Notes from the Choruses
Published in the concert program book:
From Central Pennsylvania Womyn’s Chorus . . .
With this concert, we are making connections.
First, we make connections to the beloved performances of our past. The pieces in Central Pennsylvania Womyn’s Chorus half of this concert are all encores. They were chosen by chorus members, past and present, as our favorites. The original title of this concert was “As Good As The Best” and we hope you agree that they are.
Next, we make connections to our community. We join musical hands with the Harrisburg Men’s Chorus and with a young man representing Common Roads, who is playing his own composition. This kind of mentoring of young talent is something we hope to continue. It can take a village to raise a child, and music helps keep the village whole!
Finally, we make connections to the creativity within us all. Our title is taken from the lyrics of a piece composed by a CPWC member. This song captures the spirit of the chorus – its founding, its presence today and its future. Because no matter what, we just can’t stop singing. Holy cow!
Cathy Nelson, President
From the Harrisburg Men’s Chorus . . .
Harrisburg Men's Chorus is pleased to join with Central Pennsylvania Womyn's Chorus in this concert celebrating our young brothers and sisters in Common Roads. I hope this isn't just a special event; I hope this marks the beginning of a long musical relationship among our three organizations.
More than that, I'm one of those people who thinks every community should have a chorus. I was one of the organizers of the Hummelstown Community Singers because, in 1990, Hummelstown didn't have a community chorus. Obviously, a community doesn't have to be a geographical location. Common Roads is a community. I really, truly hope that the young people of Common Roads consider the possibility of joining together musically.
Harrisburg Men's Chorus continues to celebrate its 20th anniversary, our Platinum anniversary. Tonight, we're presenting a preview of our January 12th and 13th concert here at the Rose Lehrman Arts Center. We hope your curiosity is raised to see what else we have in store for you.
David Walker, Director
The Program
The Combined Choruses
Dan Krynak, Director
Anthony Haubert, Accompanist
Toccata of Praise
Joseph M. Martin
Elegy
Carl Nygard
Harrisburg Men’s Chorus
David Walker, Director
Daniel W. Deitzel III, Accompanist
Magic to Do (from Pippin)
Stephen Schwartz, arranged by Alan Billingsley
For Good (from Wicked)
Stephen Schwartz/Alex Roberts
Ave Verum Corpus (Motette)
W. A. Mozart
Wade in the Water
Traditional Spiritual
Arranged by Nina Gilbert
Simple Gifts
Traditional Shaker Song
Arranged by Andy Beck
Over the Rainbow
E. Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen
Jerry Y., soloist
Arranged by Mark Hayes
One (from A Chorus Line )
Hamlisch/Kleban
Arranged by Ed. Connell
It's Our Christmas Cheer!
Eric Lane Barnes
Everything's Coming Up Roses
Sondheim/Styne/Kern
Eric S., soloist
Walking In The Moonlight
Akeem B.
Performer and composer (piano composition)
The Combined Choruses
Dan Krynak, Director
Anthony Haubert, Accompanist
Renee Bartholomew, Percussion
Freedom Come
Ben Allaway
from “Bandari”
Yvonne R. and Akeem B., soloists
Central Pennsylvania Womyn’s Chorus
Susanna Faust, Director
Anthony Haubert, Accompanist
Renee Bartholomew, Percussion
I. OUR LIVES
What I Want
Stephen Smith, Lyrics by Pat Lowther
So Many Angels
Traditional (Angels Watching Over Me)
arranged by Gwyneth Walter from The Spirit of Women
OUR HISTORY
Joan of Arc
Ruth Huber
Virginia D. soprano
In Remembrance
Eleanor Daley
AT PLAY
Driven Woman
Florence Tarbox
How Do I Love Thee?
Nathan Christensen
from the poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Wild Women Don’t Get the Blues
Ida Cox
arranged by Ruth Huber
IV. ORDINARY PEOPLE
Testimony
Ferron
arranged by J. David Moore
Will the Circle Be Unbroken?
Traditional Appalachian
arranged by J. David Moore
Sansa Kroma
Akan Playground Song
arranged by Felicia A. B. Sandler
Cathy N., mezzosoprano
V. OUR HOPE
Everything Possible
Fred Small
arranged by Willie Zwozdesky
Program Notes
What I Want (performed Fall 2001) . . . Pat Lowther was a Canadian poet. She wrote What I Want while living in an abusive marriage, and later died at the hands of her husband. After her death, Stephen Smith set her poem to music. We sing it in her memory.
So Many Angels (performed Spring 2006). . . Dr. Gwyneth Walker (b. 1947) is a graduate of Brown University and the Hartt School of Music. A former faculty member of the Oberlin College Conservatory, she resigned from academic employment in 1982 to pursue a career as a full-time composer. Many people feel the presence of angels in their lives. The angels are either operating “behind the scenes” or perhaps embodied in the people we encounter in daily life. So Many Angels takes the concept one step further. Using the traditional song, Angels Watching Over Me, this new setting envisions angels everywhere, guarding and guiding. Moreover, they seem to pop up anytime and any where. There are playful and even flirtatious angels! Although they are a bit too much at times, they are cherished. “Don’t you ever stop watching over me, gal!” (adapted from Walker’s own performance notes)
Joan of Arc (performed Fall 1996, Fall 1997, Fall 1998, Fall 2001, Fall 2004) . . . Ruth Huber has won acclaim for her lyrical, heartfelt music. She performs as a soloist, with singer/songwriter Kate McLennan, and with choruses, and she co-directs the Rainbow Women's Chorus. Her new solo CD, Spirit of Nurture, produced by the legendary June Millington and featuring a new arrangement of Joan of Arc can be previewed at the Internet Underground Music Archive.
In Remembrance (performed Spring 2002) . . . Eleanor Daley is the director of music at a church in Toronto. In 1991, Daley was the recipient of three first place awards in the Amadeus Choir Carol Competition. Ms Daley has composed numerous introits, anthems, quartets and solos and continues to direct a church choir.
Driven Women (performed Fall 2006) . . . Florence Tarbox, CPWC member, has been writing piano music and songs for family and friends since 1977. She has written a number of songs for the Humanist Association in California. This is the second song that she has written for the chorus. In order to write Driven Women, Florence escaped to the Poconos for a private composer’s retreat. Holy cow! A song grew out of this quiet alone time.
How Do I Love Thee? (performed Spring 2004, Fall 2005) . . . In 1844, Elizabeth Barrett published her first book, Poems, which brought her immediate fame and drew the attention of Robert Browning, who began to correspond with her. They fell in love, but kept their courtship secret because of the opposition of Elizabeth’s father. They married in 1846 and traveled to Italy, where they spent most of their married life and where Elizabeth bore their only child. Happy in her marriage, Barrett Browning thrived in Italy, and her work as a poet gained in strength and significance. Her greatest work, Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850), was inspired by her own love story. Nathan Christiansen set How Do I Love Thee? In 1996 as an entry for the Diva Complex composition contest (Los Angeles) , just before he left on a two-year mission to Korea. He hopes to write for musical theatre.
Wild Women Don’t Get the Blues (performed Fall 1997, Fall 2001, Spring 2002) . . . Ida Cox joined a minstrel show as a child and was singing in theaters at the age of 14; around 1920, she sang with Jelly Roll Morton. While recording regularly in Chicago from 1923 to 1929, she toured extensively in vaudeville. She then was featured in her own revues, Raisin’ Cain (1929) and Darktown Scandals (1930s into the 1940s). Although her career paralleled that of other classic blues singers, she depended less on vaudeville songs, and most of her repertory consisted of blues in traditional form. The first of her many recordings, Any Woman’s Blues, was a composition by her pianist Lovie Austin. Her other significant recodings are Lawdy Lawdy Blues, I’ve Got the Blues for Rampart Street and Four Day Creep. In 1961, she retired after her final recording session. Cox may be seen in the video compilation The Ladies Sing the Blues (~1988).
Testimony (performed Fall 2006) . . . Ferron was born in Canada as Debbie Foisy. Ferron came onto the music scene in 1977 when she released her first album entitled, “Ferron” from her own record label called Lucy Records. She continues to record presently and has 12 recordings to her credit. She has been called the “Johnny Cash” of lesbian music.
Will the Circle Be Unbroken? (performed Spring 2002, Fall 2002) . . . Rural gospel music was usually performed in the emotionless, deadpan manner of the mountain folksinger. It was thus an adaptation of gospel song to the traditional Southern white vocal style, which partly accounts for its wide acceptance, though its incorporation of elements of black gospel music further broadened its appeal. Some white gospel groups combined 20th century hillbilly style with pre-Civil War white spirituals, as J. David Moore does in Will the Circle Be Unbroken, and accompanied themselves on fiddle and guitars.
Sansa Kroma (performed Spring 2007) . . . Unlike most American nursery songs, Sansa Kroma is more than fun and games. Such African songs are designed as an active and central way to teach and guide children. It seeks to reassure them that they will not be abandoned. If their parents were to die, a friend or relative wold taken them in and care for them. In this song, an orphaned hawk named Sansa flies around looking for abandoned chicks. Sansa’s aim is to swoop down, gather them up and carry them away. The broader community, aware of danger, summons the chicks to safety. The chicks (a metaphor for the children) will not have to fend for themselves.
Everything Possible (performed Spring 2003, Fall 2004) . . . Hailed by Pete Seeger as “one of America's best songwriters,” Fred Small sings songs of conscience in the tradition of Woody Guthrie, Phil Ochs, and Tom Paxton. Powerful, affecting, and inviting, Fred's songs illuminate the goodness and courage of all kinds of people. After a career in environmental law, he entered Harvard Divinity School in preparation for Unitarian Universalist parish ministry. He continues to perform and includes music as part of his ministry.
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