THE DALE WARLAND SINGERSThe Dale Warland Singers, widely recognized as one

of the nation's foremost professional choral ensembles,have become especially well known for superb a cappellaperformances of choral masterworks and for expand-ing the choral repertoire through commissions ofexciting new works. The 36-voice group was foundedin 1972 in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul,and since has developed a loyal following of millionsthrough domestic and international tours, subscriptionconcerts, recordings and appearances on A Prairie HomeCompanion and St. Paul Sunday Morning. An annualholiday program, Echoes of Christmas, is heard by anestimated 7 million American Public Radio listenerseach year.

Also contributing to The Singers' popularity are na-tional tour performances by the two ensemblesperforming this concert: the Dale Warland ChamberEnsemble and the Warland Cabaret Singers, a 12-mem-ber ensemble that presents jaZZ and show tunes. Thelarger Warland Symphonic Chorus reaches thousandsmore in performances of major choral-symphonicworks, in collaborations with renowned orchestras andartists including Edo de Waart, David Zinman, RobertShaw, Roger Norrington, Leonard Slatkin and NevilleMarriner.

With contemporary music at the core of their mission,The Singers have commissioned works by DominickArgento, Stephen Paulus, George Shearing, Libby Larsen,William Schuman, and many others. This commitmentbrought The Singers the first annual Margaret HillisAchievement Award for Choral Excellence in 1992 andback-to-back ASCAP Awards for Adventuresome Pro-gramming in 1992 and 1993

Annual tours throughout North America, with per-formances in communities of all sizes, have also earnedThe Singers a national reputation as Minnesota's pre-mier choral ensemble. The group has served asambassadors for the state on three European tours andperformances on German, Swedish and Finnish StateRadio and Television. In addition, it served as choir-in-residence at the second World Symposium on ChoralMusic in 1990, and the California State UniversitySummer Arts Program in 1991.

Among The Singers' acclaimed recordings are theholiday albums A Rose in Winter, Christmas Echoes,Volumes I and II, and Carols For Christmas, as well asChoral Currents, produced in collaboration with theMinnesota Composers Forum; Americana: A Bit of Folk;and an all-Argento album. In mid-January 1994 theyreleased their latest recording, Fancie, featuring folksongs and choral gems by composers as varied as Rossini,Brahms, Rorem and Britten, as well as jaZZ selections bythe Warland Cabaret Singers.

SOPRANOJane E. Andersen +Marie Spar Dymit 0Dina M. Humble +Kathy JosselynAngela MalekJulie Ann Olson +Brenda Sielaff

TENORDavid Fischer +Philip FryerThomas Larson +Steve j. Sandberg 0 +Steven StaruchFrancis John Vogt +

ALTOBASSJin KimDavid Ryan Moberg +James RamletJerry Rubino 0+Mark Sheldon +Tom Witry

Carrie L. Benson +Cyndee ChaffeeAnna MooyO+Patricia Thompson +Mitzi WestraKaren Wilkerson

o Section Leader+ Performing with the Warland Cabaret Singers

As Founder and Music Director of The Dale WarlandSingers, Dale Warland has earned a reputation forconsummate musicianship and national leadership inchoral music circles. Maestro Warland balances hiscommitment to The. Singers with a full schedule asguest conductor of such prestigious ensembles as theMormon Tabernacle Choir, the Swedish Radio Choir,the Oregon Bach Festival and the Danish Radio Choir.Warland is an active composer and a member of theAmerican Society of Composers, Authors and Publish--ers. He often serves on review boards, including thechoral and recording panels for the National Endow-ment for the Arts (NEA), and has prepared major chorusesaround the world for performances of works byKrzysztof Penderecki, with the composer conducting.

Prior to devoting himself full-time to The Singers,Warland maintained an active academic career thatincluded 19 years as director of choral music at

Macalester College in St. Paul. He holds degrees from St. Olaf College, the University of Minnesota and theUniversity of Southern California and is the recipient of major grants and honors from institutions across thecountry, including several distinguished alumni awards and an honorary doctorate. This past September he washonored by the American Choral Directors Association of Minnesota as the 1993 recipient of the F. MeliusChristiansen Award. Warland recently completed Attention to Detail, a training video for choral conductors.

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JERRY RUBINOAssistant Conductor, Pianist; Music Director of War/andCabaret Singers

Jerry Rubino holds multiple responsibilities withThe Dale Warland Singers: he is Assistant Director andpianist for the 36-voice ensemble and Chamber Sing-ers, as well as Music Director and Conductor of theWarland Cabaret Singers, whose performances includemany of his original arrangements. Rubino is a versatilemusician, giving solo and chamber performances, serv-ing as organist and choir director of the Golden ValleyMethodist Church, appearing with the Twin Cities-based New Music Theater Ensemble and MinnesotaComposers Forum, and serving frequently as choralclinician and adjudicator. Rubino began his profes-sional studies as a cellist at the Curtis Institute ofMusic, and went on to earn degrees in piano, musiceducation and conducting from Temple University andthe University Minnesota. A published arranger withJenson and Word, he was named in Who's Who in RisingYoung Americans in 1989.

DALE WARLANDFounder, Music Director and Conductor

EN ROUTETHE DALE WARLAND SINGERS, DALE WARLAND, CONDUCTOR

Tuesday, February 15, 1994,8 p.m.Colonial Church of Edina

Friday, February 25,1994,8 p.m.Christ the King Lutheran Church of New Brighton

Please hold your applause until the end of each section.

NORTH AMERICAN MADRIGALSThe Urchins' Dance (from An Elizabethan Spring) * (1983) Stephen ChatmanTears (from An Unknown Past) (1951) * Ned Rorem10 Son la Primavera (from Six Madrigals) (1986) * William HawleyOf Crows and Clusters (1972) * Norman Dello ]oio

MUSIC OF OUR TIMEThe Rose (1969) * ] ohn PaynterEpitaph for Moonlight (1968) * R. Murray Schafer

GREAT AMERICAN CHORUSESAlleluia (1940) * Randall ThompsonThe Promise of Living (from The Tender Land) Aaron Copland

NEW MUSIC FROM ESTONIARaua needmine (Curse Upon Iron) (1972, revised 1991) Veljo Tormis

-- INTERMISSION --

FOUR SHAKESPEARE SONGSFancie (1961) * Benjamin BrittenThe Cloud-Capp'd Towers (from Three Shakespeare Songs (1951) * ..Ralph Vaughan WilliamsTake, 0 Take Those Lips Away (from Three Madrigals) (1960) * Emma Lou DiemerBlow, Blow Thou Winter Wind (from Music to Hear) (1985) * George Shearing

THE WARLAND CABARET SINGERSJerry Rubino, Conductor

Selections to be announced from the stage

A BIT OF FOLKAlouette French-Canadian (Robert Sun d)Water Under Snow is Weary Finnish (Harri Wessen)o Danny Boy Irish (Fred Prentice)Cindy * American (Carol Barnett)

* recorded by The Dale Warland Singers

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PROGRAM NOTESBY BRIAN NEWHOUSE

THE URCHINS' DANCEStephen Chatman

The perfect time for hearing The Urchins' Dance wouldbe a night with a sliver of a moon hanging in the sky, anew moon that bring<; out little hobgoblins and bugaboosto go bump in the night. Chatman's urchins will tumbleand be gone in barely a minute, so keep sharp. For themost part they're very quiet, except, that is, when they justcan't help themselves and proclaim "and about go we!" inloud C-major chords.

Chatman chose an early 17th-century poem filled withopportunities for what's called word painting. A classicmadrigalist's technique, word painting is music that liter-ally describes the words. For instance, from the very firstbar a 4/8 meter alternates with a 6/8 meter, creating duple-triple-duple feel. It sounds like musical leap frog and it'sespecially perfect when the urchins call out "Two by twoand three by three!" Listen for other such fun moments.The Minnesota-born Chatman, now on the faculty of theUniversity of British Columbia, is becoming increasinglyfamous for his choral scores, and The Urchins' Dance, eventhough one of his shortest, shows why.

TEARSNed Rorem

Ned Rorem is the 20th century's Franz Schubert. Likethe Austrian of 175 years past, Rorem has staked his claimpredominantly on one musical form, song - creating hun-dreds of lean, elegant works for the voice that overshadowhis fine instrumental works (including even, the 1976Pulitzer-winning orchestral suite Air Music). Rorem wasborn in Indiana, but spent most of the 1950s in Francestudying with Honegger and Poulenc. Tears was written inHyeres and dedicated to the memory of a friend. Thistouching poem dates from the early 17th century and thebrief, beguilingly simple setting Rorem gave it is amonghis best. Rorem now lives in New York City.

10 SON LA PRIMAVERA (I AM SPRING)William HawleyIam Spring,who gladly, lovely women, returns to youwith my beautiful, embellished mantleto dress the countryside in greenery and flowersand to arouse in your hearts new loves.For me Zephir sighs,for me the earth laughs, and so the serene heavens;from breast to breast flythe charming Amoretti by the thousands,armed with arrows and with torches.And you, again delighted,Take pleasure in my coming amidst laughing and song;Love your loversnow, while April adorns lovely faces with flowers;Springfor you will not return forever.

Ask any of The Dale Warland Singers - William Hawley'smusic is as beautiful to sing as it is to hear. This New Yorknative was trained as a singer and a linguist, and has anuncommon knack for setting words to music. The Italiantext about spring's beauties flows effortlessly from thetongue and voice. Hawley's musical language couches thejazzy intervals of seconds, ninths and sevenths, in a lushantique mode.

OF CROWS AND CLUSTERSNorman Delio Joio

This nonsensical text dates from the turn of the cen-tury, when poet Vachel Lindsay, like many Americans,was enamored of fantasies like Alice in Wonderland. Here,we've two bumbling black birds sitting on a fence, "think-ing of cause and effect ... effect and cause, and of nature'slaws." One of them .stutters, the other mutters, a beebuzzes by and scares them both off, and that's that. Don'tlook for ultimate meaning here - just enjoy the wit andsnap of a great composer sporting with a goofy poem.

THE ROSEJohn PaynterOf a rose singe weMisterium mirabile (Marvelous mystery).This rose is red of colour bright,Thro' whom our joye gan alightUpon this Christmasse night,Claro David germine (Of David's noble seed).Of this rose was Christ ybore,To save mankind that was forlore,And us aile from sinnes sore.Prophetarum carmine (As sung by the prophets).

This rose of floweres she is flower;She ne will fade for no shower;To sinful men she sent succor.Mira plenitudine (Of wondrous fullness).

This rose is so fair of hue;In maid Mary that is so true¥borne was Lord of virtue,Salvator sine crimine (Saviour without sin).

The Rose has become one of the signature pieces of TheDale Warland Singers. Though intended for Christmas,the reverent, almost mystical quality of both the 15th-century text and Paynter's music is really quite timeless.'The gradual unfolding of the music symbolizes the open-ing of a rose," the composer says. To bring that off he givesthe individual singer a lot of latitude, with long sections ofpitched but freely-spoken text. The last page is haunting,charming: the choir sings over and over "Salvator , sinecrimine" (Saviour without sin) on a gently rocking rhythm,while the alto soloist takes wing. Choir and soloist diminu-endo, and the work closes as gently as a flower at sunset.

EPITAPH FOR MOONLIGHTR. Murray Schafer

In 1968 Schafer gave his seventh graders the assign-ment of creating synonyms for the word "moonlight."Their list: nu-yu-yul, noorwahm, maunklinde, malooma,shalowa and many more.

Schafer wrote the piece to depict moonlight and tocommemorate the moon's pristine environment, which herealized would be forever altered with the first moonlanding.

Musically, Epitaph is an exercise in ear training. Thereare no key signatures, bar lines, sharps or flats here - not astave of conventionally notated music. The sopranos enterhumming a "medium high note" and the choir, dividedinto 16 parts, slides in behind on descending half-steps; ifall is lined up properly, this soft mash of sound evolvesinto a major triad. Within this context, the vocalists canalter text, pitches, and rhythms to create, Schafer says,"the effect of moonlight on water."

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ALLELUIARandall Thompson

If you see a certain smile, maybe even a tear, amongstThe Singers during Thompson's Alleluia there is goodreason: this music has been sung at more Warland Wed-dings than anyone can remember. You see, this ensembleis happily notorious for having one eligible member, say, abass, fall in love with another, perhaps an alto. After theirwalk down the aisle and the vows at the altar, in their firstmoment of marriage, their DWS friends stand and offerthe Alleluia as the couple's first gift. The moment is noth-ing short of holy. Thompson only uses a single word, butthe music soars straight into heaven, leaving listeners atthe wedding - we hope you as well - blessed.

THE PROMISE OF LIVINGAaron Copland

Aaron Copland's opera, The Tender Land, takes placeon a midwestern farm in the 1930s. It is a tale of outsiders,namely two young drifters, who come into an enclosedculture in which ties to the land and to tradition arestrong, and the world outside is viewed with some suspi-cion. The heroine, Laurie, is a young farm woman eagerfor freedom; naturally, she falls in love with one of thedrifters, whose wider knowledge and experience fascinateher, He, on the other hand, feels an ambiguous longing tosettle down. Their planned elopement is never accom-plished, but there is no going back for Laurie: she mu~tbreak with tradition and leave the farm, though she doesn tknow quite where the road will lead her.

The Tender Land was commissioned from Aaron Coplandby Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II in 1953, tocelebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the League of Com-posers. Copland's intention in writing it was to creatematerial that would be very natural, with uncomplicatedrhetoric and colloquially flavored music. In the opera,"The Promise of Living" is a quintet, sung by Laurie, hermother and grandfather, and the two drifters. This choralretains the simple beauty of the music. The lyrics, bylibrettist Erik Johns (pen name Horace Everett), expressthe love of land, neighbor and God that blesses the hardwork of the farm and its entwined promises of life, growthand peace.

RAUA NEEDMINE (CURSE UPON IRON)VeUo TormisallOY, villain! Wretched iron!Wretched iron! Cursed bog ore!You flesh-eater, gnawer of bones,You spiller of innocent blood!Scoundrel, how did you get power?Tell how you became so haughty!Damn you, bastard! Wretched iron!Iknow your birth, you purblind fool,Iknow well your source, you villain!Once there walked three nature spirits,three fiery daughters of the sky.They milked their swelling breasts to earth,they squeezed their milk onto the fens.From the first maid spurted black iron,this turned into soft wrought iron.White milk squirted the second maid,this was the source of tempered steel.The third maid spouted blood-red milk,this gave birth to bog iron ore.

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ahoy, villain! Wretched iron!Wretched iron! Cursed bog ore!Then you were not high and mighty,not yet mighty, not yet haughty,when you sloshed in swamps and marshes,when in bogholes you were trampled.Damn you, bastard! Wretched iron!Iknow your birth, you purblind fool!Iknow well your source, you villain!A wolf then ran across the fen,a shambling bear walked in the moor.And the swamp stirred in the wolf tracks,under the bear's paws moved the moor.And there sprouted iron seedlingsin the traces of the wolf's claws,in the hollows of the bear tracks.ahoy, iron! Child of boghole!Swamp's red rust and gentle smooth milk!Tell me, who made you so baleful!Who decreed your works of evil?Death was riding through the marshes,plague was on a winter journey.Seedling steel it found in swampland,rusty iron in a boghole.The great death then began to talk,the killer plague then spoke and said:In a pine grove on a hillside,in a field behind the village,far beyond the farmers' granges,right here will be the forge of death.Here I'll build the forge's furnace,here I'll place the widest bellows,here I'll start to boil the iron,fan and blast the rust-red bog ore,hammer anger into iron.Iron, poor man, shivered, trembled,shivered, trembled, shuddered, quavered,when he heard the call for fire,heard the plea for flaming anger.ahoy, villain! Wretched iron!Then you were not high and mighty,not yet mighty, not yet haughty,moaning in the white-hot furnace,whining under beating hammers.Droned the old man on the oven,groaned the greybeard from the furnace:Iron stretches, spreads like blubber,Trickles, flows like dripping spittle,oozingfrom the blazing furnace,flowingfrom the scorching fire.Iron, you're still soft and gentle.How have you yet to be temperedto make steel from harmless iron?Get the spittle from an adder!Bring the venom from a viper!For iron wouldn't harbor evilwithout spittle from a serpent,without venom from a black snake.Droned the old man on the oven,groaned the greybeard from the furnace:Shelter us, supreme Creator!Keep us safe now, God Almighty!So that mankind would not perish,mother's child vanish without tracefrom the face of the earth, from life,from existence, God's creation.

New eras. New godsand heroes.And cannons and airplanesand tanks, and guns.New steel and iron.Brand-new, intelligent,precise, powerful killers,equipped with automated guiding devices,armed with nuclear warheads.Missiles invulnerable to defensive rocketry.Knives and spears,axes, halberds, sabers,and slings and tomahawks and boomerangs,bows and arrows, rocks and warclubs,and claws and teeth, sand and salt,dust and tar, napalm and coal.Brand-new and up-to-date technology,the ultimate word in electronics,ready to.fly in any direction,stay underflected on its course, hit the target,paralyze, and knock out of action,obliterate,render helpless and defenseless,harm and hurt, cause unknowable loss,and kill, kill with iron and with steel,with chromium, titanium, uranium, plutonium,and with a multitude of other elements.ahoy, villain! Evil iron!Blade of the sword, mother of war'Boghole ore's the golden guardian,but you, steel, are kin to evil!Damn, you bastard! Wretched iron!We are kinsmen, of the same breed,of the same seed we have sprouted,You are earth-born, Iam earth-born,in the black soil we are brethren.For we both live on the same earthand in that earth we two will merge.There will be land enough for both.

Veljo Tormis is regarded today as a cultural treasure inEstonia. Acting almost alone, he rescued Estonian nativemusic from extinction by tramping the countryside, en-couraging old farmers, laborers and housewives to singhim the tunes of their grandparents. Wonderful, necessarywork, given the effects of both time and the heavy hand ofthe former Soviet Union who used to control so much ofEstonian life. Like Bartok in Hungary or Vaughan Wil-liams in England, Tormis catalogued those melodies andhas made powerful use of them in his own serious compo-sitions.

Curse Upon Iron is based on the simplest of folk mate-rial, and in it Tormis finds a world of power. The firstpages are illustrative: using only three notes, he establishesdrama by repeating a motive over and over again, first inthe tenor solo, then throughout the choir till it flies aboutas sparks from an anvil. Colorful directions like "throughthe teeth ... hollow ... trembling ... screeching ... raspingly"call upon the singer's total palette of expression to varythat little theme and exploit every drop of its potential.

The music sounds almost primeval, as it should be-cause Tormis' text comes from the ancient Finnish taleKalevala. His message is this: We -like the long-ago tribesof Europe who cursed the power and destructive ability ofiron - are in the same boat today. We are just as in dangerof hurting ourselves and each other, of being swallowedby the machines we create.

FOUR SHAKESPEARE SONGS

FANCIEBenjamin Britten

Tell me, tell me where is Fancie bred,Or in the heart or in the head?How begot, how nourished?Replie, replie, replie, repl~e!It is engendered in the eyes,With gazingfed; and Fancie diesIn the cradle where it lies.Let us all ring Fancie's knell:lie begin it: Ding, dong, bell.- William Shakespeare

THE CLOUD-CAPP'D TOWERSRalph Vaughan Williams

TAKE, 0 TAKE THOSE LipS AWAYEmma Lou Diemer

BLOW, BLOW, THOU WINTER WIND

There is a real trick to setting Shakespeare to music,because there's already a marvelous, subtle music in hiswords. The composer's job is to find notes that enhancethat music and meaning. Novices tear their hair out. Hereare four who've succeeded in capturing the Bard's muse:

Britten's Fancie was written in 1961 for a book calledClassical Songs for Children. The intention of the book wasto enable children to see how different composers, in theirown styles, respond to the same text. Poulenc and Kodalywere also invited to-contribute, and all were asked to setthese lines from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. Brittenmarked his "Quick and Fantastic," and gave the piano arippling motion. The voices are in unison until the end,when they divide and imitate the bells of "Fancie's knell."

For "The Cloud-Capp'd Towers," Vaughan Williamslifted lines from Shakespeare's last play The Tempest. The1951 Festival of Britain invited him to compose a testpiece for the choral competition. He refused at first, sayingthe choirs should use something already written, but atthe last minute he changed his mind. He attached thisgruff little note to the score and mailed it off: "Here arethree Shakespeare settings, do what you like with them."This is the second of the set, grave and tranquil andsurprisingly inspired for such a last-minute effort.

American Emma Lou Diemer chose the comedy Mea-surefor Measure as her Shakespearean source. "Take" is thesecond of Three Madrigals she wrote for a high schoolchoir in Arlington, Virginia. Like the Vaughan Williamssetting it is rather sedate and solemn, and the form issimple: the short first verse quietly rhapsodizes the beloved'seyes and lips; a shorter second verse turns melancholybecause the poet's love is unrequited, then the first verse issimply repeated. Diemer is wise for realizing that, whenputting Shakespeare to music, less is often more.

jazzman George Shearing asks that his "Blow, Blow,Thou Winter Wind" (from the comedy As You Like It) beperformed "cheerfully, with a beat." The pianist-composer,who's still swinging at the age of seventy-four, writes abouncy two-bar piano riff to start things off, but the choirenters in an olden, madrigal style. After two verses, allbow-ties come loose and the choir joins the piano, delight-ing in gorgeously thick jazz chords - the Shearingtrademark for over fifty years.

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ADMINISTRATIVE STAFFRuss Bursch

General ManagerKaren Koepp

Director of Developmentand Communications

Rosalie MillerOffice Manager/Personnel Coordinator

Betsy PeregoyMarketing Associate

Marlene BartlettSecretary !Receptionist

Dean PalermoLibrarian

Robert W. PontiousOperations Assistant

Ruth AndersonOffice Volunteer

BOARD OF DIRECTORSMary Beth Koehler

PresidentGerald B. Fischer

Vice President

Donald DaviesTreasurer

Margie AnkenyDixon BondArland D. BrusvenJames L. DavisThelma HunterWilliam L. JonesTom LarsonJohn B. LundquistMichael W. McCarthyCarol Lynn PineEstelle SellNancy SlaughterRobert S. SpongMary K. SteinkeJohn]. TaylorDale WarlandTeresa WhaleyArlene WilliamsBillie Young

THE DALE WARLAND SINGERS, A PROFESSIONALCHORAL ENSEMBLE, STRIVES FOR THE HIGHEST

STANDARD OF VOCAL PERFORMANCE AND,WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF GREAT CHORAL MUSIC,CHAMPIONS MUSIC OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

IN LIVE AND MEDIA PERFORMANCES, INEDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS AND OUTREACH, ANDIN FOSTERING THE CREATION OF NEW MUSIC.

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This activity is made possible

in part by a grant provided by the

Minnesota State Arts Board, --------through an appropriation by the v - I v - I v - I v v - -

Minnesota State Legislature.

MINNESOTASTATE ARTS BOARD

This concert is made possible in part with fundsreceived from the Music Program of the NationalEndowment for the arts, a federal agency.

The Dale Warland Singers is a member of ChorusAmerica.

The Singers' choral risers and acoustical shell aremanufactured by Wenger Corporation, Owatonna,MN 55060.

Sing for Joy, with underwriting fromThe Dale Warland Singers, airs Sun-days at 10 a.m., on WCAL, 89.3 FM.Join Rev. Alvin Rueter as he presentssacred works tied to the current seasonin the liturgical year.

•WCAL89.3FM

Today's performance is being recorded. No cameras orrecording devices may be used during performances.Please tum off any electronic beeping devices (watches,pagers, etc.) or leave them with an usher prior to theperformance. Latecomers will be seated at the discre-tion of the house manager. As a courtesy to otherpatrons, please be aware that the excellent acoustics ofthis hall magnify sounds such as rustling programs,cellophane wrappers and whispering.

If you have any comments about your concertexperience, please feel free to contact any staffmember at The Singers' office, 120 North FourthStreet, Minneapolis, MN 55401, (612) 339-9707.

This program magazine was published in February,1994, by The Dale Warland Singers, Inc. Designand Production, Betsy Peregoy.

OUR SEASON CONTINUES

Cathedral ClassicsMarch 24

Celebrate South America!April 29 and May 1

Big Band, Broadway and BluesJune 24

TICKETS: (612) 339-9707