In a word: No. Why not? Because he was in a tuberculosis sanitarium. How weird and sad is that? Very.
So, back in the winter of 1934, 33-year-old Richard Smith was sitting in his room at the West Mountain Sanitarium after having a recurrence of his TB, trying to keep himself occupied by entering jingle contests for ad copy. (He actually won the Maybelline eye shadow contest with the slogan “The Eyes Have It.” Clever!) He could see children playing in the snow outside his window and was reminded of how much he’d enjoyed those same activities when he was growing up in the small town of Honesdale, Pennsylvania. A powerful nostalgia was at work here, but, given the actual wording of the song I think there was something else going on: he missed his wife, Jane, whom he’d married in 1930.
Image by falco from Pixabay; do you recognize what story is being portrayed in this sculpture and how it relates to the concept of mercy?
The choir to which I belong, the Cherry Creek Chorale, is privileged to include a composer, Gloria Srikijkarn, whose works we have performed at several concerts. For our October 2022 concert Songs of Thanksgiving we have a section titled “The Valley of the Shadow” that includes her setting of “Kyrie.” She says that she wrote this moving and beautiful piece “at a very dark time in my life.”
The simple text comes from the service of the Roman Catholic Mass but is often, as here, used as a stand-alone piece. It’s always helpful, though, no matter how separate from the original a version is, to look at how it was used in the first place. So if you were to attend an actual service of the Mass you’d participate in singing the text right after the priest or minister had addressed the congregation by saying,
I’m not really going to cover the millennia of this word’s usage; there are whole books on the subject. Instead, I’ll concentrate on the word itself and on pieces my choir has sung that include it. I will include a brief foray into its usage in Shrek, though, so keep going to the end if you want to get that!
It’s stunning to look at the pieces that are either totally built around this one word or include it as a significant part of the lyrics. Why is it so powerful and attractive? Such questions are always in the end unanswerable. I’d postulate, though, that the sound of the word itself and its use as an exclamation of praise can claim at least partial credit. Why are there two spellings, by the way? Very simple: “hallelujah” is a transliteration from the Hebrew Old Testament and “alleluia” is a Latinized version of the same word in Greek.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul; He guideth me in straight paths for His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, For Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, They comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me, in the presence of mine enemies; Thou hast anointed my head with oil; My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord, Forever, forever.
I’ve said this many times before and will say it again here: You just never know what you’re going to find when you start looking up information about a piece of music. My choir, the Cherry Creek Chorale here in the Denver area, is closing its October 2022 concert with the piece “The Storm Is Passing Over.” The composition credit is listed as “Charles Albert Tindley, arranged by Barbara W. Baker.”
So the obvious question was, “Who were these people?” Let me start with Tindley, a fascinating figure in American history who was born before the Civil War and ended up as the pastor of a 10,000-member mega church. And this was before mega churches were even a thing. A-a-a-a-a-nd, he’d been the janitor of that church to begin with. It’s a great, great story. Tindley was the son of a slave father and a free mother (how that happened I have no idea), considered to be free himself because of her. When his mother died he went to live with his mother’s sister in order to keep his free status. But he was expected to earn his keep, as it were, and was routinely “hired out,” never having the opportunity to attend school. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say:
“The Ritual Dance of the Shakers,” Shaker Historical Society, public domain, image accessed via Wikimedia Commons
“I Will Be a Child of Peace” by Elaine Hagenberg offers an origins two-fer: the beginning of her career as a published choral composer/arranger and the source of the music itself. “Peace” was Hagenberg’s first published piece back in 2013. The piece has now been voiced for SATB, TTBB, and SSA. She must really like it!
The original song is a Shaker hymn:
“O Holy Father,” according to manuscripts, originated in 1851. [The manuscripts] attribute it to Alonzo Gilman of the community in Alfred, Maine. [Sister] Mildred said that in her youth the song was used very frequently “at the close of prayer services while we were on our knees.” The song is in 5/4 time. (Notes on Songs in the Film, Shakers)
Image accessed via website humanistseminarian.com; no attribution given
Who wrote the text of “Even When He Is Silent” and under what circumstances? Do these questions matter?
I believe in the sun even when it’s not shining. I believe in love when I feel it not I believe in God even when he is silent.
Found written on a concentration camp wall after World War II
That’s the text used in the lovely piece that my own choir, the Cherry Creek Chorale, is performing/has performed in October 2022, a setting written in 2011 by the Norwegian composer Kim André Arnesen. Given my own fascination with history I was curious to find out a little bit more about these words: Which concentration camp? Who might have written them? My internet diving turned up some surprising facts about the lines, facts that only deepened and strengthened their power.
The “Z” stands for “Zane.” Just in case you’re wondering.
Now that we have that out of the way we can get to the real stuff, notably the great compositional heritage embodied in the work of this very-active American composer. A look at his teachers and their teachers and their teachers shows a line going all the way back to the great French composer Gabriel Fauré, who lived from the mid-1800’s until the 1920’s and who in turn had been taught by none other than Camille Saint-Saëns. Wow. Ancestry.com should do a family tree on this.
Fauré had a long and varied career as a performer, composer, and teacher. The next step on the ladder of Stroope’s influences came from Fauré’s student Nadia Boulanger. It’s fair to say that while no one today is going to program a concert featuring her own works, she has permeated American music to a surprising degree, with pupils including Aaron Copland, Virgil Thompson, Quincy Jones and Burt Bacharach. Two pupils relevant to Stroope were Cecil Effinger and Normand Lockwood, both of whom became Stroope’s teachers and mentors.
Image accessed via Wikimedia Creative Commons, Piccadilly Square pictured as supporters celebrate VE Day, May 08, 1945. Photo taken by Sgt. James A. Spence, during his service in World War II
Introduction:
What a great centerpiece to a concert centered around the theme of thankfulness! Vaughan Williams’1 15-minute-long work consists of a soloist, adult mixed choir, speaker, children’s choir, and orchestra and was commissioned by the BBC in late 1944 to be performed once the hoped-for and expected victory over the Axis powers was accomplished.
Here’s a description of the piece from the publisher of the sheet music, the Oxford University Press: “Originally entitled ‘Thanksgiving for Victory,’ ‘A Song of Thanksgiving’ is a powerful and moving work that celebrates the Allies’ victory in World War II. It was first recorded in 1944 while the war was still ongoing, but was not broadcast until victory had been achieved in May of the following year. Comprising seven movements, it sets texts from the Bible alongside words by Shakespeare and Kipling, lending the work a sense of timelessness and grandeur.”2
Isn’t it great that there was the will and the appetite after years of war and destruction to commission a piece of music to celebrate victory? There’s no information available on how much or whether Vaughan Williams was paid for the piece, and it’s rarely performed nowadays because it was written for a specific occasion. One reviewer on Amazon for a CD performance says, “Vaughan Williams’ ‘A Song of Thanksgiving’ is the greatest piece of music ever written that almost no one has heard.”
I’m pleased to announce that I’ve finished a new book, this one on the Mass for Peace/Armed Man Mass by the contemporary British composer Karl Jenkins. This work is still hugely popular 20+ years after its premier. I would encourage you to order a copy whether or not you anticipate a performance by your group. The material is fascinating in and of itself. I thoroughly enjoyed working on it. Go here to purchase it.
