Chanticleer my secret heart

CHANTICLEER

MY SECRET HEART
Cortez Mitchell, Gerrod Pagenkopf, Kory Reid,

Alan Reinhardt, Logan Shields, Adam Ward – soprano and alto

Chris Albanese, Brian Hinman, Andrew Van Allsburg – tenor

Eric Alatorre, Matthew Knickman, Marques Jerrell Ruff – baritone and bass

William Fred Scott, Music Director


I.

“I am the Rose of Sharon”

Poetry from the Song of Songs
Veni, dilecte mi* Sebastián de Vivanco (1551 - 1622)

Nigra sum Jehan L’Héritier (c. 1480 - 1551)

Osculetur me Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525 - 1594)

Ego flos campi (a 3) Jacobus Clemens non Papa (c. 1510 - c. 1556)

Surge, propera amica mea Francisco Guerrero (1528 - 1599)

II.

Poetry by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 – 1585)

Bonjour mon coeur Philippe de Monte (1521 - 1603)

Ce ris plus doux Anthoine de Bertrand (c. 1540 - 1581)

Le premier jour du mois de May, Madame de Monte


III.

Poetry by Edith Södergran (1892 - 1923)

“Hommage à Edith” Jaakko Mäntyjärvi (b. 1963)

Commissioned by Chanticleer, 2016

with the support of the Osher Pro Suecia Foundation


IV.
Go, lovely rose Eric Whitacre (b. 1970)

Ah! May the Red Rose Live Alway! Stephen Foster (1826 - 1864)

arr. John Musto

Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair* Foster, arr. Gene Puerling

Solo: Brian Hinman

This Marriage Whitacre
-- INTERMISSION –

V.
My Blood is Blazing With Desire Mikhail Glinka (1804 - 1857)

Behold, darkness has fallen Sergey Taneyev (1856 - 1915)

Vocalise Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 - 1943)

arr. Elger Niels

Solo: Cortez Mitchell


VI.

Love Songs* Augusta Read Thomas (b. 1964)
II. “Look out upon the stars, my love…”

III. “Love is a beautiful dream.”

V. “Alas, the love of women! It is known to be a lovely and a fearful thing.”

VI. “For stony limits cannot hold love out.”

VII. “All mankind love a lover.”

Commissioned for Chanticleer, 1997

by Cathy Nicho (for her husband, Raul), Dianne Nolting (for her husband, George Wolter), Bert Dieringer (for his wife, Janna Blanchard), Peter Henschel (for his wife, Kathy), Ron Barrington (for his wife, Christine), Marshall Rutter (for his wife, Terry Knowles), and an anonymous commissioner.

VII.

A selection of popular songs to be selected from…
I’ll Follow My Secret Heart Noël Coward (1899 - 1973)

arr. Adam Ward

Solo: Andrew Van Allsburg

It was a lover and his lass John Rutter (b. 1945)

Les Chemins de l’Amour Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963)

arr. Evan Price

La Vie en Rose Édith Piaf (1915 - 1963), arr. Price

Solo: Kory Reid

Love Walked In* George Gershwin (1898 - 1937)

arr. Puerling

Frankie and Johnny Trad. American Song

arr. Robert De Cormier

Somebody to Love* Freddie Mercury (1946 - 1991)

arr. Vince Peterson

- Program subject to change -

* These works have been recorded by Chanticleer, and are available at tonight’s performance or through our digital storefront at www.chanticleer.org

Chanticleer is a non-profit organization, governed by a volunteer Board of Trustees, administered by a professional staff with a full-time professional ensemble. In addition to the many individual contributors to Chanticleer, the Board of Trustees thanks the following Foundations, Corporations and Government Agencies for their exceptional support:
The National Endowment for the Arts • Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation • Dunard Fund USA • The Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation

The Patty and Rusty Reuff Foundation • Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation • Amphion Foundation, Inc.

The Bernard Osher Foundation • The Bob Ross Foundation

The Wallis Foundation • The Carol Franc Buck Foundation
Chanticleer Staff
Christine Bullin, President & General Director

Tiffany Lucas, Chief Development Officer

Curt Hancock, Director of Operations and Touring

Brian Bauman, Senior Accountant/Budget Manager

Joe Ledbetter, Marketing/Development & IT Systems Manager

Barbara Bock, Development and Marketing Associate
William Fred Scott, Music Director

Kory Reid, Assistant Music Director

Brian Hinman, Road Manager

Matthew Knickman, Merchandise Manager

Marques Jerrell Ruff, Andrew Van Allsburg, Merchandise Associates
Artist Management: Opus 3 Artists, Ltd.

Label Manager: Lisa Nauful
Founder: Louis Botto (1951 – 1997)

Music Director Emeritus: Joseph H. Jennings
Website – www.chanticleer.org

Program notes by Kory Reid, William Fred Scott, Jace Wittig,

Gregory Peebles, and Elena Sharkova
Veni, dilecte mi – Sebastián de Vivanco (1551-1622)
The walled city of Ávila, in the Spanish province of Castila-Leon, gave rise to three pivotal Renaissance figures: composers Tomás Luis de Victoria, Sebastián de Vivanco, and the Spanish mystic Teresa of Ávila. Separated in age by only three years, Victoria and Vivanco undoubtedly received their earliest musical training from the same teachers. But unlike Victoria, whose career flourished in Rome, Vivanco remained in Spain throughout his life. After tenures at the cathedrals of Lérida and Segovia, he was invited to become Francisco Guerrero’s assistant in Seville in 1587. He went so far as to visit the aging master in Seville, but instead accepted the maestro de capilla position at Ávila Cathedral. In 1602, Vivanco was appointed to a similar post in Salamanca; he left after less than a year to pursue a professorship at the University of Salamanca, the oldest university in Spain. It was through his connections there that he was able to publish three lavish volumes of his works. Although his music is virtually unknown today, Vivanco was one of the leading composers of his time – a master of counterpoint who imbued his works with deep emotional sentiment.
Veni, dilecte mi is scored for eight voices in two four-voice choirs, and is included in a volume of motets the composer dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Here, he employs a text from the Song of Songs, a book of the Bible closely associated with the Spanish mystics. This then-controversial sect, led by Teresa of Ávila, reimagined the quasi-erotic poetry present in the Song of Songs as a metaphor for the Church’s role as the Bride of Christ. Vivanco’s setting gives light to this mystical rapture through lush suspensions and sharply contrasting harmonies between the choirs.

Veni, dilecte mi, egrediamur in agro, Come, my beloved, let us go out into the countryside,

commoremur in villis. let us lodge in the villages.

Mane surgamus ad vineas; Let us go up to the vineyards at first light;

videamus si floruit vinea, let us see if the vines are blooming,

si flores fructus parturiunt, if the flowers are bringing forth their fruit,

si floruerunt mala punica; if the pomegranates are in blossom.

ibi dabo tibi ubera mea. There I will give you my breasts.

Mandragoræ dederunt odorem suum, The mandrakes give forth their fragrance;

in portis nostris omnia poma, at our gates are all manner of fruits -

nova et vetera, dilecte mi, new and old – which, my beloved,

servavi tibi. I have offered up to you.

Nigra sum – Jehan L’Héritier (c. 1480 - 1551)
Music may have been the family profession for Jehan L’Héritier. While that statement means little in comparison, say, to the Bachs or even the Couperins (to say nothing of the more modern Trapp Family Singers or even the Jackson Five), at least three members of the L’Héritier family were practicing musicians. And of these three, only Jehan has achieved any notoriety at all—an acclaim seldom reaching beyond those singers and scholars who are eager to bring to light lesser known Renaissance music. There seem to be, in Jehan’s limited output, only two secular madrigals (in what would surely be called the Italian style) and not even a single full setting of the Mass itself. Hardly anything exists other than his four dozen religious motets.
So what is it that inspired Palestrina to base one of his Mass settings on this earlier motet by L’Héritier? Since L’Héritier had a connection at the Vatican (records indicate that he was for a time employed as a musician there), he may have met the young Palestrina. Palestrina may even have heard the choir singing any of a number of motets by the elusive Frenchman, born around 1480 and still setting quill to parchment in the mid-1550s. As other program annotators have quickly discovered, L’Héritier’s music must speak for itself, given the paucity of biographical detail which has survived into the present day. What is unmistakable is that this music speaks with a personal voice at once elegant and profound. Jehan L’Héritier joins the more exuberant traditions of a Josquin (who may have once been Jehan’s teacher) with the more sober and cultivated work of a Palestrina and thus validates his relevance as a transitional figure between the old styles and the new.
Few lines from the Biblical Song of Songs have been as cherished by composers from the Middle Ages onward as have those of Nigra sum. Here there lies a clear parallel between the humble handmaiden of the Lord, as the Virgin Mary describes herself, and the “black but comely” daughter of Jerusalem, whose beauty leads the King himself to invite her in. L’Héritier writes for a five-voice choir in this version, which seems to be one of three settings of the same text from his hand. There is a quiet exaltation to the way the lines rise and fall. Even more vivid is the slight frisson of delight with which the youthful girl describes herself as beautiful (formosa). The music alternates between passages of simple melisma -- voices tumbling over one another in humble joy -- and austere, inexorable, block chords. This culminates at the moment in which the King seems to take her by the hand and walk, step by step, into his most private chamber (“et introduxit me in cubiculum suum”). After the melodic undulations subside, there is a simple tread to the music. Perhaps there is a hint of hesitation, of blessed hush, as she imagines what her next steps will bring. Could that other comely daughter of Jerusalem have felt the same way when she received her unearthly and amazing news?
Nigra sum sed formosa, filiæ Jerusalem, I am black but beautiful, oh daughters of Jerusalem,

ideo dilexit me Rex, Therefore the King has delighted in me,

et introduxit me in cubiculum suum. And he has brought me into his chamber.

Osculetur me – Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525 - 1594)
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was born in the town from which he took his name. He was Maestro di Cappella at St. Peter’s in Rome from 1551-1554 and again from 1571 until his death in 1594. At a moment in musical history in which the church fathers began to decry too much description (ornamentation) and flair (harmonic invention), Palestrina stuck to a musical style based in seriousness and sobriety. His “strict” style of Renaissance counterpoint has been held up as a pedagogical model by students of nearly every succeeding generation. Palestrina achieved a mastery of contrapuntal techniques, meticulous voice leading, and refined treatment of dissonance now universally idealized as the “Palestrina style.” This is not to say that Palestrina’s music is inexpressive or occasionally daring. In fact, there is a personal and deeply emotional core to all of his sacred works. He wrote in the prima prattica style, codified by the treatises of Zarlino, which prioritized the polyphonic form and structure over text.
The text of Osculetur me, which sounds quite secular in nature, comes from Song of Songs 1:1-2. The metaphor of two lovers (or a bride and a groom) is used to describe the relationship between the love and blessings of Jesus Christ and the offerings that come from the faithful people of the Church. The polyphony is simple, restrained, and free from ornamental figures. It was most likely intended as vocal chamber music, in which the performing forces would consist of one to two on a single vocal line. Such motets were often sung inside or outside for small devotional services, social gatherings, or festival celebrations of the day.
Osculetur me osculo oris sui, Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth:

quia meliora sunt ubera tua vino, for your breasts are better than wine,

fragrantia unguentis optimis. more fragrant than the best ointments.

Oleum effusum nomen tuum, Your name is as oil poured out:
ideo adulescentulae dilexerunt te. therefore the young have loved you.

Ego flos campi (a 3) – Jacobus Clemens non Papa (c. 1510 – c. 1556)
Jacobus Clemens non Papa (so called to distinguish him from Pope Clemens VII and the poet Jacobus Papa, both of whom were his contemporaries) was one of the most prolific composers of the early sixteenth century. Born in the Netherlands, he was especially at home in the idiom of the motet. His writing shows an advanced use of harmonic language as well as an expressiveness of melody directly related to the text.
The text of Ego flos campi is found in the second chapter of Song of Songs (2:1-3.) The poetry is especially fascinating because of its amalgam of ideas, thoughts, and metaphors from both the sacred and the profane. It is no accident that Clemens non Papa composed this piece for three voices; one can assume that this pays homage to the Trinity and also allows the chords to remain simple and clean. The compositional style of Ego flos campi is very much in the prima prattica style, employing pervasive imitation throughout the piece and a steady flowing groove that accentuates the text.
Ego flos campi et lilium convallium. I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valley.

Sicut lilium inter spinas, As the lily among thorns,

sic amica mea inter filias. so is my love among the daughters.

Sicut malus inter ligna silvarum, As the apple tree among the trees in the woods,

sic dilectus meus inter filios. so is my beloved among the sons.

Surge, propera amica mea – Francisco Guerrero (1528 - 1599)
Although his music is often neglected today, Francisco Guerrero was second in importance only to Victoria during the Spanish Renaissance. A student of Cristóbal de Morales, Guerrero served as chapelmaster at the Seville Cathedral. Unlike Victoria and Morales, Guerrero was also a prolific composer of secular songs, many of which he later re-set with sacred texts (a common practice of the time). The effort and money he dedicated to publishing his music garnered him a certain degree of fame during his lifetime--as far away as South America. His music remained widely performed in the cathedrals of Spain and New Spain for more than two hundred years after his death. Recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in Guerrero’s work. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Guerrero spent the majority of his time in Spain and traveled to Italy only briefly. Perhaps because of this, his music is often said to sound quintessentially Spanish when compared to Victoria or Morales, and he set many Spanish texts (as opposed to Victoria, who wrote exclusively in Latin).
Surge, propera amica mea is a six-part motet, divided into two sections. The second soprano line serves as the cantus firmus in the piece, singing “Veni, sponsa Christi” (“Come, Bride of Christ”), which anchors the harmony and weaves a sacred thread into the secular story sung by the other vocal parts. This cantus firmus descends by a step each time it is sung in the prima pars, eventually hitting the fourth below the tonic. In the secunda pars, that same lower fourth begins the movement and ascends back to the starting note of the piece. This chant serves not only as a rising/falling textual tool for Guerrero’s idea of “flight,” but also illustrates how ingeniously he tips his hat to the past, utilizing sacred chant as a foundation for his composition.
Surge, propera amica mea, Rise up, my love,

columba mea, formosa mea, et veni. my dove, my fair one, and come.

Iam enim hiems transit, For now, the winter has passed,

imber abiit et recessit. the rain is over and gone.

Flores apparuerunt in terra nostra, Flowers appear on the earth,

tempus putationis advenit. the time of pruning is at hand.
Vox turturis audita est in terra nostra; The voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land;

ficus protulit grossos suos; the fig tree puts forth its green figs;

vineae florentes dederunt odorem suum. the vines with their blooms give forth a good smell.

Surge, propera amica mea, Rise up, my love,

speciosa mea, et veni. my beautiful, and come.

Bonjour mon coeur – Philippe de Monte (1521 - 1603)

Le premier jour du mois de May, Madame – de Monte
The impact of Pierre de Ronsard on the literary scene of Western Europe is hard to overlook, although not much of Ronsard is read, or taught, any more. Known even in his own time as the “Prince of Poets,” he was the chief among the French Renaissance group of poets known as “La Pléiade.” Ronsard was a true son of France, although his studies and the occasional work assignment, took him away from his native country on several occasions. Born in a family manor in the Vendôme region, he died there sixty-one years later, honored by kings, decorated with honors and feted throughout Europe.
In a striking coincidence, Ronsard, Montaigne, Cervantes and Shakespeare are practically contemporaries: all four of these trail-blazing writers were born in the first part of the sixteenth century. In fact, Shakespeare and Cervantes both died in the same year, 1616. What Cervantes created in the picaresque novel, Shakespeare did in his great dramas. (Don Quixote and Falstaff are not that far apart, perhaps.) Shakespeare’s love poetry, especially as found in the Sonnets, may be every bit as deep as Ronsard’s, but Ronsard is frequently the more bawdy and overstated of the two. And the great essays of Montaigne stand in a niche all by themselves. No one before or since has excelled in that vein to nearly that extent.
Three of Ronsard’s more clever poems are set here by composers whose names are almost forgotten. Cross-pollination between English madrigals and French chanson, however, is hard to miss. There is a certain Morley-esque verve in Philippe de Monte’s setting of Le premier jour de May, Madame. The Month of Maying holds court on both sides of the English Channel, it would seem!
Philippe de Monte was a prolific writer in small forms. It has been said that he wrote more madrigals than any other composer of his time, although publishing being what it was in those days, such a statement is difficult to verify. That he was peripatetic can hardly be doubted: born in Flanders, he studied in Italy (not surprising in his time), worked in England, composed in France, took a post in the court of the Hapsburg Maximilian II, and died in Prague. There are over 1100 madrigals to his credit, as well as some forty settings of the Mass, and over two hundred sacred motets.
Bonjour mon Coeur is one of Ronsard’s most frequently used poems. The poem delights in a certain coyness: is the speaker apologizing to his mistress for having left her for a time, or is he bragging that his nearness to the King has made him more desirable than ever? In the same way that Shakespeare claims “never say that absence seemed my flame to qualify,” here the speaker says “I would rather die than have you say that my affections were as ice-cold as a rock. I had to follow the king.” De Monte’s cadences assure us of a happy ending, as do Ronsard’s words, “Let riches, position and honor perish. I would give them up anyway, for you, my sweet and beautiful goddess.”
Bonjour mon coeur, bonjour ma douce vie Greetings my heart, greetings my sweet life,

Bonjour mon oeil, bonjour ma chère amie! Greetings my eye, greetings my dear beloved,

Hé! Bonjour ma toute belle, Ah! Greetings my all-lovely,

Ma mignardise, bonjour My tasty morsel, hello

Mes délices, mon amour, My delight, my love, 

Mon doux printemps, ma douce fleur nouvelle, My sweet spring, my sweet young flower,

Mon doux plaisir, ma douce colombelle, My sweet pleasure, my sweet pigeon, 

Mon passereau, ma gente tourterelle! My sparrow, my gentle dove!

Bonjour ma douce rebelle. Greetings, my sweet rebel.

Je veux mourir si plus on me reproche, I’d rather die if people still reproach me

que mon service est plus froid qu’une roche. That my service is colder than a stone.
De t'avoir laissée, maîtresse, I had to leave you, mistress,

Pour aller suivre le Roi, To follow the King,

Mendiant je ne sais quoi, Begging for something,

Que le vulgaire appelle une largesse, Which the common folk call a “hand-out.”

Plutôt périsse honneur, court et richesse, Let honor, position and riches perish,

Que pour les biens jamais je te relaisse, I would give them up anyway for you,

Ma douce et belle déesse. My sweet and beautiful goddess.
Le premier jour du mois de May, Madame – de Monte
Le premier jour du mois de May, Madame, On the first day of May, my lady,

Dedans le coeur je sentis vos beaux yeux, Within my heart I felt your lovely eyes,

Bruns, doux, courtois, riants, delicieux Brown, sweet, courteous, laughing, delicious,

Qui d'un glaçon feraient naître une flamme, Which with a glance started a fire.

De leur beau jour le souvenir m'enflamme, The memory of their lovely light burns me

Et par penser j'en deviens amoureux. And in thinking of it I’ve fallen in love with them,

O de mon coeur les meurtriers bienheureux, Those sweet murderers of my heart!

Votre vertu je sens jusques en l'âme, I feel your worth down in my soul;

Yeux qui tenez la clef de mon penser, Those eyes which hold the key to my thoughts,

Maîtres de moi qui pûtes offenser, My masters, who can with a single look

D'un seul regard ma raison toute émue, Overwhelm my deeply-affected reason
Ah! Que je suis de votre amour époint, Oh! How I am stabbed by love for you.

Las je devais, vais jouïr de votre vue Alas! I must enjoy the sight of you

Plus longuement ou bien ne vous voir point. For longer, or else see you no more.