In Praise of Music
Robert Mills – Principal Pianist
David Schildkret – Conductor
Sun, November 17th, 2024 | 4:00 PM
Dayspring UMC – Tempe
In Praise of Music
I.
Ron Nelson
(1929-2023)
Franz Schubert
(1797-1828)
Alice Parker
(1925-2023)
II.
Benjamin Britten
(1913-1976)
Lauri Weiland, soprano
Julia Dan Vlach, soprano
Helen Robles, alto
Aaron Hammond, bass
Keith Lawson, tenor
III.
Lena J. Mclin
(1928-2023)
arr. J. Edmund Hughes
(b. 1947)
Dan Forrest
(b. 1978)
Katie Lawson, alto
IV.
Steven Sametz
(b. 1978)
arr. Moses Hogan
(1957-2003)
J. Rosamond Johnson
(1873-1953)
arr. Roland Carter
(b. 1942)
Texts and Translations
Fanfare for a Festival
Walter A. Rodby
All praise! All praise, all praise!
All praise to music! All praise to music!
All praise to music! Heaven sent.
The voice that lifts all hearts,
in perfect melody,
leaves the soul full filled
with joy and peace.
All praise! All praise, all praise!
All praise to music! All praise to music!
All praise to music!
Heaven sent in open song!
An die Musik
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Du holde Kunst, in vieviel grauen Stunden,
Wo mich des Lebens wilder Kreis umstrict,
Hast du mein Herz zu warmer Leib’ ent zunden,
Hast mich in eine bessre Welt entrückt,
In eine bessre Welt entrückt!
You, beloved Art, in so many grey hours,
When life’s mad tumult wraps around me,
Have kindled warm love in my heart
And transported into a better world!
Transported into a better world!
Oft hat ein Seufzer, deinet Harf’ entflossen,
Ein süsser, heiliger Akkord von dir
Dem Himmel bessrer Zeiten mir er schlossen,
Du holde Kunst, ich danke, dir da für!
Du holde Kunst, ich danke dir!
How often a flowing sigh from your harp,
A sweet, divine harmony from you
Unlocked the heaven of better times to me.
You, beloved Art, I thank you for it!
You, beloved Art, I thank you!
Meet and Right It Is to Sing
Charles Wesley
Meet and right it is to sing,
In every time and place.
Glory to our heavenly King,
The God of truth and grace.
Join me then with sweet accord,
All in on thanksgiving join.
Holy, holy, holy, Lord,
Eternal praise be Thine.
Thee the first-born sons of light
In choral symphonies,
Praise by day, day with-out night,
And never, never cease.
Angels and archangels all
Praise the mystic Three in One,
Sing, and stop, and gaze and fall
O’er whelmed before Thy throne,
they fall before Thy throne.
Vying with that happy choir
Who chant their praise above,
We on eagle’s wings aspire,
the wings of faith and love.
Thee they sing with glory crowned,
We extol the slaughtered Lamb,
Lower if our voices sound,
Our subject is the same.
Father, God, we praise,
Which gave Thy Son to die,
Jesus, full of truth and grace,
Alike we glorify.
Spirit, Comforter divine,
Praise by all to Thee be giv’n.
Till we in full chorus join,
And earth is turned to heav’n.
Till we in full chorus join,
And earth is turned to heav’n.
Hymn to St. Cecilia
W. H. Auden
Part I.
In a garden shady this holy lady
With reverent cadence and subtle psalm,
Like a black swan as death came on
Poured forth her song in perfect calm:
And by ocean’s margin this innocent virgin
Constructed an organ to enlarge her prayer,
And notes tremendous from her great engine
Thundered out on the Roman air.
Blonde Aphrodite rose up excited,
Moved to delight by the melody,
White as an orchid she rode quite naked
In an oyster shell on top of the sea;
At sound so entrancing the angels dancing
Came out of their trance into time again,
And around the wicked in Hell’s abysses
The huge flame flickered and eased their pain.
Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions
To all musicians, appear and inspire:
Translated Daughter, come down and startle
Composing mortals with immortal fire.
Part II.
I cannot grow;
I have no shadow
To run away from,
I only play.
I cannot err;
There is no creature
Whom I belong to,
Whom I could wrong.
I am defeat
When it knows it
Can now do nothing
By suffering.
All you lived through,
Dancing because you
No longer need it
For any deed.
I shall never be
Different. Love me.
Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions
To all musicians, appear and inspire:
Translated Daughter, come down and startle
Composing mortals with immortal fire.
Part III.
O ear whose creatures cannot wish to fall,
O calm of spaces unafraid of weight,
Where Sorrow is herself, forgetting all
The gaucheness of her adolescent state,
From every outworn image is released,
And Dread born whole and normal like a beast
Into a world of truths that never change:
Restore our fallen day; O re-arrange.
O dear white children casual as birds,
Playing among the ruined languages,
So small beside their large confusing words,
So gay against the greater silences
Of dreadful things you did: O hang the head,
Impetuous child with the tremendous brain,
O weep, child, weep, O weep away the stain,
Lost innocence of who wished your lover dead,
Weep for the lives your wishes never led.
O cry created as the bow of sin
Is drawing across of trembling violin.
O weep, child, weep, O weep away the stain.
O law drummed out by hearts against the still
Long winter of our intellectual will.
That what has been may never be again.
O flute that throbs with the thanksgiving breath
Of convalescents on the shores of death.
O bless the freedom that you never chose.
O trumpets that unguarded children blow
About the fortress of their inner foe.
O wear you tribulation like a rose.
Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions
To all musicians, appear and inspire:
Translated Daughter, come down and startle
Composing mortals with immortal fire.
Let the People Sing Praise unto the Lord
Lena J. Mclin (1928-2023)
Let the people sing praise unto the Lord.
Alleluia, Alleluia.
Praise God with the psalter and the harp.
Praise God with the sound of the trumpet!
Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.
Let the people sin praise unto the Lord.
Alleluia, Alleluia.
Let the people sin praise unto the Lord.
Alleluia, Alleluia.
Let all the people sing praise to the Lord,
sing praise to the Lord, sing praise to the Lord.
Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.
How Can I Keep from Singing
Robert Lowery
My lift flows on in endless song
above earth’s lamentation.
I hear the real though far-off hymn
that hails a new creation
No storm can shake my inmost calm
while to that rock I’m clinging.
Since Love is Lord of heav’n and earth,
how can keep from singing?
Through all the tumult and the strife,
I hear the music ringing
It sounds and echoes in my soul.
How can I keep from singing?
I lift my eyes, the clouds grow thin.
I see the blue above,
All things are mine since Truth I’ve found,
How can I keep from singing?
Alway Something Sings
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Let me go where ‘er I will,
I hear a sky-born music still:
It sounds from all things old,
it sounds from all things young,
From all that’s fair,
from all that’s foul,
alway something sings.
It is not only in the rose,
It is not only in the bird,
Not only where the rainbow glows,
Nor in the song of woman heard,
But in the dark,
but in the darkest, meanest things
There alway, alway, something sings
‘Tis not in the high starts alone,
Not only where the rainbow glows,
Nor in the cup of budding flowers,
It is not only in the rose,
Nor in the robin’s mellow tone,
It is not only in the bird,
Nor in the bow that smiles in show’rs,
Not only where the rainbow glows,
But in the dark,
But in the darkest, meanest things,
there alway, alway,
something sings.
Let me go where ‘er I will,
I hear a sky-born music still:
It sounds from all things old,
it sounds from all things young,
From all that’s fair,
from all that’s foul,
alway, alway, something sings.
I Have Had Singing
Ronald Blythe
The singing. There was so much singing then,
this was my pleasure too.
We all sang, the boys in the fields,
the chapels were full of singing,
always singing, always singing.
Here I lie. I have had pleasure enough,
I have had singing,
I have had singing.
Music Down in My Soul
African America Spiritual
I hear music in the air,
I can feel it in the air.
There must be a God somewhere.
Over my head, I hear music in the air.
Over my head, I hear music in the air.
There must be a God somewhere.
Over my head, I hear singing in the air.
Over my head, I hear singing in the air.
There must be a God,
there must be a God somewhere.
I got the music down in my soul;
and it fills my heart with the joy of the Lord!
I’ve got it joy, everlasting.
I’ve got it peace, everlasting.
I’ve got it love, everlasting.
I’ve got it joy, everlasting.
Love in my heart,
Oh yes, I got peace in my soul,
Oh yes, I got joy in my heart;
joy today.
Do you love the Lord?
I love the Lord.
Do you love the Lord?
I love the Lord.
Well! I’ve got joy!
I’ve got joy everlasting!
I’ve got it peace, everlasting.
I’ve got it love, everlasting.
I got the music down in my soul;
and it fills my heart with the joy of the Lord!
I’ve got it joy, everlasting.
I’ve got it peace, everlasting.
I’ve got it love, everlasting.
I’ve got it joy, everlasting.
Love in my heart,
Oh yes, I got peace in my soul,
Oh yes, I got joy in my heart;
I got joy! I got joy!
I got peace! I got peace!
I got love! I got love!
In my soul! In my soul!
Lift Every Voice and Sing
James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938)
Lift ev’ry voice and sing,
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise,
High as the list’ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith
that the dark past has taught us;
Sing a song full of the hope
that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun
Of our new day begun,
Let us march on,
let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
Biter the chast’ning rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat, Have not our weary feet
Come to the place, for which your fathers sighed?
We have come, oh we have come
over a way that with tears has been water’d;
Oh, we have come treading our path
through the blood of the slaughter’d;
Out from our gloomy past,
Till we now stand at last
Where the bright gleam of our bright start is cast.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us
thus far on the way.
Thou who hast by Thy might
Let us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Let our feet stray from the places,
our God, where we met thee;
Lest, our hearts drunk with the
wine of the world, we forget thee.
Shadow’d beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God, true to our native land.
Amen, Amen.
NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
by David Schildkret
TBD
Donor Recognition
We humbly recognize all the individuals, businesses, foundations and government agencies that have played a large role in allowing Arizona Cantilena Chorale to look toward an exciting future of engaging, enriching and inspiring our audiences with beautiful music.
The list below includes supporters who have contributed financially to date since January 1, 2023. Please consider joining this honored list and donate online at www.AZCanti.org
BENEFACTOR ($10,000+)
Otto & Edna Neely Foundation
Lorraine Tschaeche
SPONSOR ($5,000-$9,999)
PATRON ($2,500-$4,999)
Tom & Louise Oliver
SUSTAINER ($1,000-$2,499)
Jack & Elisa Bartlett
Robert & Paula Beck
Richard & Joyce Fox
Virg & Donna Heusinkveld
Keith & Nan Lawson
Claudio & Marlynn Rey
Robert & Pauline Smith
Michael & Julia Vlach
David & Pamela Watson
FRIEND ($100-$999)
Jonathan & Harriet Askew
Les & Pat Bartlett
Kay Block
Ken & Hildie Brooks
Ken & Nancy Bucy
Jerry & Margaret Buza
Paul & Maureen Buza
Eugene & Paula Dahl
Ann Marie Foley
Kathleen Foley
Giselle Fox
James & Diane Gardiner
Betty Hiett
Sam & Jenny Kao
Monica Lesperance
Claudia McNiff
Richard & Susan Oliver
Kenneth & Gay Rhoades
Helen Robles
David Seaman
Gene Barnes & Karen Spencer-Barnes
Brad & Melanee Tiffany
Joel & Cheryl Wallace
Robert & Linda West
Tammy White