Members ofthe National Men’s Chorus

Tenors Baritones Rasses

Bruce Ambrose

Bill Barr

A1 Best

William Campbell

Roy Clark

Chip Filson

Hugh Hanson

Dennis Jones

Michael Klein

Charles Kovatch

Justin Moul

Robert Reeves

Matt Roberts

Scott Tousley

Paul Appeldoorn 

Andrew Griffin

Joseph Kammerer 

Roy Kirvan

Mitch Lawrence

Wendel Miser

James Oglethorpe

Tom Sparks

Adolph Wilburn

Guillermo Balve

Sam Corl

Jim Cullum

Charles Ervin

David Gill

Donald Henderson

Edward Knight

Daniel

Lautenslager

Stuart Schmid

Fred Tarpley

William Tell

William van Stone

The use ofcameras or recording equipment during

the performance is not allowed. Please be sure that cell

phones, pagers, and other electronic devices are turned off.

For the convenience ofconcertgoers

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:30p.m.

The Sixty-second Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2477th Concert

NATIONAL MEN’S CHORUS

THOMAS BEVERIDGE, conductor

FRANCIS CONLON, pianist

with members of the WASHINGTON SYMPHONIC BRASS

PHIL SNEDECOR and SCOTT SABO, trumpets

AMY HORN, French horn CHARLES CASEY, trombone

DAVID BROWN, tuba

Sunday Evening, 21 December 2003

Seven O'clock

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Giuseppe Verdi

(1813-1901)

I. Opera Choruses

“Chorus of Brigands” from Ernani

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Two Choruses from Die Zauberflote

(1756-1791)

“Chorus of Priests”

“Chorus of Slaves”

Charles Gounod

(1818-1893)

“Soldiers’ Chorus” from Faust

Walter Kittredge

Arr. Thomas Beveridge

II. Civil War Songs

Tenting Tonight

Patrick Gilmore

Arr. Beveridge

When Johnny Comes Marching Home

III

Beveridge Life and Liberty

A Cantata for Men’s Voices and Brass Quintet

Words taken from the writings of George Mason

(2002)

Prologue (Narrator): These are the words of Thomas Jefferson:

“This was George Mason, a man ofthe first order of

wisdom among those who acted upon the theater ofthe

revolution, of expansive mind, profound judgment, 

cogent in argument.” Now listen to the words of George

Mason:

1. Declaration (Chorus): “All men are born equally free and

independant [sic], and have certain inherent natural

Rights, of which they cannot, by any Compact, deprive or

divest their Posterity; among which are the Enjoyment

of Life and Liberty, and pursueing [sic] and obtaining

Happiness and Safety” (from the draft ofthe Virginia Bill

ofRights, 1776).

2. Fanfare for the Free Man (Brass quintet)

3. March (Chorus): “I recommend it to my sons, from my own

Experience of Life, to prefer the happiness of independance [sic] & a private Station to the troubles and

Vexations of Public Business; but if either their own

inclination or the Necessaty [sic] ofthe times shou’d

engage them in Public Affairs, I charge them, on a

Father’s Blessing, never to let the motives of private

Interest or ambition to induce them to betray, nor the

terrors of Poverty and disgrace, or the fear of danger or of

death deter them from Asserting the liberty oftheir

Country, and endeavoring to transmit to their posterity

those Sacred rights to which [they] themselves were born”

(from Mason’s Last Will and Testament, 1773).
4. Chorale (Chorus): “May God grant us a return to those

halcyon Days; when every Man may sit down at his Ease

under the Shade of his own vine, & his own fig-tree, &

enjoy the Sweets of domestic Life!...May he be pleased to

inspire us with spirit & resolution, to bear our present &

future Sufferings, becoming Men determined to transmit

to our Posterity...the Blessings we have inherited from

our Ancestors—Life and Liberty!” (from a letter to

George Washington, 1776).

Commissioned by the Board ofRegents

ofGunston Hall, the home ofGeorge Mason,

with a giftfrom Helen Kempton Dunn Grinnell

Intermission

IV. Christmas Music Arranged by Thomas Beveridge

The Wassail Song (Yorkshire carol)

There Is No Rose of Such Virtue (15th-century English carol)

Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming (15th-century German carol)

While by My Sheep I Watched at Night (17th-century German carol)

Jesus bleibet meine Lreude (from J. S. Bach: Cantata #147)

It Is Truly Pitting (late 17th-century Znamenny chant)

Let All Mortal flesh Keep Silence (Melody from Kievan chant)

Jim Cullurn, soloist

A la nanita nana (Spanish carol)

Veinticinco de diciembre (Spanish carol)

Guillermo Balve, soloist

The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy (Jamaican carol)

Rise Up, Shepherd, and follow (American spiritual)

Justin Moul, soloist

V. Carols for Choir, Audience, and Brass

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Hark! The herald angels sing: “Glory to the newborn king;

Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!”

Joyful, all ye nations, rise, Join the triumph ofthe skies,

With th’angelic host proclaim: “Christ is born in Bethlehem.”

Hark! The herald angels sing: “Glory to the newborn king.”

Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace!

Hail the son of righteousness!

Light and life to all he brings, Ris’n with healing in his wings;

Mild he lays his glory by, Born that man no more may die,

Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth,

Hark! The herald angels sing: “Glory to the new-born king.”

It Came upon the Midnight Clear

It came upon the midnight clear, that glorious song of old,

Prom angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold

“Peace on the earth, good will to men,

from heav’n’s all-gracious king:”

The world in solemn stillness lay, to hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come,

with peaceful wings unfurled,

And still their heav’nly music floats o’er all the weary world:

Above its sad and lowly plains they bend on hov’ring wing,

And ever o’er its Babel sounds the blessed angels sing.
God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen

God rest you merry, gentlemen, let nothing you dismay,

For Jesus Christ, our Savior, was bom upon this day,

To save us all from Satan’s pow’r when we were gone astray:

O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy,

O tidings of comfort and joy!

From God our heav’nly father a blessed angel came,

And unto certain shepherds brought tidings ofthe same,

How that in Bethlehem was born the Son of God by name:

O tidings....

Now to the Lord sing praises, all you within this place,

And with true love and brotherhood each other now embrace;

This holy tide of Christmas doth bring redeeming grace:

O tidings....

VI.

Arr. Beveridge Masters in This Hall

(French carol, words by William Morris)

The Musicians

The National Men’s Chorus, founded in 1999, performs the classics of

the literature for male voices, arrangements of traditional melodies

composed especially for the chorus, and the rich but rarely performed

literature for male voices and orchestra. The National Men’s Chorus gave

its first performance in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress at a

ceremony honoring visiting Russian politicians, members of the Duma,

and the Federation Council. Washington Post music critic Joseph

McLellan hailed the ensemble’s First Christmas and Hanukkah concert as

a “triumphant debut” in a performance that displayed “polish, expression,

and control.” The chorus was again complimented in the Post for its

“polished and effervescent performance” of Luigi Cherubini’s rarely

performed Requiem for male chorus and orchestra. The ensemble’s

recent appearances include a concert in Waterford, Virginia, and “Mozart

and Jefferson,” a program of music of Mozart and Randall Thompson,

sung at the Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia.

Thomas Beveridge, the founder and artistic director of the

National Men’s Chorus, has enjoyed a distinguished and versatile career

in music. He attended Harvard College, where he studied with Walter

Piston, Randall Thompson, and G. Wallace Woodworth, and sang in and

composed for the Harvard Glee Club. He also studied conducting and

composition with the legendary French teacher, conductor, and

composer, Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979). Beveridge’s career as a

professional singer has included three recitals at the National Gallery as

well as recitals at The Phillips Collection, the Corcoran Gallery, and the

Library of Congress. He has composed more than five hundred original

works and made numerous arrangements for men’s voices, many of

which have been recorded on the Gothic label. The Academy of Saint

Martin in the Fields under Neville Marriner recorded his Yizkor Requiem

for Naxos International. Beveridge has been director of choral activities

at George Mason University and chorus master ofthe Washington Opera.

He is currently the artistic director of the two-hundred-voice New

Dominion Chorale as well as choir director of Western Presbyterian

Church in Washington, D.C.

Pianist Francis Conlon is one of the most sought-after ensemble

musicians in the greater Washington area and is on stage virtually every

week of the year. His numerous concert tours have included Canada,

Mexico, Europe, and Japan. He has been a winner of the National

Society of Arts and Letters Competition and the Jordan Awards Contest

here in Washington, as well as the Brewster-Allison Competition in

Austin, Texas. A member of the music faculty at George Washington

University, Conlon is the director of music at the Church of the

Annunciation in Washington and Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church,

Virginia.

Programs notes by Elmer Booze