Dancing Day
Bullis Charter School - 2014 Winter Choir Concert
BCS proudly presents Dancing Day
Mr. David Belles - Director
Ms. Laura Beese - Director
Ms. Amy Belles - Accompanist
Thanks to all our Parent Volunteers! This program would not be possible with out your support and dedication.
2014 Winter Choir Concert
Wednesday, Dec 10, 2014, 06:30 PM
First United Methodist Church of Palo Alto, Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, CA, United States
Call times & Notes
Parents and Guests will be allowed in at 6:15 pm
Dancing Day - Program
Combined Choirs
Sing dem Herm - Michael Praetorius
Treble Voices
Mairi’s Wedding - arr. Jay Broeker
A New Year Carol - Benjamin Britten
Al Shlosa D’varim - Allan Naplan
G Clef
Windy Nights - Mark Patterson
Animal Verses of Ogden - Nash Marion Verhaalen
Down by the Riverside - arr. Brant Adams
Cambiata
Loch Lomond - arr. Ashley F. Nelson
The Turtledove - arr. Linda Steen Spevacek
Loosin Yelav - arr. Paul Carey
Up On the Mountain Shouting! - Paul Caldwell & Sean Ivory
I N T E R M I S S I O N
Combined Advanced Choirs
Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day - arr. Audrey Snyder
Sonore
The Old Carrion Crow - arr. Mary Goetze
Carol Medley - Traditional
Angel’s Carol - John Rutter
Melodia
Alleluia, Rejoice! J. Edmund Hughes
The Seal Lullaby Eric Whitaker
Deo Gracias Jim Leininger
A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S
Combined Choirs
Give Us Hope - Jim Papoulis
Program Notes - Texts & Translations
Sing Dem Hern
Sing dem Herrn!
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alle lieben Ihn.
Lobe seinen Namen.
Singet mit Tambourin und Harfe.
Sing to the Lord!
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Everyone love Him.
Praise His name.
Sing with tambourine and harp.
Rounds are a choir director’s friend - a melody sung in unison, then that same melody sung starting at different times. This particular round is attributed to Michael Praetorius, a composer from the early 17th century; listen to the melody carefully as it is sung at the beginning, and see if you can pick out each of our different choirs singing their own separate sections of the round.
This traditional Irish song and dance tune (attributed to Scotland in some collections) describes the gathering of town folk to celebrate the wedding of the local lass Mairi. They trek across hillside and pasture, bringing with them their wishes for her union: ample food, fuel for her fire, and many lovely children. Our 8th grade flute accompanist joins us to accompany this lively piece.
A New Year Carol
Benjamin Britten composed A New Year Carol as one of twelve songs for children in his series “Friday Afternoons.” They were written for his brother’s singing classes that took place on Fridays. This text, set syllabically, contains unusual imagery. “Gold upon her toe” and “gold upon her chin” are images for sunset and sunrise, representing the end of the old year and beginning of the new. The chorus repetition of “levy dew” is fascinating in origin. Two theories exist, one with origins in England and one with origins in France. During the period that linguists refer to as Middle English (1066-1450), the word for lady in the northern part of England was “levedy.” Over time, “sing levedy” mutated into “sing levy dew.” The second theory suggests that “levy dew” is an anglicized version of “Levez a Diu,” French for “raise to God.”
Al shlosha d’varim haolam kayam. Al haemet v’al hadin v’al hashalom.
The world is sustained by three things, by truth, by justice, and by peace.
Al Shlosha D’Varim is a lyrical setting of the pouplar maxim from Pirkei Avot (Jewish morality laws). Though written in the form of a partner song, the text dictates one continuous statement. Listen for the singers’ two part harmony at the end of the piece!
“Windy Nights is a playfully haunting piece for treble choir. This text, by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) is full of mystery and delight and the 6/8 meter keeps the piece dancing along. The music flows for attention to dynamics and serves as an introduction to part-singing. I have also employed the use of chromatic passages in the accompaniment and hemiola in the vocal lines to add interest.” —Mark Patterson
This delightful setting of nine short poems by Ogden Nash captures the humor of each little verse. You will learn about lambs, ducks, porcupines, and Nathaniel’s favorite, the wapiti. Rather than a natural science lesson, each poem involves a humorous thought, usually as a play on the individual animal’s name.
Combining the two old American songs “Peace Like a River” and “Down by the Riverside,” and composed using various traditional American styles, from rock to old-time gospel, from Dixieland jazz to blues, this arrangement has proven to be both challenging and rewarding for our young singers.
This arrangement is a new twist on an old Scottish folk song about the largest lake in Scotland. Entirely a cappella, this piece sees the accompaniment and melody traded back and forth between the three voice parts as they realize that they will “never meet again on the bonnie, bonnie banks o’ Loch Lomon’."
This setting of an old English folk song proclaims the earnest, undying love of the singer. Though the lovers will soon be separated, he will never prove false to his “bonnie lass,” and will mourn for her as the turtle dove moans “for the loss of his love."
Loosin yelav ensareetz
saree partzaer gadareetz
shegleeg megleeg yeresov
paervetrz kedneen loosnidzov.
Jan a loosin Jan ko loosin
Jan ko gaelor sheg yereseen.
Xavarn arten tchaekatzav
oo el kedneen tchegatzov
oosni loosov halatzvadz
moot amberi metch maenadz.
Jan a losin Jan ko loosin
Jan ko gaelor sheg yereseen.
The moon has risen over the hill,
over its summit,
its red, rosy face
brilliantly illuminating the earth.
O dear moon, with your dear light
and your dear round and rosy face.
Before darkness reigned
covering the earth;
but now the light of the moon has chased it away
into the dark clouds.
O dear moon, with your dear light
and your dear round and rosy face.
Cambiata had the pleasure of inviting a parent who is a native Armenian speaker to come in to a rehearsal to help us with our pronunciation of this song. On this beautiful arrangement of an Armenian folk song, you will hear our changed-voice boys singing in their upper register (their falsetto), a range that they handle beautifully!
This exciting fusion of spirituals, work songs, and more feels like a train that never stops until it reaches the climactic finish; our singers have had the chance to shout, whoop, and clap in rehearsal more than in all previous years combined!
This traditional English carol in 6/8 is a beautiful narrative told in the first person. Our advanced choirs combine to perform this song, which is the first time in the history of BCS that both advanced choirs have performed a piece together at a choir concert.
"This folk song in Dorian mode tells an amusing story interspersed with appealing responses and a chorus of nonsense syllables. The active piano accompaniment departs from the scale of the melody, creating expressively dissonant moments. It also underscores the story and the unusual phrase structure of the original song." —Mary Goetze
Every winter, Sonore goes caroling in downtown Los Altos as the lights are turned on and the vendors begin to sell their holiday wares. These are two of Sonore’s favorite carols from this event last month.
This sparkling composition by the English composer John Rutter is one of his many classic contemporary carols. Our singers have worked long and hard to sing this delicate yet very difficult piece as beautifully and gently as possible. (The director has a special attachment to this particular song, as it was one of G Clef’s first ever adjudication pieces!)
Alleluia, Rejoice!
Combining medieval style chant with the more familiar “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” this piece proved to be quite a challenge for our middle school singers due to its sustained notes and almost a cappella nature. Listen for the aleatoric section towards the end of the piece; this “chance music” section sounds like bells ringing!
Eric Whitacre originally composed this song for solo soprano, and intended it for a movie that was never filmed. Kipling’s poem “The Seal Lullaby" was supposed to be the basis for this movie, and Whitacre hoped to compose a “simple, sweet Disney-esque song” to accompany the film. When the movie fell through (and Kung Fu Panda was filmed instead), Whitacre filed the song away for safe keeping until a choral arrangement was commissioned by the Towne Singers.
7/8 meter always feels like a dance, and this song, written primarily in 7/8, is no different - most measures are made up of two counts plus two counts plus three counts - 1-2, 1-2, 1-2-3. Deo Gracias is a very old text, and the English language has changed much since it was written - for example, what we would say “Adam lay bound, bound in a bond” was originally said “ Adam lay i-bowndyn, bowndyn in a bond."
This closer for BCS’s Winter Choir Concert was written by someone that a number of our students have met and worked with: Jim Papoulis - the guest clinician at the Cantabile Festival for Young Voices that Sonore attended in 2013. Mr. Papoulis wrote this song as part of a project called Sounds of a Better World - “a series of songs focusing on children, which examines their world and how small steps can be made to improve it."