Elaine Hagenberg’s Alleluia is definitely a joy to sing and I would venture to say a joy to listen to. There is something about the word “alleluia” that brings joy to the soul. Hagenberg has chosen a text by St. Augustine who lived from 354-430. Hagenberg’s music “soars with eloquence and ingenuity” and her music is sung world wide. Each key change brings a brighter character to the piece and each section begins with the same repeated initial opening theme as sung by the sopranos. Between each “alleluia” section is a more legato one set to the words “We shall rest and we shall see. We shall see and we shall know. We shall know and we shall love. Behold our end which is no end.”

Mendelssohn’s Verlein uns Frieden (Grant Us Thy Peace) is a choral cantata with text of a prayer for peace by Martin Luther. Robert Schumann wrote, “This small piece deserves to be world famous and will become so in the future; the Madonnas of Raphael and Murillo cannot remain hidden for long.” The melody is repeated with the full text three times. It is introduced by the tenors and basses alone and then passes to the sopranos and altos with the tenors and basses singing a counterpoint. It finally appears in the soprano alone in a mostly homophonic four-part setting. The instrumental accompaniment has been reduced for organ.

Canadian composer Imant Raminsh composed two-part settings for both Psalm 23 and Psalm 121. Psalm 121 (I will lift mine eyes unto the hills) is set in six distinct short sections and was originally written for accompaniment with strings (or piano reduction). The tessitura for the two parts remains very much the same and only occasionally do the sopranos sing in their upper range. For the most part each section has a new key signature with the first and sixth bookending in the same key. This piece is quite contemplative and the only section to stand out dynamically is set to the words “the Lord shall preserve thee from all evil/he shall preserve thy soul.”

Canticle to the Spirit by Canadian composer Eleanor Daley, is set to a text by Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) and written for women’s voices and piano. As aways, Daley creates a beautiful melody and matches that perfectly with the text. The piece begins and ends in unison but in between the two voices sing contrapuntally creating an exquisite interchange between the two melodic lines.

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.

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.”

Alleluia by Ivo Antognini has only that word repeated over and over again (much like Randall Thompson’s Alleluia). The composer writes that “on a beautiful fall day I was walking along the streets of my town. My mind was overcome with a brief melody that would not leave me alone. I kept whistling it, and once I arrived at the church, I went inside and sang” what had been going through my mind. “When I returned home I wrote on paper” the thirteen notes that would not leave his mind. He also says the Alleluia “is joyful and sunny, full of positive energy, with rhythmic moments and contrapuntal passages, where every voice finds its own expressive space.”

As Saskatoon Chamber Singers celebrates its 40th anniversary year, this next piece encapsulates one of the reasons that has happened. Rather than singing “all day” we have been singing “all year” for forty of them. Gerald Finzi set Robert Bridges’ words to music and My Spirit Sang All Day really is a joyous outpouring of love and rapture.

How Can I Keep From Singing? is Sarah Quartel’s arrangement of American Baptist minister Robert Lowry’s original song. Also known by its incipit “My Life Flows On In Endless Song”, it has become an American folksong, although originally composed as a Christian hymn. The text first appeared in the New York Observer and was entitled “Always Rejoicing” and attributed to Pauline T. There have been many iterations of this piece (Pete Seeger and Enya) with frequent adaptations of the words. Quartel’s version begins with the soprano voices singing the first verse with rubato and thoughtfulness. When the other voices enter it is in a rhythmic drone that acts as an accompaniment to the soprano line and propels the music forward. The middle section is homophonic although the “tune” still stays in the soprano line. Throughout, the lower three voices serve as accompaniment.

Ennio Morricone is one of the most brilliant composers of music for film. It was he who wrote the music for the 1986 movie The Mission with its iconic picture of a missionary tied to a cross and cascading over Iguazu Falls. One of the pieces from that score is entitled Gabriel’s Oboe. As one would expect it was written for the oboe, but for this concert it will be played on the piano. In the movie, Jesuit Father Gabriel sits down beside the waterfall and plays his oboe, hoping to befriend the native people so that he can carry on his mission in the New World. The chief of the Guarani tribesman is displeased and breaks the oboe which marks the beginning of Gabriel’s relationship with the Guarani people.

Zoltán Kodály’s lyric-dramatic Missa Brevis is one of the delights of choral literature. It was written by the composer in two versions, one with full orchestra and one with organ (which will be performed on the concert). In the last days of January, 1945, the Russian troops cleared entirely the city of Pest from the Germans; however, the most bitter fighting continued on the other side of the river in Buda until February. Kodály lived through this hell in the cellar of the Opera house, after his flat had been partly destroyed by an aerial attack earlier in the war. It was here that the Missa Brevis was completed in early 1945 and performed in the cloakroom of the Opera House. It later received its official premiere (orchestral version) in 1948 at the Three Choirs Festival in Worchester. The MIssa Brevis is largely an adaptation and extension of Kodály’s Organ Mass which had been composed in 1942 and performed in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Budapest in 1943. The Missa Brevis is dedicated to the composer’s wife who had been his best friend, critic, and protagonist for the 35 years of their married life. Throughout the work Kodály maintains a close partnership between the voices and the organ, comprehensively doubling the choral parts for much of the work.

Ian Stephens, in his notes to a recording by the Danish National Radio Choir describes the Missa Brevis as follows: “With the organ’s Introitus he (Kodály) presents the main theme of the Kyrie, a pattern of seven rising then falling notes, and establishes D as the overall key. The dark and brooding choral entry in the Kyrie is set in sharp relief by Christe eleison, where three solo sopranos soar ethereally above the choir; the movement closes with the sombre atmosphere of its opening. Though the Gloria is framed with jubilant and forceful choral writing, it has at its centre a passage for the vocal soloists of almost Baroque pathos. The characteristics of both Gregorian chant and Hungarian folksong are evident in the opening of the Credo. In his setting of Crucifixus Kodály employs pungent harmonic clashes in the manner of a Renaissance madrigal. Following the stately polyphony of the Sanctus is a Hosanna section, which Kodály later expands at the close of the sustained Benedictus movement. Material from the Kyrie and Gloria reappears in the Agnus Dei, while a development of the main theme of the Credo brings the Mass to a close in the Ite, missa est.” Janet Wilson is featured as the organist.

Ivor R. Davies wrote a set of six prayers entitled Prayers From the Ark. As one might expect there is a prayer by Noah, but the other five are all prayers by different animals or birds who had a safe spot on the ark. The six prayers are entitled: Noah’s Prayer, The Prayer of the Little Bird, The Prayer of the Cat, The Prayer of the Mouse, The Prayer of the Raven, and finally The Prayer of the Dove. These six a cappella pieces each characterize in a wonderful way the speaker of each prayer. These settings follow the rhythm and contour of the text rather than always being given a specific metre. They are set to texts from a book by Carmen Bernos de Gasztold (translated by Rumer Godden).

Canadian composer Paul Halley wrote a set of six pieces entitled Love Songs For Springtime. From that set comes Soldier, Won’t You Marry Me?. The rhythm for the most part alternates between 6/8 and 3/4 with occasional stretches in 5/4. The pulsating rhythm carries on throughout the piece as the soldier offers several reasons why he cannot marry “such a pretty girl”, yet the “pretty girl” strives to counteract his rationale. The sopranos and altos are the voice of the “pretty girl” and the tenors and basses that of the “soldier”. When they sing as one it is to narrate the story. This entire set will be part of our May 7 concert.

Larry Nickel’s I Cannot Dance is a stunning piece with flamenco rhythms. It is in six sections with each one becoming more rhythmically complex. There are sections that are reminiscent of the Swingle Singers’ style of vocalization. Parts are somewhat leisurely while others are very exuberant, building to a climax that is joyous and invigorating. The text is by Mechthild of Magdeburg who lived in the 13th century. She was a Beguine and a medieval mystic whose book Das fließende Licht der Gottheit (The Flowering Light of Divinity) describes her various visions of God. Many at the time called for her to be burned at the stake for what were considered blasphemous writings. She died alone and blind. The words to the opening of this piece are “I cannot dance, O Lord, unless You lead me.”