QuireCleveland

Musick’s PraierThe Glories of English Choral Music

Timothy Brown, guest conductorTrinity Cathedral, Cleveland October 29, 2011Church of the Resurrection, Solon October 30, 2011

Ross W. Duffin, Artistic Director

Mass movements John Taverner (ca.1490–1545) Le Roy Kyrie Westron Wynde Mass: GloriaMotets for Mattins Thomas Tallis (1505–1585) O nata lux Thomas Ford (ca.1580–1648) Almighty God, who hast me broughtPsalms Henry Walford Davies (1869–1841) I will lift up mine eyes (Ps. 121) William Byrd (ca.1540–1623) Laudibus in sanctis (Ps. 150) Lennox Berkeley (1903–1989) Judica me (Ps. 26) Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625) O clap your hands together (Ps. 47)

— intermission —Mass movements Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) Mass in G Minor: Sanctus — BenedictusMotets during Communion Byrd Ave verum corpus Edward Bairstow (1874–1946) Let all mortal flesh keep silenceAnthems at Evensong Charles Villiers Stanford (1852–1924) Beati quorum via Henry Purcell (1659–1695) Hear my prayer William Harris (1883–1973) Bring us O LordCompline anthems John Sheppard (1515–1558) In manus tuas William Mundy (ca.1528–ca.1591) O Lord, the maker of all thingMass Giles Swayne (b.1946) Missa brevissima: Kyrie — Sanctus — Benedictus — Agnus dei

Music & Art @ Trinity presents

ABOUT Q UIRE

Quire Cleveland is a professional choral ensemble founded in 2008 to perform the glorious choral masterpieces of the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque eras, and beyond. Members of the ensemble are highly-trained musicians, collectively representing nearly 500 years of choral experience. In addition to being soloists and choral leaders at many of the major churches in the Greater Cleveland area, including the Cathedral of St. John, Church of the Covenant, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, and Trinity Cathedral, among others, they have sung together in historically-informed ensembles, such as the Case Western Reserve University Early Music Singers and Apollo’s Singers of Apollo’s Fire. Quire performs five centuries of a cappella repertoire. The Cleveland Plain Dealer has praised “the inspired voices of Quire Cleveland” and the group’s “exceptional purity of pitch” and, according to Cool Cleveland, “the joyful sounds could easily have soared to the very heavens.”

Q UIRE CLEVELAND

Sopranos: Donna Fagerhaug, Elena Mullins, Judith Overcash, Lisa Rainsong, Sandra Simon, Gail WestAltos: Tracy Cowart, John McElliott, Debra Nagy, Beverly SimmonsTenors: Evan Bescan, Ross Duffin, Peter Hampton, Jeremiah Heilman, David Simmons-Duffin, Tyler SkidmoreBasses: Jonathan F. Cooper, Ian Crane, José Gotera, Nathan Longnecker, Ray Lyons, Jonathan Moyer

Board of Directors: John West, esq, President; Ross W. Duffin, dma, Artistic Director; Beverly Simmons, dma, Executive

Director; John McElliott, Secretary/Treasurer; Richard Rodda, ph.d. Quire Cleveland is registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, nonprofit organization.

TIMOTHY B ROWN, GUEST CONDUCTOR

Tim Brown, who has been Director of Music at Clare College, Cambridge, UK, since 1979, began his musical career as a chorister at Westminster Abbey. This was followed by membership in King’s College Choir, Cambridge, under the legendary Sir David Willcocks, and by some years as a professional singer (alto), including a spell as a founding member of The Scholars Vocal Ensemble.

Mr. Brown’s work with the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, and with his professional chorus English Voices (of which he is the founder/director) has earned him an international reputation as a choral director and teacher, renowned both for his attention to technical detail and for the breadth of his musical interpretations. With Clare College Choir he has toured extensively and has made many CDs, including a world-premiere recording of the Carol Sequence Ex Maria Virgine by Sir John Tavener and an acclaimed recording of sacred choral music of Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Tim Brown is much in demand as a chorus master, and has worked on a number of opera projects with René Jacobs and Ivor Bolton in Germany, Austria, Holland, and Belgium. In 2008 he assisted René Jacobs in a production of Handel’s Belshazzar in Berlin, Aix-en-Provence, and Innsbruck, followed by Cavalli’s Ercole Amante in Amsterdam, conducted by Ivor Bolton, for which he was joint chorus master. In 2010 he was chorus master for two productions in the Aix Festival, Gluck’s Alceste and Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

In the autumn of 2010 he stepped down as Director of Music at Clare College to pursue a freelance conducting career. In March 2011 he became Artistic Director of the newly-formed professional choir in Zurich, the Zürcher Sing-Akademie. Engagements in 2011 include work with the Helsinki Chamber Choir, RIAS, and the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, and concerts in the UK, Europe, and the USA. His concerts with Quire Cleveland mark his Cleveland début.

P ROGRAM NOTESby Tim Brown

It was a chance meeting that led me to Cleveland tonight: an audition for a volunteer place in Clare College Choir by a young graduate student and a talented tenor, David Simmons-Duffin. During the subsequent year, I made the acquaintance of David’s parents, which in time led to an invitation to direct a concert by Quire Cleveland. The program we have chosen also came about by chance—an old program of 20th-century music, accidentally attached to the end of a more typical Quire program of early choral music. By the time a message reached Quire artistic director Ross Duffin to tell him that my enormously long program covering 500 years of English sacred music was a mistake, it was too late: the seed had been sown! We would construct a program that would take Quire out of its more accustomed comfort zone, and into corners of liturgical music from the English choral canon that would carry us from the early 1500s up to the end of the 20th century.

Attempts to put together a single concert program of English Cathedral Music (ECM) that in any way covers the depth and range of available music is, in a word, impossible; the repertoire is too rich, “favorite” pieces too numerous. So it is that this program, instead, dips into music drawn from the principal liturgies of the Anglican church, Mattins, Evensong, Holy Communion and the late night office of Compline. Much of the music is in English, but some is in Latin, reflecting the fact that though we shall be concerned principally with the music of the Reformed English Church, that repertoire grew from a rich Catholic stock that in time was assumed into the English cathedral repertoire. At the same time, we shall discover that the best of the repertoire can be, on the one hand, complex, even intellectual, it can equally be exquisitely simple, a point perhaps behind’s Swayne’s Missa brevissima; its diversity is one of the attractions of this unique repertoire.

Unique? Why is it that England’s great choral tradition, one of the musical glories of the world, exists as it does, unequalled or unparalleled anywhere? After all, the rest of Medieval and Renaissance mainland Europe enjoyed a choral tradition as rich as that in Britain. But over the centuries, with notable exceptions and occasional revivals, that tradition moved away from the church and into the secular world of the opera house and concert hall. The Catholic church set less and less store by its singing, even relegating its choir to a distant gallery, out of sight if not mind, building grand stalls only for the monks (even now, the world-famous choir of Westminster Cathedral sings there unseen, behind the high altar). It was the small channel of water separating Britain from France and the Netherlands that helped us to go our own way (then as so often since)—no common currency for us, then, as now—that, coupled to the unique custom of creating choirstalls, decani (of the Dean) and cantoris (of the cantor) facing one another in a “quire” (chancel) where the presiding priests and congregation also sat. At the centre of the action, so to speak, it was no wonder that singing, allowed for in the original Book of Common Prayer (which in 1999 celebrated its 450th anniversary), gradually assumed the importance in Anglican cathedral worship that it still enjoys nearly half a millennium later.

No overview of English sacred music is complete without including music by John Taverner, first organist of Christ Church, Oxford, and the composer who above all others represents the summation of music for the Medieval Catholic church in England. Taverner enjoyed the protection of the influential Cardinal Wolsey until Wolsey fell from grace in 1529; in 1530 Taverner retired to his home in Lincolnshire, to the life of a county gentleman. Unlike his younger contemporary Tallis, and other composers who turned their hand to writing music in English for the new vernacular liturgy, Taverner apparently preferred to stop composing. His musical legacy, nonetheless, is immense, and when there was a renewed interest in Pre-Reformation music early in the 20th century (centred on the recently-consecrated Catholic Cathedral at Westminster), Taverner’s iconic status in the history of ECM was quickly recognized. Two of his works begin our concert: first the Le Roy Kyrie, a “stand-alone” work (16th-century English Masses began with the Gloria), followed by the Gloria from one of Taverner’s most celebrated works, his Westron Wynde Mass. Singing this piece for the first time as a choral scholar at King’s College, I was struck immediately by the soaring, melismatic treble lines, with many notes sung to one syllable, that somehow inhabited the very fabric of the Medieval architecture in which it was first performed. At the same time it has a contrapuntal

freedom that was denied later composers writing in a stricter, more deliberately imitative “Palestrinian” idiom. The Westron Wynde is, however, most notable for the popular song on which it is based (hence, its title), repeated nine times in the Gloria and forming the basis of choral variations. At the other end of the program lies the Missa brevissima by Giles Swayne. Described as “out of alignment with the avant-garde, with minimalism and with diehard traditionalism, [Swayne] belongs anywhere but the middle of the road.” He teaches composition at Cambridge University, and has written a number of works for me. Swayne writes:

My Missa brevissima sits at the heart of a longer piece called Petite Messe solitaire (op. 76), which was written in 1997 for a French choir and congregation. The Kyrie is intense and anguished; the Sanctus is far from saccharine (the glory of God being viewed as as a distinctly mixed blessing); the Benedictus is bouncy and has a tenor solo in the middle and a rather nice soprano solo at the end; the Agnus Dei starts on a mumbled monotone (as befits a trussed-up sacrificial lamb), but at “miserere nobis” and “dona nobis pacem” (which run into one another) we revisit the music of the Kyrie—an anguished call for assistance from a deity who is probably out to lunch.

The third Mass setting we hear is from the Mass in G minor, for double choir, composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The Mass reflects Vaughan Williams’s lifelong interest in the modal harmonies of 16th-century English music. Sir Richard Terry, first organist of Westminster Cathedral, which gave the first liturgical performance of the work, wrote about it to Vaughan Williams: “I’m quite sincere when I say that it is the work one has all along been waiting for. In your individual and modern [sic] idiom you have really captured the old liturgical spirit and atmosphere.”

Thomas Tallis, who began his career as a composer writing Catholic Masses and motets as imitative and elaborate as those of his contemporaries, was perfectly happy to turn his hand to the musical demands of the new English church. Archbishop Cranmer, who, though certain he wanted music in the new liturgies, was unhappy that melismatic music so often obscured the text. Famously, having engaged John Merbecke to provide a collection of service music “containing so much of the Order of Common Prayer as is to be sung in Churches,” he urged Merbecke to write “for every syllable a note.” Tallis’s short motet O nata lux demonstrates this style perfectly; simple, yet subtle in its melodic and textural structure. At the same time it is notable for its astringent “false” relations (a note and its chromatic sharp or flat occurring simultaneously or consecutively, a characteristic feature of English music of this period). Mattins, created by Cranmer out of the monastic office of Lauds, soon began to acquire a repertoire of short English motets, which were sung as anthems after the office, or, later, as introits sung immediately when the choir has entered the choirstalls. Ford’s Almighty God is such a piece, even though it was in fact written as a contribution toward a volume of music by Sir William Leighton, entitled The Teares and Lamentatacions of a Sorrowfull Soule, compiled in a debtor’s prison as a kind of “get-out-of-jail” card.

The Book of Psalms, the daily reading or singing of which is a pivotal part of Mattins and Evensong, has been for the reformed English Church as central a mine of texts as it always was for Catholic composers. The story-telling, the drama, and the extraordinary range of emotions expressed within them have remained a constant source of inspiration to composers. Our program reveals something of the enormous range of approaches taken by composers over the centuries when setting psalm texts. Anglican chants have been the main way of singing the psalms in Anglican worship for over 150 years, but the tradition goes back much further, to the 17th century. Psalm 121, from the Short Requiem of Henry Walford Davies, composed during the First World War, contains an unusual version of an “Anglican” psalm chant, in that the first and third quarters are sung by solo voices, answered by full choir. Walford Davies, organist of Temple Church (seen in the film The Da Vinci Code) ends his short psalm setting with the “Requiem æternam,” rather than the more usual doxology, “Glory be to the Father…” The three psalms that follow could not be more different from Psalm 121 or from one another. Byrd, arguably Britain’s finest Renaissance composer and a master of choral invention, creates in Laudibus in sanctis a paraphrase of Psalm 150 (a common way of singing the psalms until late into the 18th century) that is half motet and half madrigal; the contrapuntal invention is worthy of the greatest Renaissance motet, masterful, but the word-painting is positively madrigalian in its almost theatrical approach. In a similar vein is the setting of Psalm 47 for double choir by Orlando Gibbons, O clap your hands. Note how, by the beginning of the 17th century, Cranmer’s plea for simple

text-setting had been all but forgotten! Lennox Berkeley’s Judica me, which precedes it in our program adopts an altogether more restrained approach, yet once again the word painting in this little-known motet is deeply moving. Berkeley, a contemporary of Benjamin Britten, never achieved the same fame as his younger friend and colleague, yet there is an integrity about the best of his music (listen to his masterful setting of John Donne’s poem, Thou hast made me) that has assured him a place in the pantheon of English choral composers.

The selection of motets and anthems that completes our program reflects the changing styles in cathedral music over the centuries. Byrd’s Ave verum is a setting of a Medieval text associated with the Catholic Church, and therefore began its life not in Anglican worship but probably in the secular surroundings of one of the recusant Catholic families that survived the Reformation. Byrd himself, despite his (outlawed) faith, remarkably enjoyed the patronage of Queen Elizabeth I herself and continued to compose music for the Catholic liturgy up to his death. Nowadays, when the repertoire of cathedral choirs knows few musical boundaries, Ave verum ranks as one of the most popular short anthems of all. O Lord, the maker of all thing by William Mundy, a setting of a Compline prayer, is similarly straightforward, and equally affecting in its directness. In manus tuas by John Sheppard, like O Lord, the maker, is a “favorite” Compline anthem, predating the Reformation. Here, verses for choir intersperse with Sarum chant (an English tradition of plainchant), the seed from which polyphonic English music sprang.

Whilst the tradition of music in the English church is essentially unbroken since the publication of the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549, it is undoubtedly true that some periods in history have produced a more lasting legacy of music than others. The Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 produced a remarkable outburst of creative energy in London, at the center of which was Henry Purcell, organist of Westminster Abbey and theatre composer. Hear my prayer is generally thought to be the fragment of a much larger work. Be that as it may, it combines the rigour of earlier contrapuntal music (which Purcell greatly admired and consciously imitated) with the richly chromatic harmonic palette of Italian music that was popular in late-17th-century London; the intensity of expression at the final cadence, in which harmonic false relations and wildly criss-crossing vocal lines never fail to move an audience, and must have seemed positively bizarre at the time of its composition.

Another period in British musical history that produced a repertoire of music still enjoyed a hundred years later is that of the Irish composer Stanford, who more than anyone else restored the fortunes of English choral music at the turn of the 20th century. Beati quorum is one of three motets composed by Stanford for the boys and men of his own college, Trinity College, Cambridge. In its rich harmonies and melodic contours it is not difficult to trace the influence of Brahms, whose music dominated the landscape in ECM at the time. Unlike the majority of composers of church music, Stanford was not himself a church musician. Bairstow, on the other hand, was renowned as the organist of York Minster. He was previously organist of Leeds Parish Church which, then as now, had a strong choral tradition, and for which he probably wrote Let all mortal flesh keep silence. The composition of this anthem, which begins with a duet in octaves for tenors and basses, coincided with a surge of interest in Russian Orthodox music, which was characterized by long passages in block chords for divisi voice parts and extreme ranges of tessitura and dynamics. Bairstow was clearly familiar with the “Russian” sound that spawned a whole repertory of such music. We can find similar characteristics in Harris’s anthem for double choir, Bring us, O Lord God, composed half a century later.

Like so many of the greatest examples of music from the Anglican cathedral tradition, some of which we have explored in this program, Bring us, O Lord God was composed by an organist whose compositions originally had no more ambition than to provide literature for their own choirs. Such musicians were not, by and large, “professional” composers, yet their legacy, kept alive by cathedral and chapel choirs throughout the length and breadth of Britain, remains priceless.

©2011 Tim Brown

S INGERS BIOGRAPHIESArtistic Director and tenor Ross W. Duffin was born in London, Ontario, and attended the University of Western Ontario there. He received his master’s and doctoral degrees from Stanford University, where he specialized in the performance practice of early music. He came to Case Western Reserve University in 1978 to direct the nationally recognized historical performance program there. Ross has made a name for himself as a scholar in a wide range of repertoires, publishing articles on music from the 13th to the 18th centuries. His edition of DuFay chansons won the Noah Greenberg Award from the American Musicological Society for work of benefit to both scholars and performers, and his edition of Josquin motets was published in 1998 by Oxford University Press. Other “vocal” publications include the award winning Shakespeare’s Songbook (WW Norton, 2004), a study of all the songs from Shakespeare’s plays, and an edition of motets from the Jacobean period from A-R Editions. Ross’s love of vocal ensemble singing has a familial background, since his grandfather, William Nelson, was a professional countertenor in London, England, and was soloist for Harold Darke and later Herbert Murrill, and his mother conducted her church choir, making him a third-generation choral conductor. He has sung with Apollo’s Fire since its inception in 1992. He also directs the Early Music Singers at CWRU.Tenor Evan Bescan holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, along with a Methodology Diploma from the Kodály Institute in Kecskemét, Hungary. He sings with the Cathedral Choir at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist and is currently a member of Cantores Cleveland and Trinity Chamber Singers. He has also performed with Opera Columbus and the Kecskeméti Fesztival Korous. Evan is currently a full-time elementary/middle school music teacher at Stockyard Community School in Cleveland.Baritone Jonathan F. Cooper is currently in his final year studying at Baldwin-Wallace College. Jonathan has performed the roles of Mr. Gobineau in Menotti’s The Medium, Unnamed Bass in Too Many Sopranos by Edwin Penhorwood, Dr. Gibbs in Ned Rorem’s Our Town (Ohio premiere), and Colline in La Bohème. He will sing Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at B-W this spring. Locally, Jonathan has performed with the Trinity Chamber Orchestra, Trinity Chamber Singers, Cantores Cleveland, Opera Cleveland, and Apollo’s Fire. He has been featured on the emerging artist recital series at Trinity Cathedral, and has been heard live on WCLV.Praised by the New York Times as “the real attraction” with a voice that is “light and lithe,” mezzo-soprano Tracy Cowart has performed with many period ensembles, including Apollo’s Fire, La Donna Musicale, the Newberry Consort, Opera Lafayette, Trinity Cathedral Chamber Orchestra, Washington Bach Consort, and the choir of the Church of the Advent. Also known for her interpretations of new music, Tracy recently performed the world premiere of Armando Bayolo’s Kaddish: Passio: Rothko and the role of “Hadewijch” in Louis Andriessen’s Die Materie, both with the Great Noise Ensemble. She is currently pursuing a DMA in Historical Performance Practice at CWRU.Bass Ian Crane is a high school music teacher and performer. He teaches choir and band at Holy Name High School in Parma, and previously spent five years on faculty at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, as instructor of bagpipes. He has performed with many local groups, including Apollo’s Fire, the Cleveland Carolers, and the Choir of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. Ian earned a bachelor’s degree in music education from Cleveland State University and his master’s in conducting from Kent State University. He resides in Lakewood, with his wife, Tricia, and children, Phoebe and Alexander.Soprano Donna Fagerhaug holds a Master of Arts degree in Church Music from Trinity Lutheran Seminary and a Bachelor of Music from the Conservatory at Capital University, both in Columbus, Ohio. Locally, she sings with Apollo’s Singers and Cantores Cleveland. She serves as choir director at Celebration Lutheran Church in Chardon. Donna resides in Richmond Heights with her husband and three children.Baritone José Gotera began his choral training at age eight at St. Michael’s Choir School in Toronto. He sang with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and Tafelmusik while completing degrees at the University of Toronto. In Cleveland, he has sung with Apollo’s Fire, Cleveland Opera on Tour, Opera Circle, Opera Cleveland, and the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. He completed an MA in Early Music at CWRU. At present, José is a music instructor at Hiram College, where he teaches voice and directs opera/musical theater workshop and the Hiram men’s chorus. He is also the baritone section lead for the chancel choir at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights.Tenor Peter Hampton teaches K-5 general music in the Lakewood Public Schools. He also sings with the Cathedral Choir of St. John the Evangelist and the early music and arts ensemble Cantores Cleveland. Peter has a bachelor’s degree in music education (vocal emphasis) from Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio, where he studied voice with Robert Nims. His choral experience includes singing in the United States premier of the Lord of the Rings Symphony with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Howard Shore conducting; and tours with choral ensembles to Austria, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, and France (which included a performance in Notre Dame Cathedral).

Tenor Jeremiah Heilman recently earned his doctorate in physics from Case Western Reserve University. Born in Washington State, he earned his bachelor’s in physics and a degree in music theory and history at the University of Notre Dame, where he sang with the Liturgical Choir, Basilica Schola, and Glee Club, played trombone in the Marching Band and Brass Ensemble, and conducted the Chapel Schola. He frequently directed and arranged small ensemble and choral music for feasts and special events. Since moving to Cleveland in 2001, he has been a choir member at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. He has also performed with the Opera Cleveland Chorus and Cantores Cleveland.Bass Nathan Longnecker also sings with Apollo’s Singers and Cantores Cleveland. When not singing, Nathan is proprietor of The Quiet Gardener, providing gardening service to homeowners.Baritone Ray Lyons does statistical programming and independent consulting in library performance measurement. He has performed in a number of local choral groups, including the Old Stone Singers, Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, Cleveland Opera Chorus, CWRU Early Music Singers, Cleveland Music School Settlement Vocal Chamber Ensemble, and in church choirs at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Temple Emanu El, Church of the Covenant, Immaculate Conception, and St. James Anglican Church, as well as the Church of the Ascension and St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York.Baritone Jonathan William Moyer maintains a dynamic career as organist, pianist, harpsichordist, and conductor. He is organist and director of music of the Church of the Covenant in University Circle and a lecturer in organ and harpsichord at the Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music. Currently pursuing an artist diploma in organ at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, he holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ from the Peabody Conservatory of Music. Winner of second prize in the 2008 International Musashino Organ Competition in Tokyo, most recently he performed the complete organ works of Olivier Messiaen in Baltimore. He serves on the executive committee of the Cleveland AGO, and resides in Shaker Heights with his wife, organist Kaori Hongo, and two sons.John McElliott, countertenor, holds undergraduate degrees in voice and organ performance from the University of Akron and spent a year abroad as a choral scholar at Winchester Cathedral in the UK. He sings with several choral ensembles in Northeast Ohio, including Apollo’s Fire and Trinity Cathedral’s Chamber Singers, in addition to Quire Cleveland. John is president of Karen McFarlane Artists, where he manages concert careers for many of the world’s great concert organists and choirs. A versatile vocalist, he sings alto, tenor, and baritone parts in Quire Cleveland, and also serves as the organization’s Secretary/Treasurer.Soprano Elena Mullins is a second-year master’s student in Historical Performance Practice at CWRU, studying voice with Ellen Hargis. Her interest in early music was sparked as an undergraduate at the Eastman School of Music, where she performed in the Collegium Musicum under Paul O’Dette and the Schola Cantorum under Stephen Kennedy. She appeared with the CWRU Baroque Chamber Ensemble at the 2011 Boston Early Music Festival and with the Baroque Dance Ensemble at Cornell University and at Eastman. In addition to singing with the CWRU Early Music Singers and Collegium, she toured with Apollo’s Fire’s national tour of Monteverdi’s Vespers last fall, and appears with the Newberry Consort next January.Mezzo-soprano Debra Nagy has been called a “musical polymath” (San Francisco Classical Voice) for her accomplished performances as a singer and historical wind player. As one of the country’s top baroque oboists, Debra frequently performs with Apollo’s Fire (among other ensembles on both coasts), is the founder and director of Cleveland-based chamber ensemble Les Délices, and is a member of Ciaramella. She has also appeared as a guest multi-instrumentalist and singer with such groups as the Newberry Consort, Piffaro, Baroque Northwest, and Blue Heron Renaissance Choir. Debra has recorded for the Capstone, Bright Angel, Naxos, Hänssler, Chandos, and ATMA labels, and her live performances have been featured on radio in North America and Europe. Debra currently teaches in the Early Music Program and conducts the Collegium Musicum at CWRU, where she earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree. Praised for her “excellence of style and ease of expression” (Austin-American Statesman), soprano Judith Overcash is known for a repertoire which ranges from medieval song to opera and oratorio to American musical theater. She has appeared across North America and abroad, as featured soloist with leading period and modern ensembles and at international workshops and festivals. In addition to appearing as soloist in large oratorio and dramatic works, she is celebrated for her interpretations of early music and chamber works, and is also active in musical theater. Judith holds both master’s and doctoral degrees in Early Music Performance Practices from CWRU, with additional post-graduate work at the University of Texas at Austin and the Indiana University Institute of Early Music. As lecturer and adjunct faculty, she has taught music history, vocal pedagogy, graduate research methods, and applied voice at Hiram College and CWRU.Soprano Lisa Rainsong’s musical life integrates composition, education, vocal performance, and natural history. She earned her Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition from Cleveland Institute of Music and is a member of CIM’s Music Theory faculty. She is also a professional singer who performs as both a soprano soloist and as a choral musician, singing with ensembles including Quire Cleveland and Ensemble Lautenkonzert. Lisa earned a Naturalist Certificate from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and now teaches classes on bird song and insect song identification throughout Northeast Ohio.

Mezzo-soprano Beverly Simmons is a singer, graphic designer, and Executive Director of Quire Cleveland. Born in Denver, she earned a doctorate in early music at Stanford University, and moved to Cleveland in 1978. Her career includes stints as a CWRU music professor, WCLV radio announcer, international artist manager, executive director, and mother of two. She has sung with Apollo’s Fire since its inception; founded the CWRU Early Music Singers, which she directed for 21 years; sang with the Cleveland Opera Chorus and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Senior Choir; and also sings at Temple Tifereth-Israel. Bev was founder/manager of the concert series Chapel, Court & Countryside: Early Music at Harkness and is also half of the cabaret duo, Rent-a-Yenta.

Tenor David Simmons-Duffin graduated with an AB/AM in physics from Harvard, and subsequently spent a year at Cambridge University (UK) studying maths and singing with the Choir of Clare College, under Tim Brown. He is currently in his final year of a PhD in theoretical high energy physics at Harvard. In addition to Clare Choir and Quire Cleveland, David has sung with the Harvard Collegium Musicum, Harvard University Choir, Apollo’s Fire, and Blue Heron. He also enjoys playing Baroque violin, and bungling through The Well-Tempered Clavier.

Soprano Sandra Simon is at home performing opera, oratorio, and musical theater. She has performed in the US and abroad with such ensembles as Tafelmusik, Handel & Haydn Society, Memphis Symphony, Red {an Orchestra}, Apollo’s Fire, Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, and the King’s Noyse, as well as Opera Atelier Toronto, Cleveland Opera, Singapore Arts Festival, and the Chautauqua Institution. A frequent guest of the Cleveland Composers Guild, she is a core member of Panorámicos, and also a longstanding member of Actor’s Equity. She has recorded for Telarc, Koch International Classics, New World Records, Eclectra, and NPR labels.

Tenor Tyler Skidmore is an active music educator and performer. Teaching now at the same high school he attended, Tyler attempts to share the joys and challenges of choral music with the students at Medina High School. He holds a bachelor’s degree in music education from Mount Vernon Nazarene University and a master’s in voice performance from Kent State University. Tyler has performed with other area choral ensembles, including Opera Cleveland, The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and Chamber Chorus, and Apollo’s Singers of Apollo’s Fire.

Soprano Gail West has worked with such eminent artists as Julianne Baird, Emma Kirkby, Suzie LeBlanc, Paul Hillier, and Benjamin Bagby. Currently a voice student of Ellen Hargis, she has been a member of Apollo’s Singers since its founding. Gail has been a member of CWRU’s Early Music Singers for over 20 years and is a soprano soloist at Church of the Good Shepherd. She lives in Cleveland Heights with her husband and three children.

T EXTS & TRANSLATIONS

Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison. Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us.

Gloria in excelsis Deo. et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis. Laudamus te. Benedicimus te. Adoramus te. Glorificamus te. Gratiam agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam. Domine Deus, Rex coelestis, Deus Pater omnipotens. Domine Fili unigenite, Jesu Christe. Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris. Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis. Qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe deprecationem nostram. Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, miserere nobis. Quoniam tu solus Sanctus. Tu solus Dominus. To solus Altissimus, Jesu Christe. Cum Sancto Spiritu in gloria Dei Patris. Amen.

Glory be to God on high, and in earth peace, good will towards men. We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee, we glorify thee, we give thanks to thee for thy great glory, O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty. O Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesu Christ; O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Thou that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer. Thou that sittest at the right hand of God the Father, have mercy upon us. For thou only art holy; thou only art the Lord; thou only, O Christ, with the Holy Ghost, art most high in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

O nata lux de lumine, Jesu redemptor saeculi. Dignare clemens supplicum laudes precesque sumere. Qui carne quondam contegi. Dignatus es pro perditis. Nos membra confer effici, tui beati corporis.

O light born of light, Jesus, redeemer of mankind, mercifully deign to hear from suppliant voices praise and prayer. You, who to shield us from hell disdained to dwell in mortal form, grant us at the last to share in your blessed body.

1. Almighty God, which hast me brought in safety to the present day, Keep me from sin in heart and thought, and teach me what to do and say.2. Prosper me, Lord, in all my works, help me with thy continual grace, Keep me from Satan vile that lurks to trap my soul in ev’ry place.3. Almighty Lord and God of love, direct mine heart and guide my ways, Amend my sin, my mind remove from all that from thy glory strays.

1. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills: from whence cometh my help.2. My help cometh even from the Lord: who hath made heaven and earth.3. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: and he that keepeth thee will not sleep.4. Behold, he that keepeth Israel: shall neither slumber nor sleep.5. The Lord himself is thy keeper: the Lord is thy defence upon thy right hand;6. So that the sun shall not burn thee by day: neither the moon by night.7. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: yea, it is even he that shall keep thy soul.8. The Lord shall preserve thy going out, and thy coming in: from this time forth for evermore. Ps. 121

Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine,et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord:and let perpetual light shine upon them.

Laudibus in sanctis eius, celebrate supremum, Firmamento sonent inclita facta DeiInclita facta Dei: cantata, sacraque potentis Voce potestatem saepe sonate manus.Magnificum Domini, cantet tuba martia nomen: Pieria Domino concelebrate lira.Laude Dei resonent resonantia tympana summi, Alta sacri resonent organa, laude Dei.Hunc arguta canant tenui psalteria corda, Hunc agili laudet laeta chorea pede.Concava divinas effundant cymbala laudes, Cymbala dulcisona laude replet Dei.Omne quod aethereis in mundo, vescitur auris, Halleluya canat tempus in omne Deo.

With praises in the sanctuary, celebrate the Lord most high:Let the firmament echo the glorious deeds of God.Sing ye the glorious deeds of God, and with holy voiceSound forth again and again the power of his mighty hand.Let the warlike trumpet sing the great name of the Lord:Celebrate the Lord with the Muses’ lyre.In praise of God most high let resounding timbrels ring,Let lofty organs resound to the praise of the holy God.Let melodious psalteries sing him with fine string,Him let joyful dance praise with nimble foot.Let concave cymbals pour forth divine praisesSweet-sounding cymbals, filled with the praise of God.Let everything in the world that feeds on the air of heavenSing Hallelujah to God for evermore.

after Ps. 150

1. Judica me Deus et discerne causam meam de gente non sancta; ab homine iniquo et doloso erue me.

2. Quia tu es, Deus, fortitudo mea: quare me repulisti? et quare tristis incedo, dum affligit me inimicus?

3. Emitte lucem tuam et veritatem tuam: ipsa me deduxerunt, et adduxerunt in montem sanctum tuum, et in tabernacula tua.

4. Et introibo ad altare Dei, ad Deum qui lætificat juventutem meam. Confitebor tibi in cithara, Deus, Deus meus.

5. Quare tristis es, anima mea? et quare conturbas me? Spera in Deo, quoniam adhuc confitebor illi, salutare vultus mei, et Deus meus.

1. Judge on my side, O God, and defend my cause against the unholy people: from the unjust and deceitful man deliver me.

2. For thou, O God, art my strength, why hast thou put me away? why go I so heavily, whilst mine enemy vexeth me?

3. Send forth thy light and thy truth: they have led me, and brought me into thy holy hill, and thy dwelling places.

4. And I shall enter unto the altar of God, unto God that maketh my youth to rejoice. I shall praise thee with harp, O God my God:

5. Why art thou heavy, O my soul? and why dost thou trouble me? Trust in God, for yet shall I praise him, he is the health of my countenance and my God. Ps. 42 [43]

1. O clap your hands together, all ye people: O sing unto God with the voice of melody.2. For the Lord is high, and to be feared: he is the great King of all the earth.3. He shall subdue the people under us: and the nations under our feet.4. He shall choose out an heritage for us: even the worship of Jacob, whom he loved.5. God is gone up with a merry noise: and the Lord with the sound of the trumpet.6. O sing praises, sing praises unto our God: O sing praises, sing praises unto the Lord the King.7. For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with the understanding.8. God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon his holy seat.9. God, which is very high exalted, doth defend the earth, as it were with a shield. Ps. 47Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning,

is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth. Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria tua. Hosanna in excelsis. Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. Hosanna in excelsis.

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts, heaven and earth are full of thy glory; Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.

Ave verum corpus, natum de Maria Virgine: Vere passum immolatum in cruce pro homine, cuius latus perforatum unda fluxit sanguine: Esto nobis praegustatum in mortis examine. O Dulcis, O pie, O Jesu fili Mariae, miserere mei. Amen.

All hail, O true body, born of the blessed Virgin Mary: Which in anguish, to redeem us did suffer upon the cross, from whose side when pierced by spear there came forth blood: May we receive you at our last trial in death. O Sweet, O pious, O Jesus son of Mary, have mercy on us. Amen.

Let all mortal flesh keep silence and stand with fear and trembling, and lift itself above all earthly thought. For the King of kings and Lord of lords, Christ our God cometh forth to be our oblation, and to be given for Food to the faithful. Before Him come the choirs of angels with every principality and power; the Cherubim with many eyes, and wingèd Seraphim, who veil their faces as they shout exultingly the hymn: Alleluia!

Beati quorum via integra est,qui ambulant in lege Domini.

Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Ps. 119:1

Hear my prayer, O Lord: and let my crying come unto thee. Ps. 102:1

Bring us, O Lord God, at our last awakening, into the house and gate of heaven, to enter into that gate and dwell in that house, where there shall be no darkness nor dazzling, but one equal light; no noise nor silence, but one equal music; no fears nor hopes, but one equal possession; no ends nor beginnings, but one equal eternity; in the habitations of thy glory and dominion, world without end. Amen. —after a sermon by John Donne, Feb. 29, 1628

In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum; redemisti me Domine, Deus veritatis.

O Lord, the maker of all thing, we pray thee now in this evening Us to defend through thy mercy from all deceit of our enemy.Let neither us deluded be, good Lord, with dream or fantasy; Our hearts waking in thee thou keep that we in sin fall not on sleep.O Father, through thy blessed Son, grant us this our petition, To whom, with the Holy Ghost always, In heaven and earth be laud and praise.

Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, God of truth. Ps. 30:6

Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison. Lord, have mercy upon us; Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us.

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth. Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria tua. Hosanna in excelsis. Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. Hosanna in excelsis.

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts, heaven and earth are full of thy glory; Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.

Agnus dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis. Agnus dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.

O Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. O Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace.

A CKNOWLEDGMENTSQuire Cleveland is grateful to Music & Art @ Trinity, Todd Wilson, Director of Music and Worship, and the Very Rev. Tracey Lind, and to the Church of the Resurrection, Rev. J. Mark Hoson and Diane Lionti, for hosting Quire Cleveland. In addition, we thank Gregory Heislman, Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist; David Rothenberg and Oxford University Press; Rev. T. Conrad Selnick and Yuri Sato, Church of St. Christopher’s by the River, Gates Mills; Tyler Skidmore, Medina High School; Hristo Popov, Chagrin Valley Chamber Music.We also wish to thank our generous donors: Edward Alix, Peter Bennett, Rev. Catherine G. Borchert, Mary R. Bynum & J. Philip Calabrese, David Carver, Kathleen Cerveny, Anne Cook, Gayle Crawford, Ross W. Duffin & Beverly Simmons, Mary C. Gerhart, Robert E. & N. Sue Hanson, Jeremiah Heilman, Donald Hoffman, F. Jenkins, Dr. & Mrs. J. Adin Mann, Geraldine McElliott, John McElliott, James & Virginia Meil, Jewel Moulthrop & Evan Komito, Duncan Neuhauser, Charlotte Newman, Russell Oberlin, Joanne Poderis, Peter Pogacar, Mr. & Mrs. Harry Pollock, Gay & Quentin Quereau,

Justin T. Rogers, David Saffron, Diane & Lewis Schwartz, Shirley Simmons, Mr. & Mrs. Seymour Simmons, Jr., Tyler Skidmore, Deborah Smith, Richard Snyder, Jordan Sramek, Tim & Linda Tuthill, Robert & Diane Walcott, John West, W. Lane Wofford.Thanks also to the CWRU Music Department, Church of the Covenant, 90.3 WCPN Ideastream, 104.9 WCLV, Ωort∞simo design, Beth Segal Photography, Thomas Knab, David Simmons-Duffin, and the ushers.The Ohio Arts Council helped fund this program with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence, and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans. This project received public support with local tax dollars from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture, to preserve and enrich our region’s artistic and cultural heritage.

Become a fan of Quire Cleveland on Facebook!

Join the Quire Cleveland email list at quirecleveland.org!

The Perfect Stocking Stuffers!

Quire Cleveland Water Bottle*

— only $5 —

A Direct Link to the Fountain

of Youth

Guaranteed to Improve

Your Singing

*non-PBA plastic

Watch the Quire Cleveland channel on YouTube!

Carols for Quire CDrecorded live in concert in 2009

— only $10 —

Quire Stuffavailable through CafePress.com

— on sale here —Take

Quire Cleveland Home!

Save the Dates: Carols for Quire from the Old & New Worlds III

December 22 & 23 at Trinity Cathedral