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Portland State University
Chamber Choir
Bruce Browne, conductor
Bryan Johanson
Liquid Music
O Magnum Mysterium
Ave Maria
Tomas Svoboda
Chorale Without Words
Cernohorska Fugue
Salvador Brotons
Les Quatre Estacions
The Grove
Vijay Singh
A Glimpse of Snow and Evergreen
Robert Suderberg
Sanctus
Norman Dinerstein
When David Heard
Pacific Northwest composers sing not with one voice but with many, as this collection of choral music demonstrates. While five of the six composers represented here have a close connection to the Northwest, their music is as different as the peaks of the Cascade Mountains. Four of them Bryan Johanson, Salvador Brotons, Tomas Svoboda and Vijay Singh all live in Portland, Oregon and make up the composition faculty in the Department of Music at Portland State University. However, their compositional styles range from affirming, tonal sonorities to exuberant folk melodies of Eastern Europe.
BRYAN JOHANSON
Bryan Johanson is both an active composer and guitarist, and is a professor of music at Portland State University, where he has run the successful guitar studies program since 1978. He studied guitar with Christopher Parkening, Alirio Diaz and Michael Lorimer, and composition with Pulitzer-prize winner William Bolcom. Johanson's catalog of 90 compositions includes three symphonies, concertos for violin, viola, cello and piano, many chamber works and song cycles, as well as compositions for solo instruments.
LIQUID MUSIC
Based on a sonnet by Elizabeth Bishop, the text for Liquid Music describes the poet's yearning for the restorative power of music. "I wanted something that lapped beautifully against the ears," says Bryan Johanson. With a gentle, rocking motion, the voices ebb and flow in step-wise fashion. Images of moon, water and sleep suspend the harmonies.
O MAGNUM MYSTERIUM
Bryan Johanson had already written most of the music to his setting of O Magnum Mysterium when he realized that he had used only the first three words of the text. "I was seduced by the vowel," he explains.
AVE MARIA
Long-held chords suggest devotion to religious faith and its abiding mysteries.
TOMAS SVOBODA
Born in 1939 in Paris of Czech parents, Tomas Svoboda received his education at the Prague Conservatory, earning degrees in composition, percussion and conducting. In 1964, Svoboda left Czechoslovakia and settled in the United States. Six years later, he moved to Portland, Oregon, where he has been a professor of music at Portland State University, teaching composition, orchestration and music theory.
CHORALE WITHOUT WORDS
This three-minute work is a study in sighs. The pianist is instructed to approach the part "dynamically as a solo instrument." A short chordal section for the piano contrasts with unison octaves that underline loud, almost theatrical, sighing, softening toward the end with hints of Renaissance cadential harmonies.
Cernohorska FUGUE
The pushed tones of the sopranos at the opening of this vigorous fugue suggest the rustic power of Eastern European female choirs. The melody is no wider than three notes, and pulses with energy. Fugal writing, with its imposed restrictions, is one of Svoboda's strengths, inspired by his love of Baroque techniques. As each voice enters the arena, the choral sound swells. When the first theme returns, the sopranos and basses float beyond reach of the inner, chanting voices, acting like anchors, or, in the spirit of the Baroque, like a chorale melody.
SALVADOR BROTONS
Salvador Brotons was born in Barcelona, Spain, in 1959, and earned the Superior title in flute, composition and conducting at the Barcelona Conservatory of Music. In 1985, he moved to the United States and earned his Doctorate in music from Florida State University. In 1991, Brotons won the Queen Sofia prize for his orchestral work, Virtues. Florida State University and WSFU-TV commissioned him to write a two-act opera, Everyman. While continuing his interest in composing, Brotons' main activity is conducting. He has led the Barcelona City Orchestra, Spanish Radio TV Orchestra, Tallahassee Symphony, Columbia Symphony and recorded one of his orchestral works with the Prague Radio Symphony, which he conducted.
LES QUATRE ESTACIONS (THE FOUR SEASONS)
Les Quatre Estacions (The Four Seasons), a work for mixed choir, was commissioned by the Chamber Choir of the Palau de la Musica Catalana and its conductor Jordi Casas. Of the first season, Brotons says "Carefully following the line of the works, the music of Spring Waters is fresh, delicate and clear. The wavelike movement of the piano part is complement by the clearly phrased, pleasant and lyrical melodies of the choir in which female voices and sharp registers predominate."
"Shiftless August portrays the sultry, stifling atmosphere of a summer's day. Low notes have an important role in giving the feeling of idleness, lack of will power an immobility in this music that develops in a kind of arch, both in its texture and its movement."
"The soprano soloist, accompanied by the choir a cappella, evokes the wistful autumn world of the Last Autumn Full Moon. The purity of the poem and its hopeful sentiments are reflected in the relaxed and clear texture of the music."
"To close the cycle with a contrast, winter is represented by the joyful days of Christmas. Christmas Song brings the cycle to a close with the courage, love and brightness characteristic of the last days of the year. The harmonies here are, for the most part, tonal, but there are various enharmonic changes, too."
THE GROVE
The vivid, emotional poetry of Octavio Paz finds its musical imagery in this moody, personal work. Women's voices alternate notes in a swaying, almost inaudible hum. As the text turns graphic Riot of trees, surge of dark green sounds Brotons' romantic musical language catches fire with tense, unresolved harmonies and cross-cutting rhythms.
VIJAY SINGH
Vijay Singh directs the Vocal Jazz program at Portland State University. An active conductor, composer and singer, he has written music that has been performed at regional and national choral and educators' conferences. He has appeared as a featured bass-baritone soloist with such groups as the Male Ensemble Northwest, Choral Cross-Ties, the Oregon Symphony, Northwest Bel Canto Workshop, the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival and the Salem Symphony.
A GLIMPSE OF SNOW AND EVERGREEN
Although Vijay Singh is an avid jazz singer and composer, this gentle hymn to winter reveals his interest in choral music. A Glimpse of Snow and Evergreen comes from a larger collection called Pictures From the Northwest. Firmly in the key of E-Flat Major, the a cappella suspensions and open harmonies evoke the hushed stillness of snow falling on evergreens.
ROBERT SUDERBERG
Robert Suderberg's connection to the Pacific Northwest is through the University of Washington in Seattle, where he taught in the Department of Music. He has also taught at the Virginia Commonwealth University.
SANCTUS
Suderberg's setting of the Sanctus begins on a serene note, before a spirit of energy and joy breaks out. The choir sings rapturous chords that seem to stretch toward heaven.
NORMAN DINERSTEIN
Before his tenure as professor of composition and theory at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, Dinerstein chaired the department of composition and theory at the Hartt College of Music in Hartford, Conn. and taught at Princeton University and the New England Conservatory of Music. Among his awards are the Koussevitsky Tanglewood Composition Prize, the Raphael Sagalyn Orchestral Award and a two-year appointment as the Ford Foundation Composer-in-Residence in Pasadena, Calif.
WHEN DAVID HEARD
Dinerstein's text comes from the Second Book of Samuel, where King David grieves over the death of his son Absalom. Dense harmonies weave a dirge of unfathomable grief. Through textures that spread from one to eight parts, the music builds to an overpowering climax, as if chanting a dead son's name over and over can hope to provide solace to the griever. The octave-high wail of the sopranos suggests a metaphor for keening.
Notes by David Stabler
PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY CHAMBER CHOIR
Since its formation in 1975, the Portland State University Chamber Choir has been invited to sing at national conventions of the Music Educators National Conference, American Choral Directors Association and the Society of International Music Educators. The choir has been the sole American representative at the International Choral Festival in Talinn, Estonia and in Keffalonia, Greece and Mallorca, Spain. Choir members are voice majors from among the 250 music majors in the Department of Music.
BRUCE BROWNE, CONDUCTOR
Bruce Browne is professor of music, and chairs the vocal/choral department at PSU. He is also artistic director of the Portland Symphonic Choir and founder and director of Portland's professional choir, Choral Cross-Ties. He has been a jurist/clinician or guest conductor in every region of the country, and in Germany, Spain, Estonia, England and Mexico. He has received his University's award for excellence in teaching, is former Northwest President of American Choral Director's Association, and has served as panel member of the National Endowment for the Arts. He has been guest Professor at the University of Guadalaraja, University of Iowa, and has taught in London.
TEXTS
Liquid Music
Sonnet
I am in need of music that would flow
Over my fretful, feeling finger-tips,
Over my bitter-tainted, trembling lips,
With melody, deep, clear, and liquid-slow.
Oh, for the healing swaying, old and low,
Of some song sung to rest the tired dead,
A song to fall like water on my head,
And over quivering limbs, dream flushed to glow!
There is a magic made by melody:
A spell of rest, and quiet breath, and cool
Heart, that sinks through fading colors deep
To the subaqueous stillness of the sea,
And floats forever in a moon-green pool,
Held in the arms of rhythm and of sleep.
- Elizabeth Bishop, 1928
Ave Maria
Ave, dulcissima Maria,
vera spes et vita,
dulce refrigerium!
O Maria, flos virginum,
ora pro nobis Jesum
Hail sweetest Mary,
true hope and life,
sweet refreshment!
O Mary, flower of all virgins
pray for us to Jesus, O Mary.
O Magnum Mysterium
O magnum mysterium
et admirabile sacramentum
ut animalia viderent Domiuum natum
jacentem in Praesepio!
Beata Virgo, cujus viscera meruerunt
portare Dominum Christum.
Alleluia
O great mystery
and wondrous sacrament,
that animals should see the Lord born,
lying in a manger
Blessed Virgin,
whose womb was worthy
to bear the Lord Christ.
Alleluia!
Les Quatre Estacions
1. Aguas de primavera
Aguas de primavera
que gotean por los jardines,
posadas sobre las ramas,
las gotas se tornan briznas.
En el corazón de un triste charco
tiemblan los cielos divinos.
La nieve se apresura en fundirse
y baja corriendo po el torrente:
¡cómo mueve el rumor de la espuma
las hojas d los pinos!
¡Cómo acechan las flores nuevas!
¡Cómo tintinean estas mañanas!
En el río de las aguas nuevas
dicen que hay tres molinos:
«uno muele oro y plata,
el otro perlas y rubíes,
el otro, el amor de las damas
que cautivan a los mozos».
1. Spring waters
Dripping through the gardens
On the branches.
The drops come to life.
At the heart of a sad puddle
The heavenly skies shimmer.
The snow hurries to melt
And falls into the torrent.
How the pine needles swirl.
In the gurgling froth!
How the new flowers peep out!
How these mornings ring!
In the river of new waters
They say there are three mills:
“One mills gold and silver,
Another pearls and rubies,
Another the love of the ladies
Who charm the young men.''
2. Incuria de agosto
El Ilano no hace sino yacer,
los cerros están arrellandos,
las nubes no van a ninguna parte,
los árboles se duermen de pie.
Cae derribado el ocio
bajo el cielo abierto,
azul abancico de aires de fuego,
el saltamontes recorre los barbechos.
La peña querria beber,
los cespedes están cubiertos de polvo,
por el camino reluce la roca,
sale vaho de las paredes.
El Ilano no hace sino yacer,
los cerros están arrellandos,
las nubes no van a ninguna parte,
los árboles se duermen de pie.
2. Shiftless August
The plain merely lies there,
The hillocks sprawl,
The clouds go nowhere,
The trees drop into sleeep upright.
Leisure is weighed down
Under the wide open skies.
Blue fan of winds of fire,
Locusts pass over the fallow land.
The rocky crag craves water,
The turf is covered in dust,
along the tracks the stones gleam,
A breath rises from the rockface.
The plain merely lies there,
The hillocks sprawl,
The clouds go nowhere,
The trees drop into sleep upright.
3. Ultimo plenilunio de otono
Falto de afán y de lamento,
quiero cantarte todavía,
medalla real, plenilunio!,
por encima de la primera helada.
Puro, sin señuelo de aventura,
ninguna nube, ninguna sombra permitida:
regalando sólo desde lo alto
certidumbre, certidumbre, certidumbre.
El frío, radiante, sagitario,
heire con perlas la hierba clara:
del río solitaro
una garra cenicienta toma agua.
Y parece que empieza una vida
sin pisada ni voz traidora,
con sonidos naufragados en silencio,
por el mundo de cristal que nos ignora.
3. Last Autumn Full Moon
Without labor or lament
I will yet sing your song,
Regal medal, full moon
Above the first frost.
Wholly pure, with no lure of adventure,
No cloud, no shade allowed,
Only, giving from on high,
Certainty, certainty, certainty.
The cold, radiant archer,
Wounds the bright grass with pearls!
As ashen claw takes
Water from a solitary ditch.
And it seems that a life is beginning
That neither footsteps nor voice betray,
With sound failing in the silence
In the glass world unaware of us.
4. Villancico
Rama quebrado por el viento expectral
-¡rama antes cubierta de hojas!-
danos la llama, danos la llama, la llama
no de una hoguera negra del mal,
sino la llama del fuego de Navidad.
Tú, viento helado, que escueces y gimes,
no eres portador del borrascoso mensaje del mal;
ante el hogar tocas un poco de música
ensayando en cualquier orificio
los flautines de la noche d Navidad.
Latente añoranza, herido pesar,
ved cómo van asomando las estrellas de la noche;
ah, no os toca caer en la hondonada,
sino aprender el baile, el baile
de ángeles y santos en la noche de Navidad.
4. Christmas Song
Bough broken by the ghostly wind!
Once full of leaves and branches!
Give us the flame, the flame, the flame,
Of no black bonfire of evil,
But the flame of the Christmas fire.
Oh, chill wind, who sting and whine,
You come not with a stormy message of evil;
Outside the house you play a little music,
Rehearsing in every hollow
On the Christmas night pipes.
Numb longing, sore regret,
Look! At night the stars appear.
Ah! It is not for you to fall into the valley,
Rather to learn the dance, the dance
Of the angels and saints on Christmas night.
- Josep Carner
A Glimpse of Snow and Evergreen
The cool, white hush of fallen snow,
the pine and fir their branches low stand proud and silent,
silently, free, pristinely at peace,
so free, pristinely at peace,
so free, and free for all,
so peaceful, tranquil, beauty fair,
The cool white hush of snow.
Sanctus
Sanctus dominus deus sabbaoth
Coeli et terra pleni sunt gloria tua
Hosanna in excelsis
Benedictus qui venit in nomine domini
Sanctus dominus deus sabbaoth
Holy, holy Lord God of hosts,
Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is the man who comes in the name of the Lord
Holy, holy Lord God of Hosts.
Cernohorska Fugue
U Ivana gospodára
vsadil jedli na planinu,
vsadil také zlutou gdouli,
zlutou gdouli i oranzi,
zalil vsechno dobrou vodou,
na stráz stavil divku mladou.
Neproslo vsak jeste léto,
ani léto, ani dve snad,
a jiz hlasy slyseti je,
ze tu jedle uvadnula,
dobrá voda ze vyschnula,
zlutá dgoule zahynula,
mladá divka ze zemrela.
Sedlá kone: Pojd, at vidím!
Nemohu vsak priblízit se
pro vysinu stihlé jedle,
pro lepotu mladé divky,
pro beh rychly dobré vody,
pro dech vonny zlute gdoule,
zluté gdoule i oranze.
Napil jsem se dobré vody,
okrál vuní zluté gdoule,
zluté gdoule i oranze,
prodlel v chladku stíhlé jedle,
pomiloval mladé devce.
At Ivan's farm
he planted fir on a plateau,
he planted yellow quince as well,
yellow quince and orange tree
he watered it all
with good water
and he stood a young girl
as a guard.
Note even one or two summers passed
when voices were heard
that the fir withered,
the young girl passed away,
the good water dried out,
the yellow quince died as well.
He saddled a horse: Come and see!
But could not get close enough
because of the height of the slim fir,
because of the beauty of the girl,
because of the quick running water,
because of the fragrance
of the yellow quince.
I drank the good water,
rejuvenated by the fragrance
of the yellow quince,
yellow quince and the orange tree,
relaxed in a shade of the slim fir
and made love to the young girl.
Cernohorska folk poem
The Grove
Enormous and solid
but swaying,
beaten by the wind
but chained,
murmur of a million leaves
against my window.
Riot of trees,
surge of dark green sounds.
The grove, suddenly still,
is a web of fronds and branches.
But there are flaming spaces
and, fallen into these meshes,
-restless,
breathing -
is something violent and resplendent,
an animal swift and wrathful,
a body of light among the leaves:
the day.
To the left, above the wall,
more idea than color,
a bit of sky and many clouds,
a tile-blue basin
bordered by big, crumbling rocks,
sand cast down
into the funnel of the grove.
In the middle
thick drops of ink
spattered
on a sheet of paper inflamed by the west,
it's black, there, almost entirely,
in the far southeast,
where the horizon breaks down.
The bower
turns copper, shines
Three blackbirds
pass through the blaze and reappear,
unharmed,
in the empty space: neither light nor shade.
Clouds
on the way to their dissolution.
Lights are lit in the houses.
The sky gathers in the window.
The patio
enclosed in its four walls
grows more and more secluded.
Thus is perfects its reality.
And now the trash can,
the empty flower pot,
on the blind cement
contain nothing but shadow.
Space closes
over itself.
Little by little the names petrify.
- Octavio Paz
When David Heard
When David heard that Absalom was slain,
he went up to his chamber over the gate, and wept
and thus he said:
Oh my son Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom!
would God I had died for thee!
Oh Absalom, my son, my son.
Digitally recorded and edited by Fred Armentrout
Producer: Kevin Walsh
Recorded at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Portland, Oregon; Canon John Strege, organist and chorusmaster
Portland State University Music Department Chair: Stan Stanford
Cover Art: E. Benno Philippson, A.I.A.
Portland State University Chamber Choir
Carol Rich and Christy Minter, accompanists
Soprano
Darcy Averill
Erika Brody
H Cullom
Maggie Daane
Amy Dethman
Amy Frei
Michelle Hieb
Marcella Kaopuiki
Roxanne Lau
Denise Steinbach
Michelle Starke
Katie Taylor
Darla Tuning
Alto
Laura Cole
Melinda Garner
Laura Greene
Margaret Green
Shellie Harden
Melissa Jenkins
Janine Kirstein
Christy Minter
Lisa O'Brien
Nancy Parker
Claire Penn
Anna Ugarte
Tenor
Blake Applegate
Timothy Beck
Ken Chenevert
Kevin Hamm
Matthew Harden
Brian Haskins
David Kane
Jason Ogan
David Vanderwal
Chris Wickham
Jeffrey Wiren
Chris Wickham
Bass
Karl Blume
Jon Bowman
Jim Dunning
Keith Falkenberg
Ruben Fonseca
Mark Kimes
Steve Magnuson
Jason Owens
Ken Reidel
Paul Sadilek
Berndt Thern
Chris White
John Womeldorff
Portland State University Chamber Choir
Bruce Browne, conductor
Bryan Johanson
Liquid Music (3:06)
Tomas Svoboda
Chorale Without Words (3:25)
Salvador Brotons
Les Quatre Estacions
Aigües De La Primavera (3:05)
Incúria D'agost (4:19)
Darrer Pleniluni De Tardor (3:54)
Cançó De Aladal (3:26)
Vijay Singh
A Glimpse of Snow and Evergreen (2:20)
Robert Suderberg
Sanctus (1:37)
Bryan Johanson
O Magnum Mysterium (8:59)
Tomas Svoboda
Cernohorska Fugue (4:40)
Salvador Brotons
The Grove (9:56)
Norman Dinerstein
When David Heard (8:27)
Bryan Johanson
Ave Maria (5:19)
Total Time = 63:26
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