For the convenience of concertgoers 

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:oo pm.

The use of cameras or recording equipment during the

performance is not allowed. Please be sure that cell phones,

pagers, and other electronic devices are turned off.

Please note that late entry or reentry after 6:30 pm

is not permitted.

Music Department

National Gallery of Art

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, dc

Mailing address

2000b South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov

The Sixty-fourth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,553rd Concert

The Suspicious Cheese Lords

Hodie! Celebrating the Christmas Spirit

December 18, 2005

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission free
Program

Fifteenth-Century Plainsong

Veni, veni Emmanuel

Petrus Speilier (sixteenth century)

Christus natus est nobis

Anonymous

Attributed to Matheo Flecha the Elder (c. 1481-c. 1553)

Riu, riu, chiu

Marc’Antonio Ingegneri (1535-1592)

Ecce enim evangelizo

Gordon Geise (b. 1965)

There Were Abiding in the Fields

World premiere performance

Traditional

Ding Dong! Merrily on High

Arranged by Charles Wood (1866-1926)

Elzear Genet (c. 1470-1548)

Gabriel angelus locutus est

Luc Jakobs (b. 1956)

O Kerstnacht

Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654)

Nun komm, der Heyden Heyland

INTERMISSION

Thomas Stoltzer (c. 1480-1526)

O admirabile commercium

Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599)

A un niho llorando

William Byrd (1543-1623)

Puer natus est nobis

Gustav Holst (1874-1934)

In the Bleak Midwinter

Cristobal de Morales (c. 1500-1553)

O magnum mysterium

Morten Lauridsen (b. 1943)

Ave dulcissima Maria

Luca Marenzio (c. 1553-1599)

Hodie Christus natus est

Thomas W. Carter (nineteenth century) 

Night Watchman
The Musicians

The Suspicious Cheese Lords, an a cappella ensemble of men’s voices, was

founded in 1996 when Clifton “Skip” West ill invited a group of friends 

over for a savory gourmet meal in exchange for singing The Lamentations of

Jeremiah by Thomas Tallis. The combination ofsong, friendship, and West’s

cooking soon became a regular event. To this day the Cheese Lords continue

to have dinner before their regular rehearsals. The ensemble’s unconventional name is derived from the title of another Tallis motet, Suscipe quaeso

Domine. In a playful mistranslation ofthe title, it was observed that Suscipe

could be “suspicious,” quaeso is close to the Spanish word queso (cheese), and 

Domine is, of course, “Lord.” “Suspicious Cheese Lords” in time became 

adopted as the group’s name. Suspiciously, the Cheese Lords have yet to perform the latter Tallis motet.

Although specializing in music ofthe Middle Ages and the Renaissance,

the ensemble sings a full repertoire, ranging from Gregorian chant to

contemporary compositions. The Cheese Lords are artists-in-residence at

the Franciscan Monastery in Washington, D.C. They have performed in

numerous Washington area venues, including the Smithsonian Institution,

Washington National Cathedral, the Old Presbyterian Meeting House in

Alexandria, Virginia, and the Society ofthe Cincinnati’s Anderson House

Museum. Many oftheir performances have been broadcast on the Vox

channel of xm Satellite Radio, hosted by Robert Aubry Davis. The 

Washington Post called their recent performances “beautifully styled”

and “warmly opulent,” and they were profiled last year in Early Music

America magazine.

4

The Cheese Lords have released two world premiere CDs: Maestro di

capella: Music ofElzear Genet (Carpentras) and Missa I’homme arme: Sacred

Music ofLudwig Senfl. Both recordings received enthusiastic reviews in Early

Music America and have been featured on public radio’s “Millennium of

Music.” More information on the Suspicious Cheese Lords may be found

at the ensemble’s Web site at www.cheeselords.org.

The members, who playfully call themselves “The Lords,” are:

Daniel Boettcher

Nathan Carlisle

George P. Cervantes

Ryan Dolan

Daniel Ebeling

Gordon Geise

James Heaney 

Matthew Irish 

Peter Larsen

Christopher G. Riggs

Anthony Simione

Robert Stenger 

Clifton N. West ill

Gary W. Winans Jr.

Performance Advisor

Jay White, D.M.A.

5
Program Notes

The program begins with what might be considered the most familiar 

chant of the Advent and Christmas season. The Latin words of Veni, veni

Emmanuel are from the twelfth century and are based on the ancient

Magnificat antiphons known as the great “O” antiphons. Beginning with

acclamations such as O Emmanuel, O Sapientia, and O Adonai, these

antiphons were recited or sung during vespers on the seven days prior

to Christmas Eve. The origin of the haunting melody of Veni, veni

Emmanuel is believed to be a French processional that was adapted to

the text in the fifteenth century.

Virtually nothing is known of Petrus Speilier, the composer ofthe joyous motet Christus natus est nobis. This work appears in the collection Novi

atque catholici thesauri musici, published in 1568 by the famed Venetian

music printer Antonio Gardano. Gardano’s grand five-volume anthology,

dedicated to Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian 11, offers a thorough record 

ofthe musical life ofthe Hapsburg courts in the mid-sixteenth century.

In 1556 a collection entitled Villancicos de diversos autores (Carols by various authors) was published in Venice. Almost all copies ofthis marvelous 

book were lost, but fortunately one survived in Uppsala, Sweden. Among 

its more than fifty songs, written in a hybrid of Catalan and Provencal,

is Riu, riu, chiu, which is often attributed to the Spanish composer Matheo

Flecha the Elder. Among the more unlikely groups who have performed

and recorded this piece are the Monkees, who featured it on the Christmas

Day 1967 broadcast oftheir eponymous nbc television series.

Marc’Antonio Ingegneri was born in Verona, Italy, and as a boy sang at

the Verona Cathedral. He was a gifted writer ofmasses, motets, and madrigals, but his historical reputation is secured by his having been a tutor of

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643). After brief employment as a string player

for processions at Saint Mark’s Cathedral in Venice, Ingegneri eventually

6

settled in Cremona, though he had patrons throughout Italy and as far away

as Vienna. The text of Ecce enim evangelizo is the angel’s pronouncement

to the shepherds “abiding in the fields,” taken from the Gospel according 

to Luke.

A more comprehensive version ofthe same text has been set to music by

Cheese Lord Gordon Geise in There Were Abiding in the Fields, which receives

its premiere performance this evening. The piece opens with a chantlike solo

but quickly erupts into a joyful, rollicking canticle with meters that change 

every few measures. Geise, a baritone from New Jersey, joined the Lords in

January 2003 and has composed several pieces for the group.

The delightful melody of Ding Dong! Merrily on High is a secular French

dance tune, Branle de I’officiel, which first appeared in Orchesographie, a dance 

treatise compiled by Jehan Tabourot (1520-1595). In 1924 the English carol

writer George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848-1934) added an English text to the 

melody and published it with a harmonization by Charles Wood in the 

Cambridge Carol Book.

The Cheese Lords delight in presenting works oflesser-known but

deserving composers, among whom they count Elzear Genet, also known

as Carpentras. Genet was the first musician to hold the title “master of

the papal chapel” and the first composer to publish his collected works.

Gabriel angelus locutus est is based on the plainchant for the antiphon for

the Magnificat at the second vespers on the Feast of the Annunciation.

Luc Jakobs was born in Weert, The Netherlands. He studied music

education and music theory at the Conservatorium Maastricht, to which 

he returned as a teacher in 1985. His education led him to choral conducting, which he began in 1973, and in 1992 he founded his own a cappella

chamber choir, Couleur Vocale. The poem O Kerstnacht is by Joost van den

Vondel (1587-1679), who is considered in some circles to be the greatest

of all Dutch writers. Amsterdam’s 120-acre Vondelpark is named for him.

7
One ofthe Christmas texts that scholars attribute to Saint Ambrose of

Milan (c. 340-397) is Veni redemptor gentium, which Martin Luther translated into German as Nun komm, der Heydm Heyland. Samuel Scheidt

scored this setting for an eight-part double choir of equal voices and published it in his Cantiones sacrae (1620). A composer and organist ofthe

early German baroque, Scheidt studied under Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck

(1562-1621) in Amsterdam, after which he entered into long service to the

city of Halle as organist and composer.

A popular composer in his time in Germany, Thomas Stoltzer served

from 1519 to 1522 as a priest at the Cathedral of Breslau (now Wroclaw,

Poland). Subsequently he moved to Buda, at the request of Queen Maria

of Hungary, to serve as minister capellae. Although Stoltzer may have been 

sympathetic to Protestantism, he mainly composed music for the traditional Catholic liturgy. The text of O admirabile commercium is the opening

antiphon for the octave of Christmas. In this five-voice motet each of the 

upper four voices begins with an imitation ofthe original chant melody.

Francisco Guerrero may hold the distinction of being the only composer 

in this program of Christmas music to have traveled to Bethlehem. Guerrero 

lived in Spain during the siglo de oro, the golden age of Spanish art and culture. In 1588 he journeyed to the Near East, traveling as far as Jerusalem

and Damascus. Immediately following this “grand tour,” he spent six weeks

in Venice, preparing for publication of his second book ofsacred and secular

songs and motets, which includes the lively A un nino llorando.

English composer William Byrd probably began his musical career as a

boy chorister in the Chapel Royal, but this cannot be substantiated, because 

chapel records in the sixteenth century named only the adult singers. As a

young man, he became the organist-choirmaster of Lincoln Cathedral, then

later returned to the Chapel Royal. Byrd devoted the last thirty years of his

life to a massive project, composing music for the Roman Catholic Mass.

Puer natus est nobis is the introit for the third Mass of Christmas Day.

8

The hymn In the Bleak Midwinter is a sublime coupling of Victorian

poetry (from Christina Georgina Rossetti, 1830-1894) and twentiethcentury melody and harmony (from the English composer Gustav Holst).

A deeply religious person, Rossetti wrote the poem in 1872, but the text did

not come to public attention until it appeared in a posthumous collection

entitled Poetical Works (1904). Her words first appeared with Holst’s tune

Cranham in the English Hymnal of 1906.

Cristobal de Morales was bom in Seville and was for a time the choirmaster at Avila Cathedral. He also sang in the papal chapel in Rome, later 

claiming to have been personally recmited for the position by Pope Paul ill.

Eventually Morales returned to Spain to work as a choirmaster in Toledo and

Malaga. O magnum mysterium, the responsory at matins for Christmas Day,

remains to this day one ofthe most popular Christmas texts for composers.

Morten Lauridsen divides his time between Los Angeles, where he is a

professor of composition at the University of Southern California’s Thornton

School of Music, and Washington State, where he has a cabin in the San

Juan Islands. Listeners may be familiar with his O magnum mysterium, now 

a standard in the choral repertoire. Ave dulcissima Maria is one of his most

recent compositions. It was commissioned by the Harvard Glee Club and 

performed at the 2005 National Convention ofthe American Choral

Directors Association.

The son of a notary clerk, Luca Marenzio became a singer, composer,

and expert lute player. He worked his way up the ranks, employed in turn

by the powerful Gonzaga family, Cardinal Cristoforo Madruzzo (the princebishop ofTrent), and finally Pope Clement vm. He may have fallen out of

favor with the pontiff, who dispatched him to Poland for several years to

work for King Sigismund III. Hodie Christus natus est is the antiphon at

the Magnificat from the second vespers on Christmas Day.

9
According to Dr. David W. Music, professor of church music at Baylor

University, “The Methodists had Wesley. The Lutherans had Bach. The 

Catholics had Palestrina, [and] the Baptists had The Sacred Harp.” The tunes

from this mid-nineteenth-century songbook are uniquely American. All are

three- or four-part a cappella compositions, exhibiting a refreshingly unrestrained quality. Some ofthe songs date back to America’s colonial times,

while others were written for camp meetings and revivals held in the southern United States during the 1800s. The English poet Sir John Bowring

(1792-1872) penned Night Watchman in 1825, and it was set to several harmonizations in the following decades. Little is known about Dr. Thomas W.

Carter, who wrote the version sung in this program, except that he was a

member ofthe Chattahoochee and Southern Musical Conventions in the mid1800s. Carter composed several ofthe tunes that appear in The Sacred Harp.

Program notes by George P. Cervantes and Christopher G. Riggs

re