Home for the Holidays

Program Notes

by Richard H. Trame, S.J. This Christmas concert, embracing a broad spectrum of classic and modern carols, motets, anthems and composers, commences with a solemn processional based on the wellknown text Hodie Christus Natus est. This antiphon is elaborated, with several variations, by the respected Midwestern composer Paul Manz. Not only is the Nativity celebrated, but these variations commemorate key aspects of the Messiah's life - his crucifixion, burial and resurrection. This opening processional leads directly into the great Venetian composer Giovanni Gabrieli's eight-part Sacred Symphony Jubilate Deo, a motet in antiphonal style with doubling brass accompaniment. The motet celebrated great occasions in Venice's St. Mark's Cathedral. Gabrieli's concerto-like structure offers a scintillating elaboration of words from Psalm 100. The entrance antiphon Rorate Coeli for the Fourth Sunday of Advent rests on the text oflsaiah 45/8. It expresses in biblical imagery the intense longing for the Messiah. Palestrina's masterly polyphonic setting of this five-part chorus appeared in his Book of Motets, published in 1572. On May 18, 1952, the eminent but retiring French composer Francis Poulenc published, in his distinctive and inimitable style, four Christmas Antiphons. Hodie Christus Natus est, the antiphon for the Magnificat of Christmas Vespers, is the fourth of the group. The Responsory for the Office of Matins on Christmas Day, O Magnum Mysterium, has elicited numerous highly attractive settings from the Renaissance to the present. Former Angelino Leo Nestor, presently Director of Music at Washington D.C.'s National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, has composed this opulent work dedicated to Paul Salamunovich and the Master Chorale. It here receives its world premiere. Nestor provides the following description of the motet: The piece reveals itself slowly at first, always moving forward in a weaving manner as the brass and percussion prepare for the entrance of the chorus in opulent low register divisi. Players and singers slowly ascend and grow toward a fortissimo 'Dominum' which is followed by a gentle multimetric undulating counterpoint on the text 'jacentem in praesepio.' The phrase 'Beata virgo', with glockenspiel and initially only in the higher voices, moves again to the second fortissimo 'Dominum', and reposes again on the same word. The quieted music then with crescendo moves into the final 'Alleluia' in a series of driven shouts. The final soprano ascends with strength to the exclamation Ah!' and, with alto, tenor and bass, brings the work to a stimulating, still driven, and happy conclusion. While serving as sub-organist at Salisbury Cathedral, the twenty-six year old and subsequently well-famed Herbert Howells (1892-1983), at the time fearful of an early death, produced his Three Carol Anthems between 1918 and 1920. The first of these, Here is the Little Door, was composed to words by Frances Chesterton, and dedicated to the great lay theologian, G. K. Chesterton. Babe of Bethlehem is a folk-tune derived from William Walker's The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, published in 1835. This hymnal embraced white spirituals and folk hymns used in numerous camp meetings or revivals among evangelical Protestant groups at that period in the South. James Fritschel, a respected American arranger/composer, has arranged here a series of attractive choral variations on this robust folk tune. The American Conrad Susa has added The Chanticleer's Carol to his already extensive Christmas compositions. This proclamation on a traditional English melody for chorus and brass exhibits a spacious, mysterious and mystical character. William Austin published the poem in his 1626 edition of Certain Divine Hymns. Indeed his poem may well have been influenced by words from Shakespeare's Hamlet I/2. "The ghost faded at the crowing of the cock. Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes wherein Our Savior's birth is celebrated, the bird of dawning singeth all night long. The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike, no fairy takes, no witch hath power to charm, so hallowed and so gracious is the time." Los Angeles Master Chorale's Composer-in-Residence Morten Lauridsen writes: "Ave Maria is the third of my recent series (including O Magnum Mysterium and O Nata Lux) of a cappella motets on well-known Latin texts. This serene setting was specially composed as a seventieth birthday gift to Maestro Salamunovich, who continues to enrich us all through his magnificent and enduring contributions to the art of choral music." Tonight's performance marks the world premiere of this work. It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year is characterized as a Recollection Carol. Published in 1963, it has graced seasonal concerts of such popular groups as Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians. Michael Isaacson's Aspects of A Great Miracle, a Choral Suite for Chanukah, has been specifically arranged and orchestrated by Mr. Isaacson for this evening's Master Chorale presentation and dedicated to Maestro Salamunovich. Isaacson is a classically trained musician who has also composed, orchestrated and conducted for numerous television and movie productions. He produced the exhibir music for The Skirball Center last year, and recently composed and arranged all the film and exhibit music for the new Museum of Jewish Heritage. He provides his own notes:. "Just as the Chanukah dreidle (spinning top) has four sides signifying A Great Miracle Happened There (or in Israel Here), this suite, with four movements and connective interludes, explores four aspects of Chanukah's observance. Light the Legend ebulliently announces the holiday and outlines the eight days' activities. A Hanukah Dreidle, in a novel choral fashion, tells the historic story of the great miracle. Light, a lyric interlude, reflects on the cosmic nature of the winter holiday. Psalm 150 (Sing Praises to the Lord) celebrates the purification of the Temple and the concerted use of instruments in the glorious act of singing Halleluyah for its redemption." The great miracle proclaimed is the victory of the Machabees over the tyrant Antiochus IV and the consequent purification of the Temple and the miraculous relighting of its lamps. Some thirty or more years ago, Southern California composer Brent Pierce created his original and meditative contemplation of the babe in the manger, How Still He Rests, scored for mixed chorus, oboe and wind chimes.  O Yule, Full of Gladness is a jaunty and polyphonically arranged secular carol by Carolyn Jennings, a composer of Norwegian background. Local arranger Norman Henry Marney gives us an attractive and lively setting of the ever-popular Jingle Bells. Its original words and music were written by the Bostonian James Pierpont and published in 1857 under the title One Horse Open Sleigh. It should be noted that the word "Jingle" is in the imperative. Likewise of interest is the fact that Pierpont was uncle of the famed financier John Pierpont Morgan. The modern and ever popular carol The Little Dmmmer Boy, here presented by the men's chorus and with handbells, has attracted widespread performances throughout the nation. In his The Christmas Nightingale, originally produced for Salamunovich's Loyola Men's Chorus and here in a mixed chorus setting specially for the Master Chorale, Robert Hunter has utilized the traditional Viennese carol of 1649 "Geistliche Nachtigal." He provides this delightful carol with an accompaniment based on Chopin's Berceuse (Op. 57) with flute obligato. Randol Alan Bass' sprightly medley A Feast of Carols embraces six familiar secular and religious carols. Wassail in Anglo Saxon means "Health to you." It was a festive salutation sung by doorstep carolers from Christmas until Twelfth Night (Jan. 5). II est ne le divin enfant's melody first appeared in 1862, probably derived from a rustic Norman hunting tune. The text was first published in Dom Leglay's Noel anciens of 1876. Come, O Come Emmanuel in its Latin form "Veni, Veni, Emmanuel", though found in a XIII century antiphonary, can be said to reach back in its chant melody to the famed Advent "O" antiphons of Charlemagne's time. The Holly and the Ivy, in its melodic and poetic origins, was preserved by a Mrs. Clayton of Chipping Camden, Gloucestshire, in 1710. It is a Christmas, Lent and Autumn carol originating from an old pagan dance tune, the holly symbolizing the dancing lads, the ivy the lasses. Later the holly symbolized the good, the ivy, evil. Eventually the holly was applied to the fruitful Virgin Mary. God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen originated in 1770 in the Roxburgh Collection and subsequently in a lost London broadside. The word "rest" means "keep" and the title can have a double meaning, depending on whether the comma is placed before or after "Merry." As with the initial Wassail, We Wish You a Merry Christmas was again an age-old popular greeting used by doorstep carolers throughout England.

Archival Recording