal and instrumental music, with special emphasis on choral music. His music has won awards from The American Prize, American Choral Directors Association, American Composers Forum, BMI, Cantate Chamber Singers, Chorus America, Chorus Austin, Delaware Valley Chorale, The Esoterics, Guild of Temple Musicians, and others. Steeped in Jewish classical music, Dr. Fishbein has composed numerous musical settings of Hebrew for chorus and solo voice. His music has been presented at Shalshelet’s International Festivals of New Jewish Liturgical Music, the American Society for Jewish Music, the American Jewish Historical Society, and the Cantor’s Assembly. He teaches on the music faculties of The Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University and Towson University.

In his setting of this famous prayer, Fishbein delights us with a strong, declamatory, C-minor gesture listing miracles, redemption, mighty deeds, and saving acts; then a repetition of these four, now in F-major, legato and leisurely; then a grandiose return to the four in C-minor, and now, only at the end, a hushed, pianissimo for the words bayamim hahem baz’man hazeh – in those days at this season.

“Maoz Tzur” is traditionally sung on Hanukkah after the lighting of the menorah. The Hebrew song is thought to have originated in the 13th century. Applebaum takes the sturdy melody, not unlike chant, and masterfully treats it with subtle text painting. The distinctive opening phrase with descending then ascending fourths, is first sung by the men, then passed back and forth between the sections. Applebaum’s setting is rhythmically varied, now with augmentation, now in diminution, rising and falling, arriving in a house of prayer, complete, quietly confident, the last word heard in a rich, vibrant, B-flat major.

This counting song presents various important events and characters in the Bible, almost all of which have no direct connection to the Nativity of Jesus! However, as the text always returns to the baby born in Bethlehem, it is often associated with Christmas these days. Robert Morris takes the listener on a real journey using clever voicing and increasing levels of complexity. It proceeds at a very steady pace, allowing every note to ring. Enjoy the laid-back energy and comfortable swagger!