Summer Festival of Sacred Music
June 27 - September 19, 2010
CLICK ON THE DATES LISTED TO SEE SUNDAY SCHEDULE
The series is free and open to the public, a gift to the city.
Every Sunday at the 11 o'clock service.
St. Bartholomew’s Summer Festival of Sacred Music, a New York institution offered as a gift to the city, celebrates its 16th anniversary with a special series of outstanding choral works from around the world. Music from the US, England, France, Germany and Italy, as well as Argentina, will be heard.
Highlights include a service marking the 175th anniversary of the founding of St. Bartholomew’s with music by composers who served the parish as the Director of Music, including Leopold Stokowski and Harold Friedell. The 325th anniversary year of Bach’s birth will be observed with a performance of Bach’s Missa Brevis in A Major accompanied by period instruments. As a memorial to those who perished on September 11, 2001, the Mass for the Dead, by the 18th century Provençal composer Jean Gilles, will be offered.
Join us and hear two of New York’s finest choirs, St. Bartholomew’s Choir and St. Bartholomew’s Boy and Girl Choristers, accompanied by outstanding instrumentalists and New York City’s largest pipe organ in the architectural (and air-conditioned) splendor of St. Bartholomew’s Church.
Donate to the 2010 Summer Festival
The Summer Festival of Sacred Music is made possible only through the generous support of parishioners and friends of St. Bartholomew’s. Funding for each of these Sundays needs to be raised separately above and beyond the parish’s annual budget.
Therefore,
YOU ARE THE SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVAL!
Please consider supporting this series in one of three ways:
1. Become a Friend of the Summer Festival of Sacred Music
2. Sponsor an entire service of music
with a donation of $5,000, a wonderful and enduring way to honor a family member or friend.
3. Finally, the offering of Gilles’ Messe Des Morts on September 12 has been made possible by a gift from a generous parishioner of St. Bartholomew’s. We are offering the opportunity for you to respond to this generosity by making a donation in memory of a loved one. The
name of the deceased will be included in the leaflet for this Sunday and will be read as part of memorial prayers offered at this service. Your support is crucial and we graciously ask that you be generous.
You can make your donation securely online anytime. Please be sure to indicate in which way you are supporting the festival in the comments section at the bottom of the donation form.
SUMMER FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
SUNDAY, JUNE 27
Music of Gay Composers:
Benjamin Britten, Virgil Thomson,
Francis Poulenc and Samuel Barber
As New York City celebrates Gay Pride Sunday today, we recognize the great contribution which gay composers have made to sacred choral music. Britten’s brilliant Festival Te Deum, Thomson’s mystical Mass for Two Voices and Percussion and Poulenc’s sublime Salut, Dame Sainte (from Four Little Prayers of St. Francis of Assisi) will be included. More about this Sunday's music.
SUNDAY, JULY 4
A Celebration of American Music:
Leonard Bernstein, Searle Wright, Thomas A. Dorsey and Nancy Cooper
In observance of the Independence Day weekend, we offer great American choral works. Bernstein’s exuberant Chichester Psalms will be performed in an arrangement for organ, harp, and percussion. Wright’s Communion Service in D, Arnold Sevier’s splendid arrangement of Dorsey’s Precious Lord and the recently composed Blues Benediction by Nancy Cooper from the University of Montana will also be offered.
SUNDAY, JULY 11
Johann Sebastian Bach: Missa Brevis in A Major, BWV 234
Paul Brantley: Round Dance of the Cross
In addition to his monumental Mass in B-Minor, Bach composed four Latin Masses during his tenure as Kantor of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. Labeled “parody masses”, since they were arrangements of previously written cantata movements, they are by no means second hand products, but are elevated into timeless works by their Latin texts.
Bach’s Missa in A-Major is perhaps the most delicate of all his masses. It is scored for choir, soloists and an orchestra of strings and flutes, played today on period instruments. The orchestration gives the work a quiet and pastoral quality. The “qui tollis” movement set for soprano, two flutes and continuo is breathtaking in its fragility and ethereal writing.
Brantley’s vivid Round Dance of the Cross, a setting of Jesus’ words to his disciples, who dance the Hora, prior to his crucifixion. The text is taken from the Gnostic Gospels. It is scored for mezzo soprano solo, baroque violin and cello.
SUNDAY, JULY 18
Charles-Marie Widor: Mass for Double Choir
Perhaps the greatest master of the French Romantic organ school, Widor composed his “Messe à deux choeurs et deux orgues” in 1878 for the grand church of St. Sulpice in Paris and its magnificent Cavaillé-Coll organ. The dramatic antiphonal effects between organ and choir and its skillful choral writing led one 19th century critic to remark: “…it has the strength of Bach and Handel, combined with the penetrating grace of Mendelssohn… The Agnus Dei is one of the most delicate and inspired of Widor’s creations.”
SUNDAY, JULY 25
St. Bartholomew’s 175th Anniversary Celebration
Music of Stokowski, McK. Williams, Friedell, Ossewaarde and Trafka
In honor of the 175th anniversary of the founding of St. Bartholomew’s Parish, St. Bartholomew’s Choir will sing music of composers, who served the parish as Director of Music during the past one hundred years. The liturgy will be the service of Morning Prayer and Holy Eucharist. Works will include Stokowski’s Benedicite, omnia opera Domini, Friedell’s Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis and Trafka’s Preces and Responses composed for this service.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 1
Music for Men’s Voices
Josef Gabriel Rheinberger- Messe in F Major, Op. 190
Rheinberger was born in Vaduz, the capital of the principality of Liechtenstein in 1839 and enjoyed the highest reputation in his time as Professor of Music and Court Kapellmeister in Munich. An accomplished organist, composer, and pedagogue, Rheinberger preserved classical principles during the tempestuous Romantic era, contributing some twenty sonatas to the organ literature (the most important since Mendelssohn) and a significant output of Catholic liturgical music. His Messe in F for men’s voices and organ exemplifies his unique brand of classicism and dislike for ostentation.
More about this Sunday's music.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 8
Music for Women’s Voices
Dirksen- Mass for 2 Voices and Organ
Brahms- Ave Maria
The women of St. Bartholomew’s Choir present the earliest choral work of Johannes Brahms and Richard Wayne Dirksen’s Mass for Two Voices and Organ. Dirksen, who served the National Cathedral for five decades composed almost 300 works and is best known for his 1974 hymn tune, Vineyard Haven. His Mass for Two Voices and Organ is a challenging work and a splendid addition to the repertoire of music for treble voices.
Brahms’s Ave Maria represents his first attempt (at age 25) at sacred choral composition, a portion of his oeuvre that would eventually include the German Requiem. Brahms was intensely self-critical, destroying all of his sketches and even completed compositions by the dozen; not so this wonderful Ave Maria, which after twenty years, he reworked for voices and orchestra.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 15
Palestrina- Missa Assumpta est Maria,
Parsons- Ave Maria
St. Bartholomew’s Choir presents renaissance choral masterpieces by Robert Parsons and Giovanni da Palestrina. The story of Palestrina’s life has engendered much interest and intrigue, including an opera based on the account that the sound of one of his masses dissuaded the awestruck Council of Trent from banning polyphony in the church. He composed over 100 Masses and the Missa Assumpta est Maria has justly remained one of the most celebrated. It is a transporting work that enjoys a rich sound emphasizing major-key music, and is one of the most important works of the time. Of all the musical works composed during the Tudor period, the five-part Ave Maria of Robert Parsons is surely one of the most impressive. The Choir will sing what has been described as the perfect Marian motet.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 22
Ariel Ramírez - Misa Criolla
Composed in 1963 by the contemporary Argentine composer, Ariel Ramírez, the Misa Criolla combines the rhythms and traditions of Latin America with the traditional mass. This choral work incorporates a variety of Argentinian folk styles from the lively dance carnavalito for the Gloria movement to the tragic vidala and baguala for the Kyrie. These elements are incorporated into the mass without losing the dignity of its ritual. It will be accompanied by guitar as well as authentic Latin American percussion instruments. Misa Criolla will be offered to honor the memory of Ramírez, who died earlier this year.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 29
Herbert Howells- “Collegium Regale” Communion Service
Written in 1956 for the choir of King’s College, Cambridge, Howells re-used the themes of his classic “Collegium Regale” Magnificat and Nunc dimittis settings. Scored for choir, soloists, and organ, the communion service is characteristic of his mature style, with arching melodies in broad phrases, a rich harmonic language often characterized by a strong modal feeling, and supportive yet independent organ writing. Rather than merely setting the text, Howells creates an atmosphere from which the words seem to emerge, often with beguiling rhythmic fluidity and ambiguity.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 5
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart- Missa Brevis in F Major
(“The Little Credo”), K. 192
Mozart’s Missa Brevis in F-Major was composed in 1774, while he was Konzertmeister at the Prince-Archbishop’s court in Salzburg. This festive mass is scored for choir, soloists, strings, trumpets and continuo. In this “Credo” mass, Mozart brilliantly uses the opening theme (head motive) of the Credo movement, the plainchant melody “Lucis creator,” as a basis for the entire movement, relentlessly underscoring and affirming belief.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 12
Jean Gilles- Requiem (Messe des Morts)- A 9/11 Memorial Service
Jean Gilles (1668-1705) was the maître de chapelle at the Cathedral of Saint-Sauveur at Aix-en Provence and also held the same post at the Cathedral of St. Etienne in Toulouse. Up until the 1950’s, when his Messe des Morts was rediscovered, his name had been largely forgotten for over a century and a half. However, he enjoyed a splendid reputation in the eighteenth century and his Messe des Morts was one of the most frequently performed sacred works of the time. The work was used for many official state funerals, including memorial services for Rameau and Louis XV.
The Messe des Morts is a product of the French Baroque period employing dance rhythms and lavish ornamentation. As such, it imparts a feeling of optimism, joy and hope and a sense of peace in the assurance of eternal life. It is scored for a 5 part choir, soloists, strings, winds and continuo.
The service today is sung in memory of those who perished on September 11, 2001 and in memory of all loved ones who have died. Please consider making a donation in memory of a loved one. The name of the deceased will be included in the memorial prayers offered at this service.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19
Choristers Sunday: Haydn - Missa Sancti Nicolai
The last Sunday of the Summer Festival of Sacred Music features St. Bartholomew’s Boy & Girl Choristers. Founded in 1995, the Choristers sing at the 11AM service, alongside St. Bartholomew’s Choir, most Sundays from September to June, as well as concerts and other seasonal services. Aged 7 to 17, they rehearse after school on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, and on Sundays. The program follows a structured curriculum emphasizing music literacy. Auditions for prospective choristers are held throughout the year. Together with members of St. Bartholomew’s Choir, the Choristers will sing Franz Joseph Haydn’s Missa Sancti Nicolai.
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