June 8, 2014 - Pentecost

Ev'ry Time I Feel the Spirit - William L. Dawson
Give Me Jesus - Larry L. Fleming

Hymns:Sweet, Sweet Spirit, Veni Sancte Spiritu

The music that we are singing this week is inspired by the African American tradition. The spirituals Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit and Give Me Jesus deliver simple statements of faith that will (hopefully) serve to remind us why we sing and what overall should serve to put things into perspective for us.

Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit was arranged by the African American composer, conductor and professor William L. Dawson (1899-1990). Dawson ran away from home at age 13 to enroll in the Tuskegee Institute. From there he was accepted at the all-white college, Horner Institute of Fine Arts where he earned his B.M. but was not allowed to walk across the stage. After completing further study at the Chicago Musical College and American Conservatory he taught public school in Kansas City. Then, from 1931-1956 He taught at the Tuskegee Institute where developed the choral program. This piece is filled with energy and while it doesn’t deal with the day of Pentecost it does cover the influence of the Holy Spirit which God sent to us when Jesus ascended into heaven to comfort us. The song also deals with the double meaning of many spirituals. It’s hard to read the last verse and not find the references to the Underground Railroad in the “train that runs but one way” that we “can’t be late for.” This high energy spiritual seems a fitting choice for the end of the choir season.

The communion anthem is a plaintive arrangement of the spiritual Give Me Jesus. The arrangement by Larry L. Fleming (1936-2003) is filled with quiet subtle detail and a fitting final piece for the season. This year has been a year of changes, ambitious projects and great achievements. This piece is a reminder of why we do what we do. “You can have all this world, give me Jesus.”  The simple arrangement is incredibly expressive and never obscures the text.  I think that this is a good piece to refocus ourselves as we go on break and relax for the next couple of months to ponder the nature of our ministry as a choir and to remember why we do what we do.

June 1, 2014 - Easter 7

Sonata No. 3 in c minor: "Adagio" - Alexandre Guilmant
The Lone, Wild Bird - David N. Johnson
Elijah: "Cast Thy Burden Upon the Lord"
                                                               - Felix Mendelssohn
Bryn Calfaria - Ralph Vaughan Williams

Hymns: #450 Coronation, #307 Bryn Calfaria, #182 Truro

The music this past week didn’t quite turn out to be what I had planned but I was pleased with the flexibility and adjustments that we made. Originally the plan was for French and English music but rather than Poulenc and Handel we presented Johnson and Mendelssohn.

The choir presented David N. Johnson’s (1922-1987) classic anthem The Lone, Wild Bird. Johnson received his initial training at the Curtis Institute before enlisting in the army in 1942. Upon his return he studied at Trinity University and then here in Syracuse with famed professor, Arthur Poister. In 1967 he succeeded Poister as professor of organ at Syracuse University where he served for only two years before moving to Arizona to teach at Arizona State University at Tempe. Johnson was inspired to right this piece after seeing a solitary bird miles from shore on a trip from Los Angeles to Bombay. He adapted the Henry  Richard  McFadyen poem “The Lone, Wild Fowl” and set it to the Sacred Harp tune “Prospect.” This piece is accessible and adaptable for choirs at every level and is well crafted, making it a standard of the choral canon.

Cast Thy Burden upon the Lord is a quartet from the first part of Felix Mendelssohn’s (1809-1847) epic oratorio Elijah. The simple chorale serves as a reminder to Elijah that God will provide for him and look after him despite his feelings of loneliness and abandonment. The chorus is accompanied very simply with strings and a solo flute arpeggio. As with many of the choruses from this work it’s hard not to turn my mind to the notion that this oratorio was performed in concentration camps during WWII. This must have served as a powerful reminder to the people that had lost all hope that God would provide for them.

The organ music of Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911) occupies a unique place in the canon of organ literature. His pieces range from simple but colorful versets and pieces from the “Practical Organist” which are virtually sight-readable to large complicated sonatas and programmatic pieces. The “Adagio” from his Sonata No. 3 in c minor is a simple piece that exploits the lush strings and celestes (stops that are tuned slightly sharp to creating a soft undulating effect) of the Cavaille-Coll organs. The piece utilizes gradual shading of dynamics while employing the terraced dynamics which are an innate part of the organ’s design. The piece jumps from one manual to the next in increasing volume before reducing the dynamics to finish with only the softest stops of the swell division.

The postlude is Ralph Vaughan Williams’(1872-1958) setting of Bryn Calfaria, a Welsh hymn tune by William Owen (1813-1893). This piece is reminiscent of the large “praeludia” of the North German School opening and closing with large free gestures. The middle section is a much stricter fugue which moves from the soft stops of the choir to the high pitched stops of the swell before moving to the great and closing with the same gestures which began the work. This setting captures the majestic grandeur of this great hymn.