St. James Cathedral Music

Saturday, November 1, 7:30 pm

All Souls Requiem

The Missa pro Defunctis (Mass for the Dead) has been part of All Souls Day since the 14th century. The texts of the Mass, though ancient, continue as vital expressions of consolation for the present and hope for the future.

These prayers, filled with images of eternal rest and perpetual light, ask more of us than mere reflection on past losses. They encourage us to bring to the present those we have loved and known; to acknowledge their continuing presence in our lives; to pray for them not in the past tense, but in the present and future tenses.

With the central focus of this liturgy on God's ongoing work of salvation in the Eucharist, these scriptures and prayers do not look backward, but challenge us, who exist in the present, to live for the future.

MIHI QUIQUE SPEM DEDISTI
To me, too, you have given hope
from the Sequence: Dies Irae

Friday, February 20 & Saturday, February 21 8:00 pm

Great Music for Great Cathedrals

An evening of sound and light ♦ with director James Savage and Lighting Designer Jeff Robbins ♦ Narrator Dick Foley ♦ Cathedral Organist Joseph Adam ♦ Cathedral Associate Organist Dr. Clint Kraus ♦ The Cathedral Soloists ♦ Lisa Cardwell Pontén, soprano ♦ Kathryn Weld, mezzo-soprano ♦ Howard Fankhauser, tenor ♦ Gregory Carroll, tenor ♦ Norman Smith, bass ♦ Stephen Stubbs, theorbo ♦ Maxine Eilander, baroque harp ♦ The Cathedral Brass ♦ and the Cathedral Choir of St. James ♦ The Women of St. James Schola ♦ The Cathedral Chant Choir ♦ The Schola Cantorum ♦ Jubilate! ♦ St. Cecilia Singers ♦ St. Gregory Choir ♦

Program for Great Music 2009.
Historic Repertoire from Great Music

TE DEUM - tonus recentior This Matins hymn has textual and perhaps musical elements dating to the 2nd century. By the 6th century the first twenty-four verses were so associated with the musical tradition of Milan's cathedral that a legend arose attributing the hymn to the Milanese saints Augustine and Ambrose. In the later middle ages, the Te Deums, accompanied by bells and organ, were sung in festival processions to mark the consecration of bishops, victory on the battlefield, and other moments of community rejoicing. As early as 992, the Carolingian cathedral of Rheims had an organ to heighten the solemnity of such occasions. Women of St. James Schola ♦ Jubilate! ♦ Joseph Adam and Dr. Clint Kraus, Corpus Christi Organ

NOSTRA PHALANS attributed to ATO, EPISCOPUS TRECENSIS - The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela — believed to be the burial site of the Apostle James — became the most popular European pilgrimage destination for a long period of the Middle Ages. Safer than routes to Jerusalem, less mountainous than paths to Rome, the pilgrim roads to Compostela originated in the far corners of Christendom and converged on the Spanish cathedral. Poets and saints, musicians and merchants, artists and all classes of medieval society traveled together, sang together, and prayed together in celebration of the Feast of St. James. "Let our happy company rejoice on this day when James goes to glory, tasting heavenly joys forever in the courts of the angels!" The 18-foot St. James puppet is modeled after a processional image featured each year in Compostela's mid-summer celebration of the saint. Schola Cantorum ♦ Jubilate! ♦ St. Cecilia Singers ♦ St. Gregory Choir ♦ Cathedral Choir of St. James ♦ Cathedral Brass ♦ The Youth Servers of St. James

CHIMWEMWE traditional MALAWI Each year the Archdiocese of Blantyre in the African nation of Malawi sponsors a festival for the choirs from throughout the diocese. Many youth choirs gather to sing for one another in an open field in front of the cathedral. Cathedral Sacristan Gerald Macheso brought this piece to us from his native Malawi, and coached these young singers in the Malawian text. The fabric hangings were commissioned by the bishops of Malawi, and sent to us by the nuns of the Maula Convent in the capital city of Lilongwe. Schola Cantorum ♦ Jubilate! ♦ St. Cecilia Singers ♦ St. Gregory Choir ♦ Percussion Ensemble

O QUANTA QUALIA by Peter Abelard - Abelard's tragic love affair with Heloise has consistently outshone his achievements as a philosopher, poet, and musician. Forced apart by the contrivances of Heloise's uncle, Abelard became a monk and Heloise a nun; but this did not end the connection between the two lovers. In the midst of many other projects, Abelard composed a hymn-book for Heloise, now abbess of her convent. O Quanta Qualia was written for her community to sing at Saturday Vespers. The hymn vividly expresses the contract between earthly sorrows and heavenly joys, and envisions the New Jerusalem as a place of rest and reunion, where "the thing prayed for never comes short of the prayer." Howard Fankhauser, tenor ♦ East Apse Organ

FEIERLICHER EINZUG DER RITTER DES JOHANNITZORDENS by Richard Strauss - Composed for a procession of the Knights of the Order of St. John before the Cathedral of St. Stephen, this great ceremonial work was written by Strauss at the height of his artistic success, between the two operas Elektra and Der Rosenkavalier. The original version, played on the front steps of St. Stephen's, was scored for 25 brass and timpani. Strauss later wrote versions of the piece for organ, orchestra, and many other instrumental combinations. Cathedral Brass ♦ Joseph Adam, West Gallery Organ ♦ The Choirs and Servers of St. James Cathedral

STATUIT EI DOMINUS by Arvo Pärt - San Petronio became famous in the 16th century for large-scale dialogue between opposing choirs and organs. Arvo Pärt recently revived the format in this work dedicated to the Cappella Musicale of San Petronio and the organist Lieuwe Tamminga for the 600th anniversary of the Basilica. Cathedral Choir ♦ Joseph Adam, west gallery organ ♦ Dr. Clint Kraus, east apse organ

THE ANGELUS PRAYER—AVE MARIA by Franz Biebl - Biebl wrote compositions for the radio in southern Germany as well as for several cathedrals, including the Frauenkirche in Munich and St. Mary's in San Francisco. His famous setting of the Angelus prayer, "Ave Maria" , has become one of the most frequently performed additions to the repertory of the world's cathedrals. Howard Fankhauser, Paul Hearn and Gregory Carroll, tenors ♦ Men of the Cathedral Choir ♦ Cathedral Chant Choir

AVE GENEROSA by St. Hildegard of Bingen - The Cathedral in Trier offered an avenue to the larger world for Hildegard, the abbess of a small community on the Rhine. At the Council of Trier in 1148, Pope Eugenius III and Bernard of Clairvaux proclaimed the authenticity of her visions and encouraged her prophetic teachings. During the 1150s, Hildegard composed a series of liturgical chants honoring the saints venerated at the Trier Cathedral, and in her late 60s, the ailing Hildegard finally traveled to Trier to preach. Ann Glusker, cantor ♦ The Women of St. James Schola

I WAS GLAD WHEN THEY SAID UNTO ME by C. Hubert H. Parry with fanfares for a great cathedral by Patrick Stoyanovich - This setting of Psalm 122 was composed by Sir Hubert for the coronation of King Edward VII. It proved so ideally suited that it has served as the new monarch's entrance for each of the subsequent British Coronations. Since the days of Queen Elizabeth I, the Queen's Scholars of Westminster have had the right to greet the sovereign with cries of "Vivat!, vivat!" and Parry had the inspiration to make a place for the greeting in the anthem itself. The performance tonight interpolates trumpet fanfares composed for this program by area composer Patrick Stoyanovich. The Cathedral Choir of St. James ♦ Jubilate! ♦ Schola Cantorum ♦ Cathedral Brass

INTERMISSION

FANFARE FOR ST. EDMUNDSBURY by Benjamin Britten - Composed for the celebration of the anniversary of the Magna Carta and the rights of the English under their British monarch, this fanfare was first performed on the grounds of St. Edmund's Gothic ruins. The work is made up of three separate fanfares — the earthly "smooth" and the heavenly "brilliant" and "heroic." The earthly and the heavenly are combined in the final fanfare. Cathedral Brass ♦ Loren Pontén, conductor

AUGUSTUS, THE MONARCH by Kassia - Kassia appears in the Imperial Chronicles as one of the most brilliant members of the imperial court, whose worship and civil ceremonies centered on the greatest church of the Orthodox world — Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. Falling out of political favor, Kassia sought refuge in a cloister in the imperial city. Her Augustus, the Monarch, one of fifty works attributed to this important early composer, was chanted by Kassia and her companions in the religious life at various times during the liturgical year. The Women of St. James Schola

SELECTIONS from the HOLY WEEK OFFICE OF TENEBRÆ with portions of the TROISIÈME LEÇON DE TENÉBRÈS by François Couperin and CHANTED LESSIONS from the LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH - Cathedrals are to serve as models for their dioceses, and 17th-century Notre-Dame in Paris, despite its conservative tendencies, frequently opened new musical doors for neighboring parishes, convents and religious order churches. The simplification of Roman chant at Notre-Dame was imitated in churches throughout the diocese. Couperin's Tenebræ service (1714) for the nuns at the abbey of Longchamp was made possible in part by the musical practices of the cathedral church of the diocese. In recent years the singing of the Office of Tenebræ has been revived here at St. James Cathedral, with cathedral musicians performing the complete settings by Couperin with viol da gamba, lute, harp and organ continuo. Lisa Cardwell Pontén and Ann Glusker, sopranos ♦ Stephen Stubbs, theorbo ♦ Maxine Eilander, baroque harp ♦ Joseph Adam, portative organ ♦ Daniel Jinguji, lector

SANCTUS from MISSA SALZBURGENSIS by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Von Biber - This monumental work is named for Salzburg Cathedral. Although scholars disagree about its origins, and even who its composer might have been, they agree that this Mass of Salzburg was composed to celebrate the great baroque cathedral itself. This Mass is thought to have been composed for the completion of the cathedral in 1682. Cathedral Choir of St. James ♦ Cathedral Soloists ♦ Cathedral Brass ♦ Joseph Adam, East Apse Organ ♦ Dr. Clint Kraus, portative organ

ALMA REDEMPTORIS MATER CHANT HYMN and POLYPHONIC SETTING by Jean de Ockeghem - For most of the second half of the 15th century, Ockeghem was in service at the French royal court where he was named Canon of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame during the reign of Louis XI. Ockeghem's four Marian motets, especially this evening's treatment of the chant hymn, Alma redemptoris Mater, stand at the pinnacle of 15th-century composition. A side note: Ockeghem's patron, Louis, established the French silk industry, developed monopolies on blue dye, and proclaimed golden fleur de lis on a blue field as a symbol of the French monarchy. Lisa Cardwell Pontén, Rebekah Gilmore, Kathryn Weld, Ruth Preston, Howard Fankhauser, Norman Smith ♦ Joseph Adam, conductor

ARBOS for 4 TRUMPETS, 4 TROMBONES, and PERCUSSION by Arvo Pärt The resurgence of the Orthodox church in Estonia led to the creative rebirth of Arvo Pärt after a long period of self-imposed silence. The composer's exposure to the chant and the spirituality of the Eastern Church has resulted in music of deep mysticism and radiant serenity. Arbos, with its deliberately static quality, encourages us to leave chronological time and enter the eternal present of the liturgy. Cathedral Brass ♦ Joseph Adam, conductor

LAUDI ALLA VERGINE MARIA by Giuseppe Verdi - During its first two centuries, the Three Choirs Festival was dominated by Handel and Purcell; in the late 19th century, however, the festival opened up to "more adventurous" and "less stereotyped repertory," including works by such then-modern composers as Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner. Here Verdi sets Dante's great hymn of the paradox: Mother, daughter of your own Son, humblest and most exalted of all creatures; you through whom our human nature was so exalted that the Creator did not disdain to become his own creation! Women of the Cathedral Choir of St. James ♦ The Women of St. James Schola ♦ Jubilate!

PRÄLUDIUM IN B MINOR by Johann Sebastian Bach - Eager to experience musical life beyond the confines of his first employment in Arnstadt, the twenty-year-old Bach obtained leave of absence to make a now-legendary trek by foot of 250 miles to Lübeck to hear the celebrated organist Dieterich Buxtehude, and “to comprehend one thing and another about his art.” Granted a four week leave, Bach met with the wrath of the church council when he returned four months later. Buxtehude’s music making was one of the great influences in Bach’s young life; the journey so memorable that it was recounted in Bach’s obituary forty-five years later. Joseph Adam, east apse and west gallery organs

The CONVERSION OF SAINT PAUL from SAINT PAUL by Felix Mendelssohn - Many of Mendelssohn's most popular works including his great oratorios Elijah and Saint Paul were performed at the Three Choirs Festival in the last decades of the 19th century. Saint Paul (1836) was first performed at the Festival in 1873, and became a particular favorite work, appearing six further times on Festival programs before the close of the century. The Festival has helped to define the modern cathedral as a musical center willing to take risks on new works by contemporary composers. Cathedral Choir of St. James ♦ The Women of St. James Schola ♦ Jubilate! ♦ Cathedral Soloists ♦ Cathedral Brass ♦ Cathedral Organists

Music for Holy Week 2009

Click here for a list of the repertoire during Holy Week.