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PROGRAM FOR MAY 13, 2005
St. Joseph's Cathedral, Hartford, Connecticut
Dedicated to the memory of those who died and suffered in the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster of December 26, 2004
I.
Bernard Piché (1908 - 89): Introduction et Fugue sur l'Ite Missa est alléluiatique (Introduction and Fugue on Ite Missa est, Alleluia) (1939/1978)
II.
A. François Morel (1926 - ): Prière (Prayer) (1954)
B. Augustinus Franz Kropfreiter (1936 - 2003 ): Der grimmig Tod mit seinem Pfeil (Grim Death with his dire Sword) (1961)
C. Siegfried Reda (1916 - 68): Choralkonzert :
O Traurigkeit, O Herzeleid' (Oh Sorrow, Oh Anguish) (1938)
1. Lamento
2. Concertare
3. Epitaph
D. Franz Schmidt (1874 - 1939): Der Heiland ist erstanden (The Saviour is Risen) (1934)
III.
A. Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur (1908 - 2002): Scène de la Passion (1931)
B. Arthur LaMirande (1936 - ): Improvisation on the Dies Irae
The spiritual scheme of this concert is:
1. Life
2. Prayer
3. Death
4. Atonement
5. Salvation
6. Eternal rest
Program Notes
François Morel, born in 1926 in Montréal, is one of the foremost contemporary composers of Québec and Canada. He is also a noted pianist and conductor.
He first came to international prominence in 1953 with a performance at Carnegie Hall, New York of his Antiphonie conducted by the celebrated Leopold Stokowski.
Soon afterward, he was one of the founders of Musique de notre temps , dedicated to promoting contemporary music in Québec. He worked for many years for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a music consultant, researcher, and composer of incidental music for radio and television. His Études for piano are in the repertoires of leading pianists. In 1994, he was awarded the rank of Chevelier de l'Ordre national du Québec.
Morel has composed just two works for the organ, of which Prières (1954) is the first.
The massed sonorities are reminiscent of Messiaen. This work belongs to Morel's early period, of which he says "I was totally preoccupied with modes" [Encyclopedia of Music in Canada]. It exploits the coloristic possibilities of the organ and makes a profound impression.
Augustinus Franz Kropfreiter (1936 - 2003) was organist of the famous St. Florian's Abbey near Linz, Austria (where Bruckner was once organist)
and also directed the choirs there. He studied organ with Walter Pach (pupil of Franz Schmidt) and was a celebrated organ virtuoso and improviser. His
compositions - which show the influence of Hindemith and Pach - make wide use of polytonality and sequences of triadic chords.
The work performed today is a relatively early work, composed in 1961 - not so many years after the War which saw the greatest visitation of Death that human history had ever seen. The terrors of Death are here depicted with grim reality; but we are also offered a message of Hope.
GRIM DEATH WITH HIS DIRE SWORD: A Sacred Concerto
I. Death arrives with terrifying majesty.
II. The Lutheran Our Father. Our Help is in the Name of the Lord.
III. A prayer of faith in the soul's redemption.
IV. The apocalyptic announcement of Death. Faith in Salvation
triumphs over Death.
V. The end of mortal life. A plaintive evocation of the Dies Irae.
The soul passes over to the other side.
Siegfried Reda (1916 - 1968), a pupil of Pepping and Distler in Berlin and later organist at Mülheim, was a leading figure in the contemporary music of the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church. The Choral-Konzert "O Traurigkeit, O Herzeleid" (1938, published 1953) is an early work which already shows extraordinary originality. The anguish of Christ's Sacrifice on the Cross is here evoked with a profound pathos. His deeply emotional declamatory style employs a wide palette of poignant timbres and colorations.
LAMENTO:
A grim march leads us to the horrors of Golgotha. Plaintive motifs reflect the sufferings of Christ on the Way of Sorrows (Via Doloroso). The Cross --- the instrument of terror and death --- appears. The grim march continues. Christ appears before the Cross, stripped of his garments and all dignity.
CONCERTARE:
The throng gathers, thirsty for blood. The grim work of State terror continues. Christ is nailed to the Cross. His Holy Agony commences. In the midst of His Agony, he cries
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" The final hour arrives. "It is finished." Christ gives up His Spirit unto death. The heavens and earth are rent asunder.
Christ is taken down from the Cross. Mary holds the Saviour in her arms (the Pietà). A march to the tomb. Christ is laid to rest.
EPITAPH:
Each of us must reflect on Christ's Sacrifice on the Cross, and on its purpose for our lives and our eternal Salvation.
Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur (1908 - 2002):
Born in Paris in the early years of the 20th century, Daniel-Lesur studied first with his mother, the composer Alice Thiboust, and then with the celebrated organist and composer Charles Tournemire at Ste. Clothilde, Paris, where he became Tournemire's assistant and remained for 10 years. It was during these early years at Ste. Clothilde that he composed the Scène de la Passion for organ.
In 1935, he was appointed to a professorship at the Schola Cantorum in Paris.
About the same time, he joined with Olivier Messaien, Yves Baudrier, and André Jolivet in founding La Jeune France, a group dedicated to upholding humanistic values in music - as a response to the musical abstraction that was then in vogue.
Following World War II, he became head of the music information service at the French national radio service, later working also in television and working for the Ministry of Culture. In 1957, he became Director of the Schola Cantorum.
His works include three operas, an a capella setting of the Song of Songs (Le Cantique des Cantiques, 1949), and the Mélodrame et Fantaisie concertante for cello and orchestra, commissioned by Mstislav Rostropovich in 1992.
Daniel-Lesur was made a Grand Officier of the Legion of Honour in 1990.
While the ChoralKonzert of Siegfried Reda dwells on the pain and suffering of Christ's Passion, Daniel-Lesur's Scène de la Passion dwells instead on the Triumph of the Cross - the Victory over Death. From its introspective opening, the music builds inexorably to a mighty shout of triumph: Death has been vanquished! The music then subsides to a tender conclusion.
Dies Irae, Dies Illa
Day of Wrath, Day of Judgment
At the end of time, all must give an accounting of their lives on earth to the Almighty. St. Thomas Aquinas, in his 13th-century hymn (long included in the Requiem Mass for the Dead) envisioned a day of fury and terror. The ominous text has been set to music by numerous composers, most spectacularly by Mozart, Berlioz, and Verdi. Two of the best-known settings of the traditional Gregorian chant are by Rachmaninoff, in the slow movement of his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini for piano and orchestra, and by Berlioz, in his Symphonie Fantastique.
Today, the emphasis of the Church is on God's love and forgiveness.
"God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not die, but have everlasting life." [Gospel of John]
Liberated from earthly strife, the soul aspires to the Beatific Vision and Eternal Rest.
Commentary by Arthur LaMirande, 2005
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