The Colorado Springs Chorale

The Colorado Springs Choral Society
presents
GREAT WORKS V: CHORAL GOLD

A Program of Best-Loved Choruses

The Colorado Springs Chorale’s 50th Anniversary Concert with Full Orchestra

Donald P. Jenkins, Artistic Director and Conductor
with special Lighting Design by Willard Small

Pikes Peak Center for the Performing Arts
Saturday, March 24, 2007 8:00 P.M.

PROGRAM

I. The Cathedral

Chorus: Hallelujah! (from Messiah) Georg Frideric Handel
We celebrate the Chorale’s first performance, Messiah, December 9, 1956,
of Messiah with the Colorado Springs Symphony Orchestra conducted by Walter Eisenberg.

Motet: Ave verum corpus natum Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Perfection and simplicity: Mozart at his best.

Hail, true Incarnation, born of the Virgin Mary...Who truly suffered on the Cross for all humanity.
Cleanse us by the bood streaming from Thy pierced side; Feed us with Thy broken body; Make us aware of Your death’s meaning.

Chorale: Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring (from Cantata No. 147) Johann Sebastian Bach
A treasure, perhaps the best-known of Bach’s choral selections.

Jesu, joy of man’s desiring;
Holy wisdom, Love most bright
Drawn by Thee, our soul aspiring;
Drink of joy from deathless springs.
Word of God our flesh that fashioned;
With the fire of life impassioned.
Striving still to Truth unknown;
Soaring, dying, round Thy throne.

II. The Concert Hall

Chorus: Yet Doth the Lord See It Not (from Elijah) Felix Mendelssohn
The prophet Elijah has called down a famine as punishment for the Israelites’ sinful ways; here a wrathful Jehovah has rejected a burnt offering.

Yet doth the Lord see it not, He mocketh at us;
His curse hath fallen down upon us!
For He the Lord our God; He is a jealous God;
And He visiteth all the fathers’ sins on the children
To the third and the fourth generation of them that hate Him.
His mercies on thousands fall, fall on all that love Him, and keep His commandments.

Chorus: Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen (from A German Requiem) Johannes Brahms
The entire Requiem and this chorus in particular, offers profoundest comfort to the living.

How lovely are thy dwelling places, O Lord God of Sabbaoth.
My soul longs for the Courts of the Lord, and rejoices in the living God.
Blessed are they who dwell in the House of the Lord; They praise Thy Name forever more.

Trio and Chorus: The Heavens Are Telling (from The Creation) Franz Josef Haydn
Meg Meadow, The Angel Gabriel, Soprano
Lee Henry, The Angel Uriel, Tenor
James Hutson, The Angel Raphael, Bass

As the fourth day of Creation ends, a trio of angels and the sons of God
celebrate the appearance of the universe, now complete with a sun, moon, and stars.

The heavens are telling the glory of God, with wonders of His work resounds the firmament.
Revealed are His ways by day unto day; By night that is gone to following night.
In every land is known the word; Every ear will hearken, never tongue be dumb.

III. The Opera House

Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves (from Nabucco) Giuseppe Verdi
Held captive in Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar (Nabucco) in 586 B.C., the Israelites sing of their lost homeland.

Go, my thought, upon golden wings and alight upon the slopes and hills,
where warm and tender the fragrant breezes are sweet in our native land.
Greet the Jordan’s banks, and the razed towers of Zion.
O my country, so beautiful and lost.
Why is the prophet’s harp, hanging on the willows, mute?
Let the Lord inspire us with a song, giving us strength to suffer.

The Toreadors’ Entrance (from Carmen) Georges Bizet
In blazing color and vitality; the crowd welcomes Escamillo, the greatest toreador, with his entourage, to the ring at Seville.

Here they come! Here come the Toreros!
Sunlight shining on their lances; as they pass, throw your sombreros into the air.
Here on the square, marching in step, comes the Sheriff with the villanous face,
Away with him, the ugly one.
Now we salute the bold Chulos; Bravo, viva, glory to their courage.
Look, see the swaggeirng Banderilleros, how brilliant their costumes.
Another quadrille comes, the Picadors are here;
How handsome they are, and what a fight will ensue when the bull is released.

The matador, Escamillo, see him, the hero.
That is the matador, the one with the sharp sword,
The one who appears at the end of the drama to strike the final blow.
Hail Escamillo, Bravo.

Humming Chorus (from Madama Butterfly) Giacomo Puccini
As the sun sets upon the harbor at Nagasaki, the steadfast Butterfly patiently awaits the next day’s arrival of her faithless sea captiain, Pinkerton. The chorus is to be sung off stage, out of sight. It is for atmosphere only and does not represent any characters.

Priests’ Chorus (from The Magic Flute) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Prince Tamino is deemed worthy to join the ranks of the enlightened.

O Isis and Osiris, what Joy. The dark night is banished by the bright sun.
This noble youth will find new life soon. His spirit is brave, his heart is pure.
Soon he will be worthy.

Triumphal Scene (from Aida) Giuseppe Verdi
The Egyptian victory over the threatening Ethopians is celebrated in this grand procession of armies, trophies, and captives.

People: Glory to Egypt and to Isis, the protector.
We raise anthems of praise to our King, the Delta’s ruler.
Women: Entwine the lotus and laurel into the victors’ hair;
see the flowered banners upon their shoulders.
Egyptian girls, let us dance in honor of our heroes,
we will encircle them as do the stars encircle the sun.
Priests: Look to the victors, and give thanks to the gods.
Offer up humble thanks on this fortunate day.
Everyone: Come, o warrior, let us place flowers in your way
and give thanks to you and to the gods. Glory!

INTERMISSION

IV. The Festival Hall

Bridal Chorus (from Lohengrin) Richard Wagner
Lohengrin and his bride, Elsa, are escorted to their chamber.

Led here in faith, draw near with joy, Love’s guardian angel will watch over you.
Virtue’s brave champion, step forth with pride. Youth’s fairest flower, walk by his side.
Sounds of feasting behind you, may joy and bliss now find you.
United with God’s blessing, your lives now be blest.
Eternal love professing, remember long this day.

Procession and Chorale (from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg) Richard Wagner
The Master Singers of Nuremberg depicts a sixteenth century song contest. The older master, Hans Sachs, who represents traditional art, loses graciously to his young rival, Walther, who represents the new style. In losing, Sachs reminds everyone that the impetuosity of youth needs discipline to uphold art. The procession of master singers occurs in Act III as the town assembles for the contest. Sachs appears and is acclaimed by the crowd’s singing one of his compositions (The Chorale, “Wake Now”), a song in praise of the dawn. The text is by the historical Hans Sachs, the dawn referred to being Luther’s Reformation.

Silence; not one word.
Ah! it’s Sachs, Master Sachs; sing now!
Wake now! Bright day is drawing nigh.
From green woodlands a song I hear,
Sweet music of the nightingale, her voice wings out through hill and vale,
The night is sinking in the west, the day arises clear and blest.
The sky glows with a rosy light, dark clouds pierced by dawn so bright.
Hail, welcome, Nuremberg’s beloved Sachs; Hail!

V. The Broadway Stage

Selections from Porgy and Bess George Gershwin
A concert arrangement of the opera by Richard Russell Bennett
Michele Hammerton, Soprano
Gayle Grace, Soprano
Rob Knapp, Tenor
Bob Lays, Bass

Introduction orchestra

Summertime Ms. Hammerton, soloist

The Promise Lan’ Ms. Grace, soloist, with Chorale

Oh, I Got Plenty O’ Nothin’ Mr. Lays, soloist, with Chorale

Oh, I Can’t Sit Down Chorale

It Ain’t Necessarily So Mr. Knapp, soloist, with Chorale

O Lawd, I’m On My Way Ms. Grace and Mr. Lays, soloists, with Chorale

VI. The Home and Field

Spiritual: Mary Wore Three Links of Chain arr. Robert Fountain
One of American music’s triumphs: the unaccompanied African/American Spiritual.

Mary wore three links of chain, ev’ry link bearin’ Jesus’ name;
All my sins are taken away, taken away.

Mary weep and Martha mourn, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John;
All my sins are taken away, taken away.

I don’t know but I’ve been told, streets of Heaven are paved with gold;
All my sins are taken away, taken away.

VII. The Performing Arts Center

Two Final Choruses from Carmina burana Carl Orff
Composed in 1930, the texts are from the Middle Ages and were discovered in a Bavarian monastery in the early 1920’s. They are secular songs and ballads written by minstrels, students, rascals, defrocked monks, soldiers, and wanderers.

No. 24 Blanziflor et Helena, Ave formosissima
Hail, most beautiful one, precious Jewel...
Hail, rose of the world...
Blanziflor and Helena, magnanimous Venus

No. 25 O Fortuna
O Fortune, like the moon, you are various;
Ever waxing and waning; Hateful life first oppresses and then soothes...
Poverty and power melt like ice.
Fate - monstrous and empty; you whirling wheel, you are malevolent,
...I bring my bare back to your villainy.
Fate is against me...
Since Fate strikes down the strong man,
Everyone weep with me!

Our Mission - To serve the Pikes Peak Region by celebrating the human voice in song and its power to rejoice, console, mourn, educate, enrich, unite and inspire.

Colorado Springs Choral Society is the parent organization of the Colorado Springs Chorale (CSC) and MOSAIC. Founded in 1956, the Society’s purpose is to contribute to the cultural richness of the Pikes Peak Region while providing an artistically rewarding choral experience for talented singers. The Society is headed by a volunteer board of trustees consisting of 20 dedicated individuals responsible for image, policy and finances of the organization.

The Colorado Springs Chorale office is located downtown,
at 16 East Platte Avenue (First Christian Church), Suite 204A

Phone: (719) 634-3737
Fax: (719) 473-0077
email: csc@cschorale.org