Crimson Stain
Program Notes
One war ends and then before you know it a new one has begun. Remembrance Day has been set aside for us to remember those who have died in conflict, not only our own, but all those around the world who find themselves in the grip of conflict. The toxic spin of populism has made it possible and all too often acceptable, to say things about one another that years ago would have been kept under wraps or at least been derided by public opinion. Peace is such a fragile thing, and like a butterfly, it can easily be destroyed. If we have it, we need to work hard to keep it and if we don’t, we need to work hard to attain it. On this Remembrance Day, through the music and readings, let us remember all the people who have died to make the world a better place (whether solider or civilian, whether heroically or tragically) and let us all hope for wars to stop, for hate to fade, and for the process towards reconciliation move forward step by step.
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Based on the text of a poem by Walt Whitman, Ola Gjeilo has created a beautiful choral piece called Reconciliation, with accompaniment by solo cello (Scott McKnight). The piece begins with a cello solo accompanied by the three lower voices humming while the sopranos join to make a duet with the cello. The choir continues to hum while a narrator recites the words of the poem. Once this is done the cello and the choir continue until only the cello is left over the humming voices. The recited words of the poem are then sung by the sopranos and tenors (in unison) while the altos and basses continue to hum. The piece ends on a rapturous note with the voices vocalizing on an “ah” before letting the cello end the piece supported by the chorus.
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At our May concert we performed John Rutter’s A Ukrainian Prayer with the hope that we might not have to repeat it. Unfortunately, that has not happened, so we once again sing it to honour the Ukrainians so valiantly fighting to keep their country. There are repeated pleas of “Lord God, we pray, protect Ukraine.”
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In December of 1945, apparently in retaliation for the bombing of Coventry, the allied forces unleased a firestorm on the city of Dresden, a city with no military importance. Estimates peg the loss of life at 25,000 civilians, among whom were eleven young choirboys who died in the ruins of the beautiful Kreuzkirche. “In mourning the deaths of the children, not to mention the loss of his famous choir school, choirmaster Rudolf Mauersberger was determined that music would rise from the ashes. He wrote a motet (Wie liegt die Stadt so wüst) based on a text from the Lamentations of Jeremiah (How lonely sits the city that was full of people) and conducted its first performance on August 4, 1945 at the site of the burned-out church.”
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Give Rest, O Christ is the English translation of a text set to a Kyiv melody and known as Kontakion for the Faithful Departed as sung in the Pannykhida (dirge) of the Orthodox Eastern Church of Russia. It was sung at the funerals of both Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth, so it seems a suitable way to honour their memories. It is sombre and slow, like a dirge, but includes “alleluias” as “All we go down to the dust; and, weeping o’er the grave, we make our song.”
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For the Fallen by Mike Sammes has become a staple of our November 11 concerts. Set for TTBB chorus, it is effective and moving in its simplicity. It is accompanied by piano which at the end, imitates the bugle sounding Last Post.
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There have been many iterations of In Flanders Fields. David Rosborough’s version, which was published in 2020, is simple and effective, a perfect marriage of music and text. The sopranos begin the A section while the other three parts accompany on a neutral syllable. The middle section (We are the dead) is strong and assertive, but then moves to quiet gentleness on “Loved and were loved.” The music in the third section (Take up our quarrel with the foe) is a repeat of that of section A, but the three lower parts now also sing the words.
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Choirs love to sing the music of Elaine Hagenberg as much as audience members seem to enjoy hearing it. I Will Be a Child of Peace is based on a Shaker hymn tune which has been attributed to Alonzo Gilman of the Shaker Community in Alfred, Maine in 1851. Hagenberg was drawn to the simplicity of the Shaker tune, to its unique 5/4 meter, and most importantly, the uplifting text of a prayer for peace and purity. Shaker music was traditionally sung in unison without accompaniment, with men on the left and women on the right. This arrangement echoes those voices of the past, with each stanza starting with unison, first by the women, followed by the men, and then unfolding into full five-part harmony. This is a perfect peace for this time of uncertainty in which we live.
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Written in 2010 by Donald McCullough, Crossing the Bar is set to familiar words by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Each of the three verses is treated in a different way musically. The first verse, with accompaniment, is for the most part homophonic with a brief section in which the tenors and basses dovetail with the sopranos and altos. Verse two begins a cappella and adds the accompaniment midway before leading into verse three which begins with all stops pulled out. As the piece ends, the final words of the poem move between the voices before ending all together on the words “When I put out to sea.”
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The main work on this concert occupies the entire second half of the program. It is entitled Crimson Stain and was written in 2017 for the Halifax Camerata Singers by Canadian composer Larry Nickel. 2017 marked the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele, a vivd symbol of mud, madness and senseless slaughter. Also known as the Third Battle of Ypres, the soldiers were under almost continual rain and shellfire and often became lost on the blasted mud-scape, not knowing where the front line was. Private John Sudbury wrote, “The enemy and ourselves were in the selfsame muck, degradation and horror to such a point nobody cared any more about anything, only getting out of this, and the only way out was by death or wounding and we all of us welcomed either.”
Nickel has set this work in eleven sections for SATB chorus (with occasional solo sections), cello (Scott McKnight) and piano (Rod Epp). Composer Peter-Anthony Togni wrote that “Larry’s achingly beautiful harmonies and melodic sweep truly drew us into the story…It’s wonderful to hear well-crafted music that is truly written from the heart.” He goes on to say, “Remembrance music appropriate for the 100th anniversary of the battle of attrition could end up being very dark and intense, but Larry’s music doesn’t go there, at least not very often. He is able to smile at death. One of the movements is a lot of fun and makes use of a Vietnamese folk tale about a cat and a snake.” The piano and cello parts are “rich and rather romantic, but never too heavy or indulgent and the gorgeous themes are passed back and forth skillfully and elegantly.”
For his main text, Nickel chose a poem by a singer from his own choir, Larry Smeets. He also uses the poetry of Wilfred Owen and various texts from the Bible. The eleven sections are as follows:
Day of Remembrance
Crimson Stain
No Greater Love
Voices from the Earth
Enemies and Allies (The Cat and the Snake)
Passendale
(bridge)
Move Him Into the Sun
After the Storm
Whiter Than Snow
Crossing Over
As usual this concert will include the Act of Remembrance with the Last Post, the Silence, and Reveille. Dean McNeill is our guest trumpeter and readings will be done by Marley Duckett and Tim Nickel.
James Hawn, Artistic Director
Text and Translations
Ola Gjeilo: Reconciliation
Text by Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
WORD over all, beautiful as the sky,
Beautiful that war and all it’s deeds of carnage must in time be utterly lost,
That the hands of the sisters Death and Night incessantly softly wash again,
and ever again, this soil’d world;
For my enemy is dead, a man divine as myself is dead,
I look where he lies white-faced and still in the coffin – I draw near,
Bent down and touch lightly with my lips the white face in the coffin.
John Rutter: A Ukrainian Prayer
Ukrainian text:
Боже, Україну храни
Дай нам силу, вірі, й надії
Отче наш, Отче наш
Амінь
English Text:
Lord, save the Ukraine
Give us strength, faith, and hope
Our Father, Our Father
Amen
Rudolf Mauersberger: Wie liegt die Stadt so wüst
Text from the book of Jeremiah
German text:
Wie liegt die Stadt so wüst, die voll Volks war.
Alle ihre Tore stehen öde.
Wie liegen die Steine des Heiligtums
vorn auf allen Gassen zerstreut.
Er hat ein Feuer aus der Höhe
in meine Gebeine gesandt und es lassen walten.
Ist das die Stadt, von der man sagt,
sie sei die allerschönste, der sich
das ganze Land freuet.
Sie hätte nicht gedacht,
daß es ihr zuletzt so gehen würde;
sie ist ja zu greulich heruntergestoßen
und hat dazu niemand, der sie tröstet.
Darum ist unser Herz betrübt
und unsere Augen sind finster geworden:
Warum willst du unser so gar vergessen
und uns lebenslang so gar verlassen!
Bringe uns, Herr, wieder zu dir,
daß wir wieder heimkommen!
Erneue unsere Tage wie vor alters.
Ach Herr, siehe an mein Elend!
English text:
How lonely sits the city that was full of people!
All her gates are desolate.
How the stones of her sanctuary lie
Scattered at the head of every street.
He sent fire from on high;
into my bones he made it descend.
Is this the city which was called
the most beautiful, that in which
the whole land rejoices?
She had not thought
that this would be her final end;
therefore her fall is terrible,
and she has no one to comfort her.
This is why our heart has become sick,
These things have caused our eyes to grow dim.
Why do you forget us for ever,
why do you so long forsake us?
Bring us, O Lord, back to you,
that we come home again!
Renew our days as of old.
O Lord, behold my affliction!
Kyiv Melody: Give Rest, O Christ (Kontakion of the Faithful Departed)
Give rest, O Christ, to thy servant with thy saints:
where sorrow and pain are no more;
neither sighing but life everlasting.
Thou only art immortal, the creator and maker of man:
and we are mortal formed from the dust of the earth,
and unto earth shall we return:
for so thou didst ordain,
when thou created me saying:
“Dust thou art und unto dust shalt thou return.”
All we go down to the dust;
and weeping o’er the grave we make our song:
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
Mike Sammes: For the Fallen
Text by Laurence Binyon (1869–1943)
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
David Rosborough: In Flanders Fields
Text by John McCrae (1872–1918)
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Elaine Hagenberg: I Will Be a Child of Peace
Text attributed to Alonzo Gilman (1878–1966)
O Holy Father I will be a child of peace and purity.
For well I know Thy hand will bless the seeker after righteousness.
Donald McCullough: Crossing the Bar
Text by Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.
Larry Nickel: Crimson Stain
Day of Remembrance
Text by Larry Smeets
It’s that time of year again – we set one day aside
to ponder painful questions which will not be denied;
For our homeland, our freedom, was won at such a cost.
Let us reflect together – what was gained and what was lost.What we hope to say now has all been said before;
but some things need repeating ten thousand times or more.
We will honor, we will cherish, our soldiers who have died.
Still, we keep on praying for a peaceful end to war.Crimson Stain
Text by Larry Smeets
What can we give?
what can we say?
to those who suffered for our sake?
We will remember them.What can we do?
where could we go?
for those who died so long ago?
We will remember them.So, pin a blood red poppy
on the collar of my coat;
like a crimson stain, close to my heart.
We will remember them.The wages of freedom are hidden from view,
buried in the cold hard ground.
But there among the tombstones,
pallid white,
red poppies grow.Like a crimson tide, flowing through the field
red poppies grow.So let up stop and remember
our brothers and sisters below.And as we pause, we recognize
the value of each precious life.
We will remember them.So, pin a blood red poppy
on the collar of my coat;
like a crimson stain, close to my heart.
We will remember them.No Greater Love
Text from John 15:13
There is no greater love than this;
to lay down one’s life for another –
to lay down one’s life for a friend.
How can there be such noble sacrifice?To risk one’s life, to stand in harm’s way
for protection of another.
There is no greater love.Voice from the Earth
Text by Larry Smeets
Guns of war fell silent one century ago;
Yet we gather here together and we let our feelings show.
Can you hear a distant echo like whispers from below?
We hear voices rising from the earth.From the beaches of Normandy – the shore so far from home;
from the trenches of Passendale and the Valley of the Somme;
from the meadows of Flanders – the slopes of Vimy Ridge
we hear voices.What are you willing to die for?
Was my death of any value at all?
I was young and so naive
when the gale force winds of diplomacy
swept me away from my family and home.
Are your leaders and rulers and royalty and despots
still marching the civilized world ever closer to the edge
of the abyss?What was I willing to die for?
Have you you learned any lesson at all?
Why would you cede power
to those who have at their fingertips
horrendous possibilities?
Why would you cede power
to those who have at their fingertips
the ultimate obscenity
to end it all?From the beaches of Normandy the shore so far from home;
from the trenches of Passendale and the Valley of the Somme;
from the meadows of Flanders, the slopes of Vimy Ridge
we hear voices.Enemies and Allies
A Vietnamese folktale
Can anyone tell me how the war began?
Does anyone remember how the war began?
The cat and the snake – Benjamin and Jake – lived down by the lake.
Daily, they would play to pass the time away.
The cat and the snake.Two creatures got along
and they would sometimes venture a song –
in harmony.Then one fateful day their friendship went astray.
The two came out to play but Jake got in the way.
The cat stepped on his tail, the snake began to wail!“Watch where you’re going you clumsy cat!”
“Stop with your hissing you lazy brat!”
“Haven’t you noticed? – you’re really fat!”
“You are so wrong – your tail is much too long!”
The cat arched his back
the snake did attack
the cat clawed the snake
Jake did retaliate!What became of two friends?
Was there anyway to make amends?
From deep within the lake there came a hungry crocodile.
From deep within the lake a very nasty crocodile.
They were terrified!
“Oh, why were we fighting when we should be uniting?”
“I forgive you.”What can we gather from this silly tale of enemies?
Would we not rather try to get along and strive to be
true allies?Passendale
Text by Larry Smeets
A raw recruit was I – fresh off the farm from southern Manitoba.
My story begins and ends here, in Passendale.Winter has come to the trenches,
like two black snakes writhing through the snow.
Side by side and not too far apart,two armies face each other;
ankle deep in mud and misery –
with no man’s land in-between.No man’s land – where green fields used to flourish.
No man’s land – charcoal trees and broken fences.
No man’s land – crimson red over white snow
No man’s land – such unspeakable carnage.The Angel of Death – a frequent visitor here.
The Angel of Death – heralded with groans and screams of agony.
My enemy; afraid and bewildered, just like me.A raw recruit was he – fresh off the farm from southern Bavaria.
His story begins and ends here, in Passendale.
We gaze at each other through the hellish haze;
too remote to know – too remote to hate
We stare at each other – total strangers –
and breathe warm air on our trigger-fingers.(Bridge)
Move Him Into the Sun
Text by Wilfred Owen – adapted
Move him into the sun
Gently its touch awoke him onceAt home, whispering fields un-sown
Always it woke him, even in France
until this morning and the snow
If anything might rouse him now
the kind old sun will know.
Think of how it wakes the seeds,
Woke, once, the clays of a cold star.Are limbs so dear-achieved
are sides full nerved – still warm – too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?Move him into the sun
Gently its touch awoke him once.After the Storm
Text by Wendell Berry – adapted
After the storm and the new stillness of the snow
she returns to the graveyard.As though she might lift the white coverlet
and crawl in beside him as she used to do;
and again, fell beneath her hand
his flesh quicken and turn warm.But she is not his woman now.
To participate in resurrection, one must first be dead.And now she goes back into the whitened world,
alive.Whiter Than Snow
Text from Isaiah 1:18
“Come, let us reason together
Come, let us speak with words of comfort”, sayeth the Lord.
For, though our transgressions are red like crimson,
they shall be whiter than snow.
There is redemption for you, for me, and for the world.Crossing Over
Text by Larry Smeets
Requiem aeternam
Crossing overWhat can we give?
what can we say?
to those who suffered for our sake?
We will remember them.So, pin a blood red poppy
on the collar of my coat;
like a crimson stain, close to my heart.
We will remember them.Requiem aeternam
et lux perpetua
Grant them peace eternal
and everlasting light
We’ve been mended, forgiven,
through love and sacrifice.
May they cross over
on the road to paradise.Crossing over
on the road to paradise.
Artist Information
James Hawn, Director
Photo Credit: Amy Violet Photography
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James Hawn, Director of Music since 2003, has been active with the Saskatoon Chamber Singers for most of its history, and has been involved with singing and choirs for as long he can remember. Prior to his current appointment as Director, he was a long-time member of the bass section, and served as the choir’s president for ten years. James has also been actively involved in national and provincial choral organizations for over twenty-five years. He is a member of the Saskatchewan Choral Federation (SCF) and Choral Canada and has served for a number of years on both organizations’ boards. In 2006 he was presented with the SCF’s Pro Musica Award, which recognizes “exemplary service to choral music in Saskatchewan.” James was an English language arts teacher for thirty- two years with the Saskatoon Public Board of Education. During that time he also taught music, was involved in choral and church music, musicals, and drama both in the school system and in the community.
Rod Epp, Accompanist
Photo Credit: Amy Violet Photography
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Rod Epp has been accompanist of the Saskatoon Chamber Singers since 2002. Prior to this role, he sang baritone with the choir, which he continues to do when the choir performs a capella pieces. Born and raised in Saskatoon, Rod received his B.Mus. degree from the University of Saskatchewan, and obtained Licentiate and Fellowship diplomas in piano performance from the Trinity College of London, England. He works part time for the Saskatoon Health Region, andhe also maintains a small private piano studio and directs a local church choir.
Scott McKnight, Cello
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Cellist Scott McKnight is an active performer and teacher in Saskatoon. He is a member of the Saskatoon Symphony and co-director of Prairie Virtuosi. In addition to performing, he maintains a private studio, teaches with the Saskatoon Suzuki String Program, and is a sessional instructor at the University of Saskatchewan. Scott holds a master of music degree in cello performance (University of Ottawa), a bachelor of music in cello performance and a chamber diploma (Wilfrid Laurier University).
Dean McNeill, Trumpet
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Award winning Canadian trumpet player/composer Dean McNeill regularly performs in both the classical and jazz idioms. Dean has been a University of Saskatchewan Dept. of Music faculty member for the past 19 years over which time he has performed and adjudicating throughout Canada and the United States.
A full professor Dean has been the recipient of the Saskatchewan Jazz Festival’s Special Recognition Award, UofS’s Student Union Teaching Excellence Award, UofS Dept. of Music’s Dwaine Nelson Teaching Award, and, a Downbeat Magazine big band arranging award. Dean has been the Artistic Director of the Saskatoon Jazz Orchestra since the SJO’s inception and he has lead many special musical productions such as the Kenderdine Campus Jazz Composer’s Retreats, Saskatoon’s Mayor’s Gala, Persephone Theatre’s Fabula gala, the SaskTel Jazz Festival’s Jazz Intensive student workshop program, a Saskatchewan Arts Board Gala, and, the Texas Lone Star Film Awards gala.
Dean has performed at the Western Canadian Music Awards (numerous times), as soloist on the Juno award winning CD O Music, and, he has performed with the likes of Hugh Fraser, Tommy Banks, Wycliffe Gordon, Dee Daniels, Brad Turner, Kelly Jefferson, David Braid, Bobby Caldwell, Bob Mintzer, Denzal Sinclaire, PJ Perry, and Ingrid Jensen, and Jon Balantyne.