LINER NOTES
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Postcards
INTRODUCTORY NOTES
Introduction
Since its founding in 1980, the Turtle Creek Chorale has continually stretched its musical boundaries. At first the ensemble limited itself to the traditional foreign languages sung by most choral ensembles. Since Dr. Timothy Seelig took over the baton as Artistic Director in 1987, he has expanded the Chorale's repertoire both linguistically and musically. After the Turtle Creek Chorale joined the International Federation for Choral Music, Seelig attended the IFCM's 1993 annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia. For eight days, choruses from around the globe performed music indigenous to their homelands. Seelig returned to the USA inspired by the multi-national musical exposure. Having heard the choral possibilities from such countries as Japan, China, Malaysia, South Africa, and Russia, he was eager to further broaden the TCC's repertoire. The Chorale's 1993-1994 season was a musical journey. Each of its four major subscription performances featured music of a different country. With this compact disc, an international sampler, the TCC showcases the wealth of new material it has discovered. This Postcards collection is not intended to be comprehensive, but rather a harbinger of musical and geographical exploration to come. Already a veteran of tour performances on all three United States coasts, the Turtle Creek Chorale is planning its first international tour.Postcards is a tribute to the diversity of languages and cultures that make the world's music so inexhaustibly rich. The recording represents North and South America, Asia and the Pacific Rim, Africa, Western Europe, Russia, and at least one composition that, while composed by a German, defies pigeonholing: Ernst Toch's Geographical Fugue. Eleven of the fourteen works on this disc are believed to be premiere commercial recordings. Four were arranged specifically for the Turtle Creek Chorale. Two were composed for other constituent members of the Gay and Lesbian Choruses of America. These fourteen selections presented obvious challenges, including pronunciation and unconventional harmonic vocabularies. In addition, the Turtle Creek Chorale endeavored to employ instruments appropriate to each country of origin.
REPERTOIRE
Musical Selections
1. Blow Ye the Trumpet 5:41 *
2. N'Kosi Sikele' i Afrika 3:30 *
3. Spaseniye Sodelal 4:03 *
4. Wo ai Yang guang 3:30 *
5. Sakura 4:32 *
6. Gamelan 3:33 *
7. Pueri Hebraeorum 2:34 *
8. Gracias a la Vida 3:24 *
9. Cantique de Jean Racine 6:20 *
10. Geist der Liebe 3:43 *
11. Geographical Fugue 2:53 *
12. Betelehemu 5:20 *
13. Insalata Italiana 6:38 *
14. Cindy 3:47 *
The chorale's journey begins in the American heartland, with a domestic classic. Blow Ye the Trumpet is excerpted from Kirke Mechem's 1989 opera John Brown, for which Mechem (b. 1925) also wrote the libretto. The opera covers the career of the anti-slavery activist whose eventual execution was a significant pre-Civil War incident. Mechem used spirituals and folk flavor in the work. For Blow Ye the Trumpet, he adapted a traditional hymn text. According to Mechem's note in the score:
I have chosen the text I found most beautiful and appropriate - indeed, prophetic - for [Brown's] life and death. It seems to prophesy both the day of jubilee and the martyr's death which Brown knew would hasten the destruction of slavery. None of the existing hymn tunes seemed to me to do justice to these words, however, so I gave them a new melody in the style of early American folk music.
TCC member Randol Alan Bass's 1992 reduction of Mechem's orchestral score for chamber ensemble was commissioned by the Chorale, and includes flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, percussion, harp and strings. N'Kosi sikelel' i Afrika is becoming familiar as the new official anthem of South Africa. It began life nearly a century ago as a children's song in South African black day schools. Written by Enoch Sontonga in 1897, N'Kosi was first sung in public in 1899, and gained popularity in the area around Johannesburg. The Ohlange Zulu Choir further popularized it through its touring concerts in the South African Rand. As the African National Congress gained political strength, its leadership endorsed N'Kosi as a closing hymn for meetings. Even before its formal adoption as South Africa's national anthem, the country's blacks habitually performed it at ceremonial occasions. The text includes Zulu, Xhosa and Swahili dialects. Naomi Tutu, the daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, coached the Chorale on pronunciation. Gabriel Larentz-Jones arranged N'Kosi for the Turtle Creek Chorale. The performance includes African tribal drums played by Psychedelic Drum, an ensemble that has also worked with the Dallas Black Dance Theatre. Pavel Chesnokov's Spaséñiye Sodélal ("Salvation is Created")adapts text from Psalm 74 for a solemn hymn that has become a choral classic. A Russian choral conductor and composer, Chesnokov (1877-1944) also taught Russian orthodox chant at Moscow's Synodal School, and became one of the most prolific of Russian church composers during the last years of the Czarist regime. After the Revolution, he continued his career in choral conducting at the Moscow Conservatory, producing nearly 400 choral works. Spaséñiye is a fine example of his harmonic and technical skill. It is one of ten Communion hymns, each based on a different chant melody. In this case the chant (sung by first tenors) is from Kiev. Chesnokov composed his hymn for mixed chorus, but Spaséñiye has become equally well known for this TTBB arrangement, which preserves the phrasing and ecstatic reverence of the original. Representing mainland China on this CD is Gang Situ's Sunlight, adapting a text by Xian-Rui Zeng. The music's unruffled composure aptly expresses the simple beauty and joy of the sun's rays. Gently rocking through its pentatonic paces, this simple tune gains interest through the sharing process from one section of the chorus to the next. Ultimately, Sunlight's message is the hope sought in its final line. Sunlight's reappearance on the eastern horizon every morning is a metaphor for the continuity of life. The Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles commissioned Situ (who is currently based in San Francisco) to write Sunlight in 1992. Harp and guzong, a type of Chinese zither, accompany the Chorus. Sakura is the Japanese word for cherry blossom. In Japanese culture, cherry blossoms are revered as a national symbol for beauty, delicacy, and perseverance. Each spring, Japan celebrates the return of this national flower during its seasonal height at the end of April, when the sight of cherry trees in full bloom presents a riot of pink-tinged white clouds that seem to be everywhere. The Turtle Creek Chorale has recorded TCC member Will Varner's arrangement of the Japanese folksong Sakurawith the accompaniment of shakuhachi (a Japanese bamboo flute) and harp. The setting preserves the modal flavor of East Asian scale patterns (in this case, Aeolian) and the essential calm and order of Japanese life. In contrast, R. Murray Schafer's Gamelan (1979) is an exuberant vocal re-creation of a Javanese gamelan "orchestra". One of Canada's most prominent composers, Schafer (b.1933) has always been keenly interested in the philosophy, literature and culture of other peoples. Gamelan allows itself to be carried away by ever-increasing enthusiasm. Schafer begins moderately fast, with incremental increases in speed in subsequent sections. Adding the spice of authenticity are TCC members performing on 30 anklung, approximating the distinctive sonorities of Javanese and Malaysian instruments. Schafer's text consists of simple syllables emulating the exotic percussion instruments. The voices' interplay with the instrumental ensemble makes for engaging listening. American Randall Thompson's Pueri Hebraeorum is a timeless work in the classic polychoral tradition, which grew out of the high Renaissance counterpoint of Palestrina. Thompson (1899-1984) is best known to choral singers through his beloved Alleluia (1940), and The Testament of Freedom (1943; recorded by the Turtle Creek Chorale on RR-49), but Pueri Hebraeorum (1928) is not far behind them in popularity. The composer taught at Wellesley College from 1927 to 1929, and again in the mid-1930s. When Wellesley's enrollment swelled in 1928 to the point where the women outnumbered the choral seats available in the campus chancel, sopranos and altos separated into the chapel choir and the narthex during services. Thompson added his own new composition to their repertoire, in the antiphonal style of Jacob Handl and Giovanni Gabrieli. Pueri Hebraeorum's original scoring is thus for women's double chorus, here transposed down an octave for men's voices. South America is represented on this disc by Gracias a la Vida, one of the best known songs by the Chilean songwriter, poet and ceramicist Violeta Parra (1917-1967). Parra dealt with big themes: love, politics, and women's issues, drawing on her own tumultuous experience for much of her material. Her ceramics, poetry and music all reflect a strong emphasis on the folk culture of her parents' Nuble region in the south of Chile. She was a pioneer among Latin American artists on several levels, exhibiting pottery and paintings in Parisian museums and touring as a performer in Europe. Gracias a la Vida is usually classified with her love poetry, but its message has more global layers. Written in 1964, this joyous and affirming text has a bittersweet aftertaste, for Parra committed suicide in 1967. The Turtle Creek Chorale has chosen to focus on the uplifting spirit of Parra's lyrics in this performance. The arrangement, by Willi Zwozdesky, Director of the Vancouver Men's Chorus, includes piano and guitar. Gabriel Fauré's Cantique de Jean Racine, Op. 11 is one of the chestnuts of the choral repertoire; after his beloved Requiem, Cantique is Fauré's most frequently recorded choral composition. Originally composed for mixed chorus, harmonium and strings, this arrangement for men's chorus, also by TCC member Randol Alan Bass, adds a chamber orchestra and English horn obbligato. The text is by the French dramatist Jean Racine (1639-1699), who wrote some devotional verse in his old age. The poem has become enormously popular in Fauré's setting because of its warm melodies and delicious harmonies. Even this early in his career (he was 20 when he wrote it, and lived to the ripe old age of 79), Fauré already demonstrated a remarkable facility for sliding gracefully back into his home tonality after wandering impossibly far. Most singers know that Franz Schubert (1797-1828) composed hundreds of Lieder, incomparably enriching the solo vocal repertoire with his beautiful art songs. Many choral singers have sung one of Schubert's six masses, or perhaps one of his other sacred choral works. Few performers or listeners, however, are acquainted with his many part songs, because these works are far less frequently performed than the Lieder or the masses. This setting of Friedrich von Matthison's 1776 poem, Geist der Liebe ("Spirit of Love") is even rarer. Schubert composed Geist der Liebe for male-voice quartet in January 1822. (An earlier setting of the same poem, for solo voice and piano, dates from April 1816.) Unlike many of Schubert's now-famous instrumental works that were unknown during his tragically brief life, Geist der Liebe was something of a hit in its day; we know of more than a half-dozen performances. Because an unaccompanied vocal quartet could sing it, the modest performing forces doubtless made this part-song a welcome addition to the evening Schubertiads. With the delicate accompaniment of guitar for a reduced chamber chorale, this performance captures the intimacy and romance in Matthison's text that so charmed Schubert's contemporaries. Ernst Toch's Geographical Fugue (1930) embraces te entire globe via its text, which consists almost exclusively of place names. Toch (1887-1964) who was Austrian-born and eventually naturalized in this country, selected his "textual-destinations" for their rhythmic distinctiveness and ease of rapid pronunciation. Geographical Fugue is the last movement of Toch's Gesprochene Musik ("Spoken Music"), a four-movement suite endeavoring to produce musical effects through speech. Rhythm is the key to this extraordinary work. There are no pitches; only the higher and lower collective speaking voices of each section (TTBB) give the listener a sense of pitch. Geographical Fugue is remarkable in that it adheres to all technical rules governing a traditional fugue, excepting the absence of pitch. The fugue subject, "Trinidad...and the big Mississippi" is answered by a conventional countersubject ("Canada Malaga Rimini Brindisi..."). Toch adds inventive episodes and builds to a vibrant climax, ending his circumnavigation of the globe where it began: a sturdy finis in "Trinidad". As European peoples made their way into the African continent, Christian missionaries followed. Betelehemuis a Nigerian nativity song in Yoruba dialect. A simple chant is stated first unaccompanied, then with an ostinato bass in open fifths beneath it. The celebratory character of the music flowers fully with the addition of percussion (performed by Psychedelic Drum) and rain sticks. Betelehemu has next to no harmonic rhythm; its musical interest is centered in the pulsing vocal and instrumental cross-rhythms that provide its variation. One might not think a German composer with a French name would write a compact satire of Italian opera, but that trio of nationalities is fully in keeping with the trans-national approach of the music recorded here. Richard Genée (1823-1895) was a German librettist, conductor and composer who worked in major opera theatres all over Europe, and collaborated with Franz von Suppé and Richard Strauss. Genée's Italienischer Salat, or Insalata Italiana, translates to "Italian Salad". It is a miniature masterpiece. Building his nonsense text from the Italian terms for tempo, dynamics, and expression, he composed an exquisite parody of an Italian opera scene. His topics are dynamics, tempo, and articulation, with the classic exclamations of opera ("O dio! O cielo!"), some instrument names, a coloratura soprano, and a sprinkling of nonsense words for variety. Tossed with the dressing of a first-class male chorus, the result is delicious - and hilarious. To provide this collection with a rousing finale, the Turtle Creek Chorale has chosen an American folksong, Cindy. In classic hoedown fashion, this boot-stomping classic moves rapidly through several verses of implausible country smiles. Director Seelig commissioned Brigham Young University Professor Mack Wilberg to arrange Cindy for the 1993 American Chorale Directors' Association National Convention. Wilberg's ingenious setting uses occasional measures of 3/8 interpolated into an otherwise steady duple pace, which contribute to the song's irresistible momentum. At the first chorus, he incorporates four-hand piano, then adds several percussion instruments. Eventually down-country stompin', clappin' and hollerin' enter the rapidly modulating fray in a festive whirl. The fifteenth season of the Turtle Creek Chorale marks Timothy Seelig's eighth as Artistic Director. Under his baton the chorus has risen to a place of international musical prominence through its recordings and tours while securing a place at the very heart of the Dallas community through more than fifty performances each year. Dr. Seelig is both performer and educator
PRODUCTION NOTES
Recording Credits
Recorded
July 25-26, 1994; Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas
Producer
J. Tamblyn Henderson, Jr.
Engineer
Keith O. Johnson
HDCD Engineer
Michael "Pflash" Pflaumer
Piano
Baldwin SD10, courtesy Baldwin Family Music
CD Mastering
Paul Stubblebine, JTH; Rocket Lab, San Francisco
Cover Design
Tony Balquin
Cover Photography
Scott Rhea
Session Photos
John R. Selig
Graphics
Pope Graphic Arts Center
Special Thanks to Craig Gregory (Assistant Conductor) and to the staff of the Meyerson Symphony Center.
