Spring 2024: Seeds of Modernism

• Charles Gounod — Messe Breve no. 7
• Anton Bruckner – “Windhaager” Messe
• César Franck – Psalm 150
• Gabriel Fauré — Cantique de Jean Racine, Messe Basse, Tantum Ergo

David Neiweem, Conductor

Saturday, May 11th, 2024, 7:30 PM
College Street Congregational Church, 265 College St. Burlington
Accessible entrance is near the corner of College and Union.
Tickets $25, $10 for students, available at sevendaystickets.com and at the door.

In this concert, we explore the evolution of choral music in the Romantic period that paved the way to Modernism.

After the fall of the French empire, French composers began to break away from the traditions of Classical style, using more personal expression, lush and adventuresome harmonic expression, a re-thinking of musical form, and a sensitivity to the sounds of nature. The search for “something new” led them and their audiences to embrace choral music that was less formal.

This progression is particularly evident in our three offerings of music by Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924). The celebrated “Cantique de Jean Racine” (1865), was one of his earliest works and embodies lush Romantic harmony in a rather conventional form. The setting of “Tantum Ergo” (1894), written nearly 30 years later, is more intentionally chromatic, recasting conventional harmonic language. Finally, the Messe Basse (completed 1906) is essentially a Modern work, transforming the melodic and harmonic expression of the words of the Mass into a language far distant from the Cantique of 40 years before.

We will also perform two other settings of the Mass, by Charles Gounod (1818–1893) and by the Austrian composer Anton Bruckner (1824–1896). These works are less restrictive formally, and stretch the expectations of 19th-century listeners with more deep expression and increasingly chromatic music, moving away from the conventions of Romanticism.

Audiences of today have heard it all: Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Modern, and Contemporary style. Audiences 125 years ago were hearing a slow transition from formal and “conventional” music to more personal, inventive, and innovative choral music.
— DN

 

Fall 2023

• Georg Philipp Telemann — Laudate Jehovam, omnes gentes
• Joseph Haydn — Compositions for Mechanical Clock; Lord Nelson Mass

 

 

 

 

 

Spring 2023: All Generations Will Call Me Blessed

• Michel Corrette — Magnificat Anima Mea
• Gregorian Chants
• Anton Bruckner — Selected Pieces
• Johannes Brahms — Geistliches Wiegenlied
• Sergei Rachmaninoff — Bogoroditsye Devo
• Ralph Vaughan — Williams Selected Songs
• Henryk Górecki — Totus tuus, Maria
• David Neiweem — Stabat Mater

 

 

Fall 2022: Mozart Requiem

• Mozart:
  • Five Nocturnes
  • Requiem in D Minor

 

 

 

 

 

Spring 2022

• Mendelssohn – Hear My Prayer
• Dvořák – Mass in D Major

 

 

 

 

 

Fall 2021: Shimmering Lights and a Rising Dawn

• Bach – Cantata: Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan
• Purcell – Man That is Born of a Woman
• Brahms – Dem dunklen Schoss der heil’gen Erde
• Puccini – Requiem
• Neiweem – Psalm 27 The Lord is My Light
• Mozart – Coronation Mass

 

 

 

Fall 2019

• Vivaldi – Gloria
• Bach – Magnificat

 

 

 

 

 

Spring 2019: Crossing Borders

• David Conte – Three Mexican Folk Songs
• Katherine Lee Bates (Words) and Nathaniel Dett (Music)
  • America the Beautiful
  • Listen to the Lambs
  • Chariot Jubilee
• Langston Hughes (Words) and Frederick Pickett (Music) – Sea Charm
• Walt Whitman (Words) and Howard Hanson (Music) – Song of Democracy

 

 

Fall 2018

• Bach – Cantata: Wachet Auf, ruft uns die Stimme
• DS Hakes – Christmas Jubilee
• Shaker
  • Millenial Praise
  • Behold, I Stand at the Door
• Haydn – St. Nicholas Mass

 

 

 

 

Spring 2018: Heavenly Love: A Program for Mothers’ Day

• Schütz
  • Cantate Domino canticum novum
  • Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes
• Bach – Cantata: Ach Gott vom Himmel sieh darein
• Walter de la Mare (Words) and Randall Thompson (Music) – Fare Well
• Brahms – Liebeslieder Waltzer