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Tickets for Friday, Dec 15, 2023, 7:30 pm, at St Mary Church, 25 Chestnut St, Dover here
Tickets for Saturday, Dec 16, 2023, 4:00 pm, at South Church, 292 State St, Portsmouth here
Program Notes by Priscilla Stevens French
Tonight’s program features a joyous work recently rediscovered and arranged for mixed voices, tenor soloist, strings, harp and organ: Ballad of the Brown King composed by Margaret Bonds, libretto by Langston Hughes (1954). Margaret Bonds lived during a time of overt racial inequality in the U.S. As a graduate of Northwestern University (earning both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano and composition), she was not allowed to live on campus as a student. Bonds first studied piano with her mother before continuing at university level, becoming the first African American woman to perform as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1933. She studied composition with William Dawson and Florence Price, the first African American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer. (Bonds performed Price’s Piano Concerto in d minor in 1934 with the Woman’s Symphony Orchestra of Chicago).
In 1939 Margaret Bonds moved to Harlem where she worked in musical theatre and met the poet Langston Hughes. They became very close. One of their first collaborations was Ballad of the Brown King. The title refers to a medieval description of one of the magi, Balthazar, as being a “dark, fully bearded king”. Significantly, a black magus from Africa was integrated into the Christian narrative as an equal of the other wise men who celebrated the birth of Christ. Originally scored for voice and piano, Ballad was premiered at the East Side House Settlement (New York) with Bonds at the piano. A later version included the addition of two new movements and became fully orchestrated. Inspired by the Civil Rights movement, this expanded version was dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr. and televised in 1960 as a CBS special “Christmas USA”. The score, a rarely heard gem, includes Black idiomatic writing – jazz harmonies, blues notes, energetic syncopation and Calypso style which affirm Black identity within the classical canon. The opening phrase sung by the tenor solo is part of the spiritual Nobody Knows the Trouble I See. Published in 1960, the music was out of print for decades until 2018 when Malcolm Merriweather, baritone and music director of the Dessoff Choirs in New York, rescored it for strings, organ, harp, chorus and tenor soloist.
Several seasonal pieces were selected to complement Ballad of the Brown King. Brightest and Best, our concert opener, is a toe-tapping rendition of the tune Star in the East from the 1835 hymnal Southern Harmony, arranged in a bluegrass style with fiddle and double bass (cello). Composer/arranger Shawn Kirchner has performed with the Los Angeles Master Chorale as a singer and pianist and most recently as Composer in Residence. He enjoys blending many folk styles in his compositions. Kim Baryluk’s Solstice Carole is also in the folk tradition. Baryluk, a Canadian songwriter and founder of the Wyrd Sisters, composed this carol for women’s voices; it has been popularized by the Wailin’ Jennys.
While most of us recognize Gustav Holst’s classic Christmas tune In the Bleak Mid-Winter, the setting by Harold Darke is one of unparalleled eloquence. Both settings are based on the poem by Christina Rossetti. Harold Darke served as choirmaster/organist at King’s College, Cambridge during World War II. His choral compositions are part of the Anglican church repertoire.
There are two selections by the prolific young Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo, Juilliard graduate and composer currently working in New York. Away in a Manger creates a haunting effect with the choir humming harmonic changes underneath the solo line. In his brilliant setting of another Christina Rossetti poem, The Rose, Gjeilo pits the four voice parts in a lilting melody over a continuously arpeggiated piano part, evoking a melancholy mood and suggesting the fragility of beauty (the rose).
Finally, we present the exquisite setting of a text by 20th c. poet James Agee by one of today’s most esteemed composers writing for voices, Morten Lauridsen. The poem’s message underscores the kindness in the world that shines even through darkness. Lauridsen, emeritus professor of composition at USC/Thornton School of Music, has won national recognition for his radiant choral compositions including the 2007 National Medal for the Arts by President Bush in a White House ceremony.
Our soloist: Fred VanNess, Jr
Tenor Fred C. VanNess, Jr., performs a wide variety of repertoire on stages across New England. Praised for his “superb talent” and “gorgeous vocals”, Mr. VanNess has appeared as Paris in Boston Lyric Opera’s production of “Romeo and Juliette”, Russell Davenport in Dan Shore’s acclaimed opera “Freedom Ride” presented in a co-production by MASSOpera and Chicago Opera Theater, and numerous other productions throughout New England. Mr. VanNess is currently in his second year as a Steven Akin Emerging Artist with Boston Lyric Opera. Last season Mr. VanNess performed the roles of Amadou and covered the title role of Omar in Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels new opera “Omar” in a new co-production by Boston Lyric Opera with Spoleto Festival USA, L.A. Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and San Francisco Opera. Mr. VanNess holds degrees from The Longy School of Music of Bard College, Louisiana State University and McNeese State University.