Next Week at the National Gallery ofArt

Verge Ensemble

Music by Elliott Carter and a new work by Jeffrey Mumford

November 30, 2008

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

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For the convenience of concertgoers

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:00 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 of

the West Building after 6:30 pm is not permitted.

Music Department

National Gallery ofArt

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

Mailing address

2000B South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov

The Sixty-seventh Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,694th Concert

The Singers Companye

Samuel Gordon, artistic director

Kim Bakkum, pianist

Jane Berkner, flutist

Lynn Turner, reader

Presented in honor ofthe exhibition

George de Forest Brush: The Indian Paintings

November 16, 2008

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

“Where the Earth Meets the Sky”

Z. Randall Stroope

Where the Earth Meets the Sky

In Time of Silver Rain (Langston Hughes)

The Pasture (Robert Frost)

Song ofthe Earth (Traditional Mohawk)

Jackson Berkey

Native American Ambiances

Loon Lake By Morning

The Sacred Earth (Chief Seattle -Suquamish)

Wordsfrom Our Brothers (Black Elk)

Prairie Fire (Najinyanupi-Sioux)

This We Know

The Web ofLife (Chief Seattle-Suquamish)

Nancy Grundahl

With Beauty

Introduction, Canon, and Hymn

Eleanor Daley

Grandmother Moon (Mary Louise Martin-Mi’kmaq poet)

John Muehleisen

Prairie Waters By Night (Carl Sandburg)

Kenneth Jennings

American Indian Songs

Song of Spring (Chippewa)

A Voice I Sent (Teton Sioux)

Love Song (Chippewa)

The Dust ofthe Red Wagon (Northern Ute)

The Deer and the Flower (Yaqui)

The Sunrise— Healing Song (Papago)

To the End ofOur Tribe (Seminole)

Mark Hayes

Home on the Range (Traditional song ofthe American West)

Patricia LaNasa, harmonica

Berkey (Adaptation)

Cibola

Stephen Paulus

Hymn to America (Text by Michael Dennis Browne)
The Musicians

The Singers Companye is a chamber choir consisting of professional musicians from northeast Ohio. Samuel Gordon founded the ensemble in September 2007 in order to provide singers with the opportunity to sing great

choral works for chamber choir from virtually every period ofmusical composition. Gordon is the artistic director of Corofest Italia and in June 2008

Singers Companye was the choir-in-residence for that festival. In addition,

the ensemble has performed in Assisi, Bologna, Perugia, and Pistoia, and

has also sung on the Music at the Farmstead series, a unique music festival 

in the Cuyahoga National Park near Akron, Ohio. Earlier this month they

performed tonight’s program in their home city ofAkron, and will continue

the season with a variety of performances that include the Kulas Series at

the University ofAkron, a Bach-Mendelssohn concert, and concerts in

Cleveland and Pittsburgh as well as the Montana Choral Festival. They have 

been invited to the international choral festival that will be held in Tolosa,

Spain, in October 2009.

Soprano

Merissa Coleman

Samantha Garner

Christine Gingerich

Jill Hornickel

Patricia LaNasa

Jennifer Moore 

Catherine Neff

Valerie Niese 

Marlene Sell

Christine Stewart

Katherine Wilkinson

Alto

Yvonne Broome

Rebecca Brown

Jennifer Browning-Patrick

Susan Collins

Marissa Leonino

Patricia Moyer

Nancy Robinson

Kristina von Held

Jennifer Yachanin

Tampa Murphy

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Tenor Bass

Anthony Bianchi Doug Downie

Byron Butler Joseph Guy

Lawrence Butler Robert Grant

Robert Carlyon Sam Kitzler

Nathaniel Duvuvuei Paul Kroeger

Philip Formes Troy Mason

Gregory Huber Robert Mollard

Jesse Lange Roger Sell

Christopher Oseredczyk Jeffrey Sonoda

Scott Williams Paul Stewart

Dominik Fischer

Sylvia Zucker

Founder and artistic director ofThe Singers Companye, Samuel Gordon,

is director of choral studies and professor ofmusic at The University ofAkron. 

He has been actively engaged in both singing and conducting in the United

States and abroad. From 1985-2003, he was the tenor in the National Gallery 

Vocal Arts Ensemble, and from 1988-1996 his Maryland Camerata was choirin-consortium at the Gallery. Gordon performed concerts of vocal chamber

music with the Vocal Arts Ensemble at the Louvre in Paris and at the Belvedere Museum in Vienna.

In 1988 Gordon and the other members ofthe Vocal Arts Ensemble won

the Studio Lauda Award at the International Early Music Festival in Zadar, 

Yugoslavia (now Croatia), and he has won top prizes at the Concorso Polifonico Guido d’Arezzo (Italy), the International Musical Eisteddfod (Wales), and

the Welsh National Eisteddfod. He was the first American to win the Welsh

competition, where his ensembles sang in Welsh. His conducting skills have

also earned the Bronze Horreo in Orviedo, Spain, the Laureate ofthe Fiat 

Conducting Prize, and the Trimillenial Medal from the city ofCadiz, Spain.

Performances at international festivals have included the Ambler

Festival, the Bregenz International Festival, the Flanders Festival, the Haydn

Festival of a Lifetime at the Kennedy Center, the Holland Festival, the

Llubljana Festival, Mozaik (the former Yugoslavia), the Rheingau Musik

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Festival, the Salzburg Festival, and the Spoleto Festival ofTwo Worlds (Italy).

As guest conductor, he has led the Canton Symphony, the National Gallery 

Orchestra, the Pennsylvania Ballet Orchestra, the Perugia Chamber Orchestra, the Santa Fe Symphony, and the Taipei Philharmonic. Fie has been a

featured soloist with the orchestras of Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Kansas City,

St. Louis, the National Gallery', and El Paso, as well as with the National Symphony Orchestra.

Gordon is also active as a composer. In 2006 The Santa Fe Women’s

Ensemble premiered his Motetsfor the Ladymass and in 2007 he was composer-in-residence for that ensemble. Fie has recorded for Koch International Classics and Telarc International and has his own choral music series

with The National Music Publishers, where he has published more than

twenty choral compositions. His works have been premiered at the National

Gallery and the Kennedy Center, among other venues.

The Program

The paintings of George de Forest Brush (1854/1855-1941) have been

described as complex meditations on the advent ofmodernism in which the

Indian serves as metaphor. Many ofthe works in this program, especially

those by composers who, like Brush, are not American Indians, can be perceived much the same way. Even though they may be vastly different from

anything American Indians might have sung or enjoyed, they spring, without exception, from a deep reverence for their culture. The exhibition George

de Forest Brush: The Indian Paintings remains on view at the Gallery through

January 4, 2009.

Z. Randall Stroope’s Where the Earth Meets the Sky, (translated from the

Mohawk word Kaoniakatatie) sets to music three poems that embrace feelings

ofrespect for the splendor ofnature and earth’s gifts. The third song hauntingly embraces the Native vision ofAmerica.

In Time ofSilver Rain, Langston Hughes

In time ofsilver rain the earth puts forth new life again,

Green grasses grow and flowers lift their heads

And over all the plain the wonder spreads oflife.

The butterflies lift silken wings to catch a rainbow cry,

And trees put forth new leaves to sing oflife!

The Pasture, Robert Frost

I’m going out to clean the pasture spring;

I’ll only stop to rake the leaves away

(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):

I sh’n’t be gone long. —You come too.

I’m going out to fetch the little calf 

That’s standing by the mother. It’s so young,

It totters when she licks it with her tongue,

I sh’n’t be gone long.—You come too.

Song ofthe Earth, Traditional Mohawk

Karonejo. I am the song ofthe stone, ancient as light, Hajona,

creation, I.

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I am the whisper ofwind that summons the rain where earth 

meets sky.

My song made the seasons and rivers that quenched the sun, the

sunset, red as pipestone.

I am the snow on the limb, the fruit on the vine, the stillness of

night breaking at dawn.

I am the music of creation, the footprint on the water, the wind on

eagle’s wings.

Where the earth meets the sky, there will my spirit be.

Jackson Berkey combines the elements of Native American texts with

percussion, flute, and natural environmental sounds. The layers ofsound, or

“ambiances,” exist either separately or in varied combinations throughout the

six sections ofthe work. The harmonic modalities ofthe piece were determined by a five-hole Native American flute.

The Sacred Earth, Chief Seattle -Suquamish

Sacred. Every part to my people. Every shining pine needle. Every

sandy shore.

Every mist in the dark woods. Every meadow. Every humming insect.

All are holy in the memory and experience of my people.

Prairie Fire, Najinyanupi-Sioux

When the prairie is on fire, you see the animals ringed in flames.

You see them run and try to hide so they will not burn!

This is how it is now with us!

The Web of Life, Chief Seattle-Suquamish

This we know. The earth does not belong to us, we belong to

the earth.

All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the

children of earth.

We did not weave the web oflife, we are only a strand in it.

Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. This we know. The

earth does not belong to us.

In With Beauty, for treble voices, Nancy Grundahl sets the Introduction

and Canon to traditional American Indian texts that speak ofthe “talking

God” who surrounds us in beauty. The third section ofthe piece is a choralelike setting ofthe Folliot Pierpont hymn text, For the Beauty ofthe Earth:

Now talking God. With your feet I walk. I walk with your limbs. I

carry forth your body. For you my mind thinks, for you, my voice

speaks. Beauty is behind me. Above and below hovers the beautiful.

I am surrounded by it. I am immersed. In my youth I am aware of

it, and in old age, I shall walk quietly on the beautiful trail.

For the beauty ofthe earth, For the beauty ofthe skies, For the love

which from our birth over and around us lies, God of all, to thee we

raise this, our hymn of grateful praise.

The prolific Canadian composer Eleanor Daley selected a poem, Grandmother Moon, by Mary Louise Martin for this exquisite choral work. Martin

is a Mi’kmaq poet who currently lives on a small island in British Columbia.

Mi’kmaq people are the First Nations People of Nova Scotia; these Aboriginal

people have their own language and the term Mi’kmaq comes from their

word, nikmak, meaning “my kind-friends.”

Grandmother Moon

She looks into and beyond my soul...

the lacy cedar boughs creating her shadows...

cedar ones weave design of midnight canvas...

she looks into and beyond my soul...

she a powerful sacred hoop offull light...

simplicity against the ebony blues and blacks of night...

sky land and crystal star people...

she looks into and beyond my soul...

her round face oftranslucent beauty and light...

quiet powers speak out in her name... we’lalin [welcome].

Prairie Waters by Night by Carl Sandburg, inspired John Muehleisen’s

musical setting. Sandburg’s reputation as a balladeer, historian, and folklorist combined with Muehleisen’s Pacific Northwest heritage seems to be a

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good combination for a work that reflects Native American traditions. The

chatter of birds and the litany of nature sounds provide beautiful images for

this particular program.

Prairie Waters by Night

Chatter of birds two by two raises a night song joining a litany of

running water—sheer waters showing the russet of old stones 

remembering many rains. And the long willows drowse on the

shoulders ofthe mnning water, and sleep from much music;

joined songs of day-end, feathery throats and stony water, in a choir

chanting new psalms. It is too much for the long willows when low

laughter of a red moon comes down; and the willows drowse and

sleep on the shoulders ofthe running water.

Composed in 1976, American Indian Songs are set to texts from the

Chippewa, Northern Ute, Papago, Seminole, Teton Sioux, and Yaqui nations.

The poetry has been translated by Frances Densmore.

Song ofSpring

As my eyes search the prairie I feel the summer in the spring 

A Voice I Sent

Today is mine (I claimed)... (to) a man... a voice... I sent you...

grant me now... here (he) is.

Love Song

A loon I thought it was. But it was my love’s splashing oar.

The Dust ofthe Red Wagon

Red wagon dust... white man... looking around.

The Deer and the Flower

The deer looks at a flower

The Sunrise-Healing Song

The sun is rising. At either side a bow is lying. Beside the bows are

lion-babies. The sky is pink. That is all. The moon is setting. At

either side are bamboos for arrow-making. Beside the bamboos are

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wild-cat babies. They walk uncertainly. That is all. The sun is slowly

departing. It is lower in its setting. Black bats will be swooping

when the sun is gone. That is all. The spirit children are beneath.

They are moving back and forth. They roll in play among tufts of

white eagle down. That is all.

To the End ofOur Tribe

They are taking us beyond Miami. They are taking us beyond the 

Caloosa River. They are taking us to the end of our tribe. They are

taking us to Palm Beach, coming back beside Okeechobee Lake.

They are taking us to an old town in the West.

The inclusion of cowboy songs and hymns in this program makes the

point that the serene beauty ofAmerica’s heartland inspires poets and composers who live there regardless oftheir ethnic heritage. Cibola was one of

over 300 songs that Native American composer/singer/guitarist Phillip

White Hawk wrote about America. A drive through western New Mexico,

bordered by Arizona, displays the beautiful scenic desert area with its rolling

terrain marked by striking mesas and colorful sandstone. The stories ofthis

region about the Seven Cities of Cibola and legendary vast treasure attracted

sixteenth-century Spanish expeditions. White Hawk’s song captures the

thundering hooves of horses as they race from the whistles and calls during

the clash of cultures. Hymn to America was written by Stephen Paulus for

the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The beautiful poem by Michael Dennis

Browne brings us full circle in a program that celebrates nature as America’s

first people experienced it. Browne’s poem pays tribute to the grandeur that

is now the United States ofAmerica.

Program notes by Samuel Gordon