Nashoba Valley Chorale

What Is This Thing Called Love?

“What Is This Thing Called Love?” We will not presume to answer that question in our concert, but we will explore some facets of the universal emotion. The title comes from a tune penned by Cole Porter (1891-1964) in 1929 for the musical Wake Up and Dream. “While Porter may be best known for witty lyrics as frothy as champagne, in his most thoughtful songs he seems to stand in awe, both confounded and captivated, by an emotion that defies understanding: What is this thing called love? This funny thing called love? Just who can solve its mystery? Why should it make a fool of me?” (Smithsonian Magazine)

We begin with songs about love, both serious and bawdy, in Birthday Madrigals, a set of jazz-inspired settings of texts by Shakespeare and other Elizabethan-era poets.

John Rutter (b. 1945) was born in London and studied music at Clare College, Cambridge. He first came to notice as a composer during his student years; much of his early work consisted of church music and other choral pieces including Christmas carols. From 1975–79 he was Director of Music at his alma mater, Clare College, and directed the college chapel choir in various recordings and broadcasts. Since 1979 he has divided his time between composition and conducting. Today his compositions, including such concert-length works as Requiem, Magnificat, Mass of the Children, The Gift of Life, and Visions are performed around the world. His music has featured in a number of British royal occasions, including the two most recent royal weddings. He edits the Oxford Choral Classics series, and, with Sir David Willcocks, co-edited four volumes of Carols for Choirs. In 1983 he formed his own choir the Cambridge Singers, with whom he has made numerous recordings, and he appears regularly in several countries as guest conductor and choral ambassador. He holds a Lambeth Doctorate in Music, and in 2007 was awarded a CBE for services to music. In September 2023, he received the Ivors Academy Fellowship, and was knighted in the 2024 King’s Birthday Honours. (johnrutter.com)

Rutter composed the Birthday Madrigals (very much in the style of the Swingle Singers) to celebrate the 75th birthday of the jazz pianist George Shearing; he was commissioned by the former King’s Singer Brian Kay, at that time conductor of the Cheltenham Bach Choir. The first piece composed was “It was a lover and his lass” (1975); the other four madrigals were composed in 1995.

When asked the reasoning behind using the texts he used, Rutter responds “I chose the texts myself - ones that I just liked, as simple as that. They needed to be secular, it wasn't a sacred concert, and I have always been attracted by Elizabethan poetry.” Rutter estimates it took two or three weeks to compose this set, emphasizing “I can't afford writer's block when there's a deadline to meet.” (Elaina Crenshaw, personal interview with the composer)

A different kind of “commission” happened with Les Chansons des Roses. It begins with Morten Lauridsen’s mother calling to congratulate him on an upcoming world premiere in his hometown of Portland, Oregon (the City of Roses) in 1992– a premiere he knew nothing about. His mother told him what else was being advertised as being on the program: chansons by Hindemith and Saint-Saëns in the first half and “jazz and lighter stuff” in the second. So Lauridsen wrote “Dirait-on” as an encore and sent it off to the conductor Bruce Browne (whom he knew well). Then he wrote “Contre qui, rose” as a second encore, then “De ton rêve,” then two more songs, and by then he had a set and here we are tonight.

Morten Johannes Lauridsen (born February 27, 1943) is an American composer. A National Medal of Arts recipient (2007), he was composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale (1994–2001) and was a professor of composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music for 52 years.

A native of the Pacific Northwest, Lauridsen worked as a Forest Service firefighter and lookout (on an isolated tower near Mt. St. Helens) and attended Whitman College before traveling south to study composition at the University of Southern California with Ingolf Dahl, Halsey Stevens, Robert Linn, and Harold Owen. He began teaching at USC in 1967 and has been on their faculty ever since.

In 2006, Lauridsen was named an 'American Choral Master' by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2007 he received the National Medal of Arts from the President in a White House ceremony, "for his composition of radiant choral works combining musical beauty, power and spiritual depth that have thrilled audiences worldwide." (mortenlauridsen.net)

In preparation for this concert, I read a dissertation on Les Chansons des Roses by Carol J. Krueger. It’s an interesting and detailed look at the way Lauridsen composes, and it sets forth clearly his trademark techniques; for instance, the added smushy interval of a 2nd to a chord (“Contre qui rose”), the canons (heard most clearly in “Dirait-on”), and the theme melodies inverted and sung at the same time (“De ton rêve trop plein”). 

Krueger also spends a great deal of time analyzing Rilke’s poetry, also very interesting. But to me the most pertinent statement she makes is this: “Only occasionally does Lauridsen’s music reflect the poetry.” This is exactly what I have always felt as well – the flirtatious, sexually-charged language in the poems is not reflected in the gorgeous music. Take “Contre qui, rose,” for example: the poem is light, mocking, madrigalesque, yet the music is slow and deeply beautiful, and it gives the poem a completely different feeling.

The cycle of songs is in an arch: movement 1 and movement 5 are thematically related; movements 2 and 4 are harmonically and thematically related; and movement 3, with its odd tempo changes and dissonance, stands alone. 

• “En une seule fleur” is lively, with Lauridsen’s characteristic repetition of one dominant phrase (“mais tu n’a pas pensé ailleurs”) and ecstatic, soaring phrases (“c’est l’etat de celui qui aime”).

• “Contre qui, rose” is rooted around an open 5th as well as the gesture of a descending 7th (first heard in the sopranos’ opening phrase). It has moments of ecstasy as well – listen for the three repetitions of “au contraire, d’été en automne” – before returning to the opening material at the end.

• “De ton rêve trop plein” begins with an excited, breathless statement by the sopranos and tenors, and then abruptly switches to a lugubrious “fleur en dedans nombreuse, mouillée comme une pleureuse.” The piece builds to a marvelous moment when the tenors and sopranos are in canon at the octave and the altos, one beat off, have the melody at the fifth, while the low basses have the melody in augmentation (i.e., longer note values, so slower). The piece is anchored throughout by Lauridsen’s repetitions of the phrase “tu te penches sure le matin.”

• In “La rose complète” we hear the beautiful melody passed from the sopranos to the altos, while the tenors have a sort of quietly ecstatic theme, and the basses murmur along. The descending 7th gesture from the 2nd movement is there as well (“avec mon coeur en fête”). The whole choir swells unexpectedly at “Toute la vie” and the song closes with a reprise of the opening, which leads seamlessly into the accompanied final movement.

• “Dirait-on” (“one says”) was the first of the cycle to be composed, and its melodies were inspiration for the earlier movements of the cycle. “Dirait-on” is the most-frequently performed song, in part because of its songlike melody and because it has the lovely piano accompaniment.

Lauridsen, in an interview with Krueger, says, “I think there is a different sound [to my music] beginning to happen with the rose cycle. All of the compositions after the rose cycle are lyrical. Lyric line is one of the things I’ve always loved…[the composers I admired most growing up were] Richard Rogers, Cole Porter, and Jerome Kern….Those people knew what to do with a line.” 

The second part of our concert is a rollicking look at some jazz standards from 1913 to 1945, with a contemporary song from 2016 and a great arrangement of a Bill Withers tune from 1977. Our Emerging Artist, Sofia Santoro, and three jazz artists: Shawn McCann, Justin Meyer, and Abe Finch, will play some standards and accompany the Chorale. We begin with the beautiful “La Vie en rose,” (“Life in pink”), the signature tune of Edith Piaf. Piaf wrote the words and Louis Guglielmi, aka Louiguy, wrote the tune. “Piaf sings of the discovery of and reflection upon ordinary-yet-extraordinary love in the words uttered by her lover, and how happiness has entered her heart. The song made a world-wide impact and artists as different as Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Grace Jones, Michael Bublé, Iggy Pop, and Madonna have performed their own memorable versions of the song.” (John Koegel)

The music of composer and bandleader Duke Ellington (1899-1974) is well-represented in our concert. “Edward Kennedy Ellington was born at the turn of the 20th century in Washington DC in 1899. A seeming natural-born talent, Ellington composed his first ragtime number at age 14. In 1923, he would move from his home in DC to Harlem, New York, at the center of the blossoming Harlem Renaissance. In a city filled to the brim with talented musicians, Ellington stood apart. Growing up in a middle-class family that emphasized good manners and spotless dress, the habits instilled in him would later earn him the stand-alone nickname ‘The Duke.’” (pbs.org/American masters)

"Take the 'A' Train" was composed in 1939, after Ellington offered Billy Strayhorn a job in his organization and gave him money to travel from Pittsburgh to New York City. Ellington wrote directions for Strayhorn to get to his house by subway. The directions began with the words "Take the A Train," referring to the then-new A subway service that runs through New York City. (Wikipedia)

Two less-famous composers are represented with “You Made Me Love You,” composed by James Monaco in 1913, and “It Had to Be You,” composed by Isham Jones in 1924. “You Made Me Love You” was a huge hit for Al Jolson, and later (with different words) for Judy Garland. Mr. Jones’ tune never made quite that big a splash, but has been kept alive for 100 years. My favorite tidbit about it is that Tina Louise, as Ginger Grant, sang “It Had to Be You” to Gilligan in the second season Gilligan's Island episode, "Forward March" in 1966. (Wikipedia)

“Wish You With Me” is a ballad composed by Peter Eldridge in 2016; we will sing his choral arrangement. New York Voices is a jazz vocal group that was founded in 1987 by Peter Eldridge, Caprice Fox, Sara Krieger, Darmon Meader, and Kim Nazarian. All except Krieger were members of an alumni group from Ithaca College that toured Europe in 1986. They began performing as the New York Voices in 1988 and issued their debut album the following year. Sara Krieger left in 1992 and was replaced by Lauren Kinhan. After Caprice Fox left, the group became a quartet.

"The Way You Look Tonight" is a song from the film Swing Time that was performed by Fred Astaire and composed by Jerome Kern (1885-1945) with lyrics written by Dorothy Fields (1904-1974). It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1936. Fields remarked, "The first time Jerry played that melody for me I went out and started to cry. The release absolutely killed me. I couldn't stop, it was so beautiful." (Wikipedia)

Robert T. Gibson, the arranger of “Lovely Day,” has talked about infusing Bill Withers’ song with gospel elements; you will hear those, and you will see why it is our closer today. Enjoy!