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Peace and Hope/Featuring a “Masterpiece of American Choral Music”
The centerpiece of our April concerts is the choral cantata, The Peaceable Kingdom, by Randall Thompson. Commissioned in 1936 by the League of Composers for the Harvard Glee Club and Radcliffe Choral Society, it was inspired by a painting by the naturalist Edward Hicks. The painting depicts Isaiah, Chapter XI, vs. 6-9, which begins: “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the wolf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.” From this beginning, Thompson selected various verses from the book of Isaiah with which to craft a choral sequence based on the unfolding of a dramatic narrative. In its entirety, this narrative is far from peaceful, expressing the theme that the wicked will be destroyed and the good will go to heaven. Full of drama and beauty, this American classic is rarely heard on modern concert programs.
About this work James Burton writes, The tunes are simple, eminently singable, and gorgeous, modally inflected, hinting at the old shape-note hymnals. The cantata divides into a prelude followed by two major parts. The prelude, “Say ye to the righteous,” sets up a dichotomy: for the righteous, all will be well; for the wicked, all will be woe. The next numbers deal with the wicked – from the wrath of God (“Woe unto them,” “The noise of the multitude in the mountains,” “Howl ye!”) to the lamentation of survivors, weeping at “The paper reeds by the brook.” This last piece has achieved an independent life. It sounds blood-simple and emotionally direct, but it also exemplifies Thompson’s fondness for “mirror-writing” – where the bass and soprano move in opposite directions, in diatonically-equal amounts (harder than it sounds). Thompson isn’t afraid of dissonance, and his dissonance is highly expressive. He takes the meaning of his text as paramount, and there’s a real elegance in the correlation of his idiom and the text’s demands. Furthermore, he doesn’t confine himself to dissonance. Dynamic, rhythm, and choral “orchestration” (who gets to sing what, when) also come into play. His declamation – the musical rhythmicization of speech – is superb. The wicked wail, spit, gnash their teeth, and gape in horror. The prophet then ringingly and briefly proclaims God’s promise to the faithful. From here on out, the piece becomes ecstatic, culminating in rich, eight-part writing. Beautiful effects bathe the listener in pure joy, especially as “all the trees of the fields…clap their hands” and “one goeth with a pipe, to come into the mountains of the Lord.”
Music both ancient and modern rounds out the program. Intricate polyphony comes from the Renaissance masters Thomas Tomkins and Josquin des Prez. A very young American composer, Joshua Shank, is represented with his stunning, “Musica animam tangens,” which speaks of the way in which music can help us to touch God. From British composer, Bob Chilcott, come his hopeful “Canticles of Light,” and from American Jackson Berkey, we present his fascinating and quirky, “Arma Lucis.”
Peace and Hope
O Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem – Thomas Tomkins (1572-1656)
Musica animam tangens - Joshua Shank (b. 1980)
Ave Maria - Josquin des Prez (1440-1521)
Canticles of Light -Bob Chilcott (b. 1955)
1. Te lucis ante terminum
2. Christe, qui, splendor et dies
3. O nata lux de lumine
Arma Lucis - Jackson Berkey (b. 1942)
The Peaceable Kingdom – Randall Thompson (1899-1984)
I Say ye to the righteous
II Woe unto them
III The noise of a multitude
IV Howl he
V The paper reeds by the brooks
VI But these are they that forsake the Lord
For ye shall go out with joy
VIII Ye shall have a song
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