Ars Nova CopenhagenPaul HillierOh

the happy journey

Ann-Christin Wesser Ingels, Kate Macoboy, Malene Nordtorp

Ellen Marie Brink Christensen, Elenor Wiman, Hanna-Maria Strand Jakob Skjoldborg, Luís Toscano, Paul Bentley-Angell

Thomas Kiørbye, Asger Lynge Petersen, Jakob Soelberg

Paul Hillier, dirigent

Program

I Beginning Shaker songs Hail the memorable morn;In yonder valley;

Lodle; Oh the happy journey; Give good gifts; Simple gifts

Howard Skempton (*1947) More sweet than my refrain

David Lang (*1957) When we were children

II Middle

William Billings (1746-1800) I am the Rose of Sharon

Steve Reich (*1936) Clapping Music (arr. Paul Hillier)

Louis Andriessen (*1939) Un beau baiser

Terry Riley (*1935) Mexico City Blues #193

III Ending

Abraham Wood (1752-1804) Brevity

Justin Morgan (1747-1798) Amanda

William Billings Jargon

Michael Gordon (*1956) He saw a skull

Elisha West (1756-1808) Evening Shade

Koncerten udsendes på DR P2 den 29. april kl. 20.00

I Beginning

Shaker Songs Shakerne er en af de ældste religiøse sekter i Amerika udsprunget fra kvækerne i det 18. århundrede. De blev kendt som ‘Shaking Quakers’ på grund af deres ekstatiske opførsel under gudstjenester. Det meste Shaker musik er enstemmigt med en enkelt melodisk linje uden harmonisering. Deres melodier og skalaer, der ofte er af ekstraordinær ynde og skønhed, vækker mindelser om folkesange fra de britiske øer. Shakersangene, skønt deres udbredelse er relativt lille, er en vigtig del af den amerikanske kulturarv og af verdens religiøse musik i almindelighed. De fremførte sange kredser om uskyld og den barnlige renhed og enkelhed. ”Oh the happy Journey that we are pursuing! Come brethren and sisters, let’s all strip to run.” More sweet than my refrain (2015) Howard Skempton | Tekst: Ralph Waldo Emmerson (1913-2007)

More sweet than my refrain Was the first drop of April rain When we were children (2013) David Lang | Tekst: David Lang (efter Paulus)

Remembering Saint Paul's: “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

That is the King James version. Of course, this line wasn’t originally in English. Paul was born a Jew in what is now Turkey, he worshipped in Hebrew and he spoke Greek. This famous Christian line must have gone on an interesting journey to get to King James, and to us. I compiled all the differing translations into English that I could find, I cut them up into phrases and I alphabetized them, creating a kind of catalog of its meaning, as it changes from translation to translation.

– David Lang

I am done with childish ways I did away with childish things I do not act like a child anymore I felt as a child I gave up childish ways I gurgled and cooed like any infant I had done with what belonged to the child I had the intelligence I had the understanding of a child I have finished with childish ways I have made useless the things of the babe I have no more use for childish ways I have outgrown childish ways I have put away childish things I left those infant ways for good I no longer used childish ways I put an end to childish ways I put aside childish things I put away childish things I put away the things of a child I put childish ways behind me I put the ways of childhood behind me I reasoned as a child I reasoned like a child I set aside childish ways I set aside the things of a child I set aside those childish ways I spake as a child I spake as a little child I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child I spoke as a child I spoke like a child I stopped doing things like a child I stopped those childish ways I talked and felt and thought like a little child I talked like a child I thought as a child I thought as a little child I thought like a child I understood as a child I understood as a little child I understood like a child I used to speak like a child I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child

I voided those things that were of a little child I’ve put an end to childish things and have put them aside and I made plans like a child and reasoned like a child and when I have become a man argued like a child as a babe I was reasoning as a babe I was speaking as a babe I was thinking as children do but, when I became a man but now that I have become a man but when I became a man but when I became an adult, but when I grew up but when I was made a man but when we grew up just so my childish speech and feeling and thought have no further significance for me my speech, feelings, and thinking were all those of a child now I am a man now that I am a man now that I am an adult now that I am become a man now that I have become a man reason like a child since I became a man the thoughts of a child think like a child thought like a child we quit our childish ways we thought and reasoned when I became a man when I became an adult when I grew up when I was a babe when I was a child when I was a little child when I was an infant at my mother’s breast when we were children

II Middle

I am the Rose of Sharon (1778) William Billings | Song of Solomon 2:1-11

I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valley; I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valley; As the lily among the thorns, so is my love among the daughters, As the apple tree, the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, And his fruit was sweet to my taste; And his fruit, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house His banner over me was love, He brought me to the banqueting house His banner over me was love. Stay me with flagons, Comfort me with apples, for I am sick, for I am sick, for I am sick of love; I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, By the roses, and by the hinds of the field, That you stir not up, That you stir not up, That you stir not up, that you stir not up, nor awake, awake, awake, awake, my love, till he please. The voice of my beloved, Behold! he cometh, leaping upon the mountains skipping, skipping, skipping, skipping, leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. The voice of my beloved, Behold! he cometh, leaping upon the mountains skipping, skipping, skipping, skipping, leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. My beloved spake, And said unto me, Rise up, Rise up, Rise up, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the rain is over, the rain is over and gone. For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.

Clapping Music Steve Reich (arr. Paul Hillier)

Un beau baiser (1980) Louis Andriessen | Alfred de Musset (1810-1857) fra digtet Madame de Marquise

Donne-moi, ma belle maîtresse, Un beau baiser, car je te veux Raconter ma longue détresse, En caressant tes beaux cheveux. Giv mig, min smukke elskerinde, Et smukt kys, fordi jeg vil have dig Fortælle min lange nød Stryge dit smukke hår. Chorus 193 (1993) Terry Riley | Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) fra The Mexico City Blues

Who has Accomplished And is accomplishing And will accomplish All these words Of mystery Svaha So be it Amen Numberless roses arranged, The milk of merriment Without the curds, The Pleased Milk Of Humankindness The Frowns of worried saints The helpless Hands of Buddha burning The Crown Prince of the Lotus Blossom Sky Lover of all the mental phantoms in the mind – Wordmaker, curdmaker Kingmaker, Ding Dong, the Buddha’s Gong

III Ending

Brevity (1800) Abraham Wood | William Woty (1731-1791)

Man, born of woman, like a flow’r short liv’d is seen to rise; At morning blooms, at ev’ning hour He withers, falls, and dies. Amanda (1787) Justin Morgan | Isaac Watts (1747-1798) Death, like an overflowing stream, Sweeps us away; our life’s a dream, An empty tale, a morning flower, Cut down and withered in an hour. Our age to seventy years is set; How short the time! how frail the state! And if to eighty we arrive, We rather sigh and groan than live. Teach us, O Lord, how frail is man; And kindly lengthen out our span, Till a wise care of piety Fit us to die, and dwell with Thee. Jargon (1778) William Billings

Let horrid Jargon fill the Air And rive the Nerves asunder. Let hateful Discord greet the Ear As terrible as Thunder. Let harmony be banish'd hence And Consonance depart; Let dissonance erect her throne And reign within my Heart.

He Saw a Skull (2008) Michael Gordon

Composed for the 12 voices of Ars Nova Copenhagen, in which the singers are divided into four groups of three voices, each group singing major and minor triads approached by glissando. The text is taken from a short saying by Rabbi Hillel found in the Talmudic tractate Pirkei Avot: He saw a skull floating on the water. He said to the skull, “Because you drowned others, they drowned you. And they who drowned you will themselves be drowned.” – Michael Gordon Evening Hymn (1802) Elish West | John Leland (1754-1841)

The day is past and gone The evening shades appears Oh, may we all remember well The night of death draws near We lay our garments by Upon our beds to rest So death will soon disrobe us all Of what we here possess Lord, keep us safe this night Secure from all our fears May angels guard us while we sleep Till morning light appears And when we early rise And view the unwearied sun May we set out to win the prize And after glory run And when our days are past And we from time remove Oh, may we in thy bosom rest Thy bosom of thy love

ARS NOVA Copenhagen blev grundlagt i 1979 og har for længst etableret sig som et af verdens fineste vokalensembler. Ensemblets chefdirigent og kunstneriske leder siden 2003 er den anerkendte engelske dirigent Paul Hillier. Ars Nova har desuden arbejdet med bl.a. Bo Holten, Tamás Vetö (begge tidligere chefdirigenter), Kaspars Putnins, Andrew Lawrence King, Anthony Rooley, Michael Bojesen og Søren Kinch Hansen (som alle har optrådt som gæstedirigenter). Ars Nova har den lidt usædvanlige konstruktion, at det er sangerne der ejer ensemblet og er den øverste beslutningsmyndighed. Gruppen omfavner således sammen med Paul Hillier den kunstneriske vision at være førende indenfor ensemblesangens svære kunst.   Ensemblet har specialiseret sig i fortolkning af renæssancens polyfone kormusik og ny vokalmusik, der udføres med præcision og nerve og med en sound, som vækker opmærksomhed overalt i verden. Med en årlig koncertsæson i København og Århus, adskillige koncerter i det øvrige Danmark og tilbagevendende turnéer verden over, er gruppen i dag mere efterspurgt end nogensinde. I det kommende år besøger gruppen bl.a. Kina på en længere turné, som en markant del af det danske kulturfremstød. Ars Nova aflægger i 2015 også besøg i bl.a. Ukraine, Tjekkiet og Spanien. Ars Nova har indspillet en lang række CD’er, der har vundet adskillige priser; heriblandt en Grammy for The Little Match Girl Passion med musik af David Lang. To aktuelle cd’er på DaCapo er ’Carambolage’ i samarbejde med Århus Sinfonietta med musik af Axel Borup Jørgensen (november 2014) og ’Carl Nielsen – Songs for Choir’ med 21 sange af 150-års jubilaren (december 2014). Andre nyere udgivelser (i udvalg) er ’Creator Spiritus’ på Harmonia Mundi med musik af Arvo Pärt og ’The Golden Age of Danish Partsongs’ på DaCapo Records med musik af en perlerække af de bedste danske vokalkomponister fra de seneste 200 år. Gruppen arbejder i øjeblikket på flere udgivelser med musik af 2015-jubilaren, Carl Nielsen. Således indspillede gruppen i januar Nielsens Tre motetter. Desuden udkommer i sommeren 2015 en cd med musik af argentiske Pablo Ortiz.

Paul Hillier er fra Dorset i England og er uddannet fra Guildhall School of Music and Drama i London. I løbet af sin karriere har han virket som både dirigent, sanger, lærer, redaktør og forfatter. Han var grundlægger og kunstnerisk leder af Hilliard Ensemblet, og senere grundlagde han Theatre of Voices. Han har undervist i USA ved University of California i Santa Cruz og Davis og i perioden 1996-2003 som leder af Early Music Institute ved Indiana University School of Music. Han var kunstnerisk leder og chefdirigent for det Estiske Filharmoniske Kammerkor 2001-2007 og har været chefdirigent for Ars Nova Copenhagen siden 2003. Hans mere end hundrede cd-indspilninger (som bl.a. omfatter 7 solo recitals) har indbragt ham verdensomspændende hæder og adskillige priser. Hans bøger om Arvo Pärt og Steve Reich er – sammen med adskillige kormusik antologier – udgivet på Oxford University Press. I 2006 fik Paul Hillier en O.B.E. (Order of the British Empire) for sin indsats for kormusikken, og i marts 2007 tildeltes han Den Hvide Stjernes Orden af 4. grad for sin indsats for estisk musikliv og modtog en Grammy for Best Choral Recording. I 2008 blev Paul Hillier udnævnt til chefdirigent/kunstnerisk leder for The National Chamber Choir of Ireland samt kunstnerisk leder for det nydannede Coro Casa da Música i Porto, Portugal. I 2009 var han 'artist in residence' på Institute for Sacred Music på Yale University. I 2010 modtog han sin anden Grammy - for David Langs The Little Match Girl Passion. I 2013 blev han tildelt Ridderkorset.

Ars Nova Copenhagen er venligst støttet af:

Statens Kunstråd, Det Obelske Familiefond, Dansk Korforbund, Augustinus Fonden, Dronning Margrethes og Prins Henriks Fond, Knud Højgårds

Fond, Oticon Fonden, Toyota Fonden, Wilhelm Hansen Fonden, Københavns Musikudvalg, Sonning Fonden og Frimodt-Heineke Fonden.

Mediepartner: Politiken & DR P2

Du kan på arsnova.dk tilmelde dig ensemblets nyhedsbrev.