FOR SION! - OH THEE, Choral Cycle, Instr Ens, After Byron

Harold Blumenfeld

About this work:
FOR SION! - OH THEE [2003] CHORAL CYCLE In FIVE PARTS After BYRON is setting of five of poet's prescient proto-Zionist "Hebrew Melodies" of 1815 - penned long before Zionism was a word... I: THE HARP THE MONARCH MINSTREL SWEPT. II: IN THE VALLEY OF WATERS. III: ON JORDAN'S BANKS. IV: ON DAY OF DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. V: HOPE. Of the many poems in this series, several presciently call for ingathering of Hebrew people into Holy Land. Former Pub. MMB Music,now closed. Published by COMPOSER: blumenf@wustl.edu Full score, small orchestra version: $55. Score, chamber version (vc, cl, piano) serving also as chorua parts: $15. CD archival recording of premiere, by Washington University Choir, John Stewart conducting, available from composer: blumenf@wustl.edu... Although composer does not rate Byron as poet of first rank, he finds sentiments echoing through these poems to be prescient, stirring. In counteracting symmetries and hippity-hop rhythms of poet, composer has invested settings with countervailing variety of texture and medium. Opening poem, "Monarch Minstrel", thus calls just for mens voices, cello, piano. In subsequent poems, womens voices, clarinet, and individual soprano and tenor voices are gradually added to the mix... As indicated above, there are two different instrumental scorings for this work. Choral parts are identical in both versions. In CHAMBER VERSION [vc, cl, piano accoompaniment], the opening "Monarch Minstrel", celebrating David, set for mens voices, cello, piano. Ensuing "In the Valley of Waters" - on Babylonian Captivity - starts with clarinet, womens voices are introduced. "On Jordan's Banks" - a lament and imprecation - adds individual voices to the palette. Violence erupts in "On the Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus". Cycle ends with strophe from "Hope" - a closing consolation featuring womens voices, with men in background intoning in Hebrew..."Im eshkahech Yerushalayim" - "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem..." In version using SMALL ORCHESTRA, bassoons, horns, strings are added. A gradual accretion of instrumental sound and expansion of accompaniment is prominent feature of setting... Cycle composed for Sesquicentennial Celebration of Washington University, premiered 25 April 2004 Graham Chapel, St Louis, Washington Univ Choir, John Stewart, conductor, Beth MacDonald, cello, Paul Garritson, clarinet, Sandra Geary, piano... As noted,in the two mentioned accompanimental forms, choral parts are identical. Solo cello and clarinet parts remain unchanged - in orchestral version they serve as concertante instruments, retaining their individual melodic lines and adding dimension... Thus, to summarize: 1/ CHAMBER VERSION, with cello, clarinet, piano accompaniment. 2/ SMALL ORCHESTRAL VERSION, bassoons, horns, piano, full strings; with cello and clarinet concertanti... This work is composer's first on a Hebrew theme... ON BYRON AND THIS WORK--- George Gordon, Lord Byron's passionate life is at least as interesting as his verse. Born into minor nobility, educated Cambridge, he explored Albania, Greece, joined House of Lord. On 1812 publication of "Childe Harold" was suddenly famous at 24... There followed affairs with many women, including half-sister Augusta Leigh, who bore daughter presumably his. They separated. He did Geneva with the Shelleys and their woman friend, who became his mistress. On to Italy , where he claimed bedding 200 women in as many nights... Much of this - truth be told - a smoke screen to obscure his passion for young Earl of Clare, choirboy John Edleston, and the Greek boys of his brief Aegean odyssey... In 1823 he sailed armed brig to Aegean to aid Greeks against Ottoman overlords. Shortly on arrival, contracted fever, died. His heart, with part of skull, stayed in Greece. The rest of him ended up triumphanly back home in family vault... In 1815, approached by London Jewish composer Isaac Nathan, Byron penned a couple dozen "Hebrew Melodies" for him - mostly on biblical subjects, some precociously proto-Zionist. Nathan's own musical settings of these are in bland watered-down Handelian... Composer has selected five of these poems as texts for SION choral cycle. "Monarch Minstrel", as stated, is on David the King... "Valley of Waters" conveys desolation of sixth century BC Babylonian captivity, echoing lines from Psalm 137... "On Jordan's Banks" is imprecation to God to bring exile to end... A later disaster recounted in fourth setting, vividly portraying 70 AD destruction of Jerusalem by Roman Emperor Titus. (Just 60 years later Hadrian - one of greatest of Rome's emperors, but here a butcher - devastated all Judea, leveling city and village, slaying tens of thousands and turning Zion into a millennial wasteland.)... Cycle ends with opening consoling strophe of Byron's plaintive "Hope is Happiness"... Extracts from Texts of III, IV, V. From III - "Jordan's Banks": ON JORDAN'S BANKS THE ARABS' CAMELS STRAY, ON SION'S HILL THE FALSE ONE'S VOTARIES PRAY, THE BAAL-ADORER BOWS ON SINAI'S STEEP - YET THERE - EVEN THERE - OH GOD! THY THUNDERS SLEEP... OH! IN THE LIGHTNING LET THY GLANCE APPEAR! SWEEP FROM HIS SHIVERED HAND THE OPPRESSOR'S SPEAR: HOW LONG BY TYRANTS SHALL THE LAND BE TROD? HOW LONG THY TEMPLE WORSHIPLESS, OH GOD?... from [IV]-"Destruction of Jerusalem": FROM THE LAST HILL THAT LOOKS ON THY ONCE HOLY DOME I BEHELD THEE, OH SION! WHEN RENDERED TO ROME: TWAS THY LAST SUN WENT DOWN, AND THE FLAMES OF THY FALL FLASHED BACK ON THE LAST GLANCE I GAVE TO THY WALL... BUT THE GODS OF THE PAGANS SHALL NEVER PROFANE THE SHRINE WHERE JEHOVAH DISDAINED NOT TO REIGN; AND SCATTERED AND SCORNED AS THY PEOPLE MAY BE, OUR WORSHIP, OH FATHER! IS ONLY FOR THEE... And V - "Hope": THEY SAY THAT HOPE IS HAPPINESS - BUT GENUINE LOVE MUST PRIZE THE PAST; AND MEM'RY WAKES THE THOUGHTS THAT BLESS: THEY ROSE THE FIRST - THEY SET THE LAST..[--IM ESHKAHECH YERUSHALAYIM--]... "SION" was composed Spring 2003.
Version: 1: cl,vc,piano accomp/ 2: small orch. accomp
Year composed: 2003
Duration: 00:17:00
Ensemble type: Chorus, with or without Solo Voices:Chorus with Chamber Ensemble
Instrumentation: ,1 Clarinet soloist(s), 2 Bassoon, 3 Horn in F, ,1 Piano soloist(s), 16 Strings (General), ,1 Cello soloist(s), ,1 Soprano soloist(s), ,1 Tenor soloist(s), 10 S, 10 A, 10 T, 10 B
Instrumentation notes: Scored for large chorus with two accompanimental versions: 1: cello, clarinet, piano /and 2: (see above listing) chamber orch: 2 bns, 3 horns, piano; solo cello and clarinet concertanti; full strings. Cello, clarinet parts of chamber version are carried over into orchestral version as concertante voices. Choral/vocal parts are identical in both versions. Choral part serves as both the Chamber Score and general Choral Score, and includes cello, clarinet, piano parts. [$20. rental $3.95]

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