WSU Madrigal Chamber Singers with student Samantha Cottam in the focused center.
PULLMAN, Wash. – The Washington State University Madrigal Chamber Singers and Concert Choir will present a free public concert at 8 p.m. Thursday, March 1, in Bryan Hall on the Pullman campus.
Performing in Renaissance costumes of the 16th century, the 18-member Madrigal Chamber Singers, conducted by WSU associate professor Lori Wiest, will sing songs based on the animal kingdom and composed between 15th and 16th centuries.
The WSU Concert Choir, also conducted by Wiest, will feature selections based on the theme of winter.
Many Renaissance composers who dabbled in the art of secular vocal songs were inspired by poetry dealing with love, admiration, sadness, sexual innuendo, nature, birds, insects and beasts. Composers, particularly from the Elizabethan period, saw in the animal kingdom a valuable source of commentary on the nature and state of mankind.
In “Contrapunto Bestiale alla Mente,” there is a physical description of animals, including imitation of their sounds. The cuckoo, owl, cat and dog vie with one another in counterpoint supported by a “drunken bass” chanting on the bestial nature of man deprived of reason.
“El Grillo,” composed by Josquin des Près, likely is a satirical physical description of a singer named Grillo as mimicked by a cricket who loves to sing to attract women. In “Il est Bel et Bon,” sung in French, the animal portrayed is a pecking chicken that taunts a hen-pecked husband who follows his wife around as she gossips to her friend that her husband is very good to her and does all the work.
The more lyric “Il Bianco e Dolce Cigno” by Jacques Arcadelt, sung in Italian, draws an analogy as the lover contrasts and parallels his approach to death, both actual and sexual, with that of a swan. While the swan, though singing, dies disconsolate, the poet, weeping, happily would die 1,000 deaths of love and desire.
“The Silver Swan,” by Orlando Gibbons, begins with the notion of the death of the swan but concludes that “more geese than swans” survive just as more fools than wise live. “Of All the Birds That I Do Know,” by John Bartlet, is a highly suggestive poem about the sparrow.
The Concert Choir will open its portion of the performance with “Mid-Winter Songs” by Morten Lauridsen, set to poems by Robert Graves and featuring graduate student Mac Merchant on the piano. This work is in five short movements: Lament for Pasiphaë, Like Snow, She Tells Her Love While Half Asleep, Mid-Winter Waking and Intercession in Late October.
Composer Lauridsen, on the faculty of the University of Southern California, was born in Colfax, Wash., and composes at his summer home in Washington’s San Juan Islands. He was composer-in-residence at the 2001 Festival of Contemporary Art Music at WSU.
His works have been recorded on more than 200 CDs, four of which have received Grammy nominations. In 2007, he received the National Medal of Arts from the President of the United States.
The Concert Choir will continue with a movement from Claude Debussy’s “Trois Chansons” entitled “Yver, vous n’estes qu’un villain” (Cold winter, you are nothing but a villain) and conclude with a setting of “Come Into My Garden” by Z. Randall Stroope based on the Song of Solomon. While considered a wedding anthem, this lovely and memorable setting also hints at an awakening of spring and love.