PROGRAM NOTES

by J. Michele Edwards

S'vivon (Hanukkah dreydl song) (1985)

The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah (or Chanukah) commemorates the victory in mid- second century B.C.E. by a small band of Maccabees (a family of priestly Jews) over the Syrians, who ruled Palestine and had desecrated the Temple. It is popularly named the Festival of Lights because there was only enough oil to keep the "eternal light" burning for one day, but miraculously this one flask of oil lighted the ritual flame during the rededication of the Temple for eight days until more oil was prepared. In more general terms, this joyous celebration marks the victory of "light," including faith and loyalty to Jewish traditions, over the forces of darkness," represented by the hedonistic lifestyle of others in Palestine. The dreydl, which the song depicts, is a small top with four sides. Each side contains one of the four Hebrew initials supposedly for the phrase "(A) great miracle happened there" but more likely for the Yiddish words nit (nothing), gantz (all), halb (half), and shtell (put), which describe the actions of the game played with a dreydl.

Yuki no matsuri

This song, setting a text by Chieko Nakamura (a woman), is about an imaginary Japanese festival (matsuri) offering a special occasion for children to play with snow. The first half of the song is about throwing snowballs, followed by a slower section in which the scene shifts to a snow cave at night where children quietly enjoy themselves under candlelight. Several of the references are typical of celebrations for New Year's or other winter festivals. For example, children enjoy sweet nonalcoholic sake (amazake) to warm themselves on special occasions like New Year's; baked rice cakes (isobemaki) wrapped with a kind of seaweed (nori) are also associated with the celebration of the New Year; and mayudama is a New Year's festive bamboo twig hung with cocoon-shaped cakes, serving as a talisman against evil. Invoking the Battle of Sekigahara (15 September 1600), the most famous in Japanese history, offers a powerful cultural reference for Japanese people. It not only marked the victory of Tokugawa Ieyasu and establishment of a military government with Tokyo (Edo) as the capital, but also the beginning of a period of prolonged peace and cultural achievement for the country. We hope you enjoy imagining the children of the snow district in Japan and the remarkable way their enjoyment of snow at night contrasts with that during the day. (with assistance from Taeko Nishizaka)

O magnum mysterium

Victoria (ca. 1548-1611), a Spaniard, studied in Italy but returned to his native country and entered the service of the Empress Maria, widow of Maximilian II. In 1584, she and her daughter entered a convent, where Victoria served at various times as priest, choirmaster, and organist from 1586 until his death. This motet, a Matin Responsory for Christmas Day, weaves together four individual melodic lines and features Victoria's characteristic rhythmic variety and flexibility.

Light Breaking (1999)

With words and music by Carol L. Matthews, "Light Breaking" was commissioned for Festival 2000 by GALA, premiered by the Women's Festival Chorus, and "dedicated to all GALA Choruses and to Arminta Neal who is a gift of light for so many." In a program note, the composer describes the work as follows: "This is a work conceived at dusk in the North Rim country of Arizona when silver light spreads over a marsh, bringing a remembrance of light spilling over the dunes on the Pacific Coast, and of the setting sun spreading gold over the Boise Front Range. We fill our lives with measurements and boundaries of time, with the requirements of over-busy lives, constantly assessing our progress and place. Music is a way of stepping out of that mode, making ourselves timeless and placeless, of bringing our whole lives together in moments that can be infinite. This work is an attempt to slow down the moment, to savor the beautiful and the mundane, to experience light breaking into rainbows, shards, shadows, on the still surface of a pond, or a tear that tracks light down a cheek, or the miracle of breath, the gift of the voice. It is also a work that celebrates the timelessness of community, the inevitability of the spiral of need and nurture, and the constant impulse toward joy which is the hall mark of GALA Choruses."

Deck the Halls (in 7/8) (1966)

This arrangement of a traditional New Year carol was written for the Smith College Choir. Its playful rhythms (various groupings of seven beats) offer a distinctive feeling.

Neesa

This Native American round is in the economical language of the Seneca, who lived in western New York and were among the original five tribes in the Iroquois confederacy, known as the Five Nations or the League of Five Nations. The Seneca alphabet consists of twelve letters comparable to the English alphabet (a, c, e, h, i, k, n, s, t, u, w, y) plus the additional vowel.

Odun De! (1959)

Born Michael Olatunji in 1939 in Nigeria, drummer and bandleader Olatunji moved to the U.S. in the early 1960s to study medicine but quickly joined a group of expatriate Africans in a musical group, partially formed to alleviate homesickness. His successful album, Drums Drums Drums (1959), allegedly sparked John Coltrane's interest in African culture. Olatunji has had lucrative mainstream success with his own versions of traditional Nigerian drum and percussion music. He has worked with such musicians as Carlos Santana, Bob Marley, and Art Blakey as well as with the Grateful Dead on his 1986 album, The Beat of My Drum. By the 1990s he was a popular session drummer and had made the U.S. his permanent base of operations. "Odun de" is sung in the Nigerian language of Yoruba, the third largest ethnic group among the more than two hundred in Nigeria today. In the mid-18th century, the slave trade to the Americas dramatically disrupted all of West Africa, including the Yoruba whose descendants were often resettled in Cuba and Brazil, where elements of Yoruba culture and language can still be found.

Ring Out Wild Bells! (2000)

The text to "Ring Out Wild Bells!" was written by Alfred Lord Tennyson and is eight stanzas long. I have set only the first stanza to music:
Ring out wild bells to the wild sky!
The flying cloud, the frosty light.
The year is dying in the night,
Ring out wild bells and let him die.
 Though there are some sentiments in the following seven stanzas that resonate with me, none do with the charge that this first one does, for a couple of reasons. First, I find this initial stanza particularly moving as 2000 comes to a close and we embark upon a new era. Yet perhaps more importantly for me, on a personal note, two very significant people in my life left this world in the early months of 2000: my grandfather, and a dear childhood friend who was as close to me as a brother. As the grief of loss was felt and began to pass, the need to consciously let go has become more and more evident and essential. This piece has become for me a sign of joy - the kind of joy that comes from no longer clinging to that which cannot be and instead emerges from the beauty of that which now is, and is to come. Ring out, wild bells! (note from composer Felicia Sandler)

Mister Santa: Christmas Version of Mister Sandman

The Chordettes, a girl group from Sheboygan, Wisconsin (1946-61), first established themselves with the huge pop hit, "Mr. Sandman," in 1954. The bouncy, somewhat novelty-oriented "Mr. Sandman," originally a B-side for a record by singer Vaughn Monroe, remained at the top of the charts for seven weeks. This parody version has become a popular holiday song.

Silver Bells (1951)

This song is from the 1951 film The Lemon Drop Kid with Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell. In addition to the familiar recorded version by Bing Crosby, The Fontane Sisters offered an early recording in about 1953 and Perry Como, noted for his Christmas albums, sang this on several different recordings. Recently, ASCAP announced the top twenty-five holiday songs of the century with "Silver Bells" placing eighth.

Chanukah/Solstice Round (1988)

This year the dual title was particularly appropriate as Winter Solstice and the beginning of the eight days of Hanukkah both fell on December 22nd. Cantor Linda Hirschhorn has been invited to teach and speak at conferences and synagogues all around the U.S. As musical director, she organized the first Jewish Women's International Chorus in Kiev in June of 1994. Holding one's own while singing in harmony is the paradigm by which she thinks the world will survive into the 21st century. Hirschhorn, the mother of two children, has been Cantor at Temple Beth Sholom, San Leandro, CA since 1988. She is also founder of Vocolot, an ensemble of six women, that takes its name from the English word "vocal" and the Hebrew word "kolot" meaning voices. Since 1988, they have been performing for audiences across the U.S. in English and Hebrew, with a sprinkling of Yiddish, Ladino, Arabic, and American Sign Language. Their motto, "performing original music with universal heart, Jewish soul and social conscience," shows commonality with the mission of Calliope. Hirschhorn's choral arrangements are widely performed around the world, and she has released two songbooks and six recordings of original material.

Hymn to the Dawn (1909-10)

Gustav Holst (1874-1934) became enthralled with Hindu literature and philosophy during the 1890s and studied Sanskrit in London. He draws this text from the oldest of Hindu sacred books, the Rig Veda. The text, which Holst translated from Sanskrit into English, honors the Hindu celebration of light called Diwali, a festival to welcome Lakshmi, Goddess of wealth and prosperity. The festival, celebrated especially in India, urges people to vanquish ignorance that subdues humanity and to drive away darkness that engulfs the light of knowledge. Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda is a collection of fourteen short pieces grouped into four sets, some of which were written for mixed or men's chorus as while the third group is for women's chorus.

Seven Principles (1978)

Bernice Johnson Reagon's text and music articulate the principles celebrated during the seven days of Kwanzaa, an African American holiday honoring cultural and spiritual heritage. Seven candles are placed in a Kinara: three red representing struggle, three green pointing to hope for the future, and the central black candle for African American people. Each night a candle is lit and one of the principles is highlighted: Umoja (unity), Kujichagulia (self-determination), Ujima (collective work and responsibility) Ujamaa (cooperative economics), Nia (purpose), Kuumba (creatively), and Imani (faith). Dr. Maulana Ron Karenga started Kwanzaa in 1966 to help unify the black community to bring about social change. The name is from a Swahili word meaning "the first fruits of the harvest," and the celebration begins on December 26th.

Solstice Carol (2000)

Sometime back in the late 1980s, a group of women from Calliope were talking about the upcoming holidays and someone said "we need a Solstice carol!" I went home and wrote this song. Calliope sang it informally for several years and it's also been sung at a couple of Solstice services at First Universalist Church in Minneapolis. Now I've finally arranged it more formally for chorus. Perhaps now this little piece will find it's way into more Solstice celebrations. (note from composer Diane Benjamin)

Let it Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! (1945)

Songwriter and pianist Jule Styne (1905-95) was a child prodigy and developed a successful career early in life. In 1942, he met lyricist Sammy Cahn, which was the start of a team that would produce one hit after another. "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" was among their hits while working at MGM. This song placed ninth, right after "Silver Bells," in ASCAP's top twenty-five holiday songs of the century. Notable among recordings of this hit are those by singers Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Ella Fitzgerald, and Maureen McGovern.

Chasing the Northern Lights (1999)

According to Canadian composer Nancy Telfer, "In some northern Canadian communities, people go out to chase the Northern Lights during the night. It is a magical time and people of all ages participate. The adults start to feel more like children as they drive their cars and snowmobiles to follow the movement of the lights. Everyone becomes gentle through the magic." During portions of this song the chorus simulates Inuit throat singing, in which a singer actually throws a pulsing sound into the open mouth of another person by standing very close together and using cupped hands. In this piece it is just the spirit of this game that is intended: the sound thrown forward, a breathlessness, a steady pulsing, a playfulness.

Gate gate (1992)

In this composition, Brian Tate, another Canadian composer, sets the Sanskrit text of a Buddhist mantra and adds his own English text. This mantra, the last line from the Praj'aparamita or Heart Sutra, is chanted daily in Buddhist monasteries and practice centers throughout Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, and the west and generally regarded as the essence of Buddhist teaching. According to Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist teacher and author of The Heart of Understanding, Commentaries on the Prajñaparamita Heart Sutra, "A mantra is something that you utter when your body, your mind, and your breath are at one in deep concentration. When you dwell in that deep concentration, you look into things and see them as clearly as you see an orange that you hold in the palm of your hand. . . . In Buddhist meditation we do not struggle for the kind of enlightenment that will happen five or ten years from now. We practice so that each moment of our life becomes real life. And, therefore, when we meditate, we sit for sitting; we don't sit for something else. If we sit for twenty minutes, these twenty minutes should bring us joy, life. If we practice walking meditation, we walk just for walking, not to arrive. We have to be alive with each step, and if we are, each step brings real life back to us." (with assistance from Diane Benjamin)