Feminine Divine: They are Mother

 

UVU Music Presents

Feminine Divine: They are Mother

UVU Chamber Choir

Concert Hall

November 19, 2021 | 7:00 PM

 
 

Program

UVU Chamber Choir

Dr. Reed Criddle, conductor

Gli amanti falliti (1644)
Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677)

Gabriel Scott & Andra Johnson, duet
Matt Watson, Katrina McNiven, Lily Jones, trio
Andrea Church Briscoe, Hannah Jenson, Lance Merrell, trio
Zachary Thompson, Josh Scribner, Josh Hooker, Hannah Boyack, Linnea Miner, quintet

Travis Lunt & Sarah Schatz, baroque harps
Molly Flake, cello
Reed Criddle, harpsichord

The Fading Lovers

Love, Love, we turn to you,
entreating without assurance or repute, we fading lovers.
As advancing age deprives us of strength,
as we decline further every hour, as we become feeble,
let your mercy remove us from harsh servitude.

Love, Love, we turn to you.
Since we lack resplendent comeliness, miserable and suffering,
since we watch the flowers of our charms fade,
and as we no longer find anyone who looks at us,
restrain your arrows, Cupid; don't shoot to no purpose,
for to give death to weaklings would dishonour your bow.

  • In Barbara Strozzi’s madrigal Gli Amanti Fallitti, aging lovers plead to Cupid to spare his arrows for those who have yet to lose their comeliness.
  • Strozzi grew up in Venice in the early 17th century, when performing on stage with masks was commonplace. Ornate masks hid the faces of actors such that a prescribed lexicon of stage gestures became standard for expression. The dramatic gestures in this performance come from treatises on Baroque-era stage mannerism and sign language by Gilbert Austin (Treatise on Rhetorical Delivery, London, 1806) and John Bulwer (The Natural Language of the Hand, London, 1644).
gestures
  • The basso continuo section in today’s performance consists of harpsichord, harp, and viola da gamba (precursor to the cello). This band of Baroque instruments are tuned to A=415, which sits slightly lower than modern A=440 tuning.

St. Martin de Porres (1962)
Mary Lou Williams (1920-1981)

Esera Mose, solo
Carina Hodson, piano

  • St. Martin de Porres was a contemporary of Barbara Strozzi, but on the American continent. As a Peruvian lay brother of the Dominican Order, he was known for his work on behalf of the poor and for working astonishing miracles. The illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman and a freed slave of African and Native descent, he was not permitted to join the clergy in his lifetime. In the centuries since, he became the patron saint of mixed-race people.
  • In 1962 when the Catholic Church officially beatified Martín de Porres as the first black saint, American jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams had recently converted to Catholicism and thus celebrated his canonization with this sacred choral jazz dedication.
  • Williams recorded more than 100 records as a jazz pianist and wrote or arranged hundreds of compositions, including several for Duke Ellington’s orchestra. She also mentored Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk and collaborated with Earl Hines and Benny Goodman.

Westlake High School Madrigals

Maureen Hatch, conductor

It All Begins With Music (2020)
Frank Ticheli (b. 1958)

Ave Verum Corpus (1791)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Hail, true body
born of the Virgin Mary,
Who truly suffered, sacrificed
on the Cross for man,
Whose pierced side overflowed
with water and blood,
Be for us a foretaste
In the test of death.

Found/Tonight (2018)
Lin-Manuel Miranda (b. 1980)
Justin Paul (b. 1985) & Benj Pasek (b.1985)
Arr. Jacob Narverud

UVU Chamber Choir

Dr. Reed Criddle, conductor

O virtus Sapientiae (c.1140-1179/2019)
Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)
arr. Katerina Gimon (b.1993)

Sydney Pexton & Brennan Butikofer, solos

O strength of Wisdom

O strength of Wisdom who, circling, circled,
enclosing all in one lifegiving path, three wings you have:
one soars to the heights,
one distils its essence upon the earth,
and the third is everywhere.
Praise to you, as is fitting, O Wisdom.

— Translation by Kate Quartano Brown

  • Hildegard of Bingen was a German Benedictine abbess, mystic, and visionary during the High Middle Ages. There are more surviving chants by Hildegard than by any other composer from the entire Middle Ages.
  • In this arrangement by Canadian composer Katerina Gimon, divinity is personified in Wisdom through continuously layered treble voices.

Queen of Life (world premiere)
Kayla Jessop (b.1991)

Kayla Jessop, piano

阿爸的心肝寶貝 The Apple of Daddy’s Eye (2016)
Chen Ming-Jang (b.1956)
arr. Tsai Yu-Shan (b.1968)

Ryan Nielsen, flügelhorn
Andrea Church Briscoe, piano
Yu-Feng Huang, guest conductor

Tonight, I must leave,
So let me look at you one more time,
The apple of Daddy’s eye.
Let me use this ruler to measure how tall you are,
So that I can keep the images of you
As you are right now deep in my heart forever.

Tonight, I must leave,
So let me kiss you one more time,
The apple of Daddy’s eye.
Quietly, I rest my head and arms on the desk
To write this letter and say my goodbyes.

One day, you will grow up
And you will learn many things -
You will understand that in this society,
We need people who dare to speak the truth.

For this reason, Daddy has no choice but to leave you
And the land I love so dearly.

Tonight, I must leave,
So let me embrace you one more time,
The apple of Daddy’s eye.
Lightly I hold your hands,
So that I can hold you deep in my heart forever.

花樹下 Fa Shu Hua (Under that Flower Tree)
Hsie Yu-Wei (b.1969)
arr. Tsai Yu-Shan (b.1968)

Sydney Pexton & Brennan Butikofer, soloists

Zachary Thompson, solo
Travis Lunt, piano

Have you not heard of Fa Shu Ha Village?
At Fa Shu Ha, the flowers are in full blossom,
As people stroll by, the red and white flowers
Float down in front of you, on your shoulders,
And under your feet.

Fa Shu Ha has a Hakka garment shop.
Fa Shu Ha has an elderly master
Who has crafted blue garments
To dress charming girls;
Just as the flowers floating to and fro before your door,
We can’t know how many…

From Ivory Depths: II. Tuesday (2016)
Tonia Ko (b.1988)

Josh Hooker, solo

  • Born in Hong Kong and raised in Honolulu, composer Tonia Ko is currently Lecturer in Composition at University of London. She “mediates between identities of composer, sound artist, and visual artist” and her work is guided by the relationship between melody and memory.
  • In From Ivory Depths, Ko sets poetry of Virginia Woolf that describes an ordinary mind on an ordinary day, such as Tuesday, with a “myriad of impressions - trivial, fantastic, evanescent, or engraved with the sharpness of steel.” Ko’s avant-garde setting highlights “the color white, an expansive sky, and a wave-like movement of opening and closing.”
  • This is only the second performance of this piece, following its world premiere in 2016.

For you I will be an island (2021)
Jennifer Lucy Cook (b.1988)

Taci Miner, solo

  • Los Angeles-based Jennifer Lucy Cook composed For you I will be an island as a response to quarantining, distancing, and masking during this COVID-19 epidemic. “And when the coast is clear, come let me know. Find me where love collides with letting go.” The subtext of her poetry also describes reluctantly offered space in a relationship of unrequited love.
  • This work was premiered in 2020 by Cantorum with Steve Durtschi, conductor.

They are Mother (world premiere)
Cook

Lance Merrell, piano

Combined Choirs

The storm is passing over (1996)
Charles Albert Tindley (1851-1933)
arr. Barbara W. Baker

Dakota Jones, bass guitar
Andra Johnson, piano
Maureen Hatch, conductor

 
 

UVU Chamber Choir

Dr. Reed Criddle

conductor

Soprano I

Brennan Butikofer *
Sarah Fisher
Linnea Miner Mott
Sydney Pexton

Tenor I

Jake Heywood 
Parker Phelps
Gabriel Scott
Zachary Thompson

Soprano II

Emily Cheney
Taci Miner
Cristina Villalobos
Sarah Schatz

Tenor II

Trenton Chandler
Jared Constantine
Josh Hooker
Matt Watson *

Alto I

Andrea Church Briscoe
Hannah Jenson
Lily Jones
Carina Hodson

Bass I

Braden Johnson
Travis Lunt
Lance Merrell
Carl Tensmeyer

Alto II

Madalyn Barzoto
Hannah Boyack
Molly Flake
Katrina McNiven
Brittney Stradling *

Bass II

Andra Johnson
Esera Mose
Josh Scribner *
Kameron Wilson

*Section Leader

 

 

Westlake High School Madrigals

Maureen Hatch

conductor

Soprano

Kyla Denney
Bailey Dunn
Samantha Glazier
Camilla Lewis
Kate Wilson

Tenor

Travis Bangerter
Adam Britsch
Ethan Calvert
Timmy McHugh
Seth Weber

Alto

Katrina Bryan
Chloe Greer
Isabella Hill
Taylin Hoyt
Savannah Law
Riley Oborn
Anna Pitcher

Bass

Jackson Bunker
Raine Carter
Cody Ellefson
Jacob Lundwall
Riley Tanner
Jake Wells

 
 

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DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC

Department Chair
JEFFREY O'FLYNN

Administrative Assistant
CHRIS GINES

 

Chamber Choir/Deep Green
REED CRIDDLE

Emerald Singers
CHERILYN WORTHEN

Concert Choir
DEMAREE BROWN

Opera Coordinator
ISAAC HURTADO

Voice Coordinator
MELISSA HEATH

 

Private Voice Instructors
AUBREY ADAMS-MACMILLAN
CECILY BILLS
ADRIENNE BRAUN
DEMAREE BROWN
ANTHONY BUCK
REED CRIDDLE
MELISSA HEATH
CHRISTOPHER HOLMES
ISAAC HURTADO
CONSTANCE JENSEN
SERENA KANIG BENISH
EMILY MERRELL
JOSEPH MOORE

 

Noorda Staff