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 of

the West Building 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-sixth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,672nd Concert

Davidson Fine Arts Chorale

James Dunaway, conductor

Paul Hennessey, pianist

April 20, 2008

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Heinrich Schiitz (1585-1672)

Cantate Domino (Sing unto the Lord)

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Motet no. 1: Singet dem Herm (Sing unto the Lord)

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Kyrie from Mass in C Major

Edwin Fissinger (1920-1990)

Lux aetema (Eternal Light)

Vytautas Miskinis (b. 1954)

Lucis creator optime (Best Creator of Light)

Eric Whitacre (b. 1970)

Lux aurumque (Golden Light)

Morten Lauridsen (b. 1943)

Dirait-on (So They Say)

Frank Martin (1890-1974)

Kyrie and Sanctus from Massfor Double Chorus

INTERMISSION

John Lennon (1940-1980) and Paul McCartney (b. 1942)

When I’m 64

Arranged for mixed chorus by Ward Swingle

Kurt Weill (1900-1950)

Mack the Knife

Arranged for mixed chorus by Ward Swingle

Freddie Mercury (1946-1991)

Bohemian Rhapsody

Arranged for mixed chorus by James Dunaway

Piero Umiliani (1926-2001)

Manamana

Arranged for mixed chorus by James Dunaway
The Musicians

THE DAVIDSON FINE ARTS CHORALE

In 1981 the Davidson Fine Arts School was founded in Augusta, Georgia.

It has consistently been ranked the number-one public school in academic

achievement in Georgia and has earned repeated praise for the students’

artistic achievements as well. In 2004 the Grammy Foundation named the

school the National Grammy Signature School, as home to the top high

school music department in the nation. In 2005 the foundation designated

the Davidson Fine Arts School a Grammy Gold Signature School.

The Davidson Fine Arts Chorale is composed ofadvanced vocal students

from grades nine through twelve. The group performs regularly at prestigious

events in Georgia and across the nation. It has sung at the National Cathedral

and at the National Shrine ofthe Immaculate Conception in Washington DC,

and has been featured in concert series at the Dunwoody United Methodist

Church in Atlanta, and at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. It has recently

performed at conventions ofthe American Choral Directors Association and

the Georgia Music Educators Association. Last spring the chorale was featured

at the Music Educators National Conference, Southern Division, in Charleston, South Carolina.

Renowned for the scope and variety ofits repertoire, the ensemble performs major and extended choral works, including operas and works for

double chorus. Recent repertoire choices include Johann Sebastian Bach’s

Singet dem Herm and Lobet dm Herm, Johannes Brahms’ Nanie, Gabriel Faure’s

Requiem, Howard Hanson’s Song ofDemocracy, Joseph Haydn’s Little Organ

Solo Mass and Mass in Time ofWar, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Missa Brevis in

F Major, Giovanni Palestrina’s Stabat Mater, Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas,

John Rutter’s Gloria, Arthur Sullivan’s Trial by Jury, and Eric Whitacre’s When

David Heard and Leonardo Dreams ofHis Flying Machine.

4

James Dunaway has been the director ofthe choral program at Davidson Fine 

Arts School since 1996. His teaching career spans positions in the public

schools in Cedar City, Utah; at McMurry University in Abilene, Texas; and at

McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He holds a doctor of

philosophy degree from the University of Utah and has guest-conducted and

presented clinics in several states. Dunaway is currently completing his final 

year at Davidson Fine Arts School; he plans to retire in June.

PAUL HENNESSEY

Pianist Paul Hennessey, a graduate ofThe Catholic University ofAmerica,

came to Davidson in 1966. He has concertized in Switzerland, Italy, and the

United States. In addition to his duties as instructor of piano at Davidson,

he is the choir director at Saint Thomas Aquinas School in Augusta, Georgia.

JAMES DUNAWAY

5
The Program

Heinrich Schutz is generally regarded as the most important German

composer to precede Johann Sebastian Bach. During visits to Venice, Schutz

heard the music of Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1554-1612) and Claudio Monteverdi

(1567-1643). Eventually, his skill as a composer earned him a place with

them as a master of early baroque style. Schutz wrote multiple settings of

the “Cantate Domino" text throughout his life. The setting used for this 

evening’s performance was likely written late in the composer’s life, since 

it is less modal than the earlier settings.

Johann Sebastian Bach is known throughout the world as one ofthe 

most diverse, prolific, and gifted composers of all time. During his lifetime,

he was known more as a fine organist than as a great composer. Indeed, 

most of his obituaries neglected to mention his compositions. Singet dem

Herm, the first and most brilliant of his six unaccompanied motets, was

written for double chorus. These motets are considered unaccompanied

only in the sense that they do not have an independent orchestration.

However, musical scholars agree that the performance practice of the time

would have included continuo, and even possibly several instruments

doubling the vocal lines.

Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his Mass in C Major in 1807, during the first

stage ofhis composing career. Music historians have sometimes used the

term “Haydnesque” in a pejorative manner when referring to Beethoven’s

early style. This work does, in fact, follow the general outline that Haydn

used in his final six great masses, but many aspects are more reminiscent

ofBeethoven’s middle compositional period than of Haydn’s final period.

Haydn’s best masses are acknowledged as some ofthe greatest ever written;

with the Mass in C Major, Beethoven moved the genre even closer to perfection. It communicates the text ofthe Mass much more directly than the 

monumental Missa solemnis, which Beethoven wrote fifteen years later.

6

Edwin Fissinger, a prolific choral composer and arranger, chaired the 

music departments and directed the choirs at the University of Illinois at

Chicago Circle and North Dakota State University. In addition to publishing

a significant body ofhis own choral works, he sat on the editorial boards of

several publications. His Lux aetema is based on plainchant and employs

elements ofminimalism supported by combinations of quartal and triadic

harmonic progressions.

Lithuanian composer Vytautas Miskinis is renowned in Europe as a

conductor and an international choral adjudicator as well as a composer. He

has received numerous international awards, including an honorary membership in the American Choral Directors Association. His music combines 

sharp unresolved dissonances with expressive lyricism.

Eric Whitacre arrived on the American choral scene in the mid 1990s

with highly expressive and text-driven compositions that explore simple

textures and expressive dissonances. After graduating from the University

of Nevada, Las Vegas, Whitacre attended the Juilliard School of Music,

where he studied with John Corigliano and David Diamond. A recording of

his choral works by the Brigham Young University Singers was nominated

for a Grammy in 2003. Whitacre’s use of dissonance in Lux aurumque

(Golden Light) is typical of his style—dissonances in this composition are

diatonic, and they tend to be suspended from a previous simple chord.

This technique creates beautiful sonorities that are very singable.

Morten Lauridsen, composer-in-residence ofthe Los Angeles Master

Chorale from 1994 to 2001, is professor of composition at the University

of Southern California in Los Angeles. Lauridsen has written several choral

cycles, including Los Chansons des roses, ofwhich Dirait-on is the final song.

Lauridsen opted to set Dirait-on in the style of a French chanson populaire,

a cabaret or folk song. The sensuous text is by Rainer Maria Rilke, who,

although primarily known as one ofthe finest German-language poets,

wrote a substantial amount of French poetry in tribute to his adopted 

home, the Swiss canton of Valais. Recordings of Lauridsen’s compositions

received Grammy nominations in 1998 and 2006.

7
Frank Martin was born in Geneva, Switzerland, and taught in Germany

and the Netherlands as well as in his homeland. He is best known for two

compositions: the Massfor Double Chorus, written at the beginning ofhis

career, and the Polyptyque, written near the end ofhis life for solo violin and

two orchestras. Yehudi Menuhin compared the violin solo in this piece to the

music ofJohann Sebastian Bach when he commented, “When I play the

Polyptyque by Frank Martin, I feel the same responsibility, the same exaltation, 

as when I play Bach’s Chaconne.”

Martin's Massfor Double Chorus was completed in 1926, but was not

premiered until 1963. Since then it has become his most frequently performed work. Several aspects ofthe composition pay homage to past techniques. The tradition ofpolychoral music stems from the late Renaissance,

and the texture ofthe beginning ofthe Kyrie brings to mind Renaissance

counterpoint. Several textures and harmonies evoke medieval techniques.

Other characteristics are typical ofthe early twentieth century. The driving

rhythms ofthe Sanctus suggest the music of Stravinsky, and many harmonies prompt memories of Debussy or Faure. This combination of old and

new produces a stirring stylistic synthesis. Near the end ofhis life, Martin

dismissed the Massfor Double Chorus as a “sin ofmy youth.” This was most

likely due to the fact that he changed his compositional style after completing the Mass. His new style was more atonal and employed elements ofthe

twelve-tone technique ofArnold Schonberg. Today, many music scholars

hold a favorable view ofthe Massfor Double Chorus, and maintain that the

work foreshadowed the compositional style oflater composers, such as

Eric Whitacre, by eighty years.

John Lennon and Paul McCartney collaborated in the production of

hundreds ofsongs during the time when the Beatles “rocked” the world. 

Generally, Lennon was the lyricist and McCartney the composer. Their

alliance produced a huge variety ofstyles, with some even looking back to

baroque practices. Their When I’m 64 is reminiscent ofmusic ofthe 1920s. 

Ward Swingle’s arrangement requires the voices to function as the instruments did in the original recording.

Kurt Weill came from a classical German music background, with Engelbert Humperdinck (1854-1921) and Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) as his

mentors. He was also influenced by Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), and in the

1920s he began a gradual emancipation from German classical style and

explored the expressive potential ofpopular styles. His first success in this

regard was The Threepenny Opera, written in 1928. Mack the Knife, the opening

number ofthis opera, shows a mastery ofthe jazz idiom. This setting of

macabre lyrics by Bertholt Brecht, now a jazz classic, deals with gruesomeness

in an ironic way, as does the newly-revived musical Sweeney Todd.

Freddie Mercury, bom Farokh Bulsara, studied at Imperial College in his

native Zanzibar in the late 1960s and developed a fascination for a rock group

named Smile. The group dissolved in 1970, at which point Freddie left his

own band, joined with the remnants of Smile, changed the name ofthe group

to Queen, and changed his last name to Mercury (after the recording label).

When the band members decided to release Bohemian Rhapsody in 1975,

everyone told them it was far too long at nearly six minutes and would never

be a hit. However, Freddie gave a copy ofthe single to the London dj Kenny

Everett, informing him that it was for him personally, and that he was not to

air it. Nevertheless, Everett did air it—fourteen times in two days. Soon every

major radio station was playing the full version ofthe song. It was a colossal 

hit, and established Queen as the top band ofthe era. Further, the video for 

the single became the genesis ofthe video craze. In the United Kingdom, 

Bohemian Rhapsody ranks as the most popular rock tune of all time, eclipsing

even the music ofthe Beatles. There has been much discussion as to the

meaning ofthe text. Perhaps the best clue is in the opening lines:

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?

Caught in a landslide, No escape from reality,

Open your eyes, Look up to the skies, and see.

The Davidson Fine Arts Chorale interprets this as an invitation for the

listener to participate in an interesting and convoluted fantasy, perhaps even

a parody of opera. James Dunaway’s arrangement tries to maintain the

9
integrity ofthe original version’s instrumental parts. The chorale premiered

this arrangement in 2005 at the American Choral Directors Association

National Convention.

Piero Umiliani, an Italian film composer, is most famous for his 1968 

song Manamana, which was originally part ofthe sound track of a Swedish

soft-porn documentary, Svezia, inferno eparadiso (Sweden, Heaven and

Hell). In 1977 this song became world-famous when it was performed on

The Muppet Show. It was also a signature tune for the Benny Hill Show.

Program notes by James Dunaway

10

Next Week at the National Gallery ofArt

Zuill Bailey, cellist

Simone Dinnerstein, pianist

The complete Beethoven sonatas for piano and cello

April 27, 2008

Sunday evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court