School of Music
U N C G
University Chorale
Carole Ott, conductor
Nancy Davis, piano
Sunday, November 1, 2009
7:30 pm
Recital Hall, School of Music
Program
Chansons
Dieu, qui la fait bon regarder! Claude Debussy
(1862-1918)
Scene
Baisey moy Josquin des Prez
Mille regretz (1450-1521)
Si jʼay perdu
Fragments
Petite camusette
Cueur desolez
Pleine de deuil
Journey
Entré je suis
Tant vous aimme
Cueur langoureulx
Dieu, qui la fait bon regarder! Claude Debussy
Pause
The Mask William Bolcom
The Mask (b. 1938)
Heritage
Silhouette
Worn Faces
Interlude for Natalie
Portrait
Nancy Davis, piano
Hard Times Stephen Foster
(1826-1854)
arr. Craig Hella Johnson (b. 1962)
Maggie Schwenker, mezzo-soprano
Claude Debussy
Text: Charles d'Orleans
Dieu! qu'il la fait bon regarder
Dieu! qu'il la fait bon regarder
la gracieuse bonne et belle;
pour les grans biens que sont en elle
chascun est prest de la loüer.
Qui se pourrait d'elle lasser?
Toujours sa beauté renouvelle.
Par de ça, ne de là, la mer
nescay dame ne damoiselle
qui soit en tous bien parfais telle.
C'est une songe que d'y penser:
Dieu! qu'il la fait bon regarder.
Josquin des Prez
Baisey moy
Baisez-moy, ma doulce amie,
par amour, je vous en prie.
– Non feray !
– Et pourquoy ?
– Si je faisais la follie,
Ma mère en serait morrie.
Vela de quoy !
Mille regretz
Mille regretz de vous abandonner
Et d'elonger votre face amoureuse.
J'ay si grand dueil et peine douloureuse
Qu'on me verra brief mes jours deffiner,
Brief mes jours deffiner.
Si jʼay perdu mon amy
Si jʼay perdu mon amy
Je nʼay poinct cause de rire.
Je lʼay si long temps servy.
Vray dieu, quʼen volez vous dire?
Il y a an et dermy
Quʼa mon gré lʼavoys choisy.
Morte suis se je ne lʼay;
Et quʼen volez vous donc dire de moy?
Petite camusette
Petite camusette, à la mort m'avez mis,
Robin et Marion, s'en vont au bois joly.
Ilz s'en vont, ilz s'en vont bras à bras,
ilz se sont endormis. petite camusette,
à la mort m'avez mis.
Cueurs desloz
Cueurs desolez par toute nation.
Assemblez dueil et lamentation.
Ne cherchez plus lʼarmoniance,
Lyre dʼOrpheus pour voz resiouysance.
Mais plongez vous en desolation.
Pleine de deuil
Pleine de deuil,
Et de melancolie,
Voyant mon mal
Qui toujours multiplie,
Et quʼen la fin
Pluz ne le puis porter,
Constrainte suis
Pour me reconforter
Me rendre a toy
Le surplus de ma vie.
Entré je suis
Entré je suis en grant pensée;
Cʼest pour faire ung nouvel amy
Donʼt je me trouve courroussée,
Le cuer dolent, triste et marry.
Mais je ne sçay
Se cela me sera bon
En ce joly moys de may.
Le sarai je ou non?
Tant vous aimme
Tant vous aimme.
Au jardin mon pere entray;
Trois fleurs dʼamours gi coeullay.
Tant vous aimme, bergeronnette.
Tant vous aimme.
Cueur langoureulx
Cueur langoureulx qui ne fais que penser,
Plaindre, gemir plouer et souspire.
Resiouys toy, carta belle maistresse
Par sa pitie te veult donner liesse
Ioye et plaisir pour te reconforter.
William Bolcom
The Mask
The Mask
Philip Laurence Dunbar
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!
Heritage
Gwendolyn B. Bennett
I want to see the slim palm-trees,
Pulling at the clouds
With little pointed fingers....
I want to see lithe Negro girls
Etched dark against the sky
While sunset lingers.
I want to hear the silent sands,
Singing to the moon
Before the Sphinx-still face....
I want to hear the chanting
Around a heathen fire
Of a strange black race.
I want to breathe the Lotus flow'r,
Sighing to the stars
With tendrils drinking at the Nile....
I want to feel the surging
Of my sad people's soul,
Hidden by a minstrel-smile.
Silhouette
Richard Bruce Nugent
On the face of the moon
Am I.
A dark shadow in the light.
A silhouette am I
On the face of the moon
Lacking color
Or vivid brightness
But defined all the clearer
Because
I am dark,
Black on the face of the moon.
A shadow am I
Growing in the light,
Not understood as is the day,
But more easily seen
Because
I am a shadow in the light.
Worn Faces
Charles Cyrus Thomas
Hills about the countryside,
Cold and bare, dissatisfied.
From the years of deep regret,
Laboring, paying on her debt,
On through life.
Deep the gullies scar her face
Where the waters run their race;
Once a smooth and sun-lit hill—
Now sheʼs ragged, worn and still—
Dead from strife.
Aged and worn, a humanʼs face
Where the tears in steady pace
Cut the youth to ragged forms
As it faces roughest storms
Seeking life.
Portrait
T. J. Anderson III
When woman picked up first stone,
made that rhythmic thud called fire,
Sun shone sheen on mountain.
The eland rubbed its twisted horns
against the black scab of a tree.
Fingers dip in an ivory thicket of keys.
The last ticket holder staggers in.
Black print programs fade to music.
Pastel crescent shadow rippling
on curtain waves of savanna grass.
Sing a song to the rainʼs cool baptism
seeping through the flash of ceremonial
masks.
The percussive hammer strikes wire
—an arpeggio cradled in the arms of silence.
Craig Hella Johnson
Hard Times
Text: Stephen Foster
Let us pause in life's pleasures
And count its many tears,
While we all sup sorrow with the poor;
There's a song that will linger
Forever in our ears;
Oh hard times come again no more.
Refrain:
Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,
Hard times, hard times,
Come again no more
Many days you have lingered
Around my cabin door;
Oh hard times come again no more.
While we seek mirth and beauty
And music light and gay,
There are frail forms fainting at the door;
Though their voices are silent,
Their pleading looks will say
Oh hard times come again no more.
Refrain
There's a pale drooping maiden
Who toils her life away,
With a worn heart whose better days are o'er:
Though her voice would be merry,
'tis sighing all the day,
Oh hard times come again no more.
Refrain
Tis a sigh that is wafted
Across the troubled wave,
Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore
Tis a dirge that is murmured
Around the lowly grave
Oh hard times come again no more.
Refrain
University Chorale
Jovan Adams
CJ Albee
Dana Boyle
Emily Byrne
Lindell Carter
Logan Cox
Nick Daniel
Heidi Fischer
Carmella Fisher
Miranda Freeman
Carlos Fuentes
Marques Garrett
Serobia Garris
Christina Gast
Carolyn Golrick
Karen Hayden
Alice Henderson
Ryan Hendricks
Kiersten Holden
Meredith Jones
Michael Jones
Kate King
Kenneth Leviner
Greyson Leybourne
Michael Martinez
Kyle Melton
E.J. Mitchell
Anne-Claire Niver
Ciara O'Neill-Mendoza
Paolo Pacheco
John Peeler
Ethan Price
John Rainey
Rachel Roby
Wyatt Rollins
Ashlea Ross
JoAna Rusche
Maggie Schwenker
Laurin Shaw
Brian Staff
Gregory Stout
Sarah Strickland
Julia Thomson
Tiffany Tyndall
James Williams
Allison Wise
Marcus Young
Blayne Ziegenfuss
