| When I first envisioned this concert, almost three years ago, I had hoped we would no longer need it. I had hoped we would be celebrating the harmony and tranquility of a peaceful world. Throughout history, music has been there at landmark moments, whether it be in solitary expressions of lament or jubilation, gatherings of groups or masses of people, or grand state funerals or commemorations. Through music and poetry, we express our humanity.
Our concert opens with Robert Kyr's "Voices for Peace." The text is adapted from a prayer of St. Francis of Assisi: "O Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace." The music is an invocation that invites the spirit of peace to flow through the thoughts and actions of all people, especially in times of conflict and strife. Kyr wrote, "As a communal art, choral music is an especially moving way to experience the unity of all people; It has the power to bring us together as peoples of all races, ethnicities, and nationalities.
The Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms was composed in 1930, a time of relative global calm between the two World Wars. Its hopeful message in three movements can be summarized as: mvt. I, an entreaty to the Lord to "hear my prayer;" mvt. II, the Lord heard my prayer and "set my feet upon the rock;" and mvt. III a joyful praise to the Lord. Igor Stravinsky was a Russian-born composer who lived primarily in France until moving to the United States late in his life. His music broke through conventions of harmony, rhythm and melody, and still nearly a century later is considered "modern" by present-day audiences.
The tone color of Symphony of Psalms is distinctive for its unusual scoring for extended wind instruments and no violins or violas. Stravinsky was a significant composer of ballets, and the rhythmic, dancelike element of his music comes through from the driving energy of the opening primitive-sounding ritualistic rhythms to the floating, ethereal lilt of the final euphoria. Melodic instruments as well as voices, regardless of the natural text stress, function at times as percussion. The second movement is written in a classical double fugue form, but in a modal and dissonant melodic and harmonic idiom that takes us into another realm.
We conclude the first half of the program with Rachmaninoff's Vocalise, a luxurious melody of transcendent beauty. It is the last song from Opus 34, a set of 14 solo songs published in 1912. Rachmaninoff subsequently scored it for orchestra, and since then it has been transcribed for numerous solo instruments. Written with no text, Vocalise is offered tonight for your own private expressions for peace.
Ralph Vaughan Williams composed Dona Nobis Pacem in 1936 as a warning against the rising drums of war in Europe. Its prophetic message was unheaded as all of Europe soon found itself in the devastation of World War II. Vaughan Williams based much of the cantata on poetry by Walt Whitman, written from his experiences in the American Civil War.
The cantata Dona Nobis Pacem is performed as a continuous whole, although nominally divided into six sections. It opens with the pleading by both soprano soloist and chorus to "grant us peace," in the Latin liturgical text. The second movement, "Beat! beat! drums!" from Whitman's Drum Taps opens with martial trumpet fanfares and violently expresses how war disrupts every aspect of life. The quiet aftermath of devastation is depicted in "Reconciliation," with lush chorus and hauntingly lyrical violin solo. A soldier, portrayed by the baritone soloist, looks upon his dead enemy--"a man divine as myself." We hear a funeral procession as the "Dirge for Two Veterans" tells the story of two soldiers, both father and son, fallen in war. Vaughan Williams originally set this Civil War poem sometime between 1911 and 1914 as a reaction to World War I, and utilized that setting in this work. The imagery of the moon, as a mother's face looking down on the dead march, shimmers with the impressionist influence of Vaughan Williams' studies with Ravel.
With menacing drums signifying the beating of the wings of the "Angel of Death," the baritone soloist admonishes all in the words of John Bright, taken from his famous speech made to the House of Commons concerning the Crimean War, with an obvious reference to the Passover. But this time, there will be no grace. And as choral voice follows choral voice in quick canon, the threat of imminent destruction is expressed through Biblical quotes of Jeremiah warning Jerusalem of the approaching Babylonians, "for they are come and have devoured the land."
In the final movement, a glorious vision of peace, in which "nation shall not lift up a sword against nation," rises in a stirring anthem proclaiming "good will to men." Whether or not that vision can become a reality is left in question, as choir and soprano gently plead again, "Dona nobis pacem."
Evoking passages from Biblical wars through the Crimean War, the American Civil War, and World Wars I and II, this moving masterwork is poignant to the present day. The choice for peace has yet to be made.
Poetry Book Dona Nobis Pacem
The powerful poetry of Walt Whitman inspired me to involve our local poets in a project to produce original poetry for peace. Fruitful meetings with Toni van Deusen of the Lane Literary Guild and Cecilia Hagen of the Eugene Public Library led to the creation of a chap book of original poetry of Lane County Poets entitled Dona Nobis Pacem. We thank the poets for giving voice to their thoughts and feelings in this beautiful book that is available as a gift to all who attend this Peace Concert.
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