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Publication Date

Winter 12-4-2010

Year of Release

2010

Note(s)

December 4, 2010 - 8:00 p.m.

December 5, 2010 - 3:00 p.m.

Mark Smith, director

Alanna Cushing, piano

Lakedria Johnson, Mary Beth Withers, M. C. Duke, soprano

Amber Martin, Kelly Borycki, alto

Marshall University Choral Union

Sue Parker, Margaret A. Lewis, Elin Fields, Mary Beth Withers, Sue D. Woods, Lakedria Johnson, Jeanne D. Hubbard, Frances Plemich, Cristina Burgueno, Diana Shepard, Melanie Griffis, M. C. Duke, soprano

Sue Parker, Danielle Ocheltree, Heather Wood, Sarah Hall, Becky Wyant, Caroline Thomas, Patricia Pierce, Rachel Wyant, Carla Rae Terry, Lou Spears Mary Beth Brown, Marie Manilla, Joyce Wilcox, Suzanna Crews, Faith Balshaw, Maria-Tulia Gomez, Courtney Cremeans, Joan Molnar, Kelly Borycki, Hillary Herold, Beth Rankin, Gertrude Spurlock, Marjorie M. McKee, alto

Sean Price, Sam Mitts, David Maynard, Joseph E. Smith, Michael Sidoti, Jerrod Laboc, tenor

Jonathan Thorne, Bill Rath, Charles C. Lewis, John L. Hubbard, Paul Winters, Graham Rankin, Jared Layman, Bill Jennings, Jacob Smith, Jack Stonesifer, bass

Orchestra:

Cassandra Chapman, Laura Mullens, oboe

Reed Smith, Lindsay DiFatta, violin

Dean Pauley, cello

Tim Feverston, viola

Alanna Cushing, keyboard

Marshall University Chamber Choir

David Castleberry, conductor

Mark Smith, piano

Kelsey Anderson, Kaitlin DeSpain, Renee Ritenour, Jennifer Billups, Jessica Kline Rachael Weingart, Diana Shepard, Laura Campbell, Sarah Riddle, Molly White, soprano

Corynn Hawkins, Arin Higginbotham, Kayla Massie, Hillary Herold, Amber Martin, Amy Moses, Lia Ward, alto

Edward Brown, Derek Ellis, Sean Price, Zachary Chancey, T.K Lombardo, Michael Rose, Casey Edwards, Andrew Lowers, Michael Sidoti, Kyle Wilson, tenor

Daniel Gray, Sean Link, David Patrick (MA), John Hurley, John McAlister, Christian Rudloff, Chase Likens John Stonesifer, bass

Keith Bailey, T. K. Lombardo, Justin Bowe, Daniel Gray, percussion

Program Notes

Antonio Vivaldi (1768-1741): Gloria in D Major, RV 589

Even though he was one of the barogue era's most famous composers, Antonio Vivaldi's first career was the priesthood. Ordained in 1703 in Venice, his profession, coupled with his prominent red hair, earned him the nickname "il prete rosso," or the "Red Priest." Music ultimately proved the greater draw, and Vivaldi's colorful nickname was soon the only remnant left of his priestly duties.

Sometime around 1704, Vivaldi began working with the Ospedale della Pietà, a Venetian school for orphaned, abandoned, and illegitimate girls that specialized in musical training. In addition to room, board, and an excellent education in music, the Pieta offered a creative outlet for women at a time when professional opportunities for female musicians were rare. The students were well-respected and were practically virtuosic in their performances. They also played many different instruments. New music was constantly needed for the young women of the Pied, and many of Vivaldi's works were intended for these talented performers.

Although instrumental music was Vivaldi's primary responsibility, in 1713 he took over the composition of choral music for six years after the school's choirmaster, Francesco Gasparini, went on a vacation from which he never returned. Written around 1715 and possibly the most famous of his settings,

"Gloria" was possibly one of his earliest works written for the school. As was not uncommon in the baroque period, Vivaldi actually based the work on a setting by one of his contemporaries, Giovanni Maria Ruggieri. In Vivaldi's setting, the brief Gloria text, from the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Mass, is divided into twelve parts and in the traditional baroque style, each displays contrasts in mood, texture, and vocal color.

Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000): Glory to God, Op. 124

Alan Hovhaness was an important 20th Century American composer whose music anticipated many future musical trends and aesthetic values. Rejecting the styles of serialism and atonality, he began the development of archaic models and was amongst the earliest to combine Western musical ideas with Eastern ones, making him a pioneer of mixing the styles of East and West decades before the term World Music had been thought of. The vis10nary and mystical nature of his work, often intoxicating in its directness and simplicity, rank him as the musical originator of simple, so-called New Age-ists and Spiritual Minimalists.

His parents did not particularly encourage his preoccupation with music but were educated and cultured. Hovhaness began composing during childhood and continued prolifically until old age, despite destroying whole periods of work with which he became dissatisfied. In the 1930s, he studied composition at Boston's New England Conservatory of Music. At this time, he also became fascinated by Eastern music after attending a performance of visiting Indian dancer Uday Shankar. In the 1940s he took serious interest in his paternal Armenian heritage as a means for a dramatic renewal of purpose, and studied the works of Armenian composer Gomitas Vartabed and Armenian liturgical music. In the 1950s this influence receded somewhat, and in the early 1960s his trips to India, Japan and Korea added different but equally strong exotic nuances to his music. From the mid-1970s onward his style became less Eastern.

One of the 20th century's most productive composers, Hovhaness wrote for an unusually wide variety of musical ensembles, from small chamber music to large orchestral works. Even allowing for all his destructive tendencies, he left over 500 published works including 30-odd concertos and around 70 designated symphonies, several with very accomplished but highly individual scoring for large wind ensembles.

Library of Congress Authorities

Vivaldi, Antonio, 1678-1741. Gloria, RV 589, D major

Hovhaness, Alan, 1911-2000. Glory to God

Keywords

recitals, choral music, motets, vocal ensembles, sacred music

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | Fine Arts | Music | Music Performance

Marshall University Music Department Presents the Marshall University Choral Union, performing, Antonio Vivaldi's Gloria, Alan Hovhaness' Glory to God, Mark Smith, director, Alanna Cushing, piano

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