Sunday 12th December 2010 7.30pm
St Peter's College Chapel, Oxford

An American Christmas

Festive Music From the USA

James Brown conductor Steven Grahl organ and piano

Baritone – Will Dawes
Double bass – George Coltart
Drums – Frank Hockney

Quem vidistis, pastores? Daniel Pinkham
Gesù bambino Pietro Yon
Lux aurumque Eric Whitacre
Adeste fidelis in an Organ Prelude Charles Ives
The Angel Gabriel Emma Lou Diemer
Prelude on the Sussex Carol Russell Schulz-Widmar
Sussex Carol arr. Dale Wood
Fanfare on Antioch (Joy to the World) Gerre Hancock
As it fell upon a night arr. Katharine K Davis
O magnum mysterium Morten Lauridsen
Child in the manger Dale Wood
Of the Father’s heart begotten Wilbur Held
What Child is this? arr. Mark Reise
A Carol of Christ Jack Noble White
Christmas Song Torme and Wells, arr. Puerling

Programme Notes:

Daniel Pinkham (1923-2006) was an organist and a prolific composer, writing in a wide range of genres and styles.  Quem vidistis, pastores? is from his Christmas Cantata, which is scored for nine brass instruments, with an alternate organ version.

Pietro Yon (1886-1943) was an Italian organist who, after serving for a time as organist in the Vatican, made his career in the USA, becoming an American citizen.  Gesù bambino is one of his best-known pieces.

Lux aurumque, by Eric Whitacre (1970- ), is to words translated into Latin from an English poem by Edward Esch; the musical style is based on building up cluster chords of varying density.  Whitacre used this piece for the first of his projects in creating a virtual choir coming together over the Internet.

Before attaining his fortune as an insurance executive and fame as a part-time composer, Charles Ives (1874-1954) was organist at several New York churches.  The dark and brooding prelude in which Adeste fideles (which he misspelt) appears was one of his last organ works; it was written in 1897 while he was studying at Yale, though later revised.  The earliest item in this concert, it is also the most modern-sounding, using techniques such as bi-tonality.  This piece is perhaps a study for Ives’s more famous piece The Unanswered Question, which it resembles structurally.

Among her works for instrumental groups, Emma Lou Diemer (1927- ) has also written many hymns. The Angel Gabriel is a setting of a translation of an old Basque carol.

The text of the Sussex Carol was first published by Luke Wadding, a 17th-century Irish bishop, but it is not clear if he wrote the words himself.  The tune was collected, in Sussex, by Cecil Sharp and Ralph Vaughan Williams.  Russell Schulz-Widmar (1944- ) was Organist and later Professor of Liturgical Music at the Seminary of the Southwest, and his compositions are entirely choral and organ music for the church.  The choral setting by Dale Wood (1934-2003) is straightforward, with quirky organ interludes.

Gerre Hancock (1934- ) has been organist of several major American churches, and is currently Professor of Organ at the University of Texas, Austin.  Antioch, the theme of this fanfare, was written by Lowell Mason in 1836 for the hymn Joy to the World, but attributed by him to Handel.

Katharine Davis was a composer who taught in Massachusetts. As it fell upon a night is a setting of old English words using a tune from Piae Cantiones, a collection of music published in Finland in 1582.

Morten Lauridsen (1943- ) has written mainly choral music, and is one of the most widely performed American composers.  The harmonies of O magnum mysterium (1994) have added notes giving piquancy to the otherwise simple chord structures.
The carol Child in a Manger is a translation of Gaelic words which were set to a traditional melody on the Isle of Mull.  It was only later that the familiar words Morning has Broken were written to enable the tune to be used in the hymnbook Songs of Praise.
Wilbur Held (1914- ) has been a prolific composer for the organ.  This setting of Of the Father’s Heart begotten is the last of his collection Six Carol Settings.

What child is this? was written by William Chatterton Dix following a near-fatal illness.  It was later set to the tune Greensleeves, and tonight’s harmonisation is one of the last by Mark Riese (1953-1989),  best known for his arrangements of standards and show tunes.
Jack Noble White is the director of a handbell choir in Texas and formerly of the Texas Boys Choir.  A carol of Christ is a setting of his own words made in 1990.

The Christmas Song was written in 1944 by Mel Torme and Robert Wells.  Nat King Cole first recorded it, in 1946 and several times later, and it is reputedly the most performed modern Christmas song. It provides a relaxed ending to our evening

Steven Grahl   organ and piano
Steven combines the post of Assistant Organist at New College, Oxford with that of Organist & Director of Music at St Marylebone Parish Church, London and the Principal Conductorship of the Guildford Chamber Choir. A prize-winning graduate of Magdalen College, Oxford (where he was Organ Scholar) and the Royal Academy of Music, Steven gained the Limpus (highest mark) and Dixon (improvisation) prizes in his FRCO examination, and is also a holder of the Worshipful Company of Musicians’ Silver Medallion.

James Brown   conductor
James was Organ Scholar of Girton College, Cambridge and upon graduating studied organ at the Conservatoire de Musique, Geneva with Lionel Rogg. After two years working as an organist in Texas James returned to England where he is currently Organist of the University Church, Oxford and a lay clerk in New College Choir, with whom he tours to Germany and Italy later this week. James currently studies the organ with Stephen Farr. James has conducted the Cherwell Singers since 2007.

The Cherwell Singers