Dubuque Chorale & Cadenza
Dr. Amanda Huntleigh, Artistic Director
Than Chesher, Associate Director
Dr. Sharon Jensen, Accompanist
Dubuque Chorale Children’s Choir
Karmella Sellers, Director
Amanda Hauta, Accompanist
SINGING DUBUQUE’S HISTORY
Oct. 26 - 27, 2019 - Five Flags Center
We would like to acknowledge the Fox, Sauk, and Meskwaki tribes who first inhabited this land. The program includes folk songs from France, Spain, England and the United States of America, as well as compositions that were popular in each region at the time each flag flew over Dubuque.
OPENING CEREMONY
The idea for Singing Dubuque’s History began as a program about the Five Flags of Dubuque. As the directors discussed this idea further, we knew that one nation was not represented through this construction, and began searching for a solution. Mrs. Sellers connected with Jody Durnin of the Meskwaki Nation, and we are pleased to begin this program honoring area First Nations through his opening ceremony.
FLEUR-DE-LIS OF FRANCE (1673 - 1763)
J’entends les Moulin traces the lineage of the French settlers from France through Canada and into Dubuque. The song depicts the sound of millwheel, an important part of Dubuque’s history. The children (and adult treble singers) worked on their French pronunciation and their expressive singing. Un Canadien Errant continues the description of French-Canadian life with an homage to the beauty of Canada. Marc-Antoine Charpentier, a French court composer for the grand dauphin, wrote about 500 miscellaneous sacred works, including multiple settings of Laudate Dominum. This lesser-known setting includes a shift between simple (2) and complex (3) meter, highlighting the representation of earthly (2) and heavenly (3) metrical qualities typical in music dating back to the Renaissance Period. The French court was the center of both noble and sacred French life, making it the hub of colonization decisions and culture.
UNION JACK OF GREAT BRITAIN (1780)
The late 1700s are part of an unproductive musical period in English music history. The English still performed music by their adopted musical son, G. F. Handel, but little music by their own native composers. Under King George III, England favored popular drinking songs, folksongs, and other material depicting everyday life. The folksong Scarborough Fair tells the story of a pair of former sweethearts trying to woo each other back through a series of impossible tasks. As the children learned this song, we worked on beautiful vowels, expressive singing, and breath support. Dubuque Chorale tenors and basses prepared The King’s Health, a tavern-song praising the king, as well as a catch by Henry Purcell. Catches are a type of round or canon that includes clever lyrics or hidden bawdy messages. Because of the historical performance context of When V and I Together Meet, it makes sense that tenor and bass voices would be featured in this section: Most public socializing at that time was restricted to male patrons. As an indication of our contemporary musical context, the Dubuque Chorale proudly features tenor and bass voices of any gender in these English selections.
ROYAL FLAG OF SPAIN (1763 - 1803)
Though Spain was home to much music in this era, choral music was less popular. Composers like Antonio Rodríguez de Hita wrote choral masses, though those manuscripts are not available through contemporary publishing companies or public domain resources. To honor the rich musical heritage of Spain, we open the set with piano music and close with a contemporary folksong setting. Sonata in Bb major is modeled on the single-movement keyboard sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, with whom Antonio Soler studied; its virtuosic style and variety of melodic gestures are similar to those in Scarlatti’s works, but Soler introduced more daring key relationships, Alberti bass patterns, and Iberian dance rhythms. Soler served as maestro de capilla at El Escorial Monastery in Madrid, and gave music lessons to the sons of King Carlos III. A Rianxeira depicts the annual celebration and processional activities honoring the Virgin of Guadalupe in Rianxo, a small Galician fishing town in the northwest corner of Spain. The celebrations involve many local musicians, including drummer and Celtic bagpipers. Due to colonization and globalization, this famous folksong also has ties to Galician expatriates in Argentina.
FRENCH REPUBLIC FLAG OF NAPOLEON (1803)
La Marseillaise was initially adopted as France’s national anthem in 1795, and after decades of sporadic suppression by monarchic groups opposed to its message, formally reinstated in 1879. Its lyrics continue creating controversy in modern times, though now for its brutal language rather than its unifying message. Rondes et Chansons de France is comprised of folksongs Sur le pont d’Avignon and Auprès de ma blonde, both lively tunes but with very different contexts; while the former speaks of a 15th-century dance, the latter is a strangely jaunty lamentation about an imprisoned husband. These pieces represent part of the wide spectrum of moods in Napoleonic France, imperial successes juxtaposed with personal heartbreak.
INTERMISSION
STARS AND STRIPES (1803 - Present)
Stars and Stripes Forever is John Philip Sousa’s best-known work and was declared the National March of the United States of America by Congress in 1987, cementing Sousa’s musical legacy. David Wright, a barbershop quartet champion and member of the Barbershop Hall of Fame, created this arrangement, placing Sousa’s iconic march into another iconic American genre. Joshua Shank, Luther College alumnus, composed David’s Lamentation for Tipton High School Concert Choir while under the direction of present day Luther College conductor, Dr. Andrew Last. The Dubuque Chorale enjoyed singing the rich harmonies, intense dynamic contrast, and even the whisper presented in the lament. Julie Thomas’ setting of Euch Nicht Vergessen encapsulates the mixture of elation and devastation seen in the words of Rabbi David Spiro, reflecting on his liberation from the Dachau death march, and on the countless souls who were not so fortunate. Thomas is a Clarke University alumna, and now serves as the Director of Choral Activities at Tipton High School. Cadenza is humbled to be only the third group to perform this piece. Shawn Kirchner’s setting of J.K. Alwood’s beloved gospel song Unclouded Day is inspired both by his upbringing in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and his graduate research, combining bluegrass with fugue and counterpoint, to create a wholly original take on the classic. The piece completes the Chorale’s portion of this emotionally intense, Iowa-based set.
Simple Gifts is a song written by Elder Joseph Brackett of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Coming, a protestant sect more commonly known as the Shakers. Aaron Copland included this American treasure in his score for Appalachian Spring. The children worked on singing in unison, while shaping melodic contour as they learned this piece. The traditional American fiddle tune, Johnson Boys, was a delight for the children to learn. The interesting vocal parts and toe-tapping hand jive allowed the children to work on rhythmic accuracy. We also worked on diction so the text could be understood. The Dubuque Chorale and Children’s Choir close the concert with a combined selection from the quintessential Iowa musical, The Music Man. Mason City native Meredith Willson composed The Wells Fargo Wagon for his 1957 hit Broadway musical, and even today it encapsulates the hope and anticipation of great things to come.
TRANSLATIONS
J’entends les Moulin (I Hear the Millwheel)
I hear the millwheel tique tique taque.
My father is having a house built.
It’s being built with three gables.
There are three carpenters building it.
The youngest is my darling.
What do you have in your apron?
It’s a pie made of three pigeons.
Let’s sit down and eat it.
While sitting down they all lept up,
Causing the sea and fish to tremble.
and the stones on the bottom of the sea.
- Translated by Donald Patriquin
Un Canadien Errant (A Wandering Canadian)
A wandering Canadien
Banished from his homeland
Travelled, weeping,
through foreign lands.
One day, sad and thoughtful,
Seated on the river’s bank
To the fleeing current
He spoke these words:
“If you should see my home
My sad unhappy land
Go, say to all my friends
That I remember them
O days once so full of charm
You are all gone away
And my homeland, alas!
I’ll not see her again
No, but with my last breath
O my dear Canada!
My sad gaze
Will go to you.”
- Translated by Joseph Schull in Rebellion: The Rising in French Canada
Laudate Dominum (Praise the Lord)
O praise the Lord, all ye nations;
praise him, all ye peoples.
For his loving kindness
has been bestowed upon us,
and the truth of the Lord
endures for ever.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now,
and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen
- Translated by Ron Jeffers
A Rianxeira (Woman of Rianxo)
The Virgin of Guadalupe,
when she goes walking along the bank,
barefoot on the sand
she looks like a woman of Rianxo.
Waves come and go:
don’t board the boat, rianxeira,
for you will be seasick.
The Virgin of Guadalupe,
when she came to Rianxo,
the little boat that brought her
was of orange wood.
The Virgin of Guadalupe:
who has made her dark-skinned?
It was a little ray of light
that came in through the little window.
- Translated by V. Chavarría
La Marseillaise (War Song of the Army of the Rhine)
Let us go, children of the fatherland,
Our day of glory has arrived.
Against us the bloody flag of tyranny
is raised; the bloody
flag is raised.
Do you hear in the countryside
The roar of those savage soldiers?
They come right into our arms
To cut the throats of our sons, our comrades.
To arms, citizens!
Form your battalions,
Let us march, let us march!
That their impure blood
Should water our fields.
- Translation found in Encyclopedia Britannica
Rondes et Chansons de France
(Sur le pont d’Avignon & Auprès de ma blonde)
On the bridge of Avignon
They are dancing, they are dancing
On the bridge of Avignon
They are dancing all around.
In the gardens of my father
The laurel is in bloom.
All the birds in the world
Come there to make their nests.
Next to my fair-haired lady,
How good it is, it is, it is,
Next to my fair-haired lady,
How good it is to sleep.
The quail, the turtle-dove,
And the pretty partridge,
And my pretty dove
Who sings day and night.
She is singing for the girls
Who don’t have a husband.
For me she is scarcely singing,
For I have a pretty one.
Tell us dear,
where is your husband?
He’s in Holland,
the Dutch took him (prisoner)
What would you give, lovely one,
To see him return?
I would give Versailles,
Paris and Saint-Denis,
The towers of Notre Dame and
the bell of my parish church!
On the bridge of Avignon
They are dancing, they are dancing
On the bridge of Avignon
They are dancing all around.
The Lovely ladies go this way,
And they go again that way.
The handsome men go this way,
And they go again that way.
On the bridge of Avignon
They are dancing, they are dancing
On the bridge of Avignon
They are dancing all around
- Translations found via wikipedia and madbeppo.com
Euch Nicht Vergessen (We Will Not Forget You)
We promise you holy souls, we will not forget you
You are part of our fractured being
An eternal light will always burn for you in our hearts.
- Translated by Rabbi David Spiro