Hear Music of "20th-Century America" on May 4

Join us for our spring concert with organ, “20th-Century America,” on May 4 at 3:00 PM at the Rutgers Presbyterian Church. Tickets are $30, available online or at the door.

The works of three composers – Frank Lewin, Randall Thompson, and Amy Beach – represent the era between the two World Wars (Beach and Thompson) and the tumultuous 1960s (Lewin). They all reached far back in time, though, for words to express both strong emotions and universal concepts.

Frank Lewin’s Mass for the Dead was composed in memory of Robert F. Kennedy, assassinated in 1968 during his campaign for President. The composer chose to set the English translation of the Requiem Mass, making this work an especially direct expression to Americans of a Catholic rite that would have been familiar to RFK himself. This New York premiere performance is especially timely, coming 100 years since RFK’s birth and 60 years since he was elected senator from New York. 

Randall Thompson, well known especially amongst choral musicians, chose the words of the biblical prophet Isaiah – also in translation – for The Peaceable Kingdom, a work inspired by a painting by Edward Hicks. Thompson’s work is anchored to the title’s concept by its opening and closing movements. In the inner movements it also uses the prophet’s words of admonition to the wicked and images of the human suffering caused by them. The righteous of the first movement ultimately triumph in the last, rewarded for their steadfast faith.  

Amy Beach, whose long life was bracketed by two wars – the Civil War and World War II – was a recognized piano and composition prodigy. However, her career and fame were for many years suppressed by Victorian-era concepts of a woman’s place. Under the terms of her marriage, she was severely limited in her performing and formal studies, so she acquired her exceptional skills as a composer by studying on her own. With its advanced harmonic concepts and understanding of counterpoint, The Canticle of the Sun shows the depth of sophistication she achieved. A setting of a St. Francis of Assisi text, as translated by the British poet Matthew Arnold, the canticle’s recurring theme – in words and music – is of praise to God for the wonders surrounding mere mortals. They are the eternal wonders that sustain those who humbly accept and honor them.

Travel "Across the Pond" on November 24

Andrew Spina ©2024

Join us for our fall concert with orchestra, “From Across the Pond,” on November 24 at 3:00 PM at the Church of the Holy Apostles. Tickets are $30, available online or at the door.

Learn more about the repertoire from our program notes:

Travelling “across The Pond”—a very understated reference to the vast ocean separating America from Great Britain—we turn to that land for its rich heritage of celebratory music. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries there seemed to be an endless supply of occasions or themes seized upon to commemorate with music.

Gustav Holst was the composer of The Planets, famous and much-quoted orchestral portraits of our solar system’s worlds in all their variety and splendor. We find another kind of splendor in works composed for chorus, such as the Short Festival Te Deum—short only in length, grand as the word “Festival” suggests. Holst wove into this work finely delineated sections sensitive to the text, from its grand opening, “We praise Thee, O Lord,” to pensively resting at its close on the words “Let me not be confounded.” Those liturgical words reflected a difficult time for England, indeed for the world—post-World War I and the devastation of the Spanish flu pandemic. In response, the composer founded the Whitsun Festival in the community where he was teaching, bringing as a highlight to the festivities this, a new work of both celebration and reflection.

The 20th century’s most celebrated English composer was Benjamin Britten. His boundless gifts ranged from grand opera, to large-scale choral works like the War Requiem, on through chamber and orchestral music (including the Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra), and, of course, a cappella choral music. Britten’s opera Gloriana was composed to celebrate the coronation of Elizabeth II, its title a historical reference to the first Queen Elizabeth, dubbed “Gloriana” after a character in Spencer’s 1590 poem The Faerie Queen. The Choral Dances drawn from the opera offer a diversion from the main drama as the Renaissance queen, visiting the town of Norwich, is honored in dance and song. Six delightful, beautifully composed short pieces capture the flavor of the place, its youth, and finally dignity and awe in royalty’s presence, welcoming its arrival, offering gifts, and paying final homage as it passes on.

Sir Edward Elgar may be eternally remembered for his Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, heard at countless graduation ceremonies, or his Enigma Variations (whose enigma may or may not have been resolved after a century and a quarter). Elgar came from a musical background, playing various instruments, but he was self-taught in composition. His writing is complex – harmonically and melodically – and highly individualistic. The Music Makers sums up his artistic freedom in the music itself, but also in the poem Elgar chose to set in its entirety, Ode, by Arthur O’Shaughnessy. Through intensely dramatic, passionate, even violent imagery, it speaks of empires that come and go, seemingly inspired by artistic expression. The artists themselves, though essential, are always set apart : “World-losers and world-forsakers … Yet we are the movers and shakers Of the world for ever, it seems.” Elgar may have seen himself as such an artist, and he subtly quoted a number of his own major works in this piece (to some sharp criticism). There is a persistent, rhythmic orchestral theme, the outer world, but like the fleeting empires, it succumbs to the thematic choral undercurrent, the work closing on the whispered “We are the music makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams.”

Join our 2024-2025 Season

Rehearsals for our fall 2024 concert are almost here!

Beginning Wednesday, September 4, we will be rehearsing for our fall concert with orchestra, “From Across the Pond,” a concert of English masterworks. Learn about this selection of works by Holst, Britten, and Elgar, and why you should join the choir in this interview on VAN.org

Rehearsals are held on Wednesdays from 7-9 PM at St. Mary’s Byzantine Catholic Church, 246 E 15th St. Learn more about auditions and membership. Dues for the season are $275 for returning members and $150 for new members. If this poses financial hardship, please speak with Artistic Director Matthew Lewis.

Contact us to schedule an audition or let us know you are returning.