|
Roy Harris (b. 12 February 1898, in Lincoln County, Oklahoma; d. 1 October 1979, in Santa Monica, California) composed music especially rich in qualities Americans regard as reflecting their national life and character—honesty, vigor and expansiveness—a tonal reflection of his western background. This Americanism was not that of the big cities and Tin Pan Alley, but rather was that of the bleak and barren expanses of the western plains, of the brooding prairie night, of stronger, more fundamental emotions than are usually associated with that other musical Americanism, that of jazz and Broadway.
At age five, Harris's family moved from their rural homestead in Oklahoma to the Los Angeles region of southern California, where young Roy received his schooling up through the University of California and took his first composition lessons from the noted Americanist Arthur Farwell. In 1926 he went east, first to New York, and then to Paris for study with Nadia Boulanger. He remained in Europe for three years and returned to the U.S. in 1930.
From 1934 until 1938, he was on the faculty of the Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. During the summers he taught composition part-time at the Juilliard School of Music. This was a crucial period of more frequent performances of his compositions, including the influential Symphony 1933, which led to growing recognition and support for his career from such influential colleagues as Walter Piston, Howard Hanson and Serge Koussevitsky.
One paramount literary influence appears throughout Harris's music—the poetry of Walt Whitman (1819-1892). This compact disc brings together for the first time three of his important a cappella Whitman settings.
The earliest work chronologically on this disc is the Symphony for Voices on Poems of Walt Whitman, written in November, 1935, for the Westminster Choir and its conductor John Finley Williamson. The texts were taken from Leaves of Grass. Harris, in writing about this work, expressed his conviction that Whitman was the ideal poet for all things American:
“Walt Whitman was the great singer of Democracy. He
believed in the preservation of the individual in serving, to
his maximum/optimum, the cause of a free society, whose
leaders look to the `primal sanity of nature' for guidance.
Whitman had the power to believe, yet who better than he
knew the unavoidable cost of every step toward freedom,
whether that freedom be the wages of self-imposed discipline
or the willing allegiance of all to the purpose of honest,
hopeful social order which can serve in turn the cause of
international good will and understanding. For these reasons,
I chose for the first movement Song of All Seas, All Ships, in
which Whitman invokes the power of the sea to temper man
to his individual destiny. Tears is again the sea, but this time
a throbbing sea of human suffering, the cost of freedom.
Finally, in Inscription, man emerges master of himself and
his society.”
The eight-part texture used throughout this Symphony poses challenges of the greatest difficulty, ranking this work among the major choral works of the 20th century. The main stylistic elements are harmony, rhythm and dynamics, the manipulation of which through wordless ostinati, harmonized choral recitative, choral Sprechstimme, and a truly instrumental treatment of the human voice gives this Symphony the character of a choral Mount Everest. In a real sense, the human strivings so vividly portrayed in Whitman's poetry find a musical analog in the trials to which the singers are subjected. The force behind the vocal writing is the text, and Harris conceives each measure as a form of word painting. The choice of chords, rhythms and dynamics is determined by the text, to the extent that the synthesis of words and music is complete. The result is a masterpiece that captures the human experience, seeming to soar endlessly from lofty tragedy, through bitter anguish to the exaltation of unshakable faith in humanity.
Song for All Seas, All Ships (Allegro, 9/8, C-major/minor) sets Whitman's metaphoric “sea as life” as an extended choral recitative. This stylistic device would also find prominent use in a number of Harris's later choral works, such as the Alleluia and Mass heard on this recording.
The tonal color of this first movement is provided by the contrast of chanting voices (“...a chant for the sailors of all nations...”) against recurring motives, highly rhythmic in contrary motion, on the phrases “of ships sailing the seas”, “waves”, and “ship's signals”. Florid counterpoint in lilting 9/8 meter and dynamic swells in the voice parts evoke a clear musical image of ships pitching among wind-whipped ocean waves. The raw force of nature against puny man is the essence of tragedy so vividly expressed in words and music; yet the human spirit remains unbroken, an “...emblem of man elate above death...”.
Tears (Lento, 4/4, F-major) is a chromatic, lugubrious lament that contains some of the most characterful word painting in American choral music. Harris's use of a half-sung, half-declaimed Sprechstimme—a prolonged wail of distress—produces the intended chill.
Inscription (Con moto, 4/4, C-major/minor) is an optimistic, three-part choral fugue which dispels the gloom of Tears as it reaffirms the militant humanism of Whitman's text. Here, Harris uses three distinct subjects, each thoroughly developed and finally combined in the recapitulation. Such contrapuntal devices as imitation, augmentation, diminution, inversion and stretto proliferate in this choral tour de force. Of particular note is the second subject, “Cheerful, for freest action...”, in which the voices are subjected to a purely instrumental treatment that ranks among the most difficult choral passages in the literature. The third subject, “The Modern Man I Sing”, first appears as a type of ground bass over which and around which the previous two fugal subjects weave, until it dominates the concluding measures in which Symphony for Voices modulates to a radiant C-major climax.
As conceived, the Symphony for Voices had four movements. The original first movement, I Hear America Singing, was abandoned and its material recycled for the Whitman Triptych. The Symphony received its première on 20 May 1936 at the Festival of American Music, with the Westminster Choir, John Finley Williamson conducting.
When Johnny Comes Marching Home, for four-part a cappella chorus, was written in late 1937, also for the Westminster Choir and John Finley Williamson. It is one of several settings by Harris to use the famous Civil War song. With added orchestral accompaniment and interludes it became the Welcome Party last movement of the Folksong Symphony of 1940.
Between 1938 and 1941, Harris and his second wife, Johana (née Beula Duffey), held a number of teaching jobs, as his fame as a composer led to more frequent commissions. In the fall of 1938, Harris completed two works, one of which became his most well-known composition, the Symphony No. 3. The other was the Whitman Triptych for Women's Chorus, a commission from Sarah Lawrence College at the suggestion of William Schuman, who conducted the première performance with the Sarah Lawrence Chorus over New York City radio station WOR.
I Hear America Singing is best described as being inspired by the Whitman poem, since Harris uses no words but rather a smoothly flowing, wordless vocalise on “ah” and “oh” to portray the unity in diversity of that grand potpourri of all American voices, “...singing with open mouths their strong, melodious songs.” The first 34 measures are borrowed directly from a discarded 1935 first movement to the Symphony for Voices.
In stark contrast to that optimism, An Evening Lull, a late poem expressive of the poet's anguish in contemplating old age and death, inspires Harris to a cryptic, halting declamation marked by jarring dissonance.
America, as an antidote to that pessimism, proclaims the enduring spirit of the land—strength derived as the sum of its many variegated parts. The voices open with a wordless melisma reminiscent of I Hear America Singing. A few measures later, the vigorous entrance at “Centre of equal daughters, equal sons...strong, ample, fair, enduring....” provides a musical affirmation of Whitman's (and Harris's) unshakable humanistic faith.
By 1941, Roy and Johana had joined the faculty of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and had begun a productive collaboration with choreographer Hanya Holm, who had organized a summer ballet company in Colorado Springs, Colorado. After enjoying several summers there, they found the Rocky Mountain region irresistible. The Harrises moved from New York state to Colorado Springs in 1943, where both taught at The Colorado College through 1948.
The Three Songs of Democracy were written in July, 1941, in Colorado Springs. In these pieces, Harris reaches back to the words Walt Whitman wrote in reaction to the horrors of the Civil War to create a contemporary, yet timeless, musical response to the widespread pessimism felt by many as the threat of World War II loomed. The result was a second, less ambitious Symphony for Voices. Although the three choruses were not conceived as a set, the fact that the composer later gathered them together for publication created certain parallels with the larger, earlier work.
The similarities are more philosophical than musical, since the technical demands of the Three Songs are much less intimidating than those of the Symphony. Harris's use of an accessible, popular style and the absence of forbidding counterpoint such as that found in the Symphony result in music that is clear, declamatory and warm—once again, a superb marriage of music and text.
To Thee, Old Cause features a solo soprano in flowing, sustained lines over a march-like recitative in the full chorus, an effect similar to but on a smaller scale than the opening of Symphony for Voices. The mood is one of agitation, until a relaxing of tension at the phrase “eternal march of thee.”
In Year That Trembled the sopranos and altos are set in dialogue with the tenors and basses. This gloomy interlude dies away on the phrase “...sullen hymns of defeat.”
Freedom, Toleration opens with 21 measures of unison singing, with vocal parts dividing at “...solid ground for all.” Extensive canonic writing characterizes “...the open air I sing,” written in a vigorous tempo giusto. The movement concludes with a slower, homophonic section at the words, “The democratic wisdom, like solid ground for all,” an explicit summation of Harris's philosophy through the medium of Whitman's words.
The three works on this disc from the last half of the 1940's fall in the period between the Symphony No. 6, Gettysburg (1944) and Symphony No. 7 (1952). The only other major works with orchestra were the Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (1946) and Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1949), with most of Harris's efforts going into smaller, occasional pieces.
The motet, Alleluia, for chorus, brass and organ takes its Latin text from the Victimae Paschali Laudes sequence of the proper liturgy for Easter Sunday. It was commissioned by Grace Episcopal Church in Colorado Springs, written in March and first performed on Easter Sunday, 1 April 1945, with the brass of the Second Army-Air Force band assisting. With General Eisenhower's armies closing in on the Third Reich and victory in the European theater certain, Harris captured the spirit of serene optimism implicit in the resurrection story and, at the same time, appropriate to the rebirth of hope in America.
Harris's distinctive choral recitative dominates the first portion, as solo trumpet and solo trombone weave fluid themes throughout the chant-like declamation of chorus, all underpinned with sustained organ chords. The concluding “alleluia” section blossoms with flowing polyphony from the chorus, to which full brass and organ combine to bring the work to a grand finish. The sonorities of brass with pipe organ, added to that of the chorus, produce an extraordinarily rich, symphonic texture reminiscent of the “Awakening” movement of Symphony No. 6, Gettysburg, which had been completed a few months earlier.
In addition to this, the original version of the work, Harris prepared three separate arrangements for later performances.
The madrigal, They Say that Susan Has No Heart for Learning, for women's voices and piano dates from January, 1947, a commission from the Salt Lake City Schools for which Harris wrote his own text. Short and simple, it shares a similar happy and outgoing spirit with the earlier When Johnny Comes Marching Home.
In 1948 the Harrises moved from Colorado Springs to Logan, Utah, where he accepted the position of Composer-in-Residence at Utah State College. In that year he wrote only two works, one of which is the substantial Mass for Men's Chorus and Organ. It was originally commissioned by Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York City for liturgical use at High Mass on Easter Sunday, but that arrangement fell through due to a dispute over payment to the composer. Harris then arranged for its first performance on 13 May 1948 at the Festival of Contemporary American Music in Columbia University's Saint Paul's Chapel, with the Princeton University Chapel Choir, Carl Weinrich conductor and Thomas Frost organist. At slightly less than a half hour in length, it ranks among his more substantial choral works, along with the Symphony for Voices, the Folksong Symphony (No. 4) and Bicentennial Symphony (No. 13).
Harris stated that the Mass was built of “materials...extracted from prototypes of American folk songs.” Be that as it may, the work displays none of the overt folksiness such as that found in the Folksong Symphony. Instead, it is most notable for its austere, neo-Gothic texture, in which the four-part men's chorus juxtaposes angular, chant-like unison passages and florid melismata with sections of dense imitative counterpoint. Characterized by a certain cool objectivity, the work has as its spiritual ancestors the mass settings of the 14th—16th centuries, updated with Harris's distinctive 20th-century harmony and sui generis approach to plainsong. His approach in setting the complete text of the ordinary of the Roman Catholic Mass is to treat large sections of text uniformly, rather than resorting to more detailed word-by-word tone painting.
The role of the pipe organ throughout the work is primarily to support the voices, with occasional themes and coloristic embellishments given to the trompette en chamade and sesquialtera, two exquisitely beautiful solo stops of the Visser-Rowland tracker action organ used in this recording. Harris deploys the organ part in mainly half and whole notes, weaving a sustained and hypnotically minimalist spell as repeating patterns and shifting harmonies provide a halo of sound for the more active vocal parts.
The Kyrie provides a stately introduction to the Mass, with its chant-like main theme continuously unfurling, passing seamlessly from one section of the men's choir to another.
After the slightest of pauses, the Gloria begins, with a faster tempo and busily imitative counterpoint providing an immediate contrast with the mood of the Kyrie. The addition of the trompette en chamade to the tonal picture provides the first splash of color in the organ's heretofore monochromatic sound.
The Credo is the longest movement and contains some of Harris's most vivid vocal writing. Sustained organ chords introduce the solo cantor's “Credo in unum Deum”, followed by an extensive passage of four-part harmonized chant/recitative that recalls the declamatory opening movement of Symphony for Voices, but with the emotional afflatus of Christian mysticism rather than the defiant humanism of the Whitman text. (The close, four-part harmony also carries more than a hint of barbershop!). Sustained organ chords support the choral chant/recitative, with color contrast provided by a sinuous, melismatic theme in the upper organ registers played on the sesquialtera. This homophonic choral texture is maintained up to the “Et incarnatus est” section, at which point the choral parts diverge into ecstatic, melismatic counterpoint. After sinking to a quiet cadence at “...morturorum”, the movement closes powerfully, with full organ and fortissimo chorus at “...et vitam venturi saeculi. Amen.”
The Sanctus and Benedictus is the shortest and most dramatic section of the Mass. For once, short, fortissimo organ chords interrupt the sustained texture of the earlier movements, as emphatic cries of “Sanctus” lead to the soaring “Hosanna in excelsis”, with rising fanfares from the trompette en chamade evoking the prayers of the faithful rising like incense before the Altar of God.
The Agnus Dei returns to the subdued mood of the opening Kyrie. It takes the form of a somber passacaglia, with complex, angular counterpoint in the voices evolving over the measured tread of the repeating organ part. The mood is one of penitential disquiet, right up to the hushed final measures, which resolve in peaceful benediction at “...dona nobis pacem”.
Upon his death in 1979, Harris's catalog had grown to include thirteen symphonies; many works for piano, both solo and with ensemble; chamber music; songs; and choral works of all descriptions.
Robert Shewan and I would like to thank Dan Stehman, author of Roy Harris: A Bio-Bibliography (Greenwood Press, 1991) and a long-time friend of the composer, for his counsel and assistance in this production.
Notes © 1995 by John Proffitt
The Roberts Wesleyan College Chorale, an ensemble noted for its unique choral sound, is the cultural ambassador of Roberts Wesleyan College, the distinguished liberal arts institution in the Christian tradition located in Rochester, New York. The Chorale performs regularly with the Rochester Philharmonic under such conductors as David Zinman, Isaiah Jackson, Enrique Diemecke, Darryl One, Mark Elder and David Effron. In 1986 the Chorale made its Carnegie Hall debut in a concert performance of Beethoven's Fidelio. Other major presentations include Puccini's Tosca (1993), Walton's Henry V (1994) and Verdi's Requiem (1995), all with the Rochester Philharmonic.
Ever mindful of the need to present choral music as a living, growing tradition, the Chorale maintains an active program of commissioning, performing and recording new music. In 1980, in the presence of the composer, the Chorale performed Psalm settings by Howard Hanson, which were later committed to compact disc (Albany TROY 129). With the Rochester Chamber Orchestra under David Fetler, the Chorale presented the world première of John LaMontaine's The Marshes of Glynn. In 1992, under the direction of the composer, the Chorale premièred Ever Since Babylon, Samuel Adler's cantata commemorating the 500th anniversary of Columbus's voyage to the New World and the simultaneous expulsion of the Jews from Spain. During their 1993 spring tour, the Chorale gave the first public performances of 1 Corinthians 13, written for the Chorale by Christopher Theofanidis (Albany TROY 158).
Other Chorale recordings include Mozart's Coronation Mass (Vox CD 8164) with the Rochester Philharmonic under David Zinman; Choral Music of Anton Bruckner (Albany TROY 063); Music of Stephen Shewan (Albany TROY 149); and Sing Unto the Lord, featuring hymn-anthems, psalms and spirituals (Gasparo GS 250C). In addition, the Chorale has been featured in nationwide broadcasts over National Public Radio.
Conductor Robert Shewan is chairman of the Fine Arts Division at Roberts Wesleyan College and has directed the Chorale since 1969. He has degrees from Mansfield State College, Ithaca College and the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He is the author of several texts, including Singing and the Brain: a Handbook for Voice Teachers; is well known as a guest conductor at various choral festivals; and serves as a clinician and adjudicator.
Text of the Easter Motet, Alleluia
Scimus Christum surexisse a mortuis vere,
Tu nobis, victor Rex, miserere. Alleluia.
We know that truly Christ has been raised from the dead.
Have mercy on us, Thou King victorious. Alleluia.
|
