A Candlelight Christmas

Candlelight Christmas, with special guest the Susquehanna Valley Youth Chorale, follows the 100-year-old tradition of Nine Lessons and Carols, originated at King’s College, Cambridge. This concert has been a sold out/standing room only event in the past.

 John Rutter [b. 1945] tells us that he: wrote Candlelight Carol in 1984 as the result of a conversation with the director of a Catholic church choir … [who told him] “we’re only a small choir, nothing special, but we’d love you to write us a carol featuring the Virgin Mary”…When I started work the image that came into my mind was Geertgen’s lovely painting “Nativity at Night”….In a dark stable the Virgin Mary gazes down at the crib where Jesus is radiating a miraculous light illuminating her face and the figures of a group of kneeling angels, with Joseph standing by in wonder and a lone bright angel in the sky above.

The Friendly Beasts has a long and unusual history. It appears to be a modern version of the 12th century Latin song Orientis Partibus, sung at an annual Christmastide Feast of the Donkey which was celebrated in certain regions of France to commemorate the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt. At that mass, a young girl traditionally rode a donkey into church and, in some accounts, the celebrant brayed at the congregation instead of dismissing them with the usual Latin phrase: ite, missa est. The English text was created by Robert Davis [1881-1950] and thearrangement of the hymn sung on this program is by Jeffrey Van–guitarist, composer, and member of the music faculty of the University of Minnesota.

Conrad Susa [1935-2013] was born in Springdale in western Pennsylvania and studied at Carnegie Institute of Technology and the Juilliard School, where his teachers included William Bergsma, Vincent Persichetti and, by his own admission, P. D. Q. Bach. From 1959 to 1994, Susa was composer-in-residence at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego, California. In 1988, he joined the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where he was Professor of Composition until his death. A la Nanita Nana, Campana Sobre Campana, El Belén Tocan a Fuego, El Desembre Congelat, and Alegría are arrangements of Spanish carols created by Susa in 1992 for his friend, Philip Brunelle, music director of the Minnesota Opera and founder of the Plymouth Music Series at the church where he conducted the choir. Susa describes the origin of these arrangements in the following addendum to the score. Four of five years ago, Philip Brunelle suggested I write him a companion to Britten’s “A Ceremony of Carols.” To a composer, this tempting offer was another way of asking, “How’s about writing us a hit?” After several years of me writhing in doubt, a friend, Gary Holt, showed me a collection of traditional Spanish carols he had sung as a boy in Arizona. Excited, I juggled them around to form a narrative. I noted their many connections with Renaissance music along with their homey, artful simplicity. Finally, the overriding image of a Southwestern piñata party for the new baby led me to add guitar and marimba to Britten’s harp and to compose connective music and totally re-conceive the carols.

Max Reger [1873-1916] was a brilliant composer, organist, pianist, and conductor. He saw himself as a part of the great German musical tradition stretching from J.S. Bach to Brahms and his music includes traditional forms and rich counterpoint as well as the extended harmonies of Wagner and Liszt. Mariae Wiegenlied, in English The Virgin’s Slumber Song , was published in 1912 as one of a group of Schlichte Weisen (Simple Melodies), marking a change in musical direction by the composer. It is easily Reger’s most popular composition. The original setting for voice and piano was recently arranged for men’s voices by the Slovenian composer, Gasper Jereb.

All My Heart This Night Rejoices is a beloved German Christmas hymn. The text was written by the eminent theologian and Lutheran pastor, Paul Gerhardt [1607-1676]. In 1666, Johann Ebeling [1637-1676] composed melodies for twelve of Gerhardt’s hymns, including All My Heart This Night Rejoices. J. S. Bach used Ebeling’s melody in his Christmas Oratorio and Catherine Winkworth translated Gerhardt’s text into English in 1858. Trevor Manor arranged All My Heart This Night Rejoices for Choralis in 2016.

Glenn L Rudolph [b. 1951] is a Pittsburgh-based composer, singer, and choral director. He composed The Dream Isaiah Saw at the request of the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh. The text was taken from Thomas H. Troeger’s 1994 publication Borrowed Light: Hymn Texts, Prayers, and Poems. The attack on the World Trade Center occurred as Mr. Rudolph was completing The Dream Isaiah Saw, which he dedicated to those who perished on September 11, 2001.