The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The Winter Concert Series by the Madison Youth Choirs next Saturday and Sunday feature the theme of “Resilience” with guest artist Tony Memmel
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement to post:
This semester, the Madison Youth Choirs welcome guest artist Tony Memmel, a singer-songwriter and guitarist whose story of ingenuity and resilience will inspire young singers and audience members alike.
Born without a left forearm or hand, Memmel (below) taught himself to play guitar by building a homemade cast out of Gorilla Tape, and has become an internationally acclaimed musician, thoughtful teacher and ambassador for young people with limb differences. (You can hear Memmel talk about himself in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
On this coming Saturday night, Dec. 8, and Sunday afternoon, Dec., 9, at the Middleton Performing Arts Center that is attached to Middleton High School at 2100 Bristol Street, Memmel will join the Madison Youth Choirs in a Winter Concert Series called “Resilience” because it focuses on the ability to overcome challenges both visible and invisible, and along the way discover the limitless possibilities that exist inside each of us.
Here is the schedule:
Saturday, Dec. 8, at 7:00 p.m. – Purcell, Britten, Holst and Ragazzi choirs
Sunday, Dec. 9, at 4:00 p.m. – Choraliers, Con Gioia, Capriccio, Cantilena and Cantabile choir
Tickets will be available at the door, $10 for general admission; $5 for students 7-18; and free for children under 7.
These concerts are generously endowed by the Diane Ballweg Performance Fund with additional support from our sponsors, American Girl’s Fund for Children, BMO Harris Bank, Dane Arts with additional funds from the Endres Mfg. Company Foundation, The Evjue Foundation, Inc., charitable arm of The Capital Times, the W. Jerome Frautschi Foundation, and the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation. This project is also supported by the Madison Arts Commission and the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.
About Madison Youth Choirs (MYC): Recognized as an innovator in youth choral music education, Madison Youth Choirs (MYC) welcomes singers of all ability levels, annually serving more than 1,000 young people, ages 7-18, through a wide variety of choral programs in our community.
Cultivating a comprehensive music education philosophy that inspires self-confidence, personal responsibility, and a spirit of inquiry leading students to become “expert noticers,” MYC creates accessible, meaningful opportunities for youth to thrive in the arts and beyond.
For more information about supporting or joining MYC, go to: https://www.madisonyouthchoirs.org
HERE IS THE COMPLETE REPERTOIRE OF THE MYC 2018 WINTER CONCERT SERIES “RESILIENCE”:
SATURDAY, DEC. 8, at 7:00 p.m. Concert (featuring MYC Boychoirs)
Combined Boychoirs with Tony Memmel
“Clenched Hands, Brave Demands” by Tony Memmel
“Though My Soul May Set in Darkness,” text by Sarah Williams, composer unknown
Purcell
“Who Can Sail” Scandinavian Folk Song, arr. Jeanne Julseth-Heinrich
“Hine Ma Tov” Hebrew Folk Song, arr. Henry Leck
Britten
“Jerusalem,” poem by William Blake, music by Sir Hubert Parry
“This Little Babe” from A Ceremony of Carols by Benjamin Britten
Holst
“Keep Your Lamps,” traditional spiritual, arr. André Thomas
“Out of the Deep” by John Wall Callcott
“Shosholoza,” Traditional song from Zimbabwe, arr. Albert Pinsonneault
Combined Boychoirs
“Angels’ Carol” by John Rutter
Tony Memmel
Selections to be announced
Ragazzi
“Wie Melodien” (Op. 5, No. 1) by Johannes Brahms
“The Chemical Worker’s Song” by Ron Angel, arr. after Great Big Sea
“Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight” by Abbie Betinis
Combined Boychoirs with Tony Memmel (below)
“America to Go” by Tony Memmel
SUNDAY, DEC. 9, at 4:00 p.m. Concert (featuring MYC Girlchoirs)
Combined Girlchoirs with Tony Memmel
“Clenched Hands, Brave Demands” by Tony Memmel
Choraliers
“Be Like a Bird,” Text from Victor Hugo, music by Arthur Frackenpohl
“Art Thou Troubled” by George Frideric Handel
“Blustery Day” by Victoria Ebel-Sabo
Con Gioia
“Bist du bei mir” by Johann Sebastian Bach from “The Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach”
“I Heard a Bird Sing” by Cyndee Giebler
“Ask the Moon” from Three Settings of the Moon by Ron Nelson
“I’ll Overcome Someday” by C.A. Tindley
“We Shall Overcome” arr. by Marie McManama and Con Gioia
“i shall imagine” by Daniel Brewbaker, text by e.e. cummings
South African National Anthem by E.M. Sontonga and M.L. de Villiers
Capriccio
“Resilience” by Abbie Betinis
“Be Like the Bird” by Abbie Betinis
“Esurientes” from Magnificat in G minor by Antonio Vivaldi
“And Ain’t I a Woman!” by Susan Borwick, adapted from a speech by Sojourner Truth
Tony Memmel
Selections to be announced by Tony Memmel
Cantilena
“Vanitas vanitatum” by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
“Chant for a Long Day” by Stephen Hatfield
“Wir eilen mit schwachen doch emsigen Schritten”(from BWV 78) by Johann Sebastian Bach
“The Storm is Passing Over” by Charles Albert Tindley, arr. Barbara Baker
Cantabile
“Ich weiss nicht”(Op. 113, No. 11) by Johannes Brahms, text by Friedrich Rueckert
“Widmung” (Op.25, No. 1) by Johannes Brahms, text by Friedrich Rueckert
“I Never Saw Another Butterfly” by Charles Davidson
Combined Choirs with Tony Memmel
“America to Go” by Tony Memmel
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Classical music: The Ear likes very old Christmas music more than newer music. What do you prefer?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Each year in the Madison area there are so many wonderful concerts with holiday themes performed by the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the Madison Choral Project, the Madison Bach Musicians, Edgewood College and by many, many others that you just can’t get to all of them.
And it doesn’t help if you have a winter cold or aren’t feeling well, as happened this year to The Ear.
But I did get to two memorable performances.
The first was the terrific annual Choral Prism holiday concert (below) put on at Luther Memorial Church by various choirs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music. They performed under several conductors, including Beverly Taylor, Bruce Gladstone, Anna Volodarskaya and Sara Guttenberg.
The second was the satisfying “Welcome Yule” concert at Grace Episcopal Church by the Wisconsin Chamber Choir under conductor Robert Gehrenbeck, who also teaches at the UW-Whitewater.
Both events were excellent, and drew full and enthusiastic houses.
A lot of beautiful music in a wide variety of styles was offered by each of the two groups. That included homages to the St. Paul, Minnesota composer Stephen Paulus (below), who died at 64 this past year and who had close ties to Madison’s vocal groups that commissioned and performed his music. And because programs strive for ethnic diversity today, spirituals and jazz arrangements were also included. (I often cringe when I see something has been “arranged.”)
But when all was said and done, the “winners” so to speak –- for The Ear at least -– were the old ones. I mean the very old ones, generally those works dating from the Medieval period and Renaissance period over the Classical, Romantic, Modern and Contemporary eras with the Baroque falling somewhere in between.
Why did I like the old music so much?
One reason was the performances. The straight-ahead singing, mostly a cappella or unaccompanied but sometimes with a bit of percussive drum or lyrical harp added, was much more convincing than when I saw modern largely white singers stiffly swaying and awkwardly stomping their feet and clapping the hands to get into the swing of things and show some unconvincing imitation of gospel singing.
But I started thinking.
Maybe it goes back to the Bible and that old verse about “The Word made Flesh.”
That seems a much more successful formula for effective Christmas music than the modern approach, which I am starting to think of as “The Flesh made Word.”
That means that what gets to me is the very simplicity, the strength of the rhythms and melodies as well as the simpler harmonies and compositional techniques.
Simpler is simply better. No better proof was offered that a souped-up jazz arrangement of “Silent Night.” That venerable and quietly emotional carol cannot be improved upon by complicating it. Keep it simple. That seems to be the way to go. Another case of inferior “arranging,” I am afraid.
I think of the old Medieval hymns about a mother simply rocking her baby Jesus to sleep as she sings to him. Can there be anything more touching or poignant, more to the point or direct, especially at a historical period when there was no nighttime lighting and so many babies died.
More than nostalgia, such music offers the art of reducing things to the essential. And the essential, as the old composers seemed to know, is often the path to the universal.
Of course, the plain song or chant-like harmonies also add to the appeal.
But it still goes back to simplicity of the act and the simplicity of the metaphor.
That is why the great 20th-century modern English composer Benjamin Britten (below) used so many older carols in his “Ceremony of Carols” to such great effect.
That is also why 100 times out of 100 I will prefer the simple 16th-century German tune “Lo how a Rose Ere Blooming” (at bottom in a YouTube video) over, say, the long and tedious “Magnificat” No. 20 with its overworked harmonies and complexities for chorus and organ by another 20th-century English composer Herbert Howells (below).
What do you make of the old music versus new music debate when it comes to holiday music?
Do you agree or disagree with The Ear?
And what is your favorite local holiday concert to recommend for next year?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: A Ceremony of Carols, Adam lay ybounden, arragements, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Benjamin Britten, Carol, Chamber choir, Chamber music, Child of God, Christmas, Christmas music, Classical era, Classical music, England, English music, German music, Germany, Holiday, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Lo How a Rose, Lo How a Rose Ere Blooming, Madison, Madison Bach Musicians, Madison Choral Project, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Medieval, Middle Ages, Minnesota, modern music, New Music, Romantic music, Saint Paul, Silent Night, Stephen Paulus, transcriptions, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, YouTube, Yule
Classical music: The Wisconsin Chamber Choir will perform “Welcome Yule,” a concert of six centuries of holiday music, including Benjamin Britten’s “Ceremony of Carols,” this Friday night.
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Wisconsin Chamber Choir (below) will perform “Welcome Yule,” featuring the well-known “Ceremony of Carols” (at bottom is an excerpt in a YouTube video) by British composer Benjamin Britten.
The concert is this Friday night, Dec. 19, at 7:30 p.m. in Grace Episcopal Church (below in exterior and interior photos), at the intersection of West Washington Avenue and Carroll Street on the Capitol Square in downtown Madison.
Advance tickets are $15 for the public and $10 for students; at the door, the prices are $20 and $12, respectively.
Welcome Yule! traverses six centuries of music in celebration of Christmas.
Benjamin Britten’s cheerful Ceremony of Carols, (accompanied by harp) is paired with Renaissance motets by Giovanni di Palestrina, Thomas Tallis, William Byrd and Raffaella Aleotti, and a set of rousing medieval carols.
After intermission, we pay tribute to the late Stephen Paulus (below top), who died this year, with his bright and uplifting Ship Carol, accompanied by harp, followed by a rarely-heard Magnificat and Nunc dimittis by Herbert Howells (below bottom), originally composed for St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Dallas, Texas. Howells’ visionary music is accompanied by organist Mark Brampton Smith.
Here is a link to a post The Ear did about Stephen Paulus,who had many links to Madison. Be sure to read some of the local reader comments:
Also on the program are inspiring works by contemporary composers Jean Belmont Ford and Wayne Oquin; a lush jazz arrangement of Silent Night by Swiss jazz pianist Ivo Antognini; and a Christmas spiritual by Rosephanye Powell.
Advance tickets are available for $15 from www.wisconsinchamberchoir.org, via Brown Paper Tickets, or at Willy Street Coop (East and West locations) and Orange Tree Imports. Student tickets are $10.
Founded in 1998, the Madison-based Wisconsin Chamber Choir has established a reputation for excellence in the performance of oratorios by Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Joseph Haydn; a cappella masterworks from various centuries; and world premieres.
Robert Gehrenbeck (below), who directs choral activities at the UW-Whitewater, is artistic director of the Wisconsin Chamber Choir.
Tags: a cappella, A Ceremony of Carols, Anna Magdalena Bach, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Benjamin Britten, Britain, British music, Byrd, Carols, Choir, choral music, Christmas, Classical music, Dallas, Early music, German Renaissance, harp, Haydn, Herbert Howells, Holiday, holiday music, Jacob Stockinger, Jazz, Jean Belmont Ford, Madison, Mark Brampton Smith, medieval carols, Mozart, oratorio, Orchestra, organ, Palestrina, performance, Piano, Renaissance, Singing, spiritual, Stephen Paulus, Swiss, Switzerland, Tallis, Texas, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW-Whitewater, vocal music, Wayne Oquin, Wisconsin Chamber Choir, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, world premiere, YouTube, Yule
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