Song
of Songs Love poems of
the Hebrew Scriptures
Director: Tom Zajac
This book of the Old Testament contains some of the most beautiful,
sensual and often frankly erotic poetry ever written. Composers,
in turn, were inspired by these texts to write some of their
most passionate music. Works on the program included
English plainchant, Hebrew cantilation, motets from the 13th
through
the 17th centuries including those by women composers Antonia
Bembo and Raphaela Aleotta, as well as English settings by
the American composer William Billings, and even a setting
by the
famous 20th-century cellist Pablo Casals. This program
was presented in collaboration with the Five-College Early
Music Collegium of central Massachusetts.
Hildegard of Bingen's Ordo Virtutum Director: Tom Zajac
The Collegium performed a semi-staged production of this justly
famous religious drama of the 12th century. Boston area
mezzo-soprano Pamela Dellal was featured in the role of Anima,
a role that she recorded and toured with the medieval ensemble
Sequentia, and Wellesley faculty member, Lawrence Rosenwald,
played the role of the Devil. The program took place in
the beautiful Houghton Chapel and also included several songs
from the original 12th-century Carmina Burana.
Unveiling the Music of the Madonna Director: Claire
Fontijn
Presented in conjunction
with the exhibit, "Divine
Mirrors: The Madonna Unveiled," at the Davis Museum and Cultural
Center. Music for chorus, viola da gamba consort, lute, and
soloists by Josquin des Pres, Guillaume Dufay, Benjamin Britten,
Tarquinio
Merula, Charles Gangemi, Chiara Margherita Cozzolani, and
others.
Medieval Chants in Honor of the Blessed
Virgin: Music by Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) and her Contemporaries Director: Claire
Fontijn
Presented in conjunction
with the 1999 Hildegard Colloquium Series, which included
a performance by
Vox Feminae, the woman's vocal ensemble of Sequentia (Benjamin
Bagby, director) of "Canticles of Ecstasy - Symphoniae of
Hildegard von Bingen and sacred verses from the monasteries
of Aquitane," as
well as lectures on art, science, and theology. (1:18)
Emma Lou Diemer, O
viridissima virga (1999), a new work for organ and chorus
based on a setting of Hildegard's poem. The chorus of the
Collegium Musicum, Steph Budwey '02, organ
O viridissima virga, ave
Hail, o greenest branch,
Que in ventoso flabro sciscitationis
You who came forth in the windy
blast
Sanctorum prodisti.
Of the questioning of saints.
Cum venit tempus
When the time came
Quod tu floruisti in ramis tuis
That you blossomed in your branches...
Spring
1999
Representations of Nature in the
Renaissance Madrigal Director: Claire
Fontijn
A spring concert
featuring choral works including Weelkes's "Thule, the period
of cosmography," Vautor's "Sweet
Suffolk owl," and Morley's "April is in my mistress's face," as
well as lute songs and concerted works for cornetto, shawm,
sackbut, dulcian, and viola da gamba. (0:50)
Luca Marenzio, "Spring
Returns" (1581; arr. Clough-Leighter). The chorus of the Collegium
Musicum
Spring returns, with balmy
zephyrs softly breathed;
Don't Look Back! Music of the Orpheus
Legend, 1500-1762 Director: Claire
Fontijn
This concert featured
a number of unforgettable performances. Sally Sanford of the
Wellesley College voice faculty
displayed brilliant vocal ornamentation as she sang the title
role in scenes from Claudio Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (Mantua,
1607). The chorus of the Collegium Musicum performed works
based on the earliest libretto for the Orpheus legend by
Angelo Poliziano
(Fabula di Orpheo, 1494), selections from Monteverdi's
opera and Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice (Vienna, 1762),
and will be augmented by singers from Needham's Unitarian
Universalist
Church for a performance of Monteverdi's "Beatus Vir." Several
Boston-area period instrumentalists also displayed their
skills: Catherine Liddell, theorbo; Laura Jeppesen, viola
da gamba; Michale
Collver, cornetto; Clorianne Collver-Jacobson, lute; and
Daniel Ryan, cello. We heard celebrated excerpts such as
Gluck's "Che
farò senza Euridice?" alongside the lesser-known setting
of the legend, Luigi Rossi's L'Orfeo (Paris, 1647).
The performance juxtaposed varied settings of the myth.(1:11)
Christoph Willibald
von Gluck, Orfeo ed Euridice, "Dance of the Furies and
Chorus" from Act 1, Scene 2
1. Ballo (Presto) danced by Patricia Adams (faculty), Jacqueline Blombach (faculty,
Boston Ballet School), Betsy Jelinek '01, Lisa Lapman '02, after a choreography
by Isadora Duncan, with orchestra
2. Coro: The chorus of the Collegium Musicum and orchestra
Resounding Women's Music of the Past Director: Claire
Fontijn
A collaboration with the Tufts University
Early Music Ensemble, directed by Jane Hershey. Works included
a serenata by Antonia Bembo, Per le nozze, for the
wedding of the Marie-Adélaïde of Savoy and Louis,
Duke of Burgundy, newly edited from the manuscript of Produzioni armoniche (F-Pn
Rés. Vm1117)
to mark the three-hundredth anniversary of the occasion;
madrigals by Vittoria Aleotti and Maddalena Casulana; concerted
works by
Sophie-Elisabeth, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg; and
scenes from the first opera to be composed by a woman, Francesca
Caccini's La
liberazione di Ruggiero (1625).
A Musical Offering and More: Works
by Johann Sebastian Bach Director: Claire
Fontijn
This program featured the canons and
fugues of the Musikalisches Opfer, BWV 1079, performed
by various ensembles using both modern and early instruments.
The highlight of the program was the chorus's performance of
the six-part ricercar arranged by The Swingle Singers and the
Modern Jazz Quartet in the 1960s, with June Chen '99, piano,
and faculty members Reid Jorgensen, percussion, and Mark Henry,
bass.
Spring 1996
Pastime with Good Company: Music
of the British Isles Director: Claire
Fontijn
Works ranging in date from the Old Hall
manuscript through Purcell's O sing unto the Lord a new song (Ps.
96) defined the scope of this concert. Daniel Stillman led the
wind band in pieces by Bassano, Adson, and Damett, with choral
collaboration for Morley's well-known madrigal, Now is the
Month of Maying. Glorianne Collver-Jacobson accompanied several
lute songs.
Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas Director: Claire
Fontijn
Recent studies show
that this work may first have been given as a British court
masque, but the fact
that it was pe rformed in 1689 aat Josias Priest's boarding
school "for
young gentlewomen" makes it a perfect small opera for Wellesley
- only one male soloist is required. Through the classic
story of the tragic love between Dido, Queen of Carthage,
and the footloose
AEneas, Purcell's opera powerfully conveys a cautionary tale
that warns women of the dangers of men's advances. This fully-staged
production featured Helen Lyons '96, Madeleine Cieslak '96,
and vocal faculty member Donna Hewitt-Didham in the lead
roles, with
Danya Underwood-Seeley '99 directing.
Spring
1995
Springtime, South and North: Renaissance
Music from Spain and the Lowlands Director: Claire
Fontijn
Featuring the wind
band, a recorder ensemble, the Fisk tracker organ, and the
chorus of the Collegium
Musicum, this concert presented such pieces as a villancico
by Juan Ponçe, a romanza by Juan del Encina, and a setting
of the Pange lingua plainchant by Guerrero and Urreda.
The chorus sang the well-known a cappella motet by Tomás
Luis de Victoria, O magnum mysterium. One of the challenges
of this program was to sing a Dutch work , De lustelijke Mey,
by Clemens non Papa, which was followed by variations on the
tune by Jacob van Eyck performed on the recorder by Mili Saltiel
'99.
Images of Women in the Music of the
Renaissance Director: Claire
Fontijn
Images of women abound
in the music of the Reniassance. The texts of the pieces on
this program fell
into two general categories: depictions of women as objects
of their admirers' love or as characters from classical or
Biblical
literature, and subjective expressions by women whose lovers
are absent, either because of physical distance or abandonment.
Highlights of the program--which featured wind band, chorus,
and lutes--included Ludwig Senfl's lute songs and lute song
settings of Ach Elslein, his Latin ode, Hanc tua
Penelope; and a performance of Orlandus Lassus's Praesidium Sara for
wind band. The concert concluded with a performance of the
Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Benedictus, Hosanna, and Agnus Dei
from Lassus's Missa
super "Je suys déshéritée," preceded
by the chanson of Jacotin/Pierre Cadéac upon which
the Mass was based.
Created by: Mirena Chauseva '04
Modified by: Zsuzsa Moricz '06
Maintained by: Judith Sandler, Music Department
Last Modified:
July 29, 2004
Page Expires: July 1, 2005
