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The Ecstasies Above
Sunday, April 11 – 3:00 p.m. – First Presbyterian Church, 1000 Penn St., Fort Worth
Schola Cantorum of Texas will conclude its 2009-2010 season with some of history’s most elegant and scintillating music for strings, piano and choir Sunday, April 1, 3:00 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 1000 Penn St., Fort Worth. Schola will be accompanied by string quartet, piano and piano four-hands.
The concert, titled “The Ecstasies Above,” which also has been the theme for the entire season, takes its name from British composer Tarik O’Regan’s (center) work for double SATB quartet, chorus and string quartet.
The title comes from a phrase found in the lyric poem, Israfel, by Edgar Allan Poe, in which Poe creates a virtuous image of the supernatural, then compares that heavenly vision to the harsh reality of human existence. The score uses textural variation among the three groups of full chorus, solo octet and string quartet.
The work was commissioned for the Yale University Schola Cantorum, which made the inaugural performance in 2007.
Also featured are Johannes Brahms’ (upper right) Neue Liebeslieder Walzer (New Love Songs), a collection of Romantic pieces written for four solo voices and piano four hands, later adapted to include a full chorus. The text is adapted from folk songs of Turkey, Poland, Latvia and Sicily. The solo songs depict an array of characters, including a bass as an enraptured paramour, an alto as jilted lover, a tenor as Lothario, and soprano as a woman unlucky in love.
The most remarkable distinction of Ludwig van Beethoven’s (upper left) Elegiac Song is that is rarely performed, perhaps because of its brevity, compared to the composer’s many iconic pieces. This “song of mourning” was composed as a gift for one of Beethoven’s patrons, Baron Johann von Pasqualati, to commemorate the baron’s late wife. The author of the text is not known, although it may have been the baron himself.
American composer René Clausen’s (lower left) “O My Luve’s Like a Red, Red Rose” is a choral setting of Robert Burns beloved poem. Dr. Clausen is conductor of The Concordia Choir at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, and founder of the René Clausen Choral School. A prolific composer and clinician, his works are performed high school, church and professional choirs.
Eric Whitacre (lower right) composed “Five Hebrew Love Songs” with his wife, soprano Hila Plitmann, at the request of violinist Friedemann Eichorn, a friend from college days at the Julliard School. The songs were written in 1996 for a concert the three performed in Eichorn’s hometown of Speyer, Germany. Whitacre later adapted the songs for mixed voices and string quartet on commission from the University of Miami.
Each song is a “postcard” from Plitmann to Whitacre, commemorating moments the two shared, and embellished by Whitacre’s signature "Whitacre chords." The composer frequently uses seventh or ninth chords, with or without suspended seconds and fourths. He makes frequent use of quartal, quintal and secondary harmonies, and also writes unconventional chord progressions.
Tickets Available Now
Advance tickets are available for $20. Discounts are available for seniors (age 62), educators and groups. Students are admitted free of charge. Call the Schola Cantorum office, 817-927-2114, for full information.
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