UNCG Celebrates the
Greensboro Bicentennial
UNCG’s Center for Creative Writing in the Arts, School of
Music, and Musical Arts Guild are proud to present an
afternoon of original music and poetry in honor of the city of
Greensboro’s two-hundredth birthday
Sunday, October 12, 2008
3:30 pm
Recital Hall, School of Music
Welcomes
Timothy D. Johnson, Dean
College of Arts and Sciences
Linda A. Carlisle, Vice-Chair
UNCG Board of Trustees
Part I
Introduction
Mark Smith-Soto, Director
Center for Creative Writing in the Arts
Poets
Sarah Lindsay
Carole Boston Weatherford
Part II
Greensboro: A Bicentennial Cantata Eddie Bass
Text Fred Chappell
I. Aubade
II. Anthem
III. Children’s Games:
Hopscotch, Jump Rope, Hide and Seek
IV. Double Wedding/ Boda Doble
UNCG Chamber Singers
Welborn E. Young, director
Please join us for a reception immediately following the program.
Eddie Bass:
Greensboro: A Bicentennial Cantata
Text by Fred Chapell
Translation by Veronica Grossi
IV. Double Wedding
Bicentennial Park. Late June. Midday:
Processional
From the new stone bridge with its modest arch
Down the Streamside path the couples march.
The cheerful pergola discloses
Priest and prayer book aid the roses.
Ceremony
Here their solemn vows they make:
“Do you, Joseph Jones, this woman take –?”
The question rings out once again:
“Do you, Jane Johnson, take this man –?”
Recession
Now stand they posing, ill at ease,
For the photo to place on the mantelpiece,
There for long decades they shall stay
Just as they stood on their wedding day.
IV. Boda Doble
Procesión
Desde el nuevo puente, leve arco de piedra,
Por la senda junto al río, marchan las parejas.
Entre rosas risueñas la pérgola revela
Donde, misal en mano, el sacerdote espera.
Ceremonia
Aquí entonces resuenan los solemnes votos:
“¿Tú, José Juan, a esta mujer tomas –?”
La pregunta resuena al repetir los votos:
“¿Tú, Juana Josefa, a este hombre tomas –?”
Recesión
Para el fiel retrato que en la reprisa quedará,
Un tanto incómodos los desposados posan;
Igual que como estaban el día de su boda,
Así por largas décadas juntos seguirán.
Greensboro: A Bicentennial Cantata is the product of the collaboration between composer
Eddie Bass and poet Fred Chappell, commissioned by UNCG’s Center for Creative Writing in the
Arts as part of its contribution to Greensboro’s bicentennial celebration.
In setting Fred Chappell’s verses I have tried to find musical equivalents for drama and meditation
and humor. Occasionally I have “painted” the scenes the poems offer, but music always
discovers dimensions words can but suggest. Words and music together compose a whole that
transcends mere syllables, mere tones.
I. Aubade: A “walking” figure in the cello and piano serves as a focal point around which other
motives circle. Activity increases as the friends greet and converse; tempos change quickly as
they gossip and chat; and as the perspective narrows to the individuals remaining in the park—
the child, the lovers—the walking figure and the opening mood return. I could not resist the
chance to compose “water music” for the City Park fountains!
II. Anthem: Offstage trumpet and drum suggest a ghostly reminder of the “battle lost that won the
war . . .” The somber mood of the first two stanzas is briefly interrupted by a hymn-like
instrumental passage that returns triumphantly in the choir’s music of the final stanza,
accompanied by fanfares derived from the trumpet’s taps-like opening. The movement ends as it
began, trumpet and drum fading softly.
III. Children’s Games: The three sections are played as a single movement, without break.
Hopscotch: The music follows Mandy’s progress into and out of the hopscotch frame closely, the
choir cheering her on.
Jump Rope: A jazzy tribute to the energy of the girls. The basic rhythm suggests the unceasing
whirl of the rope, and as each new jumper takes her turn the speed increases until Latoya jumps
to a kind of 60’s rock beat.
Hide and Seek: The poignant imagery of Fred’s poem suggested to me music of a more
introspective mood, over which the cries “olly olly in free” float like voices from a dimension
different from that of the rest of the poem.
IV. Double Wedding/Boda Doble: Here I have ventured to interpret the poem in what is perhaps a
less obvious way: I picture two couples standing shyly—“ill at ease”—each not quite sure of what
they’re about to get into, but knowing surely that they are in love. They process across the stone
bridge to quiet music: not to trumpets and roaring organ, but perhaps to music that only they
themselves hear. The world stops to listen to their vows; then, the moment captured by a
photograph, they march away, into their new life as husband and wife.
Eddie Bass
Poets
Fred Chappell taught for 40 years in the UNCG MFA Writing Program. Author of 17 books of
verse, two volumes of stories, two of criticism and eight novels, he has been awarded the Sir
Walter Raleigh Prize, the Thomas Wolfe Prize, the Best Foreign Book Prize from the Academie
Francaise, the North Carolina Medal in Literature and an Award in Literature from the National
Academy of Arts and Letters. For his poetry, he has been awarded the Bollingen Prize and the
Aiken Taylor Prize. He served as Poet Laureate of North Carolina from 1997-2002.
Sarah Lindsay, a 1984 graduate of the UNCG creative writing program, is the author of Primate
Behavior (a 1997 National Book Award finalist), Mount Clutter (2002), and Twigs and
Knucklebones (October 2008, Copper Canyon Press). Her work has appeared in Atlantic
Monthly, The Georgia Review, The International Poetry Review, The Paris Review, Parnassus,
and Poetry, among other titles. She works as a copy editor in Greensboro, NC.
New York Times best-selling author Carole Boston Weatherford has 32 books, including
Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, winner of an NAACP Image Award,
Caldecott Honor Medal and Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration. Other titles have won the
Jefferson Cup, Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, and Carter G. Woodson Award from National
Council for the Social Studies. Her latest release is the fictional verse memoir, Becoming Billie
Holiday. Winner of the Ragan-Rubin Award from the North Carolina English Teachers Association
and a two-time North Carolina Arts Council Writers Fellow, Carole teaches at Fayetteville State
University and lives in High Point, N.C.
Musicians
Eddie Bass is professor emeritus in the School of Music at UNCG. He earned the A.B., M.M.,
and Ph. D. degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Until 1992 he was chair
of the Composition/History/Theory division of the School of Music at UNCG. From 1992 until his
retirement in 2003 he served as coordinator of composition. He has composed for a variety of
media, including orchestra, wind ensemble, chorus, vocal soloists, and chamber ensembles. His
music has been performed throughout the U.S., in Canada, Britain, Russia, and the Far East. His
Pas de Quatre for Trombone Quartet was awarded first prize in the 1989 composition contest of
the International Trombone Association. Bass has received numerous commissions, most
recently from the Bel Canto Ensemble for Appalachian Echoes, premiered in April 2008; his
music is published by Seesaw (New York), BVD Press (Connecticut), C. Alan Publications, and
Warwick (England). From 1968 to 1985 he was principal trumpet of the Greensboro Symphony,
and until 2000 a member of the Market Street Brass. He has published articles on the music of
Debussy, Berlioz, and Mahler.
Welborn E. Young, Director of Choral Activities and Associate Professor of Music, holds a BME
degree and a MA in Conducting degree from Middle Tennessee State University and a DMA in
choral conducting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Young teaches
undergraduate and graduate conducting, graduate seminars in choral repertoire, German diction,
and conducts the Women's Choir and Chamber Singers. In addition, Dr. Young is the Conductor
of the Choral Society of Greensboro. He has served as guest conductor and clinician in festivals
and clinics in North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, South Carolina, Washington D.C., Illinois, and
Washington. Recently, His choirs have toured Austria, the Czech-Republic, Hungary, Italy, and
England. He is the former Artistic Director and Conductor for Windy City Performing Arts, Inc. in
Chicago. These ensembles received enthusiastic reviews in such papers the Chicago Sun Times,
Chicago Tribune, and the Windy City Times. In the summer of 1998, Dr. Young was a featured
festival conductor at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Netherlands. That same summer he was
guest conductor of Chicago's Grant Park Symphony Chorus and assisted with the preparation of
their first recording. He has prepared and conducted the Nashville Symphony Chorus and
appeared as guest conductor with the Nashville Opera Association.
Soloists:
I. Aubade
Hannah Lloyd
Patrick Darab
David Blalock
III. Children’s Games
Hopscotch
Pam McDermott
Jump Rope
Bryn Hagman
Sydney Dixon
Hide and Seek
Clara Burrus
Hannah Lloyd
IV. Boda Doble/Double Wedding
Stephanie Patterson
Kate Jackson
Patrick Darab
Chris Juengel
Instrumentalists:
Deborah Egekvist, flute
Thomas Pappas, oboe
Kelly Burke, clarinet
Deborah Woodhams, violin
Kathryn Middel, viola
Alex Ezerman, cello
Josh Cvijanovic, percussion
Minjung Seo, piano
Chamber Singers
Welborn E. Young, director
Pam McDermott, Nana Wolfe, Matt Webb, accompanists
James Bates
David Blalock
Winnona Borawski
Rachel Bowman
Clara Burrus
Cary Cannon
Lucas Cecil
Patrick Darab
Sidney Dixon
Logan Haggard
Bryn Hagman
Justin Hazelgrove
Katherine Jackson
Christopher Juengel
Amanda Keith
James Keith
Hannah Lloyd
Pamela McDermott
Megan Parrott
Stephanie Patterson
Neal Sharpe
Matthew Webb
Nana Wolfe
Upcoming Events in the School of Music
October
13 Octubafest: Tuba/Euphonium Studio Recital I 5:30 Organ Hall
works by Butterworth, Grundman, Gabriele, Debussy, and Gregson
Octubafest: TubaBand Recital 7:30 Recital Hall
works by Robinson, Corwell, Gesualdo, Forte, Alfven, Grant, and Sibelius
14 Octubafest: Tuba/Euphonium Studio Recital II 5:30 Organ Hall
works by Mahler, Ito, Grant, Persichetti, and Sonnenberg
Donald Hartmann, Clara O’Brien, and 7:30 Recital Hall
James Douglass, faculty recital • $
Des Knaben Wunderhorn by Gustav Mahler
$10 general / $6 seniors / $4 students / $3 UNCG
15 Octubafest: Tuba/Euphonium Studio Recital III 5:30 Organ Hall
works by Gillingham, Capuzzi, Clarke, Barat, and Sparke
16 Percussion Ensemble Recital • $ 7:30 Recital Hall
$10 general / $6 seniors / $4 students / $3 UNCG
25 Muses Delight, faculty and guest artist recital • $ 7:30 Organ Hall
$10 general / $6 seniors / $4 students / $3 UNCG
26 Charles A. Lynam Vocal Competition: 7:30 Recital Hall
Final Concert • $
Ticket Price TBA
27 Hannah Lloyd, voice recital 5:30 Recital Hall
works by Debussy, Fauré, Massenet, Puccini, Tchaikovsky, and Britten
28 New Music Festival: Student Composers Concert 5:30 Organ Hall
New Music Concert: performance I • $ 7:30 Recital Hall
$10 general / $6 seniors / $4 students / $3 UNCG
29 CHT Lecture: Ken Ueno 4:00Collins Lecture Hall
New Music Festival: performance II • $ 7:30 Recital Hall
30 Philip van Lidth de Jeude, graduate voice recital 5:30 Recital Hall
New Music Festival: performance III 7:00 Weatherspoon
Art Gallery
