VBC meets Orchid Ensemble

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Program

Orchid Ensemble Solo Set:

Arr. Lan Tung Xiao He Tang Shui
Zhou Ji, Shao Guangchen and Li Mei, arr.: Mei Han Maqam: Prelude and Dance

With the Vancouver Bach Choir:

Moshe Denburg (b. 1949) El Ginat Egoz
Orlande de Lassus (1532-1594) Veni Dilecte Mi
Jin Zhang (b. 1958) Ghost Mind
Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) Caritas abundat in omnia
Huan Yan-jun (1890-1950), arr. Lan Tung Ting Song

=== INTERMISSION ===

Traditional, arr. Lan Tung Taiwanese Folk Song Melody
Tomas Luis de Victoria (1548-1611) Dum complerentur
Rodney Sharman (b. 1958) Everything*
William Byrd (1538-1623) Diliges Dominum
John Sharpley A Dream Within a Dream

*World Premiere
Notes, Texts, and Translations

Xiao He Tang Shui – Arr. Lan Tung (2010)
A new interpretation of the famous folksong from southwest China, this piece features a dialogue between voice and zheng, contrasting between lyrical and rhythmic phrasings, with room for improvisation.

The rising moon shines over the river
Seeing the moon reminds me of my love in the deep mountains
He is like the moon walking in the sky
My love, do you hear me singing your name by the river

Maqam: Prelude and Dance – Zhou Ji, Shao Guangchen and Li Mei, arr.: Mei Han
Maqam is a musical form found throughout the Middle East, Central Asia and the Xinjiang province of northwestern China. It is generally defined as a sequence of notes with rules that define its general melodic development, each maqam having a different character conveying a mood. In Xinjiang, maqams are sometimes considered “suites” defining a specific mood, or moods. Xinjiang maqams can include instrumental, vocal and dance music, often with complex rhythmic patterns and dramatic tempo changes.
Moshe Denburg, El Ginat Egoz
Moshe Denburg, who hails from a well known Montreal Rabbinical family, came to the West Coast in 1982. His musical career has spanned over 4 decades and his accomplishments encompass a wide range of musical activities, including composition, performance, music education, and artistic direction. He is the founder of the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra (VICO) and has been a driving force behind the ensemble’s many activities since its inception in the year 2001. He has studied music extensively, both formally and informally, and for the past 30 years has been engaged in exploring the musical resources of the non-Western world, creating music that challenges musicians of differing disciplines to work together across aural/written cultural divides, and to find a common musical aesthetic. In addition to writing in a Jewish musical idiom, he has written a large number of works for a variety of instruments from non-Western cultures (East Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic and more), which have been performed, recorded, and broadcast at festivals and on the radio both in Canada and abroad.

In the words of the composer: “The words of the biblical book, the Song of Songs, have for thousands of years served as a wellspring of musical composition. The texts here were chosen for their very forthright exposition of love as a reflection and inspiration of the natural world. The music attempts to paint a picture of longing, of rapture, and of passion expressed, and sometimes even misplaced. The overall material belongs in a Middle Eastern context, especially that of the music of Israel.” (Moshe Denburg, Vancouver, 2006)

Song of Songs 6:11, 7:12-13
6:11 El ginat egoz yarad’ti,
lir’ot b’ibei hanakhal,
lir’ot hafar’kha hagefen,
heineitsu harimonim.

7:12 L’kha dodi netsei hasade
nalina bakfarim.

7:13 Nashkima lakramim,
nir’e im par’kha hagefen,
pitakh has’madar,
heineitsu harimonim;
sham eten et dodai lakh.

6:11 I went down into the walnut garden
to see the fruits of the valley,
and to see whether the vine flourished,
and the pomegranates budded.

7:12 Come my beloved let us go forth into the field;
let us lodge in the villages.

7:13 Let us get up early to the vineyards;
let us see if the vine flourish,
whether the tender grape appear,
and the pomegranates bud forth:
there I will give you my loves.

Orlande de Lassus, Veni Dilecte Mi

One of the most celebrated composers of the Renaissance next to Palestrina, Victoria, and Byrd, Orlande de Lassus was called the “prince of musicians” and “the divine Orlande” during the last thirty years of his life. He received his early training in his native Low Countries, but moved to Italy in his teens with patrons who fostered his continued study of music. By his mid-twenties, he had arrived in Munich where he spent the rest of his life as the maestro di cappella in the court of the Dukes of Bavaria.

The motet “Veni dilecte me” was first published in 1571 and is exemplary of Lassus’ trademark of complex counterpoint and exquisite text painting. Stopping just short of the experimental harmonic ideas he would explore in later works, he uses sequential passages to depict the two lovers as they set out into the fields.

Song of Songs 7:11-12
7:11 Veni dilecte mi, egrediamur in agrum, commoremur in villis,

7:11 Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us abide in the villages.

7:12 Mane surgamus ad vineas.

7:12 Let us get up early to the vineyards.
Jin Zhang, Ghost Mind

Jin Zhang is the Music Director of the Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he has held since 2007. Born in Beijing China, he received his first musical education at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. He studied at Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, Japan where he studied conducting with Morihiro Okabe, and took master classes with Kazuyoshi Akiyama and Seiji Ozawa. Since coming to Canada in 1990, Jin has quickly become known as a conductor and composer who actively promotes the appreciation of and education in symphonic orchestral music and, no less, the combining of Eastern and Western musical expressions.

Ghost Mind is based on four Chinese characters: meng (dream), xu (blur), piao (float), yi (suspect), representing different images of ghosts in Chinese tradition. Starting with the first character, each section of the piece adds a new layer representing the next characters.

Hildegard von Bingen, Caritas abundat in omnia
Hildegard von Bingen was a polymath and a visionary, and is considered one of the most important figures of the medieval period. She was elected magistra of her order of Benedictine nuns and drew the attention of popes and royalty with her vast output of original music, poetry, tracts on theology, medicine, and philosophy. She is considered to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany.

Caritas abundat is an antiphon that exhibits a mystical and deeply spiritual air. An antiphon is typically a short chant sung before a psalm or canticle as part of the Divine Office. In this particular melody, the composer weaves the chant in a line that is not only soothing and beautiful to the unknowing ear, but rich with theological commentary on the text. Including references to the Song of Songs and Psalm 85, Hildegard’s own poetry is elevated by the music to depict love (“caritas”) as the Holy Spirit itself, and both as active agents of peace and harmony in the world.

Caritas habundat in omnia,
de imis excellentissima
super sidera
atque amantissima in omnia,
quia summo regi
osculum pacis dedit.

 

Love abounds in all,
from the depths exalted and excelling
over every star,
and most beloved of all,
for she has given the highest King
the kiss of peace.

Huan Yan-jun, arr. Lan Tung, Ting Song
During the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD) there were many wars between the Han in central China and the invading northern Jin (Jurchen). One account from this period describes a battle where the forces of Yue Fei, the famous Han general, routed the Jin army, which then fled in panic to the foot of a mountain. There the Jin waited anxiously, listening to the sound of the approaching Han troops by putting their ears to stones known as pine stones. This piece was inspired by that event. Hua Yan-Jun, also know as A Bing, was a wandering blind folk musician who left a rich legacy of compositions that have become classics in Chinese music. The sounds sung by the choir are onomatopoeic.

Traditional, arr. Lan Tung, Taiwanese Folk Song Medley
This is a collection of three famous Taiwanese folk songs: Peach Blossom describes the courting of young Taiwanese people in a fishing village. Dark Sky describes the quarrel between an old couple about how to cook the fish. Their argument ended when they broke the wok, followed by a big storm. Rooster and Grasshopper describes their funny match. Although much smaller in size, the grasshopper was too fast and smart for the very frustrated rooster to catch. In this medley, the choir members will also play Chinese percussion instruments.

Peach Blossom
In January, other ones greet their husbands,
a lonely girl though keeps her empty room.
Chewing betel nuts, with her powdered face,
holding corals in her hands, she awaits a husband.

In February, it’s the arrival of Spring,
on this dog-gone bad ferry boat,
you’d eat above deck, and sleep below deck.
And when the water ghosts come, you’d lose your soul.

In April, it’s spring, it’s spring,
for your dog-gone bad luck, you get to wait at the port.
For the daily three meals, you can’t even provide enough rice.
How you even dare to ask me out?
Dark Sky
The sky is dark. It’s about to rain.
Grandpa picks up his hoe and goes digging for taro.
Dig and dig. Dig and dig.
Digs up a loach.
He finds it very amusing.

Grandpa wants to cook it salty.
Grandma wants to cook it plain.
The two of them argue and tussel,
and end up breaking the pot.
Clink, clank, clang, bang. Ha ha ha!
The Rooster and the Grasshopper
The rooster tries to peck at the grasshopper.
He thinks that it’s easy to hunt the small beings.
The grasshopper is not afraid of the rooster
So he teases him and infuriates him.
The grasshopper mocks the rooster,
The rooster stomps on the ground.
Tomas Luis de Victoria, Dum complerentur
Tomas Luis de Victoria was the greatest composer of the Spanish sixteenth century. Born in Avila in 1548, he spent his childhood rigorously training in music, and eventually took holy orders in 1575. He composed relatively little music compared to the other masters of the Renaissance like Palestrina (who published five times as much) and Lassus (publishing even more), but his work shows painstaking musical craftsmanship and a high level of inspiration.

In his five-voice Pentecost motet, Dum complerentur, Victoria manages to achieve an unparalleled sense of euphoric urgency. Published in 1572, the work opens with a web of imitation which leads to the homophonic declamation of “omnes pariter dicentes” (all together saying), announcing the first of the “alleluia” refrains. Interrupted by “et subito” (and suddenly), the piece continues to build with staggered points of imitation and colourful text painting until the final pealing polyphonic alleluias, a vivid portrayal of the flames of the Holy Spirit and the chaos of the disciples speaking in tongues.

Acts 2: 1, 2
Dum complerentur dies Pentecostes, erant omnes pariter dicentes, alleluia.
et subito factus est
sonus de caelo, alleluia.
tanquam spiritus vehementis,
et replevit totam domum, alleluia. Now when the day of Pentecost had come,
they were gathered all together, saying, alleluia.
and suddenly they heard
a sound from heaven, alleluia,
like a rushing might wind,
it filled the entire dwelling, alleluia.
Rodney Sharman, Everything
World premiere performance

Rodney Sharman is Composer-in-Residence of Early Music Vancouver’s “New Music for Old Instruments”. He has been Composer-in-Residence of the Victoria Symphony, the National Youth Orchestra of Canada and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, as well as Composer-Host of the Calgary Philharmonic’s New Music Festival, “Hear and Now”. In addition to concert music, Sharman writes music for cabaret, opera and dance. He also sings, conducts, plays recorders and flutes. He works regularly with choreographer James Kudelka, for whom he has written scores for Oregon Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet and Citadel & Compagnie (Toronto). He is the recipient of the 2017 Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts. www.rodneysharman.com
“I saw a video of Alexander Hutchison reading his poem, Everything, shortly after his death in 2015. I immediately wanted to ally myself artistically with its direct, truthful message. The impact of some poetry is greater when heard aloud, and this is particularly true of Everything, perhaps because of the hypnotic repetition of the line: “everything is vanishing”. I set his poem so that women and men sing in the small vocal range they share. Together they may sound like a voice of humanity, not like sopranos, altos, tenors and basses. When the vocal sections alternate, changes in vocal colour in the same register may evoke a sense of disparate voices. The music expands between refrains to complement the many images in Hutchison’s text. Bells remind us of the temporal nature of existence, so frankly and lovingly expressed in this poem.
Everything was commissioned by the Vancouver Bach Choir. My thanks to Leslie Dala, Kathleen Allan and members of the Bach Choir. Text is used and reprinted with permission of Salt Publishing, UK.”
– RS

Everything is racing
everything is vanishing
Everything is hosted
everything is vanishing
Everything in the world that’s seen
everything is vanishing
All the angels rise and sing
everything is vanishing
Everything that’s clothed or bare
everything is vanishing
Anything for a second there
everything is vanishing
Everything is racing
everything is vanishing
Everything is hosted
everything is vanishing
Music, lovers, pillowslips
everything is vanishing
Lightning, thunder, hail and rain
everything is vanishing
In the mountains, on the streets
everything is vanishing
Scissors, paper, rocks, hands
everything is vanishing
Everything is racing
everything is vanishing
Everything is hosted
everything is vanishing
The fox at night, the birds aloft
everything is vanishing
Speedwell, crocus, lotus, rose
everything is vanishing
With arms spread wide
everything is vanishing
With soft foot-fall
everything is vanishing
Everything is racing
everything is vanishing
Everything is hosted
everything is vanishing
Hear it now, see me now
everything is racing
everything is vanishing
Love each other, love each other
everything is hosted
everything is vanishing

© Alexander Hutchison

William Byrd, Diliges Dominum
William Byrd, considered by many as the father of British choral music, was a composer and organist of the Shakespearean era. He was a pupil of the venerated Thomas Tallis, and jointly with his teacher, was appointed a monopoly on the importing, printing, publishing, and sale of music in England by Queen Elizabeth I. He struggled throughout his life due to his devout Roman Catholicism and his loyalty to the (Protestant) crown, but managed to stay in good favour with the monarchy to become one of England’s most notable composers in history.

In Diliges Dominum, Byrd has demonstrated astonishing skill by composing a piece for double choir that sounds the same forwards and backwards. A musical palindrome, one four-part choir sings the same music as the other choir exactly in reverse. It was published in 1575 and is part of the Cantiones Sacrae (‘Sacred Songs’), a collection of works by William Byrd and his teacher Thomas Tallis.

Matthew 22: 37, 39
Diliges Dominum Deum tuum,
Ex toto corde tuo,
Et in tota anima tua,
Et in tota mente tua:
Diliges proximum tuum,
Sicut te ipsum.

 

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart
and with all thy soul
and with all thy mind.
Thou shalt love thy neighbour
as thyself.

John Sharpley, A Dream Within a Dream

John Sharpley, composer, performer and teacher, possesses a unique and multi-faceted career that spans geographic and cultural borders. Born in Houston, Texas, USA, he earned a Doctorate in Music Composition from Boston University; a Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the University of Houston; and, diplomas for piano, violin, and composition at the National Conservatory of Music in Strasbourg, France. His composition teachers include Michael Horvit, David Del Tredici, John Harbison, Betsy Jolas and Leonard Bernstein. Singapore has been his home since 1985.

Sharpley’s compositions include orchestral works, opera, music for theatre, film and dance scores, chamber music, songs, and solo piano works. The Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the China Philharmonic Orchestra, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Novosibirsk Philharmonic, the Sheffield Winds (Chicago), the Huqin Quartet, the T’ang String Quartet are some of the prominent ensembles which have performed Sharpley’s compositions. He also worked with the famous rock group R.E.M., composing an arrangement for the song Lotus.

A Dream Within A Dream is an extraordinary poem by a visionary young American poet, Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849). The poem contemplates the illusiveness of hope and love. It balances precariously between physical, metaphysical and spiritual realms of being. The poem ends with a most powerful question (perhaps THE question); Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream?

A Dream Within A Dream for mixed choir, erhu, zheng and vibraphone was commissioned by the Illinois Wesleyan University Collegiate Choir. The Orchid Ensemble, based in Vancouver, accompanied the Illinois Wesleyan University Collegiate Choir directed by J. Scott Ferguson for the premiere in 2008 in Bloomington, Illinois, USA. Subsequently, the work has been featured in the Asian Composers League (Taiwan) and at the Kyoto City University of the Arts Music Festival (Japan).

– JS
Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow —
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand —
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep — while I weep!
O God! Can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

— Edgar Allan Poe