Chamber Singers
Welborn E. Young, conductor
David Wagner, assistant conductor
Walton Lott, accompanist
University Chorale
Carole Ott, conductor
Stephanie Schmidt, accompanist
assisted by:
Yelena Nezhdanova, accompanist
Kelsey Paquin, clarinet
Sunday, April 26, 2015
3:30 pm
Aycock Auditorium
Program
Chamber Singers
Nocturnes Morten Lauridsen
Soneto de la Noche (b. 1943)
Harlem Songs (2003) Gwyneth Walker
Spirituals (b. 1947)
Harlem Night Song
David Wagner, conductor
The Dream Keepers (2010) William Averitt
The Dream Keeper (b. 1948)
Dream Variations
As I Grew Older
Song
Nocturnes Morten Lauridsen
Sure On This Shining Night
Intermission
University Chorale
from Songs from the Bavarian Highlands Edward Elgar
The Dance (1857-1934)
Lullaby
David Baek, conductor
Part Songs Edward Elgar
My love dwelt in a northern land
As torrents in summer
Justin Cowan, conductor
Le jour Reynaldo Hahn
(1874-1947)
Hymne au Soleil Lili Boulanger
(1893-1918)
Therese Pirçon, soprano
Acquaintance with Nature Gwyneth Walker
1. Prologue (b. 1947)
2. Remember Thy Creator
3. I Seek Acquaintance with Nature
4. I Perceive the Spring in the Softened Air
5. Mornings
6. Dry, Hazy June Weather
7. Dew on the Cobwebs
8. The First Star is Lit
9. Epilogue
Robin Hardman, Georgia Smith; narration
Davis Kelton, tenor
Michaela Kelly, soprano; Carley Hott, alto;
Matthew Tolodziecki, tenor; Robin Hardman, baritone
Kelsey Paquin, clarinet
________
David Baek and Justin Cowan are students of Dr. Ott
David Wagner is a student of Dr. Young
Morten Lauridsen:
Nocturnes
Text by Pablo Neruda (1998)
Soneto de la Noche
Cuando yo muera quiero
tus manos en mis ojos:
quiero la luz y el trigo de
tus manos amadas
pasar una vez más sobre mí su frescura:
sentir la suavidad que cambió
mi destino.
Quiero que vivas mientras yo,
dormido, te espero,
quiero que tus oídos sigan oyendo el viento,
que huelas el aroma del mar
que amamos juntos
y que sigas pisando la arena
que pisamos.
Quiero que lo que amo siga vivo
y a ti te amé y canté sobre
todas las cosas,
por eso sigue tú floreciendo, florida,
para que alcances todo
lo que mi amor te ordena,
para que se pasee mi sombra
por tu pelo,
para que así conozcan la razón
de mi canto.
Gwyneth Walker:
Harlem Songs
Text by Langston Hughes (1994)
Spirituals
Rocks and the firm roots of trees.
The rising shafts of mountains.
Something strong to put my hands on.
Sing, O Lord Jesus!
Song is a strong thing.
I heard my mother singing
When life hurt her:
Gonna ride in my chariot some day!
The branches rise
From the firm roots of trees.
The mountains rise
From the solid lap of earth.
The waves rise
From the dead weight of sea.
Sing, O black mother!
Song is a strong thing.
Nocturnes
Sonnet of the Night
When I die I want
your hands on my eyes:
I want the light and the wheat of
your beloved hands
To pass their freshness over me one more
time to feel the smoothness that changed
my destiny.
I want you to live while
I wait for you, asleep,
I want for your ears to go on hearing the
wind, for you to smell the sea
that we loved together
and for you to go on walking the sand
where we walked.
I want for what I love to go on living
and as for you I loved you and sang
you above everything,
for that, go on flowering, flowery one,
so that you reach all that my
love orders for you,
so that my shadow passes
through your hair,
so that they know by this the reason
for my song.
Harlem Songs
Harlem Night Song
Come,
Let us roam the night together
Singing.
I love you.
Across
The Harlem roof-tops
Moon is shining.
Night sky is blue.
Stars are great drops
Of golden dew.
Down the street
A band is playing.
I love you.
Come,
Let us roam the night together
Singing.
William Averitt:
The Dream Keeper
Text by Langston Hughes (1994)
The Dream Keeper
Bring me all of your dreams,
You dreamer,
Bring me all your
Heart melodies
That I may wrap them
In a blue cloud-cloth
Away from the too-rough fingers
Of the world.
Dream Variations
To fling my arms wide
In some place of the sun,
To whirl and to dance
Till the white day is done.
Then rest at cool evening
Beneath a tall tree
While night comes on gently,
Dark like me-
That is my dream!
To fling my arms wide
In the face of the sun,
Dance! Whirl! Whirl!
Till the quick day is done.
Rest at pale evening...
A tall, slim tree...
Night coming tenderly
Black like me.
As I Grew Older
It was a long time ago.
I have almost forgotten my dream.
But it was there then,
In front of me,
Bright like a sun—
My dream.
And then the wall rose,
Rose slowly,
Slowly,
Between me and my dream.
Rose until it touched the sky—
The wall.
Shadow.
I am black.
I lie down in the shadow.
No longer the light of my dream before me,
Above me.
Only the thick wall.
Only the shadow.
My hands!
My dark hands!
Break through the wall!
Find my dream!
Help me to shatter this darkness,
To smash this night,
To break this shadow
Into a thousand lights of sun,
Into a thousand whirling dreams
Of sun!
Song
Lovely, dark, and lonely one,
Bare your bosom to the sun.
Do not be afraid of light,
You who are a child of night.
Open wide your arms to life,
Whirl in the wind of pain and strife,
Face the wall with the dark closed gate,
Beat with bare, brown fists—
And wait.
Morten Lauridsen:
Nocturnes
Text by James Agee (1934)
Sure On This Shining Night
Sure on this shining night
Of star made shadows round,
Kindness must watch for me
This side the ground.
The late year lies down the north.
All is healed, all is health.
High summer holds the earth.
Hearts all whole.
Sure on this shining night I weep for
wonder wand'ring far
alone
Of shadows on the stars.
Edward Elgar:
“The Dance” from From the Bavarian
Highlands, Op. 27, no. 1
Text by C. Alice Elgar
Come and hasten to the dancing,
Merry eyes will soon be glancing,
Ha! My heart upbounds!
Come, Come!
Come and dance a merry measure,
Quaff the bright brown ale my treasure,
Hark! What joyous sounds!
Hark! Hark! Hark!
Sweet heart come,
On let us haste.
On, on, no time let us waste,
With my heart I love thee!
Dance, dance, for rest we disdain.
Turn twirl and spin round again,
With my arm I hold thee!
Come and hasten to the dancing,
Merry eyes will soon be glancing,
Hark! What joyous sounds.
Hark!
Merry eyes will soon be glancing,
Hark! What sounds!
Hark! Hark!
Down the path the lights are gleaming,
Friendly faces gladly beaming
Welcome, welcome us with song.
Come and hasten to the dancing,
Merry eyes will soon be glancing,
Ha! My heart upbounds!
Hark! Hark! Hark! Hark!
Come, dance!
Come and dance a merry measure,
Quaff the bright brown ale my treasure,
Hark! What joyous sounds!
Hark! Hark! Hark! Hark!
Sweet heart come, On let us haste.
On, on, no time let us waste,
With my heart I love thee!
Dance, dance, for rest we disdain.
Turn twirl and spin round again,
With my arm I hold thee!
Dancing make the heart grow lighter.
Dancing makes the world
And life grow brighter
As we dance along.
Edward Elgar:
“Lullaby” from From the Bavarian Highlands,
Op. 27, no. 3
Sleep, my son, oh slumber softly.
While thy mother watches o'er thee,
Nothing can affright or harm thee.
Sleep, oh! Sleep, my son.
Far away, zithers play,
Dancing gay, calls to-day
Vainly play, zithers gay.
Here I stay all the day.
Happily guarding thee,
Peacefully watching thee.
Sleep, my son, oh slumber softly.
While thy mother watches o'er thee,
Sleep, oh! sleep my son.
“As torrents in summer” from Scenes from
the Saga of King Olaf, Op. 30
Text by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
As torrents in summer,
Half dried in their channels,
Suddenly rise, though the
Sky is still cloudless,
For rain has been falling
Far off at their fountains;
So hearts that are fainting
Grow full to o'erflowing,
And they that behold it
Marvel, and know not
That God at their fountains
Far off has been raining
Gwyneth Walker
Acquaintance With Nature
Text by Henry David Thoreau
Prologue
I went to the woods because I wished to live
deliberately, to front only the essential facts
of life, and see if I could not learn what it
had to teach, and not, when I came to die,
discover that I had not lived.
I do not wish to live what was not life,
living is so dear, nor did I wish to practice
resignation, unless it was quite necessary.
My love dwelt in a Northern land,
Op. 18, no. 3
Text by Andrew Lang
My love dwelt in a Northern land.
A dim tower in a forest green
Was his, and far away the sand
And gray wash of waves were seen
The woven forest boughs between.
And through the Northern summer night
The sunset slowly died away,
And herds of strange deer, silver-white,
came gleaming through the forest
gray,
And fled like ghosts before the day.
And oft that month, we watched the moon
Wax great and white o’er wood and lawn,
And wane, with waning of the June.
Till, like a brand for battle drawn,
She fell, and flamed in a wild dawn.
I know not if the forest green
Still girdles round that castle gray,
I know not if the boughs between
The white deer vanish ere the day:
The grass above my love is green,
His heart is colder than the clay.
I wanted to live deep and suck out all the
marrow of life, to live sturdily and
Spartan—like as to put to rout all that was
not life, to cut a broad swath and shave
close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce
it to its lowest terms, and if it proved to be
mean, why then to get the whole and
genuine meanness of it, and publish its
meanness to the world;
or if it were sublime, to know it by
experience, and be able to give a true
account of it in my next excursion.
Remember Thy Creator
Remember thy creator in the days of thy
youth. Rise free from care before the dawn
and seek adventures. Let the noon find
thee by other lakes, and the night overtake
thee everywhere at home. Grow wild
according to thy nature. Let the thunder
rumble. Take shelter under the cloud.
Enjoy the land, but own it not.
I Seek Acquaintance With Nature
I want to go soon and live away by the
pond, where I shall hear only the wind
whispering among the reeds. It will be
enough if I shall leave myself behind. I seek
acquaintance with Nature, to know her
moods and her manners.
I wish to know an entire heaven and an
entire earth!
I Perceive the Spring in the Softened Air
I perceive the spring in the softened air.
Looking through the transparent vapors, all
surfaces look more vivid. The hardness of
winter is relaxed.
I do not know that the woods are ever more
beautiful, or affect me more. How silent are
the footsteps of spring!
I perceive the spring in the softened air.
Mornings
There are from time to time mornings, both
in summer and in winter, mornings, when
especially the world seems to begin anew.
The world has been recreated in the night,
Mornings of creation I call them. It is the
poet’s hour. Mornings when we are
newborn, we who have the seeds of life in
us.
Reynaldo Hahn
Le Jour
Text by Théodore de Banville
Tout est ravi quand bient le Jour
Dans les cieux flamboyants d’aurore.
Sur la terre en fleur qu’il décore
La joie immense est de retour.
Dry, Hazy June Weather
It is dry, hazy June weather. We are more
of the earth, farther from heaven these days.
We are getting deeper into the mists of the
earth. The season of hope and promise is
past; already the season of small fruits has
arrived, the season when berries are ripe.
The prospect of the heavens is taken away,
and we are presented with only a few small
berries.
Dew on the Cobwebs
Everywhere there is dew on the cobwebs,
little gossamer veils, or scarfs as big as your
hand. They were dropped from the fairy
shoulders that danced on the grass last
night.
The First Star is Lit
Every day a new picture is painted and
framed, held up for half an hour, in such
lights as the Great Artist chooses, and then
withdrawn, and the curtain
falls. And then the sun goes down and the
long afterglow gives light. And then the
damask curtains glow along the western
window.
And then the first star is lit, and I go home.
Epilogue
Time is but the stream I go afishing in. I
drink at it, but while I drink I see the sandy
bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its
thin currents slide away, but eternity
remains. I would drink deeper, fish in the
sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars.
Day
Translation by Debra Spurgeon
All is delight when day breaks
In the flaming skies of dawn.
On the flowering earth it beautifies.
Immense joy returns!
Les feuillages au pur contour
Ont un bruissement sonore;
Tout est ravi quand vient le Jour
Dans les cieux flamboyants d’aurore.
La chaumière comme la tour
Dans la lumière se colore,
L’eau murmure, la fleur adore,
Les oiseaux chantent, fous d’amour.
Tout est ravi quand vient le Jour.
Lili Boulanger
Hymne au Soleil
Text by Casimir Delavigne
Du soleil qui renaît benisons la puissance,
Avec tout l’univers célébrons son retour.
Couronné de splendeur, il se lève il
s’élance!
Le réveil de la terre, est un hymne d’amour.
Sept coursiers, qu’en partant le Dieu
contient à peine,
Enflamment l’horizon de leur brûlante
haleine.
O Soleil fécond, tu parais!
Avec ses champs en fleurs, ses monts, ses
bois épais,
La vaste mer de tes feux embrasée,
L’univers plus jeune et plus frais
Des vapeurs du matin sont brillante de
rosée.
Du soleil qui renaît benisons la puissance,
Avec tout l’univers célébrons son retour.
Couronné de splendeur, il se lève il
s’élance!
Le réveil de la terre, est un hymne d’amour.
Clearly silhouetted leaves
Rustle loudly;
All is delight when day breaks
In the flaming skies of dawn.
The thatches cottage like the tower
Is tinged with light.
The water murmurs, the flower adores,
Birds sing, madly in love!
All is delight when day breaks.
Hymn to the Sun
Let us bless the power of the reborn sun.
With all the universe let us celebrate its
return.
Crowned with splendor, it rises, it soars!
The walking of the earth is a hymn of love.
Seven rushing steeds that God barely
restrains
Ignite the horizon with their scorching
breath.
O, vivid Sun, you appear!
With its fields in bloom, its mountains, its
thick forests,
The vats sea set ablaze by your fires,
The universe, younger and fresher,
With morning vapors are glistening with
dew.
Let us bless the power of the reborn sun.
With all the universe let us celebrate its
return.
Crowned with splendor, it rises, it soars!
The walking of the earth is a hymn of love.
Department of Performance – Voice Area at UNCG:
Dr. Robert Bracey, Chair
Dr. Donald Hartmann
Dr. Carla LeFevre
Ms. Clara O’Brien
Ms. Levone Tobin-Scott
Dr. Nancy Walker
Dr. Robert Wells
Mr. David Holley, Director of Opera
Dr. Carole J. Ott, Associate Director of Choral Activities
Dr. Welborn E. Young, Director of Choral Activities
Chamber Singers
Welborn E. Young, conductor
David Wagner, assistant conductor
Walt Lott, accompanist
Soprano
MacKenzie Ellis
Megan Callahan
Holly Curtis
Felicia Francois
Shelby Thiedeman
Beth Allen-Gardner
Tenor
Jesse Herndon
Derek Jackenheimer
Joe Ciofi
Jacob Gilbert
James Smidt
David Lipscomb
Alto
Savannah Hamilton
Gretchen Krupp
Lydia Pion
Megan Parker
Amanda Girelli
Carley Hott
Bass
Wesley McCleary-Small
Trevor DeMoss
Robin Hardman
Austin Jeffries
David Wagner
Baker Lawrimore
University Chorale
Carole J. Ott, conductor
David Baek, Justin Cowan, assistant conductors
Stephanie Schmidt, piano
Soprano
Chandler Clark
Emily Frey
Carley Hott
Michaela Kelly
Allysha Lilly
Adrienne Legget
Emily Lott
Lydia Nethercutt
Julia van Patter
Therese Pircon
Mary Safrit
Georgia Smith
Tenor
Davis Kelton
Benjamin Ramsey
Andrew Raines
Matthew Tolodziecki
Jacob Wood
Jordan Lee
Alto
Brittany Booth
Amanda Girelli
Tamara Hill
Carly Hutton
Heather Lewis
Julia Suskauer
Savannah Thorne
Mychaela Williams
Hana Zevgolis
Bass
David Baek
Justin Cowan
Robin Hardman
Austin Jeffries
Jacob Kato
Andreas Nassar
Matthew Panther
Jordan Rosser
