The second of three Living Sounds concerts for the 2013-14 season takes place at 8 p.m. Thursday, February 27, in Steve and Judy Turner Recital Hall. Living Sounds is a showcase for the Blair School’s student composers, with their works performed by Blair student musicians.
Here’s the program, with comments and/or lyrics from the composers:
Libera Me, by William Carson Graham
William Woodard, tenor; Jack Coen, Carson Graham, Salvador Miranda,
Charles Calotta, Sydel Fisher, Shannon Corey, Maria Servodidio and
Laura Williamson, piano
Libera me:
Libera me, Dómine
De mórte aetérna
In die illa treménda
Quando caéli movéndi sunt et térra
Dum véneris judicáre saéculum per ignem
Trémens fáctus sum égo et tímeo
Dum discússio vénerit, atque ventúra íra
Quando caéli movéndi sunt et térra
Díes ílla díes írae, calamitátis et misérerae
Díes mágna et amára válde
Dum véneris judicáre saéculum per ignem
Réquiem aetérnam dóna éis, Dómine:
Et lux perpétua lúceat éis
String Quartet, by Amy Thompson
I.
II.
III.
IV.
Nathan Lowry and Mary Grace Johnson, violins; Daniel Moore, viola; Emily Nelson, cello
Each movement of my String Quartet is inspired by a photo of one of Dale Chihuly’s blown-glass installations. Chihuly’s Reeds informs the structure of the first movement, which begins in darkness and stretches upwards toward clarity. The small, intense spots of color that are the focus of the Glasshouse encourage the bright, playful mood of the second movement, which explores tiny sounds and timbrel differences. Movement III uses the frantic, circular motion suggested in a Chihuly chandelier as a point of departure. Light shines through the glass of Persian Ceiling from above, so that the colors appear to be melting against the wall. Thus, the fourth movement is built from fluid, descending figures that soon begin to sound more like dripping. Eventually, the sound blurs into a puddle, morphing back into the darkness from which the first movement arose.
Symmetricalisthenics, by Alize Rabideau
Marissa Uchimura, piano
Magnificat, by Elena Avalos-Bock
Danielle Bavli, Sarah Heilman, Emily Neil, first sopranos; Erin Aurednik, Elisabeth Bloom, Sydel Fisher, second sopranos; Christine Hawn, Maria Servodidio, Laura Williamson, first altos; Toby Deaver, Julia Di Fiore, Rebecca Tarby, second altos;
Amy Thompson, piano; Angela Ruyten, conductor
Magnificat:
My soul magnifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, all generations will call me blessed;
for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has helped his servant Israel
In remembrance of his mercy,
As he spoke to our fathers
to Abraham, to his offspring forever.
My soul magnifies the Lord
my God, my Savior.
The Quiet Hour, by Jasper Bray, with text by Jonathan David
Steven Sloan, tenor; Jasper Brey, piano
The Quiet Hour:
When the hour is hushed and you lie still,
So quiet is the room about me
It seems perhaps that you are gone,
Sunken to a marble sleep.
I hear no sound; my quiet will,
Passive as the lambs at rest,
Stirs not the quaint forgetfulness
But only murmurs, “Sleep is strange!”
The low moon at the lattice going
Rests no more quietly than you at peace.
Hushed is the candle; the hour is late,
And I, poor witness of extreme change,
I think perhaps then heaven opens
Like the unfolding of your hand in sleep—
Your cold white hand—to close again—
While I sit staring at the marble gate.
Bassoon Sonata, by Sean William Calhoun
II.
III.
Lydia Nance, bassoon; Sean William Calhoun, piano
The second movement of my Bassoon Sonata is based on echoing between the bassoon and piano, with a middle section of the piano improvising on written chords around the bassoon’s line. The third movement plays with the duality of Bb and D (a recurring idea throughout the sonata), combining and opposing the two tonalities.