PULLMAN – The WSU School of Music will present a free public Choral Concert at 8 p.m. Thursday April 21 in Bryan Hall featuring performances by the WSU Madrigal/Chamber Singers, Lincoln Middle School 7th and 8th Grade Choir, WSU University Singers and Concert Choir.
WSU Madrigal/Chamber Singers, consisting of 20 singers from undergraduate and graduate programs across WSU and conducted by Lori Wiest, will perform:
* Renaissance madrigals from Italy and England, including “Alla Cazza,” composed around 1500. It vividly describes men going on a hunt, sounding the horn and galloping through the countryside to capture their deer.
* “All Creatures Now,” by English composer John Bennet, who contributed this piece to a larger collection of madrigals in honor of the queen. Its concluding and majestic statement, “Long live fair Orianna,” speaks of the glories of being in the presence of one so great: the flowers bloom, the birds hover and everyone is merry.
* A piece from Orlando di Lasso, quite a cosmopolitan composer of his time.
* “Adieu, Sweet Amaryllis,” a goodbye to Amaryllis, who must part from her love, composed by Englishman John Wilbye.
* The Beatle’s popular song, “Ticket to Ride,” which was arranged by Alexander L’Estrange for the Swingle Singers.
The Lincoln Middle School program is under the direction of Tricia James. There are five choirs at Lincoln two 6th grade, 7th & 8th grade concert choir, Spartan Voices (a small vocal ensemble), and Jazz Choir. Each represents the school at festivals and community events throughout the school year.
The 7th-8th grade group will perform:
* The rhythmically exciting “And We Sing Gloria.” Within the chant-like beginning and ending is set a lyrical melody reminding us why we come together as a community in praise and in song.
* “Child of Tomorrow,” in which the composer has set a lilting melodic line to his poetic text written for the child of tomorrow. The song conveys the feeling of an elegant lullaby.
* “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel,” in which Roger Emerson has taken the traditional spiritual and brought to it a sense of determination. The subdued opening explodes into high-powered energy as the singer searches for the answer to “why not every man?” The song takes the listener on a journey as the singers convey the text by alternating between harmonic textures and unison clarity.
The University Singers, a 74-member non-auditioned ensemble under the direction of Dean Luethi, will perform a diverse set of music both sacred and secular, including:
* Iris Levine’s arrangement of the Hebrew folk tune “Hiney Mah Tov,” which declares how wonderful it is to live as brothers and sisters in one world.
* The choral favorite “Ave Verum Corpus” by W.A. Mozart, which will be performed with string players from WSU’s Symphony Orchestra.
* Eugene Butler’s “I Cannot Count the Stars,” a contemporary treatment of this favorite text by Gwen Frostic.
The University Singers will finish their portion of the concert by collaborating with Lincoln Middle School’s 7th and 8th Grade Choirs and members of the WSU Percussion Ensemble for the unofficial South African anthem “Shosholoza.”
Concert Choir, conducted by Wiest, will conclude the performance with an international flair, featuring:
* “Rytmus” by Ivan Hrusovsky of Slovakia, which hails Eve, who is the source of love and the queen of nobleness. It is composed in a rhythmic, ritualistic pulse of consistent eighth notes throughout.
* “An Die Heimat,” by German Romantic composer Johannes Brahms, who lovingly and emotionally sets this text, which speaks of longing for one’s homeland.
* The words of the Lord’s Prayer, humbly and sensitively set to music by French composer Maurice Durufle, for whom the ebb and flow of chant music from the medieval period was a large influence.
* Victor Paranjoti’s “Dravidian Dithyramb,” which embodies traces of ragas from south India as well as hints of Hindustani classical music, which requires high precision of rhythm and exotic fragments of melody.
Concert Choir is accompanied by graduate student Rachel Cutler, who will be featured in “An Die Heimat.”