Robert J. Schaffer: Sortie Solennelle
Louis-Nicolas Clerambault: Suite du Premier Ton: Duo—Grand Plein Jeu
Jean Langlais: Prélude modal
Johann Sebastian Bach: Two Chorale Preludes: Christ lag in Todesbanden and Alle Menschen müssen sterben
Marius Monnikendam: Toccata
Gustav Holst: Jupiter Chorale (Thaxted)
Gregory J. Schaffer: Improvisation on Nun danket alle Gott

Dr. Gregory J. Schaffer, Basilica Principal Organist and Choirmaster

Robert Nathaniel Dett: Let Us Cheer the Weary Traveler
Gwyneth Walker: When Music Sounds WORLD PREMIERE
     May Festival Youth Chorus Commission
Joanna Forbes L’Estrange: King’s College Service (Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis)
Rosephanye Powell: To Sit and Dream
Ryan O’Connell: Down by the Riverside
Nico Muhly: Warm Summer Sun

Edward Bairstow: Andante serioso, ma con moto from Organ Sonata in E-flat Minor

Michael Unger, organist

William Walton: Jubilate Deo
Soloists: Lauren Peter, soprano; Megan Lawson, Amanda Gast and Erika Emody, altos; Tyler Johnson and Matthew Swanson, tenors; Steven Dauterman and Christopher Canarie, bassesWilliam Harris: Bring Us, O Lord God
Jonathan Dove: Seek Him that Maketh the Seven Stars
Judith Weir: Ave Regina caelorum
Herbert Howells: Like as the Hart Desireth the Waterbrooks
Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis from Collegium Regale
Soloist: Tyler Johnson, tenor

Dear friends,

It is with great joy that we welcome you back to the Cathedral-Basilica of the Assumption for our 40th May Festival performance in this beautiful space. Our tradition of concertizing here, begun by Music Director Laureate James Conlon in 1980, has paused only twice—once for renovation, and recently for the Covid-19 pandemic. We are pleased to return, and further pleased that you have joined us. On behalf of the singers in the May Festival Chamber Choir, the May Festival Youth Chorus and the Xavier University Choir, thank you!
The combined forces of the Youth Chorus (grades 8–12) and Xavier University Choir (undergraduates) open tonight’s program with a musical statement of welcome from composer R. Nathaniel Dett (1882–1943). Dett, whose oratorio The Ordering of Moses was premiered at the 1937 May Festival and recorded by the May Festival Chorus and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 2014, describes “Let Us Cheer the Weary Traveler” as “a Negro Spiritual in the form of a short unaccompanied motet for mixed voices.” The melody is taken from the publication Religious Folk Songs of the Negro as sung at Hampton Institute, edited by Dett during his legendary tenure on Hampton’s faculty.
We continue with the world premiere of “When Music Sounds” by Gwyneth Walker. Walker, who adapted a poem from British poet Walter de la Mare (1873–1956), writes: “This music was composed during the Covid pandemic of 2020. This was a stay-at-home time when concerts and concert travels were canceled. Yet, with composing music as the center of daily thought and activity, the ‘physical limitations’ of a confined life were transcended. Music, aqua-nymphs, loveliness, ecstasies, and imagination prevailed!”
British singer, composer and conductor Joanna Forbes L’Estrange graduated from Oxford and began her professional career as a singer in, and later music director of, the legendary a cappella ensemble The Swingles (founded as The Swingle Singers by Ward Swingle, a 1950 graduate of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music). Her King’s College Service was written for conductor Ben Parry and King’s Voices, the undergraduate and graduate mixed choir at King’s College, Cambridge. (While a student at King’s, Youth Chorus director Matthew Swanson sang in King’s Voices.) The legacy of choral music at King’s dates to the founding of the college in 1441. The College notes that “except for a few years in the 1550s under Edward VI, and during the period of the Commonwealth in the 1650s, when services in the Chapel were suppressed,” choral serivces have been sung continuously at King’s for over 500 years.
The choirs continue with two contemporary spirituals. The first, Rosephanye Powell’s evocative setting of a Langston Hughes (1902–1967) poem, was commissioned by MUSE: Cincinnati’s Women’s Choir for the 2008 installment of their New Spirituals Project. The premiere was given by MUSE (Dr. Catherine Roma, Artistic Director) and the Central State University Chorus (Dr. William Caldwell, Director). We continue with an arrangement of “Down by the Riverside” by Ryan O’Connell. Popularized by Pete Seeger in the 1960s, “Down by the Riverside” loosely paraphrases the Old Testament prophet Isaiah: “…they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” The earliest mention of the tune is in the late 19th century, although it may have originated earlier. As with thousands of African-American spiritual tunes and source melodies, the specific names of the composer or lyricist are sadly lost to history.
The Youth Chorus and Xavier Choir conclude with a work by Nico Muhly, “Warm Summer Sun.” Muhly’s simple and poignant setting of this Mark Twain (1835–1910) text was commissioned by the Britten Pears Foundation (Suffolk, UK) as part of the Friday Afternoons Project, a program that encourages singing in primary schools across the UK. The work is originally scored for treble voices; this is the first performance of a rescoring for mixed voices.
Between the choirs, organist Michael Unger shares an organ work by Edward Bairstow, legendary director of music at York Minster and one of the leading choral pedagogues in England during his lifetime.
The May Festival Chamber Choir, which draws its membership from the May Festival Chorus, offers a program of English music, beginning with two works for double choir. William Walton’s exuberant Jubilate Deo, a setting of Psalm 100, premiered 50 years ago this month at the English Bach Festival in a performance by the Choir of Christ Church, Oxford, with organist Stephen Darlington and conductor Simon Preston. Walton, one of the most important British composers of the 20th century and a former chorister and undergraduate at Christ Church, composed in many genres, as demonstrated by his symphonies, concerti, choral works (including the choral-orchestral tour-de-force of Belshazzar’s Feast, which Robert Porco conducted during the 2010 May Festival) and film scores; unique among them all is Façade, a strikingly modernist work for speaker(s) and chamber ensemble. William Harris’ “Bring Us, O Lord God” clothes in sumptuous fashion a benediction from the pen of John Donne (1572–1631). This motet, beloved by choral singers, was written late in the composer’s life, near the end of his long and influential career as an organist and choir director. From 1933 to 1961 he was Director of Music at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, one of Her Majesty’s Chapels Royal.
Jonathan Dove has written extensively for both choral and instrumental forces, and his imaginative style is on full display in “Seek Him that Maketh the Seven Stars,” a setting of texts from the Old Testament prophet Amos and Psalm 139. Judith Weir, herself a graduate of King’s College and the current Master of the Queen’s Music, contributed this dramatic and colorful setting of Ave Regina caelorum to the Merton Choirbook, a collection of music assembled to celebrate the 750th anniversary of Merton College, Oxford, in 2014. The premiere was given by the Merton College Choir at Gloucester Cathedral in the same year. The work is dedicated to the memory of fellow composer Sir John Tavener, a towering figure in British choral music who died in November 2013.
The concert concludes with two beloved works by Herbert Howells. Though unknown to many concert audiences in America, Howells is revered by choral singers in England and elsewhere for his inestimable contributions to the English choral repertoire. While deputizing as substitute organist at St. John’s College, Cambridge during World War II (the college organist, Robin Orr, was serving in the Royal Air Force), Howells wrote “Like as the Hart Desireth the Waterbrooks,” a brooding setting of text from Psalm 42. Just a few short years later, he was enticed by a bet to write a setting of the “Te Deum” text for the Choir of King’s College. He shortly thereafter wrote a “Jubilate Deo,” thus completing the canticles (sacred songs) required for the service of Matins, the morning liturgy in the Church of England. Settings for the evening liturgy, Evensong, soon followed. Known by the Latin name of King’s College, these Collegium Regale canticles are the first of Howells’ 20 (!) different settings of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis; nearly all were written for particular chapels or cathedrals. The canticles display Howells’ trademarks: rhapsodic, fluid vocal lines; grand, dramatic and idiomatic use of the organ; and a harmonic language influenced as much by Impressionism, Romanticism and 20th-century daring as by Renaissance and Tudor compositional practices.
We are grateful to you for attending this evening, and we look forward to seeing all of you at Music Hall next month for an extraordinary array of choral music. Only at the May Festival will one find the bold creative vision of John Adams in El Niño; the sharp wit of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide; a trio of South American epics from Ginastera, Villa-Lobos and Estévez; and the indefatigable Symphony No. 9 of Beethoven. All this in just two weekends! Don’t miss a single moment.
—Robert Porco, Director of Choruses, and
Matthew Swanson, Associate Director of Choruses

Refrain:
Let us cheer the weary traveler,
Cheer the weary traveler;
Let us cheer the weary traveler,
Along the heavenly way.

I’ll take my gospel trumpet,
And I’ll begin to blow,
And if my Saviour helps me
I will blow wherever I go. [Refrain]

And if you meet with crosses
And trials on the way,
Just keep your trust in Jesus,
And don’t forget to pray. [Refrain]

World Premiere, May Festival Youth Chorus commission
Text adapted from the poem “Music” by Walter de la Mare

When music sounds, gone is the earth I know,
And all her lovely things even lovelier grow;
Her flowers in vision flame, her forest trees
Lift burdened branches, stilled with ecstasies.
When music sounds, out of the water rise
Aqua nymphs whose beauty dims my waking eyes,
Rapt in fantasies glows each enchanted face,
With solemn echoing stirs their dwelling-place.
When music sounds, all that I was I am
Even before to this earth of dust I came;
And from the woods break forth into distant song
The flying hours, as I rush along.
A song of love and light…
A song of darkness and of pain…
A song I sing, a song of romance and delight…
A song to awake the heart again…
The flowers in vision flame, the forest trees
Lift burdened branches, stilled with ecstacies,
And all these lovely things even lovelier grow.
When music sounds, gone is the earth I know.

MAGNIFICAT
My soul doth magnify the Lord,
and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
For he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden.
For behold, from henceforth all generations
shall call me blessed.
And his mercy is on them that fear him
throughout all generations.
He hath shewed strength with his arm.
He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat
and hath exalted the humble and meek.
He hath filled the hungry with good things.
And the rich he hath sent empty away.
He remembering his mercy hath holpen
his servant Israel
as he promised to our forefathers,
Abraham and his seed, forever.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.

NUNC DIMITTIS
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,
according to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles,
and to be the glory of thy people Israel.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.

Text by Langston Hughes

To sit and dream, to sit and read,
To sit and learn about the world
Outside our world of here and now—
Our problem world—
To dream of vast horizons of the soul
Of dreams made whole,
Unfettered, free—help me!
All you who are dreamers too,
Help me to make our world anew.
I reach out my hand to you.

Gonna lay down my burden, down by the riverside.
I ain’t gonna study war no more.
I’m gonna put on my long white robe.
Oh, where? Down by the riverside,
And I ain’t gonna study war no more.
Gonna lay down my sword and shield,
Down by the riverside,
And I ain’t gonna study war no more.

Text by Mark Twain

(Good night, good night…)
Warm summer sun,
Shine kindly here,
Warm southern wind,
Blow softly here.
Green sod above,
Lie light, lie light.
Good night, dear heart,
Good night.

O be joyful in the Lord all ye lands; serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with a song. Be ye sure that the Lord he is God; it is he that hath made us and not we ourselves; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. O go your way into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise; be thankful unto him and speak good of his Name. For the Lord is gracious; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth from generation to generation. Glory 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.

Text by John Donne

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.

Amos 5:8; Psalm 139

and turneth the shadow of death into the morning.
Alleluia, yea, the darkness shineth as the day,
the night is light about me. Amen.

Ave Regina caelorum,
Ave Domina Angelorum,
Salve radix, salve porta,
Ex qua mundo lux est orta.
Gaude, Virgo gloriosa,
Super omnes speciosa,
Vale, O valde decora!
Et pro nobis Christum exora.

Hail, Queen of Heaven,
Hail, Lady of Angels,
Hail, thou root, hail thou gate
From whom into the world, a light has arisen:
Rejoice, glorious Virgin,
Lovely above all others,
Farewell, most beautiful maiden,
And pray for us to Christ.

Like as the hart desireth the waterbrooks,
So longeth my soul after thee, O God.
My soul is a-thirst for God, yea, even for the living God.
When shall I come to appear before the presence of God?
My tears have been my meat day and night,
While they daily say unto me, Where is now thy God?

MAGNIFICAT
My soul doth magnify the Lord,
and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
For he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden.
For behold, from henceforth all generations
shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath magnified me,
and holy is his Name.
And his mercy is on them that fear him
throughout all generations.
He hath shewed strength with his arm.
He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat
and hath exalted the humble and meek.
He hath filled the hungry with good things.
And the rich he hath sent empty away.
He remembering his mercy hath holpen
his servant Israel
as he promised to our forefathers,
Abraham and his seed, forever.
Glory 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.

NUNC DIMITTIS
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,
according to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles,
and to be the glory of thy people Israel.
Glory 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.

Matthew Swanson is the Associate Director of Choruses and the Director of the Youth Chorus at the Cincinnati May Festival. He annually prepares the May Festival Chorus and Youth Chorus for performances with the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestras, and for their featured appearances at the May Festival.

Under his leadership, the May Festival has instituted an annual Youth Chorus commissioning project; the May Festival Community Chorus; the presentation of community choral concerts at Music Hall during the May Festival; a robust program of professional voice instruction, free to Chorus and Youth Chorus members; the Festival’s community choral podcast “Sing the Queen City”; and free in-school choral clinics for area high schools.

Beyond the May Festival, his affiliations have included the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center (New York), Schola Antiqua (Chicago), and the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain. He was previously an instructor in the Early Music Lab and the Division of Music Education at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), as well as the chorus master of CCM Opera. In 2021, he leads the choral program at Xavier University.

Mr. Swanson is a native of southeast Iowa. He earned an undergraduate degree in trumpet performance and American Studies at the University of Notre Dame; master’s degrees in choral conducting and choral studies from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, and King’s College, Cambridge, respectively; and a doctorate of musical arts in conducting from UC-CCM. He was awarded the May Festival Choral Conducting Fellowship in 2015.

Originally from Toronto, Canada, Michael Unger is a multiple award-winning performer who appears as a soloist and chamber musician in North America, Europe, Japan and South Korea. Since 2013, he is the Associate Professor of Organ and Harpsichord at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He is a First Prize and Audience Prize winner of the National Young Artists’ Competition of the American Guild of Organists (NYACOP), a First Prize winner of the International Organ Competition Musashino-Tokyo, and a Second Prize and Audience Award winner of the International Schnitger Organ Competition on the historic organs of Alkmaar, the Netherlands. Recent solo recitals include performances for national conventions of the American Guild of Organists, Organ Historical Society and Historical Keyboard Society of North America, ‘Five Continents – Five Organists’ Festival at Seoul’s Sejong Center, Internationale Orgelwoche Nürnberg – Musica Sacra, and numerous international and regional recital series. In 2018, he premiered two Preludes and Fugues by American composer Henry Martin for the national convention of the American Guild of Organists in Kansas City, Missouri. Recent harpsichord collaborations include Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Collegium Cincinnati, Catacoustic Consort, and Publick Musick, with repertoire that includes the complete Brandenburg Concertos and Sonatas for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach. He received favorable international reviews for his debut solo recordings under the Naxos and Pro Organo labels, and his performances have been broadcast on North American and European radio, including syndicated programs Pipedreams and With Heart and Voice. He was a guest faculty at the 2015 and 2016 Smarano International Academies in Trentino, Italy, the 2019 Colorado State University Organ Week, and has given masterclasses at several North American universities and conservatories.
Michael Unger holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts with Performers’ Certificate from the Eastman School of Music, where he was a student and teaching assistant of David Higgs and William Porter, and recipient of the school’s Jerald C. Graue Musicology Fellowship. He is also a Gold Medal graduate of the University of Western Ontario, where he studied with Larry Cortner and Sandra Mangsen, and has pursued post-graduate coaching in Cincinnati with Roberta Gary. Formerly the Director of Music at the Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word in Rochester, New York, he currently serves as organist of Cincinnati’s historic Isaac M. Wise – Plum Street Temple

Dr. Matthew Swanson, director
David Kirkendall, Accompanist and Assistant Director
Dr. Eva Floyd, Musicianship Instructor
Kathryn Zajac Albertson, Chorus Manager

Ava Altenau
Calia Burdette
Angelina Bush
Ella Clark
Julia Devadason
Gabrielle Dodd
Lucas Dodd
Oscar Dreith
Gwyneth Gaunt
Abigail Guinigundo
Natalie Hoover
Katie Kear
Cecelia McDaniel
Daniel McDowell
Lydia Naberhaus
Kennedy Ranford
Jen Siler
Trent Stricker
Rhea Umrani
Anna Varisco
Ansley Varisco
Olivia Wetzel

Dr. Matthew Swanson, director

Vanessa Aldstadt
Maddie Asbridge
Richard Becker
Lacey Bigelow
Miracle Cadwallader
Matthys Cieplak
April Cracraft
Caitlin Diamente
Taniya Dsouza
Kyle Flynn
Simon Gabel
Jaden Gaines
Alyssa Gries
Maggie Hohlefelder
Hannah Kaiser
Alexa Kreuzer
Elijah Lanham
Julia Lankisch
Julia Lawrence
Jana Maras
Hannah Martin
Cailin McCracken
Madeline Mogyordy
Lauren Pfeifer
Regina Rancourt
Ashley Rayzer
Jackson Reppart
Hallie Rodman
Steven Stanton
Taylor Terrell
Mollie Vonderhaar
Olivia Wakefield
Chancellor Waye
Evan Young

Robert Porco, director
Matthew Swanson, Associate Director of Choruses
Heather MacPhail, Accompanist
Matthew Swope, Conducting Fellow
Kathryn Zajac Albertson, Chorus Manager
Bryce Newcomer, Chorus Librarian

Sopranos
Kathryn Zajac Albertson
Karen Bastress
Dawn Bruestle
Rachel Dummermuth
Anita Marie Greer
Sarah Grogan
Carolyn Hill
HyeJung Jun
Audrey Markovich
Zohar Perla
Lauren Peter
Kristi Reed
Yvon Shore

Altos
Erika Emody
Sarah Fall
Amanda Gast
Jean Graves
Beth Huntley
Megan Lawson
Tiffany Lin
Ashlinn Meechan
Amy Perry
Megan Weaver

Tenors
Avery Bargasse
David Bower
Douglas Easterling
Tyler Johnson
Larry Reiring
Jeffrey Stivers
Matthew Swanson
Matthew Swope

Basses
Darren Bryant
Chris Canarie
Steven Dauterman
Steve France
Mark Hockenberry
Daniel Parsley
Justin Peter
Jim Racster
Brian Reilly
Joe Taff