December Program: Candlelight Holidays
Comments by Music Director John Thomas Dodson
With a program combining music from the Baroque and beautiful music celebrating the season, the ASO Candlelight Holidays concert is sure to be a December highlight. Set in Adrian's historic Croswell Opera House, this concert has become a tradition for many families, and it offers a moment of peace in an increasingly hectic time of the year. In addition to Bach's masterful Suite No. 1, this concert will include traditional holiday melodies like O Come, O Come Immanuel; Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella; Good Christian Men, Rejoice; I Saw Three Ships on Christmas Day; Angels We Have Heard on High, and Gesu Bambino. Give yourself the gift of music, and join us for Candlelight Holidays!
Program Notes by Beryl McHenry
Overture No. 5 in F
William Boyce (1711–1779)
The Overture No. 5 in F was one of 12 overtures composed during a particularly prolific period in Boyce's professional life, but for a somewhat unhappy reason. Following classical training as a child, he was enjoying a distinguished and varied career which included singing, playing organ for several of London's churches, composing incidental music for the Drury Lane Theater, and its apex, being appointed "Master of the King's Music" in 1755. His position required him to compose music for royal occasions, compose odes for the King's birthday and for the holidays, conduct the St. Paul's choir and act as chief organist for the Royal Chapel. He was very busy and very successful with his musical duties. Between 1758 and 1768, however, the very mild deafness which had been present when he was a child became steadily more pronounced and he was compelled to give up some of his official activities, eventually being forced to retire altogether. He turned his attention to composing in earnest and produced his greatest body of work, including his 8 symphonies during that time. The Overture No. 5 in F was composed in 1770, after his retirement from royal duties. Boyce also used this time period to organize English church music into a portfolio of pieces that are still used in Anglican services today.
Boyce was 25 years younger than Handel, whom he out-lived by 20 years, and there is some of Handel's influence in his work. They shared a publisher, in fact. In spite of the fact that his wife published several of his works after his death, he was almost forgotten, and the body of his work is rarely performed today. The Overtures deserve performance for the sheer freshness of Boyce's inspiration and the spirit of invention for which he was admired in his time.
Ave Maria
Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
For one who lived only 31 years, Schubert's output was astonishing. No other composer has matched his genius for writing leider, art songs for voice and piano. He composed them constantly and they number over six hundred. This was in addition to nine symphonies, liturgical music, operas and a large collection of chamber works and solo piano music. He admired Beethoven enormously and met him in 1822. It was a cordial meeting that led nowhere for Schubert, although Beethoven was quoted as saying, "Truly, the spark of divine genius resides in this Schubert!" Schubert continued to idolize Beethoven, served as a pall-bearer at his funeral and asked to be buried near him when he himself died.
The "Ave Maria" was composed in 1825 when Schubert was 28 years old. It was originally composed as a musical setting for one of seven poems from Sir Walter Scott's The Lady of the Lake. This simple, moving piece, universally known and loved, consists of a lyrical outpouring of melody supported by a repeated sextuplet figure, meant to invoke the harp of Ellen Douglas, the "Lady of the Lake" in Scott's poem. The "lake" is Loch Katrine in the Scottish highlands, and the story unfolds of a great war among rival clans. Ellen has gone into hiding in a cave and sings a prayer addressed to the Virgin Mary, calling upon her for help. That prayer is the Ave Maria for which Schubert wrote his famous melody.
There is a popular misconception that Schubert's lovely melody was composed as a setting for the Roman Catholic prayer to the Blessed Virgin, but this was actually a later adaptation. Schubert's friends were reportedly surprised at the deeply devotional character of his Ave Maria. This was not the Franz they knew. His comment was, "I think the reason for this is that I never force myself into devotion or compose hymns or prayers unless I am truly overpowered by the feeling. That alone is true devotion."
Orchestra Suite No. 1
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
Bach was already well into a distinguished musical career when in 1717 he became the director of court music under Prince Leopold in his native Germany. The Prince was a well-educated man, very fond of art and with a great passion for music. He played violin, viola and harpsichord and reportedly had an excellent bass voice. He established a court musical society in 1707 under the initial leadership of Telemann, and it was for this group that Bach composed many of his most outstanding works, including the four orchestral suites. Each is scored slightly differently, and the first is scored for two oboes, bassoon, strings and continuo.
These suites, which Bach called ouvertures because of their grand opening movements and French style, were not considered major works in Bach's time. They were not even mentioned in Bach's obituary, prepared by his son Carl Philipp Emanuel. So much of Bach's music has been lost that it is amazing that these four suites survived intact. None of the original scores for the suites has survived, so dating is difficult, but most scholars put the first suite at about 1720. The earliest surviving copies date from 1729. We also know, amazingly, that they were originally written to be performed in Leipzig, at Gottfried Zimmermann's coffeehouse on a Friday night! The surviving copies are from those performances.
The Suite No. 1 is a collection of dance pieces, employing the basic metrical pattern of the individual dances. The Baroque suite began with a "French overture", a movement which began with a stately introduction, followed by a center section in a polyphonic texture, and concluding with a return to the stately music which was presented at the very beginning. After that movement, there follows a series dance movements borrowed from various European countries. The courante, gavotte, and bourrée are all brought from the French culture, but the first suite is unique in that it includes a forlane, which is actually Italian in origin, and was thought to have been conceived to commemorate the Carnival of Venice.
Gesu Bambino
Pietro Yon ( 1886–1943)
Pietro Yon was born in Settimo, Italy. He was classically trained in Milan, Turin, and Rome by some of the most distinguished teachers of his day. He had the enviable position of deputy organist at the Vatican and also served at the Royal Church of Rome before deciding to come to the United States in 1907, and becoming an American citizen shortly after. His first American position was that of organist and choirmaster at the church of St. Francis Xavier in New York, and in 1926 he became organist of St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. In 1921 he received the honor of being made honorary organist of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. Yon was much sought after as a solo performer and toured the country giving recitals up to his death in 1943.
Yon was also a competent composer, writing many works for organ, piano and orchestra, and one oboe concerto. Probably his most famous work, however, is the traditional Christmas song, Gesu Bambino. It has been set to many different instrumental settings since it was written in 1917. It uses a lovely pastoral melody and overlays it with the theme from "O Come All Ye Faithful," creating a gorgeous effect. Originally written in Italian, it was translated into English by Frederick H. Martens as follows:
When blossoms flowered 'mid the snows
Upon a winter night
Was born the Child, the Christmas Rose
The King of Love and Light
The angels sang, the shepherds sang
The grateful world rejoiced
And at His blessed birth, the stars
Their exultation voiced
O come let us adore Him
O come let us adore Him
O come let us adore Him
Christ, the Lord
Again the heart with rapture glows
To greet the holy night
That gave the world its Christmas Rose
Its King of Love and Light
Let ev'ry voice acclaim His name
The grateful chorus swell
From paradise to earth He came
That we with Him might dwell
O come let us adore Him
O come let us adore Him
O come let us adore Him
Christ, the Lord.