There’s a meeting here tonight,
there’s a meeting here tonight,

I can tell by your friendly face
there’s a meeting here tonight. Hallelujah!

Well I went down in the valley one day,
met ol’ Satan on my way.
Whaddaya reckon ol’ Satan did say?
He said, Get back, young man,
you’re too young to pray!

Well Satan is mad and I am glad,
Lost a soul he thought he had.
Satan is a liar and a conjurer too—
you better watch out, brother,
he’ll conjure you.

O sacrum convivium
in quo Christus sumitur
recolitur memoria passionis ejus.
Mens impletur gratia
et futurae gloriae nobis pignus datur.
Alleluia.

O Sacred Banquet
O sacred banquet
in which Christ is received
the memorial of his passion is remembered.
The soul is filled with grace
and a future glory is pledged to us.
Alleluia.

L’ultimo di de Maggio,
Un bel mattino per la fresca rosata
Se n’andava la bella al suo giardino
Da vinti damigelle accompagnata.
Ogni una innamorata,
Gentil, accorta e bella.
Tandaridondella.

Oimè, che l’è pur quella
Che m’ha ligato il cor che me l’ha tolto
Con la beltà del suo splendento volto.

C’una ghirlanda di bel gelsomino:
Sopra la treccia ornata,
Lieta lei se n’andava al suo camino,
Il primo giorno di Pasqua rosata.
O felice giornata!
Joconda, allegra e bella.
Tandaridondella…

On the Last Day of May
The last day of May,
At cool dawn of a beautiful day,
the lovely girl went into the garden
accompanied by twenty pretty young maids,
Each one in love,
gentle, demure, and lovely.
(nonsense.)

Alas, it is she
who has chained my heart
with the beauty of her shining visage.

With a garland of sweet gelsomine
that crowns her braids,
She gracefully went her way
On the first day of rosy Easter.
O happy day,
Merry, gay, and lovely.

(trans. D. Stowe)

Beati mortui in Domino morientes deinceps.
Dicit enim Spiritus, ut requiescant a laboribus suis
et opera illorum sequuntur ipsos.

Blessed are the Dead
Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord henceforth.
Yea, saith the Spirit, they will rest from their labors,
and their works will follow after them.

—Revelation 14:13

Schlafe, Liebchen, weil’s auf Erden
nun so still und einsam wird!
oben gehn die goldnen Herden,
für uns alle wacht der Hirt.

Schlingend sich an Baum und Zweigen,
in dein stilles Kämmerlein,
wie auf gold‘nen Leitern steigen,
diese Töne aus und ein.

Und der Töne Klang entführet
weit der buhlerische Wind,
und durch Schloss und Wand ihn spüret
träumend wohl das süße Kind.

Evening Serenade
Sleep, my dearest, for here on earth
it is now so quiet and still!
The golden flocks graze above,
and over us all watches the shepherd.

These tones twine in and out around a tree and branch
in your quiet little room,
climbing as if on golden ladders,
these sounds, in and out.

And the sound of these tones is carried
far away on a caressing breeze
and through wall and lock, I hope,
my sweet child hears them in her dreams.

(Eichendorff, trans. D. Stowe)

Lowlands, lowlands, away, my John.
Oh my old mother, she wrote to me.
My dollar and a half a day.

She wrote to me to come home from sea.
A dollar a day is a Hoosier’s pay.
All in the night my true love came,
She came to my all in my sleep.
And then I knew my love was dead.
Lowlands, lowlands, away, my John.

Oh, blow the man down, bullies, blow the man down
To me way, ay, blow the man down,
Blow the man down, bullies, blow him away,
Gimme some time to blow the man down.

We went over the bar on the thirteenth of May,
The Galloper jumped and the gale came away.

As I was a-walkin’ down Paradise Street
A saucy young damsel I happened to meet.

I sez to her “Polly, and how d’ you do?”
sez she, “None the better for seein’ of you!”

So we’ll blow the man up and we’ll blow the man down
And we’ll blow him away into Liverpool town.

Oh, all the money that e’re I had,
I spent it in good company.
And all the harm that e’re I done,
alas, it was to none but me.
And all I’ve done for want of wit,
to mem’ry now I can’t recall.
So fill to me the parting glass,
goodnight, and joy be with you all.

Oh all the comrades that e’re I had
Are sorry for my going away.
And all the sweethearts that e’re I had
would wish me one more day to stay.
But since it falls unto my lot
that I should rise and you should not,
I’ll gently rise and softly call
Goodnight, and joy be with you all.

Matthew Swanson, conductor

Matthew Swanson is the Associate Director of Choruses and the Director of the May Festival Youth Chorus. 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.

Additional 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 College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), as well as the chorus master of CCM Opera. He currently leads the choral program at Xavier University.

A native of southeast Iowa, Swanson 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 CCM and King’s College, Cambridge, respectively; and a doctorate of musical arts in conducting from CCM. He was awarded the May Festival Choral Conducting Fellowship in 2015.

MEMBERS OF THE MAY FESTIVAL CHORUS

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

The May Festival Chorus has earned acclaim locally, nationally and internationally for its musicality, vast range of repertoire and sheer power of sound. The Chorus of 125 professionally trained singers is the core artistic element of the Cincinnati May Festival as well as the official chorus of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops. Throughout a typical season the chorus members collectively devote more than 40,000 hours in rehearsals and performances.

Founded in 1873, the annual May Festival is the oldest, and one of the most prestigious, choral festivals in the Western Hemisphere. The annual Festival, now under the artistic leadership of Principal Conductor Juanjo Mena, boasts the May Festival Chorus—with choral preparation by Robert Porco—and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as anchors, hosts an international array of guest artists and presents two spectacular weekends of dynamic programming. James Conlon, who in 2016 brought to a close an unprecedented 37-year tenure as May Festival Music Director, was named Music Director Laureate upon his retirement. Many important choral works have received their World and American pre- mieres at the May Festival, including Johann Sebastian Bach’s Magnificat, Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, Benjamin Britten’s Gloriana, Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Death of the Bishop of Brindisi and Robert Nathaniel Dett’s The Ordering of Moses. 

The May Festival Chorus is endowed by the Betsy & Alex Young Chair.

Members of the May Festival Chorus
Simon Gabel
Mark Hockenberry
Tyler Johnson
Eli Lanham
Robert Lomax
Daniel Parsley
Larry Reiring
Jeffrey Stivers
Matthew Swanson
Chancellor Waye
Evan Young

Members of the Xavier University Choir

Matthew Swanson, director

The Xavier Choir, the primary choral ensemble in Xavier University’s Department of Music and Theatre, comprises students from a broad range of academic programs. The choir performs frequently on campus, around Cincinnati, and across the country. A highlight of the current academic year was a performance at the installation of Xavier’s 35th president, Dr. Colleen Hanycz. Ensembles in Xavier’s Department of Music and Theatre combine to reach approximately 10,000 people each year, and their activities are rooted in the University’s fervent tradition of service to others. Xavier University is a Jesuit Catholic University in Cincinnati, annually ranked among the nation’s best universities. Founded in 1831, Xavier is the oldest Catholic College in Ohio. Its four colleges offer 90+ undergraduate majors, 60+ minors and 40+ graduate programs to approximately 7,000 total students, including 5,000 undergraduates. xavier.edu