Be sure to visit our Prior Concerts page for information about our first concert of the 2009-10 season, Noe, Noe, Psallite Noe, as well as many of our past performances.



GOOD FRIDAY SERVICE
Fri Apr 2 2010 at 8 pm

“Every year on Good Friday, in the Franciscan Monastery in Northeast Washington, there is a ceremony quite unlike any other held here during the Easter Weekend. It is a commemoration of the entombment of Jesus Christ, a sequel to the observance of his suffering and death on Good Friday afternoon.”

                                       — Joseph McClellan
                                          The Washington Post

This season marks the 21st year the Chorale has performed the Good Friday service at the Church and Monastery of Mount St Sepulchre, a Franciscan monastery and Commissariat of the Holy Land in America, located in Washington, DC.

The Passiontide music consists mostly of Renaissance sacred motets. Although selections in other Chorale concerts typically are performed in their original languages (whether Latin, German, French, or Old Church Slavonic), the practice for the Monastery service is to sing more selections in English. In addition, all music for the service must be performed a cappella.

The selection Good Friday was composed by longtime Chorale member Mimi Gonigam Stevens, based on words from the Gospel of Luke. The service ends with the life-size statue of Jesus being placed in the tomb, with the Chorale singing the spiritual Were You There? featuring soprano soloist Veronica Precup.

Selections

O Vos Omnes                                       Giovanni Croce
Surely He Hath Borne Our Griefs                Antonio Lotti
Our Lord Did Suffer Death                      Heinrich Schütz
Christus Factus Est Esteban                      López Morago
That Virgin’s Child                                   Thomas Tallis
Crucifixus                                                 Antonio Lotti
Surely He Hath Borne Our Griefs      Carl Heinrich Graun
Improperium                                        Russell Woollen
Tenebrae Factae Sunt                 Marc'Antonio Ingegneri
Agnus Dei                      Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
O Vos Omnes                                           Pablo Casals
I See His Blood Upon The Rose            Hugh S Roberton
Go To Dark Gethsemane                      Dale Grotenhuis
Good Friday                              Mimi Gonigam Stevens
Saw Ye My Savior?                                      Leo Nestor
Were You There?                           traditional American

Time & Location

Fri Apr 2 2010 at 8 pm
Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land
1400 Quincy St NE
Washington, DC 20017

Visit website or get directions.


Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land

Founded in 1897 to establish a Commissariat of the Holy Land, the monastery was constructed during the early 1900s, with consecration of the church in 1925.



SPRING CONCERT

Our third concert will be in early May 2010 and will feature works by Austrian composer Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) and Liechtensteinian organist and composer Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901). The concert venue will chosen soon.

Selections will include Bruckner's Requiem as well as several of his motets such as Ave Maria and Christus Factus Est Pro Nobis. Also included will be Rheinberger's Mass in E-flat Major.

Bruckner's Requiem in D minor (WAB 39) was his first truly large-scale composition and first significant work. It is a setting of the Missa Pro Defunctis for vocal soloists, horns, trombones, strings, and organ with figured bass.

The piece shows clear influences of Mozart's Requiem (also in D minor) and similar works of Michael Haydn. It was written to memorialize Franz Sailer, the notary of the St Florian monastery, who bequeathed Bruckner a Bösendorfer piano. Requiem premiered on September 15, 1849, a year after Sailer's death.

Rheinberger's Mass in E-flat Major (Op 109), is an intimate work that expresses the text of the Mass almost conversationally. With its broad, antiphonal strokes, its judicious balance between homophony and counterpoint, and its clearly declaimed text designed for liturgical use, this unaccompanied Mass composed for double choir demonstrates clear links with classical model.

The piece was composed in 1878 and dedicated to Pope Leo XIII who rewarded Rheinberger with the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Saint Gregory.

FEATURED COMPOSERS

The Chorale has several performances scheduled for its 2009-10 season. These include our winter concert in Dec 2009 at The Falls Church, a Good Friday service at the Franciscan Monastery in Apr 2010, and our spring concert in May 2010. This concert season features a number of European and American composers, both classical and contemporary.

Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets — works emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, complex polyphony, and considerable length. His compositions helped define contemporary musical radicalism, owing to their dissonances, unprepared modulations, and roving harmonies.

Pablo Casals (1876-1973) was a Spanish Catalan conductor and cellist who made many recordings of solo, chamber, and orchestral music and is perhaps best remembered for his recording of the Bach Cello Suites during 1936-1939. He organized the Orquesta Pau Casals in Barcelona in 1919, but the organization ceased activities with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936.

Giovanni Croce (1557-1609) was an Italian composer of the Venetian School and particularly prominent as a madrigalist. He wrote less music in the grand polychoral style, but wrote a grand mass for four choirs and several Psalm settings for triple choirs. He was a major influence on music both in Italy and abroad and is credited with the first published continuo parts.

Carl Heinrich Graun (1704-1759) was a German composer and tenor singer who wrote a number of operas, concertos, and trio sonatas. His music shows a combination of old and new melodic and formal concepts. He is considered to be the most important German composer of Italian opera of his time.

Dale Grotenhuis (b 1931) was Professor of Music and Director of Choral Music at Dordt College during 1960-1994 until his retirement. He has composed more than 600 songs, of which more than 260 have been published including five works for symphonic band. The majority of his work is church music, with some commissioned pieces. He continues to conduct clinics, workshops, festivals, and all-state choirs.

Marc'Antonio Ingegneri (1547-1592) was an Italian composer and instrumentalist and often is considered to be a member of the Roman School of polyphonic church music. He wrote two books of masses, at least three books of motets, and eight books of madrigals. His masses are simple, short, and relatively homophonic, and his madrigals tended to be more conservative that those of other composers of the time.

Antonio Lotti (1667-1740) was an Italian composer and organist, and his work is considered to be a bridge between the established Baroque and emerging Classical styles. He wrote in a variety of forms producing masses, cantatas, madrigals, operas, and instrumental music. One of his most famous compositions is the eight-voice Crucifixus, which is considered the first "atonal" piece of music.

Esteban López Morago (1575-1630) was a Spanish composer who lived Portugal writing motets, psalms, responsories, magnificats, and a requiem. He is regarded as one of the most important polyphonists in the music history of Portugal.

Leo Nestor (b 1948) is an educator, choral conductor, and prolific composer. He is founder, conductor, and artistic director of the American Repertory Singers and was music director at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception during 1984-2001. His works have been performed frequently throughout the United States as well as in London and Rome.

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594) was an Italian composer and the most famous 16th-century representative of the Roman School of musical composition, with a vast influence on the development of Roman Catholic church music. He composed hundreds of works, and his compositions are typified as being very clear, with voice parts well-balanced and beautifully harmonized.

Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901) was a Liechtensteinian-born, German-domiciled organist and composer whose religious works include twelve masses (one for double chorus, three for four voices a cappella, three for women's voices and organ, two for men's voices, and one with orchestra), a requiem, and a stabat mater. A prolific composer, his other works include several operas, symphonies, chamber music, and choral works.

Sir Hugh S. Roberton (1874-1952) was a Scottish composer and founder of the Glasgow Orpheus Choir (1901-1951), which brought music to millions of people throughout the world. An ardent pacifist and member of the Peace Pledge Union, he and the Glasgow Orpheus Choir were banned by the BBC from broadcasting performances during the Second World War.

Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) was a German composer and organist, and generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach and often considered one of the most important composers of the 17th century along with Claudio Monteverdi. His best known works are sacred music, ranging from solo voice with instrumental accompaniment to a cappella choral music. He was one of the last composers to write in a modal style.

Mimi Gonigam Stevens (b 1940) is a longtime member of The Ron Freeman Chorale and resident of Fairfax County. In 2006 her music was featured at the “Meet the Composers” concert during Helena Choral Week in Montana. The selection Good Friday, based on words from the Gospel of Luke, was composed for the Chorale and is presented during the Good Friday service at the Franciscian Monastery of the Holy Land.

Thomas Tallis (1505-1585) was an English composer, organist, and teacher, and is considered the most influential English composer of his generation. He obtained from Queen Elizabeth I a monopoly right for the publication of vocal music . His music encompasses a wide range of styles, the bulk of which was choral music, both in the older Latin motet style and newer English anthem style.

Russell Woollen (1923-1994) was an American composer, musician, professor of music, and Catholic priest. He wrote more than 100 works including masses, motets, and organ pieces as well as two symphonies, two operas, and numerous chamber and vocal works.