Program Notes

America’s Christmas music traditions began long before America even existed. The first Christmas carol composed in North America was written in 1642 in the Huron language by Jean de Brébeuf, a Jesuit missionary to the Hurons. The Iroquois, enemies of the Huron, burned the Jesuit mission to the ground in 1648, but the Hurons who escaped kept the “Huron Carol” alive, passing it orally from one generation to the next. In the translation, the word “Manitou” refers to the Great Spirit.

In Revolutionary times, American music tended toward the military with strong rhythms and clear, simple harmonies. Two examples of this music are Josiah Flagg’s “Festive Hallelujah” and William Billings’ “A Virgin Unspotted.” Josiah Flagg, organizer of the first military band in America, wrote into his composition a pattern of independent choir entrances, bringing to life the triadic horn-like motifs. William Billings, a self–taught musician and famed American composer, is especially well-known for his “Chester” hymn, whose lyrics inflame rebellion against the British. “A Virgin Unspotted,” here arranged by former Ragazzi assistant director John Sullivan, displays the stark harmonies and simple melodies of the times.

Early American music education depended upon “shape hymns,” which used different shapes for the various fa–so–la notes. From this tradition, begun in England in the 17th century, emerged a rich source of music collected and preserved in various hymnals, the most famous of which is the Sacred Harp, published in 1844. The melody of these hymns is usually sung by the tenors with the other voice parts providing harmony.

In two examples arranged by Alice Parker, “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks” and “Joy to the World” the tenor has been highlighted in some of the verses. Please note that this “Joy to the World” has a different melody from the familiar carol. “Babe of Bethlehem” and “The Hills are Bare” were published in Southern Harmony in 1835. The sound of these melodies is familiar to anyone who has heard music from the folk music revival.

Many carols that have become familiar around the world were actually composed in America in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Consider John Jacob Niles, who collected music from the Appalachians in the 1930s. Due to the mountains that isolated this area from communication with the outside world, the music of Appalachians remained pretty much unchanged from the time the settlers brought it to America from England. “I Wonder as I Wander” was published by Niles in 1934 but it is believed to be much older. Some say that Niles composed the piece being inspired by the plaintive minor keys of Appalachian music. Other stories tell of his writing down the song as sung by a young girl whom he paid to sing it over and over while he took notes.

The anonymously composed lyrics of verses 1 and 2 to “Away in A Manger” appeared in Little Children’s Book for Schools and Families (1885), by J. C. File. John T. McFarland (1851–1913) wrote the words to the third verse and James Murray, a Civil War veteran, wrote the melody. This verse was published in Daintie Songs for Lads and Lasses (1887).

The great British hymnist Isaac Watts (1676–1748) penned the text to the familiar hymn “Joy to the World” and the melody, as arranged by American educator and composer Lowell Mason (1792–1872), echoes motifs from G.F. Händel’s Messiah (“Lift up your Heads” and “Glory to God”). Our arrangement hails from Holford’s Voce di Melodia (c.1834), a collection of hymns and song tunes arranged for four voices and piano or organ. John H. Hopkins Jr. wrote “We Three Kings” in 1857 for a Christmas Pageant at General Theological Seminary in New York City. Inspired by a visit to the Holy Land, Rector Phillips Brooks composed the words to “O Little Town of Bethlehem” in 1868. His church organist Lewis Redner wrote the melody that was sung by the Sunday school children’s choir.

Alfred Burt, a jazz musician and son of an Episcopal minister, wrote a carol every year between 1942 and 1954. Originally written for church services and later as gifts to his family, “Some Children See Him” was composed as a lullaby for his new daughter and “We’ll Dress the House” was written near the end of Burt’s short life.

Aprolific and experimental composer of classical music, Charles Ives originally wrote the simple “A Christmas Carol” for solo voice and it follows a gentle, lilting 6/8 rhythmic pattern. His treatment of dotted notes illustrates his tendency toward experimentation—the accents are placed off–beat from what is commonly heard in a 6/8 rhythm.

Morten Lauridsen, composer-in-residence for the Los Angeles Master Chorale under Paul Salamunovich, used a traditional Latin text, “O Magnum Mysterium” but added chords with sevenths and ninths in the modern harmonic idiom. The flowing lines and contrapuntal transferring of the motifs from one voice to another betrays his interest in Gregorian chant and Renaissance music. In the same spirit, Z. Randall Stroope has taken another enduring Latin text, “Lux Aeterna,” and set it to a flowing melody. Leonard Bernstein wrote musicals and cantatas as well as songs and ensemble numbers for singers. His work “Almighty Father” is from his extravagant theater piece Mass commissioned in 1971 by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis for the opening of the Kennedy Center. Using choruses, orchestra dancers and a soloist, the Mass explores the trials of a celebrant who finally realizes that in spite of his doubts it is wonderful to gather everyone together. Although a prayerful contemplation, this short piece often defies conventional tonality with its contradictory harmonies.

Andrew Lloyd Webber, while not strictly American, but British, is well-known for his music in American musicals and films. His Requiem premiered at St. Thomas’s Church in New York City in 1985.

Stephen Paulus was born in New Jersey, and currently resides in Minnesota. He has been a composer for many famous American choruses and orchestras, notably the Dale Warland Singers, the only other fully professional American ensemble besides Chanticleer. Vijah Singh is an Associate Professor at Central Washington University and is an active composer and performer of classical and jazz styles.

One of the most famous and inspirational American musical genres is the Negro Spiritual, exemplified in our concert by “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”, “Children Go Where I Send Thee,” and “Glory, Glory.” Moses Hogan composed the last of these by combining two famous spirituals, “What You Gonna’ Call That Pretty Little Baby?” and “Go Tell it on the Mountain.” Hogan’s music is known for its complex and classically-inspired harmonies and textures that manage to maintain the joyous and driving rhythms of the Spiritual. These songs illustrate the tradition of this music, which arose out of great tragedy and inspired the slaves to hope for salvation both in this world and the next. It is a uniquely American musical expression.