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Mozart at 250
March 11 &12, 2006
I
Versperae
Solennes De Confessore
(Solemn Vespers) |
Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart |
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Dixit Dominos
Cinfitebor Tibie
Beatus Vir
Laudate Pueri
Laudate Dominum omnes gentes |
"The Lord said to my Lord"
"I will praise you, O Lord"
"Blessed is the man who fears the Lord"
"Praise the Lord, ye children"
"Praise the Lord, all ye nation" |
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II
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Let My Voice Ring Out
That I Shall Never Look Upon Thee More
My Spirit Sang All Day
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James Quitman Mulholland
(2001)
James Quitman Mulholland
(1995)
Gerald Finzi
(1937) |
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III
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Three Songs
from "Alice in Wonderland"
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Irving Fine
(1942) |
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Lobster Quadrille
Lullaby of the Duchess (Solo: Kathy Gordon)
Father William
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How Can I Keep From Singing
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Arr: by James Quitman Mulholland
(1999) |
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Mozart's Method of Composing
As you listen to the music of Mozart it is difficult to
fathom how he could write so much music so perfectly. In a book of
Mozart's letters he writes to a baron who has made him a present of wine:
"When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone, and of good
cheer -- say traveling in a carriage, or walking after a good meal, or
during the night when I cannot sleep: it is on such occasions that my
ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence and how
they come, I know not; nor can I force them. Those ideas that please
me I keep in my memory, and am accustomed, as I have been told, to hum them
to myself. If I continue in this way, it soon occurs to me how I may
turn this or that morsel to account, so as to make a good dish of it, that
is to say, agreeably to the rules of counterpoint, to the peculiarities of
the various instruments, etc.
"All this inspires my soul, and provided I am not disturbed, my subject
enlarges itself, becomes methodized and defined, and the whole, though it
be long, stands almost complete and finished in my mind, so that I can
survey it, like a fine picture or a beautiful statue, at a glance.
No do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, but I hear them, as
it were all at once (gleich alles zusammen). What a delight this is
I cannot tell! All this inventing, this producing takes place in a
pleasing lively dream. Still the actual hearing of the tout
ensemble is after all the best. What has been thus produced I do
no easily forget, and this is perhaps the best give I have my Divine Maker
to thank for.
"When I proceed to write down my ideas, I take out of the bag of my
memory, if I may use that phrase, what has been previously collected into
it in the way I have mentioned. For this reason the committing to
paper is done quickly enough, for everything is as I said before already
finished and rarely differs on paper from what it was in my imagination.
At this occupation I can therefore suffer myself to be disturbed; for
whatever may be going on around me, I write, and even talk, but only of
fowls and geese, or of Gretel or Barbel, or some such matters. But
what my productions take from my hand that particular form and style that
makes them Mozart's, and different from the works of other
composers, is probably owning to the same cause which render my nose so
large aquiline, or in short, make it Mozart's, and different from those of
other people. For I don't study or aim at an originality."
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Gerald Finzi (1901-1956)
Finzi's work shows a marvelous wedding with the text. He often
bonded with the authors he met and had a remarkable knowledge of English
literature, especially poetry. Other than a brief time spent
teaching (1930-1933), Finzi lived in rural England where he composed and
conducted amateur music groups. He especially loved the baritone
voice and the clarinet and many of his best works were inspired by these
qualities. In his orchard Ashmansworth, he rescued the stock of
several English apples from extinction. For Finzi, the choice of the
rare, be it music, fine writing, or simply a sweet tasting apple were joys
to perpetuate.
James Quitman Mulholland
Dr. Mulholland is one of America's most sung contemporary composers.
His lyric style and contemporary harmonies blend with outstanding texts to
bring us special compositions. The largest of the three pieces on
the program, "That I Shall Never Look Upon Thee More" was commissioned by
the American Chorale Directors Association to be sung at each regional
convention in 1996. It has a text by Keats that the composer has
"Dedicated to the memory of those who have departed too soon."
Mulholland is currently a professor at the Jordan College of Fine Arts at
Butler University. He received his BM and MM Degrees from Louisiana
State University in Voice and Composition and a Doctorate from Indiana
University in Performance and Literature. He was named LSU School of
Music Alumnus of the year and accepts ten commissions a year.
Irving Fine (1914-1962)
Irving Fine was an American composer with a remarkable gift for melody.
He was a close associate of Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Igor
Stravinsky and Serge Koussevitsky. He studied composition with
Archibald Davidson at Harvard and taught theory and music history there
from 1939 to 1950. He then taught at Brandeis University. He
also directed the Harvard Glee Club, and for nine summers taught at the
Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood. Charmed by the versus from
Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland", he set three of the to music.
Each is strikingly different and each captures the words wonderfully.
Not only the chorus parts, but the saucy piano accompaniments picture the
words of the lyricist with absolute integrity. The awkward walk of
the lobster, the nasty lullaby of the Duchess and the jovial repartee of
Father William make the a contemporary delight. Originally intended
for a stage production, the pieces combine a childlike playfulness with
irony and musical wit.
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