Event
Wisconsin Chamber Choir presents "Bacchus"
Our "Bacchus" concert will be presented November 21, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church in Madison, WI. (corner of Winnebago and 1st St. on Madison's near east side). "Bacchus" evokes several connotations including the Roman deity associated with wine and therefore a degree of madness resultant from consumption in excess. Bacchus also refers to a specific type of wine cultivated in the heart of Germany, hence our German connection represented by a couple of our favorite German masters, Joseph Haydn and Johannes Brahms. Lastly, Bacchus represents the harvest and the predecessor to the long and cold winter ahead. The songs we have chosen are representative of all of these connotations.
2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the death of Joseph Haydn (1732-1809). To celebrate his life , the concert begins on a high note with music from his Creation. Apart from his extensive musical resume, he had the distinction of being a close friend with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and a teacher of Ludwig Von Beethoven. Haydn was known for his sense of humor and practical jokes which are plainly evident in the selections we will present in the concert.
The "Matra Pictures" are a set of five beautiful folk songs by Hungarian Zoltan Kodaly (1882-1967). In writings from 1929, Kodaly was a major proponent for music education at a very young age: "Teach music and singing at school in such a way that it is not a torture, but a joy for the pupil; instill a thirst for finer music in him, a thirst which will last for a lifetime If the child is not filled at least once by the life giving stream of music during the most susceptible period-between his sixth and sixteenth years-it will hardly be of any use to him later on. Often a single experience will open the young soul to music for a whole lifetime. This experience cannot be left to chance, it is the duty of the school to provide it." In 1966, and in the wisdom of his last year, he stated "music is a spiritual food for everybody...I studied how to make more people accessible to good music."
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was 55 years old when he composed "Funf Gesange op. 104." A modern psychologist might diagnose his state of mind as "a mid-life crisis" when he wrote these most beautiful and disturbing choral pieces. The five songs are demanding and mature choral compositions with soaring melodies and complex harmonies typical of Brahms. They require great sensitivity for a fine choir to communicate the chosen texts about lost youth and man's mortality. The 1st two movements, "Nachtwache I & II" explore the beating of the heart as one falls in love after thinking that all hope for love had been gone forever. "Letztes Gluck" paints the autumn wind and dread of the approaching winter. The music moves into a major mode temporarily as thoughts of spring come to mind, but alas, the cold wind blows again. "Verlorne Jugend" explores lost youth which can never be recovered, and the final movement, Im Herbst creates the disturbing image of inevitable death of man just as winter follows the autumn.
From the dark and somber, we switch channels to sing "Harvest Home" by Elliot Carter (b. 1908). The piece was 1st performed in 1937 and essentially put on ice for 60 years since Carter found the performance, "disappointing." He revised it in 1997. It is a fast paced and rhythmic expression of the "lords of wine and toile" bringing in the harvest and making merriment.
"The Inn" is Lithuanian composer Algimantas Brazinskas' (b. 1954) depiction of a raucous night in a bar. The music is written in 16 parts much of the time where all 16 parts are on notes 1/2 step apart conveying the chaos typical of a night on State Street after a winning Badger game. The piece creates the bar scene with screaming, gambling, and laughing as a sober baritone solo tries to remind the crowd there is a lonely soldier in a distant land dying. The crowd responds, "Pour another!" and continues its revelry. Hold on to your hats!
To close out the program, we turn to two more traditional compositions from Aaron Copland (1900-1990). Copland composed the opera, "The Tender Land" in 1954 at the commission of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. "The promise of living with hope and thanksgiving is borne of our loving our friends and our labor" is set to the typical Copland open melodies surrounding the interval of the 4th and 5th. One can almost see the panorama of America while listening to this piece. "Stomp Your Foot" is a favorite choral arrangement that has been sung by nearly any choral ensemble in the USA from middle school forward. Nonetheless it offers adult concepts that challenge the chauvinistic viewpoints in the 19th and 20th century. We sing it in the spirit of the dance and good old American fun!
|
|
 |
LocationTrinity Lutheran Church
1904 Winnebago St
Madison, WI 53704
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: No |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
|
Contact
|
