Ensemble Performance: Voice

Following a semester of intense preparation, two vocal ensembles, one SATB and one all-female, will showcase their vocal and ensemble skills through a wide range of music spanning several centuries.

Programme

Women’s Choir

Eric Whitacre - Seal Lullaby

Elton John - Can you feel the love tonight

Soloists: Cheyney McCarthy and Amy Butcher

Burt Bacharach & Hal David - Say a little prayer

Soloists: Stella Russo, Ruby Peter, Megan Richardson, and Liberty Overall

Barbara Streisand & Paul Williams - Evergreen

 

SATB Choir

Mark Patterson – Grand Canyon Sunrise

Lili Boulanger – Hymne au Soleil

Gerald Finzi – My Spirit Sang All Day

Richard Rodney Bennett – A Good Night

Gary Lanier – O Holy Night

Performers

Women’s Choir
Amelie White, Amy Butcher, Cheyney McCarthy, Elizabeth Bankole, Elouise Parton, Liberty Overall, Megan Richardson, Ruby Peter, Stella Russo, Keqiao Yu (piano)

SATB Choir
Amy Howe, Arturo Scalia, Ava Lewis, Alex Wordley, Jenny Lucking, Myles Billington, Isabel Martin Alvarez, Joe Edwards, Talia Nabarro, Guy Laville, Ceren Abbatt, Eloise Clarke, Niamh Rose, Stefan Piotrowicz (piano)

 

Programme Notes

Eric Whitacre - Seal Lullaby
“I received a call from a major film studio. Stephen [Schwartz] had recommended me to them and they wanted to know if I might be interested in writing music for an animated feature […] a classic animated film based on Kipling’s The White Seal. […] The White Seal is a beautiful story, classic Kipling, dark and rich and not at all condescending to kids. Best of all, Kipling begins his tale with the mother seal singing softly to her young pup. (The opening poem is called The Seal Lullaby).

I was struck so deeply by those first beautiful words, and a simple, sweet Disney-esque song just came gushing out of me. I wrote it down as quickly as I could, had my wife record it while I accompanied her at the piano, and then dropped it off at the film studio. I didn’t hear anything from them for weeks and weeks […] Finally, I called them, begging to know the reason that they had rejected my tender little song. “Oh,” said the exec, “we decided to make Kung Fu Panda instead.” So I didn’t do anything with it, just sang it to my baby son every night to get him to go to sleep.” – Eric Whitacre (2008)

Elton John - Can you feel the love tonight
"Can You Feel the Love Tonight" is a song from Disney's 1994 animated film The Lion King composed by English musician Elton John with lyrics by Tim Rice. At the 67th Academy Awards in March 1995 it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. It was planned to be sung only by Timon and Pumbaa, but John disliked the comical nature of the concept as he declared that the song was meant to follow "Disney's tradition of great love songs", and that it could "express the lions' feelings for each other far better than dialogue could".

Burt Bacharach & Hal David - Say a little prayer
"I Say a Little Prayer" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David for Dionne Warwick, originally peaking at number four on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart in December 1967. Intended by lyricist Hal David to convey a woman's concern for her man who's serving in the Vietnam War, "I Say a Little Prayer" was recorded by Dionne Warwick in a 9 April 1966 session.

Barbara Streisand & Paul Williams – Evergreen
"Evergreen" (also called "Love Theme from A Star Is Born") is the theme song from the 1976 film A Star Is Born. It was composed and performed by American singer, songwriter, actress and director Barbra Streisand with lyrics by Paul Williams, and arranged by Ian Freebairn-Smith. As composers, Streisand and Williams earned an Academy Award for Best Original Song, making Streisand the first woman to be so honored as a composer. She also earned a Grammy Award for Song of the Year. Streisand and Williams also won Golden Globes for Best Original Song.

The song's opening couplet, "Love, soft as an easy chair; love, fresh as the morning air", almost did not appear that way. Williams wrote the "morning air" line first, but told Streisand to "flip those two first lines, because it sings better".

Mark Patterson – Grand Canyon Sunrise
Mark Patterson, born 1969, is an American conductor and composer based in Virginia, USA. ‘Grand Canyon Sunrise’ is among his secular, non-religious works and describes the beauty of a sunrise over the Grand Canyon. The piece starts off softly, depicting first light and gradually builds with the rising sun.

Lili Boulanger – Hymne au Soleil
This piece by French composer Lili Boulanger was written in 1912 for SATB choir, piano and contralto solo (sung today by Ava Lewis). Boulanger was famously the first woman to be awarded the ‘Prix de Rome’ for her cantata ‘Faust et Hélène’ at the age of 19. ‘Hymne au Soleil’ or ‘Hymn to the Sun’ is set to words by French poet Casimir Delavigne, the translation of which you will find on the next page.

Gerald Finzi – My Spirit Sang All Day
‘My Spirit Sang All Day’ was originally an unnamed poem written by Robert Bridges in 1890, published in the 4th book of his collection of poems named ‘The Shorter Poems of Robert Bridges’. This is Gerald Finzi’s setting of the poem from his collection of songs: ‘Seven Poems of Robert Bridges’ Op. 17, written 1934-1937.

Richard Rodney Bennett – A Good Night
Richard Rodney Bennett (1936-2012) was an English composer and pianist best known for his works for film and TV, some of these include: ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ (1974) and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). ‘A Good Night’ was written in 1999 as part of the choral collection ‘A Garland for Linda', dedicated to Linda McCartney after her death in 1998, and is set to the words of seventeenth-century writer Francis Quarles.

Gary Lanier – O Holy Night
This is Gary Lanier’s arrangement of the popular Christmas carol ‘O Holy Night’, with music by Adolphe Adam and words by John S. Dwight. The festive season is upon us, so we thought we’d include some Christmas cheer in our concert this afternoon, hope you enjoy!

 

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