an earth day concert

COMING EVENTS
ASU SCHOOL OF MUSIC PRESENTS
SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 7:30 P.M.
FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH OF MESA
15 E 1ST AVE, MESA
IN NATURE’S REALM
Men’s Chorus and Women’s Chorus
Bartlett Evans and Ashley Conway, conductors
Tickets: $10 (students, $5)
Available at Herberger Institute Box Office, phone 480-965-6447
http://herbergerinstitute.asu.edu/events/tickets/box_office.php
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 7:30 P.M.
GAMMAGE AUDITORIUM
THE CREATION BY JOSEPH HAYDN
ASU Symphony Orchestra and combined choirs
David Schildkret, conductor
Admission free
VISIONS OF CREATION:
AN EARTH DAY CONCERT
Gamelan “Children of the Mud Volcano”
Ted Solis, director
ASU Chamber Singers
David Schildkret, conductor
ASU Chamber Players
Gary Hill, conductor
THIS IS A CREATION PROJECT EVENT
Learn more at
creationproject.herberger.asu.edu
School of Music Courtyard
and Katzin Concert Hall
April 22, 2015
PROGRAM
ASU Chamber Singers
I.
Gamelan “Children of the Mud Volcano”
(performed in the Courtyard, 7 – 7:30 p.m.)
One Household High and Low (Wendell Berry)
Gangsaran
In the beginning of creation (Genesis)
Ketawang “Puspawarna” (Colors of Flowers)
Laras slendro, pathet (mode) manyura
Daniel Pinkham
(1923 – 2006)
II.
Sicut cervus (Psalm 42)
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
(1525 – 1594)
Ladrang “Asmaradhana”
Laras slendro, pathet manyura
“Sunset” from Due West (Tara Wohlberg)
Ladrang “Eling-Eling”
Laras slendro, pathet manyura
Lancaran “Ricik-Ricik”
Andrew Maxfield
(b. 1980)
Thou Whose Harmony is the Music of the Spheres
Rachel Messing, oboe
Laras slendro, pathet manyura
Stephen Chatman
(b. 1950)
Chatman
III.
Yapong dance (Folk/popular music of Jakarta region)
Selections from Songs of Nature, opus 63
Antonín Dvořák
(1841 – 1904)
Melodies steal into my heart
Slender young birch
Geographical Fugue (for speaking chorus)
Ernst Toch
(1887 – 1964)
Intermission
ASU Chamber Players
La création du monde, opus 81 (1923)
Darius Milhaud
(1892-1974)
GAMELAN “Children of the Mud Volcano”
Ted Solis, director
Isaac Bickmore, kempyang, kethuk, and kenong gongs
Andrea Ivis, slenthem metallophone
Soyeon Kang, peking metallophone
Kang Won Kim, gendèr metallophone
Jonathan Lang, kempul and gong kemodhong
gongs and vocals
Bliss Little, bonang gong chimes
Emma Quinn, siter zither
Jesse Rathgeber, saron metallophone
Emily Smith, vocals
Amy Swietlik, kempul and gong kemodhong
gongs and vocal
Ted Solís, kendhang drums and vocals
Kevin Villalta, gambang xylophone
We would like to dedicate our performance in this program
to our friend and fellow gamelan player Emma Quinn, with all our best wishes.
ASU CHAMBER SINGERS
Nathan Uhl, rehearsal pianist
David Schildkret, conductor
Bernny Apodaca
Frances Bingham
Carey Brant
Perry Chacon
Christina Cullers
Ryan Downey
Kellie Egging
Karista Filopoulos
Melanie Holm
Chelsea Janzen
Brian Jeffers
Titus Kautz
Se Hoon Kim
John Kraft
Alex Kunz
Vanessa Naghdi
Julie Neish
Andrew Peck
Miriam Schildkret
Katherine Thilakaratne
Alli Villines
Asleif Willmer
ASU CHAMBER PLAYERS
Gary Hill, conductor
Elizabeth Buck and Kristin Bateman, flute
Martin Schuring, oboe
Albie Micklich, bassoon
Robert Spring and Olivia Moonitz, clarinet
Christopher Creviston, saxophone
Christina Romano, horn
Garrett Klein and Jonathan Kaplan, trumpet
Adam Dixon, trombone
Katie McLin and Artur Tumajyan, violin
Ruth Wenger, cello
Catalin Rotaru, double bass
Andrew Campbell, piano
Alex Wier, percussion
PROGRAM NOTE
Tonight’s program presents visions of creation and nature from many different times, places, and cultures.
ASU's Javanese gamelan "Children of the Mud Volcano" embodies principles of creation in its name, its media, and
in its performance practice. Gamelans are made of bronze, brass and/or iron, and embody principles of
transformation, whether alchemically forging alloys, or through cold hammering. The act of gamelan creation
engages religious practices which reflect the volcanism which created the Indonesian archipelago, with obeisance
to deities of the volcanos, similar to those found throughout the volcanic Pacific Rim among the Austronesian and
Melanesian-speaking populations. Both volcanic mud and basalt create the lands inhabited by these peoples. The
act of musical realization in gamelan music involves creating, enveloping, filling in, and building like that process
involved in the seeping of volcano mud and rock over a landscape. The limited improvisation within strict rules
characteristic particularly of Javanese gamelan is also homologous to the ways this seepage inhabits and builds
upon pre-existing topographies.
The choir sings music contemplating nature from many points of view, ranging from the recent setting of a text by
the poet Wendell Berry, “One Household High and Low,” to music from the Renaissance, looking both forwards
and into the past at the same time. Though Andrew Maxfield’s music for the Berry poem was written in 2011, it is
nevertheless in the old shape-note style and is based on “Wondrous Love” from the Sacred Harp. Pinkham’s
setting of the opening of the Book of Genesis employs electronic media in a style that was highly adventurous in
1970 when the piece was written. The modern spirituality of Stephen Chatman’s settings of texts on nature and
nd
mystery stand nicely alongside the mysticism of Palestrina’s motet based on the opening of the 42 Psalm.
Dvořák’s songs are typically romantic views of nature, and the modernist “Geographical Fugue,” once a staple of
the choral repertory, provides a whimsical look at our world.
Concerning the Milhaud work, wind scholar Steven Miller tells us:
The Creation of the World is often cited as one of the first compositions by a "classical" composer that
exhibits the influence of jazz. The work was premiered by the Ballets Suedois in October of 1923.
Although it has become known as one of Milhaud's finest works, it was at first ridiculed as frivolous and
better suited to the dance hall than the concert stage. Having heard and studied jazz in New York,
Milhaud enjoyed this opportunity to use a new expressive influence in his own composition. The
instrumentation of this jazz suite is modeled after a theater orchestra Milhaud heard in Harlem.
Regarding the use of ragtime, jazz, and other influences in his music, Milhaud stated, "I have never
understood how it is that one can set up different sorts of music (classical or modern music, serious or
light music, etc.). It is not right. There is just music full-stop, that can be found in a cafe-concert jingle or
air in an operetta, as in a symphony, an opera or in chamber music."
The work was premiered in the same theater where Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring was first performed only six years
earlier. The music accompanied a ballet inspired by African folk stories published in 1921 in a collection by the
Swiss author Blaise Cendrars, who also created the scenario for the ballet.
TEXTS
One household, high and low
Wendell Berry
In the beginning of creation
Genesis 1:1-3
The dark around us, come,
Let us meet here together,
Members one of another,
Here in our holy room.
In the beginning of creation, when God made heaven
and earth,
the earth was without form and void, with darkness
over the face of the abyss.
And all the earth shall sing,
Light, leaf, foot, hand, and wing,
Such order as we know,
One household, high and low.
And a mighty wind that swept over the surface of the
waters.
God said, ‘Let there be light’,
And there was light.
Here on our little floor,
Here in the daylit sky,
Rejoicing mind and eye,
Rejoining known and knower.
And all the earth shall sing,
Light, leaf, foot, hand, and wing,
Such order as we know,
One household, high and low.
Sicut cervus
Psalm 42:1
Sicut cervus desiderat ad fonts aquarum,
Ita desiderat, anima mea ad te Deus.
As the deer longs for running waters,
So my soul longs for you, my God.
Sunset
Tara Wohlberg
Thou Whose Harmony is the Music of the Spheres
Robert French Leavens
When the sun sets West,
Feathered shift of sky,
Satin clouds undress,
Heaven’s kiss bids the flat light goodbye.
Thou whose harmony is the music of the spheres,
By our presence here with one another,
In thy presence, may some of the harshness,
May some of the discord of our human lives,
May some be transmutted into music.
A new song in our hearts may there be,
And a new harmony in our beings,
So we shall return to our many duties,
By our presence here with one another,
May there be a new harmony,
With fresh courage, with rejoicing,
And with eagerness.
Amen.
Endless calm, red mist,
Glist’ning golden beams,
Gently they are kissed,
By night’s dark melting blaze of dreams.
Songs of Nature
Melodies Steal Into My Heart
Melodies steal into my heart;
I never know how melodies do it.
You would not ask the grass to know
Whence come the diamonds that bedew it?
‘Round me the world grows still and clear
As Nature greets the new day’s sunrise;
Now beauty fills my soul with joy,
Now tender sadness moistens my eyes.
Dewdrops from moonlit sky appear;
And from a heart that’s filled with joy and sorrow
Thence come the songs we love to hear,
And thence comes all hope for a brighter new day,
And thence comes hope for a brighter morrow.
Slender Young Birch
Slender you birch, how straight you grow,
Green and silver, there on the hill,
Banishing thoughts of winter snow,
Promising rose and daffodil.
Buds form and swell, blossoms unfold,
Till all spring’s glory we behold,
While branches stir and gently wave,
Joining in praise of their Maker.
Birch tree, your feath’ry robe of green
Shyly bids the breezes to play;
Whisp’ring, they tell of things they’ve seen
While wand’ring through this April day,
Building their nests in ev’ry tree,
Birds sing again their roundelay,
And all of Nature soon will be
Greeting the lovely month of May.
What could that magic tone have been,
Sounding like shawn or violin?
‘Tis the enchanting carol of spring
Through all of Nature echoing.
Geographical Fugue
Trinidad!
And the big Mississippi
and the town Honolulu
and the lake Titicaca,
the Popocatepetl is not in Canada,
rather in Mexico, Mexico, Mexico!
Canada, Málaga, Rimini, Brindisi
Yes, Tibet!
Nagasaki! Yokohama!
Trinidad!