St. Paul’s Chapel Please make certain all your electronic devices are switched off. Saturday, November 4, 2017, at 5:00 pm The Psalms Experience CONCERT 2 Faith The Choir of Trinity Wall Street Julian Wachner, Conductor Introduction by Rev. Phillip A. Jackson, Vicar, Trinity Church Wall Street This program is approximately one hour long and will be performed without intermission. (Program continued) WhiteLightFestival.org The White Light Festival presentation of The Psalms Experience is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This program is supported as part of the Dutch Culture USA program by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York. This performance is made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center.
Transcript
St. Paul’s Chapel Please make certain all your electronic devicesare switched off.
Saturday, November 4, 2017, at 5:00 pm
The Psalms Experience
CONCERT 2
Faith
The Choir of Trinity Wall StreetJulian Wachner, Conductor
Introduction by Rev. Phillip A. Jackson, Vicar, Trinity Church Wall Street
This program is approximately one hour long and will be performed without intermission.
(Program continued)
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The White Light Festival presentation of The Psalms Experience is supported by The Andrew W.Mellon Foundation.
This program is supported as part of the Dutch Culture USA program by the Consulate General of theNetherlands in New York.
This performance is made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center.
American Airlines is the Official Airline of LincolnCenter
Nespresso is the Official Coffee of Lincoln Center
NewYork-Presbyterian is the Official Hospital ofLincoln Center
Artist Catering provided by Zabar’s and Zabars.com
The Psalms Experience was created andfirst produced by Tido Visser, managingdirector of the Netherlands ChamberChoir.
The Netherlands Chamber Choir was supported by the Netherland-America Foundation for thedevelopment of this project.
UPCOMING WHITE LIGHT FESTIVAL EVENTS:
Saturday, November 4, at 7:30 pm in St. Paul’sChapelThe Psalms Experience Concert 3: Justice The Choir of Trinity Wall StreetJulian Wachner, conductorVisit PsalmsExperience.org for full concert schedule.
Sunday, November 5, at 5:00 pm in St. Paul’sChapelThe Psalms Experience Concert 4: Powerlessness and Redemption The Choir of Trinity Wall StreetJulian Wachner, conductorVisit PsalmsExperience.org for full concert schedule.
Thursday, November 9, 2017 at 6:30 pm at theNew York Society for Ethical CultureThe Psalms Experience Concert 5: State of HumankindNetherlands Chamber ChoirPeter Dijkstra, conductorVisit PsalmsExperience.org for full concert schedule.
Thursday, November 9, 2017 at 8:30 pm at theNew York Society for Ethical Culture The Psalms Experience Concert 6: GratitudeTallis ScholarsPeter Phillips, conductorVisit PsalmsExperience.org for full concert schedule.
For tickets, call (212) 721-6500 or visitWhiteLightFestival.org. Call the Lincoln Center InfoRequest Line at (212) 875-5766 to learn about pro-gram cancellations or to request a White LightFestival brochure.
Visit WhiteLightFestival.org for full festival listings.
Join the conversation: #WhiteLightFestival
We would like to remind you that the sound of coughing and rustling paper might distract the performers and your fellow audience members.
In consideration of the performing artists and members of the audience, those who must leavebefore the end of the performance are asked to do so between pieces. The taking of photographsand the use of recording equipment are not allowed in the building.
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Faith
GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (Psalm 46)(1681–1767)
EDWARD ELGAR Great is the Lord, Op. 67 (Psalm 48) (1857–1934)
NICOLA LEFANU The Little Valleys (Psalm 65) (b. 1947)
GIOVANNI GABRIELI Plaudite, psallite, jubilate, omnes terra(c. 1555–1612) (Psalm 66)
ALESSANDRO GRANDI Deus misereatur nostri (Psalm 67) (1590–1630)
JOHANN PACHELBEL Jauchzet dem Herrn alle Welt (Psalm 100) (1653–1706)
Please hold applause until the end of the performance.
The Book of Psalmsand Its MusicalInterpretationsBy Neil W. Levin
Common to the liturgies, histories, andspirit of Judaism and Christianity, the Bookof Psalms is one of the most widely famil-iar and frequently quoted books of theHebrew Bible. The Psalms are also basic toWestern culture as literature. Their expres-sion in musical notation spans more thanten centuries. Their unnotated musical tra-ditions predate Christianity, extending toJewish antiquity and the Temple eraswhen the Psalter served in effect as theTemple music manual and prayer book.
LITERARY and RELIGIOUS CONTENT.Most current biblical scholarship placesthe Psalms’ composition as well as unifiedcanonization substantially prior to the 2ndcentury BCE, by which time their popular-ity was well established. Their commonattribution to King David as a popular post-biblical tradition notwithstanding, it isimpossible to know the identity of thePsalms’ author(s) or compiler(s). But wecan celebrate their uninterrupted en -durance through their embrace of a broadspectrum of human experience and theirperceived manifestations of a respectableform of popular theology.
Taken together, the Psalms expresshuman thirst for moral, ethical, and spiri-tual grounding as well as the commonsearch for a guiding faith. Viewed from the-ological or even deist perspectives, theyencapsulate human pursuit of the Divineessence. “In the Torah and the Prophets,”wrote biblical scholar Nahum Sarna, “Godreaches out to man. In the Psalms, humanbeings reach out to God. The language ishuman.” Indeed, in their singular blend ofmajestic grandeur, lofty sentiments, andpoignant simplicity, the Psalms addressnearly every human emotion and mood.Judaic origin and Judeo-Christian association
aside, their ageless attraction abides in theuniversality of their appeal and teachings,transcending religious orientation, time,and geography.
MUSICAL RECONSTRUCTION. Frommusicological scholarship and Judaicsources, we understand something aboutpsalmody—the manner of musical Psalmrendition—in the ancient Temple inJerusalem, including probable vocal rangeand predominance of particular tones; syl-labic versus melismatic articulation;embellishment; type of choirs and perfor-mance formats (responsorial, antiphonal,etc.); and instrumental accompaniment.But this knowledge is academic and theo-retical rather than aesthetic or artistic. Itcannot effectuate authentic Temple-erareproductions of Psalms vis-a-vis modali-ties, pitches, melodic progressions, tim-bres, or precise rhythm. Similar limitationsapply to reasonable suppositions concern-ing early Church psalmody, in which somemusical practices may have been bor-rowed from Hebrew psalmody. Despitevarious irresponsible claims over the yearsto have deciphered imagined encoded sys-tems of musical information, all attemptsto replicate Temple psalmody aurally are atbest naively romantic exercises in fantasy.
Although ancient psalmody has not survivedintact in any synagogue music tradition, onehears presumed echoes in certain Sephardiand Near Eastern repertoires. In some ofthose, however, as in Ashkenazi practiceinherited from Europe or expanded else-where, Psalm renditions have also acquiredartificial meter through superimposed syl-labic patterns or adaptations to seculartunes. Rarely have modern composersemployed perceived psalmodic features.
THE PSALMS IN HEBREW and CHRIST-IAN LITURGIES. The development ofHebrew liturgy relied heavily on thePsalms, which provided an obvious founda-tion. They permeate the traditional prayerbooks of every rite, and they infuse Reform
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worship as well. No other biblical book is sodirectly, richly, or consistently represented.Outside formally designated services, soci-eties of “Psalm reciters” are features ofmany fervently pious communities, such asone in contemporary Jerusalem whose twodistinct subgroups divide between themthe daily recitation of the entire Psalter atthe Western Wall.
The Psalter also offered a wellspring ofliturgical material for the nascent Church.Latin translations are thought to have pre-dominated its earliest services; eventually,usage differed between Eastern andWestern rites. Aside from a few extantfragments, their musical notation survivesonly from the ninth century on.
In the Roman, or Western Church, the con-tinuum of unabridged Psalm singing ismost conspicuous in the Office of Vespers,though not exclusive to it. In the Mass andother liturgies, however, Psalms becameabbreviated or partially quoted. Many poly-phonic settings for Roman Catholic liturgycontinued even past the Renaissance toreflect or incorporate elements ofpsalmody. But in the various Protestantmovements, Psalm composition followedthe course of art music in which those his-torical references were largely abandoned:Bach motets, for example. TheReformation also led to emphasis on Psalmsinging in the vernacular: German, English,etc. To encourage congregational singing,metrical—even superficially rhymed—ver-sions and paraphrases were created, oftenonly approximating the original Hebrewloosely if at all. These were set to hymn-likestrophic tunes with simple chordal accom-paniments. Communal singing in 19th- andearly 20th-century classical Reform Jewishworship exhibited a similar fashion.
PSALMS IN THE WESTERN CLASSICALMUSICAL TRADITION. Original Psalm set-tings proliferated in Europe from the 15thcentury on as sacred music from Western
artistic perspectives, and eventually alsooutside religious contexts altogether. Psalmcomposition in the 17th and 18th centuriesis intertwined with contemporaneous pathsof motet and anthem genres; English andAmerican anthems of that time both displayabundant reliance on Psalm texts. Duringthe 19th century, throughout the modernera, and into the 21st century in both sacredand secular worlds, composers of nearlyevery stripe and orientation have engagedthe Psalms in expressions ranging fromlarge-scale choral and orchestral works toart songs and a cappella choral settings—even in exclusively instrumental inspirationssuch as solo organ sonatas or KrzysztofPenderecki’s electronic Psalmus (1961).There is no stylistic approach or treatment,no technical procedure (including 12-toneserialization), no melodic, contrapuntal orharmonic language—in short, no aspect ofWestern musical development—fromwhich the Psalms have escaped.
The unrelenting appeal of the Psalms formainstream and avant-garde composersalike in each generation lies not only in theirpoetic religious spirit, but in their transcen-dent humanistic content. They continue toinvite musical engagement both fromJudaic or Judeo-Christian sensibilities andfrom basic Western literary-cultural world-views. And some works communicate onintersecting planes. Thus, the Psalms maybe understood not only as an ecumenicalbridge between two faiths—which is nonew observation—but as artistic mediatorsbetween sacred and secular music in theevolving, expanding Western canon.
Neil W. Levin is artistic director and editor-in-chief of the Milken Archive of JewishMusic, an emeritus professor of Jewishmusic at the Jewish Theological Seminary,and professor-in-residence at the YIVOInstitute for Jewish Research in New York.
Examine a well-used Bible and you will find that one of its most heavily thumbed sectionsis the Book of Psalms. It is easy to understand why. Whereas much of the Old Testamentis given over to tribal histories, prophetic pronouncements, and declarations of rules forsociety (often with threats of divine retribution against those who don’t toe the line), thePsalms are utterances of the human heart. They are not unique in that regard. Weencounter personalized expression of specific human aspects elsewhere in the OldTestament, particularly in several of the Psalms’ immediate neighbors—desolation in TheBook of Job, sagacity in the Book of Proverbs, cynicism in Ecclesiastes, eroticism in TheSongs of Songs. The Psalms, however, give voice to an exceptional breadth of the humanspirit. In the 150 psalms, man is searching for his condition humaine, his right to exist,his country and culture, guided by his faith and his doubts, bemoaning his fate and danc-ing with joy. The Psalms are about him and belong to him.
Created as songs, these prose poems have appealed greatly to composers through thecenturies, yielding a repertoire of many thousands of compositions. For this project, ateam of Dutch scholars—Tido Visser, managing director of the Netherlands ChamberChoir, musicologist Leo Samama, and theologian Gerard Swüste—divided the corpus ofPsalms into 12 groups by subject and then selected settings that would form musicallybalanced and satisfying programs out of each of those chapters. They established someground rules: The settings would be for a cappella chorus (allowing very occasional organaccompaniments); each psalm might be represented through either its complete or par-tial text; and each composer, whether renowned or obscure, would figure exactly oncethroughout the entire project.
This afternoon’s program presents settings of 13 psalms that focus on faith—which, inBiblical terms, means faith in God. The early Jews who first gave voice to the Psalms wereprobably at heart an Egyptian separatist tribe that would not assume a more self-identifyingcharacter until they had settled in Canaan or even later than that, following the Babyloniancaptivity. Whether he called his god the Jewish Yahweh or the Egyptian Aton, the ancientsinger of Psalms voiced “admiration and astonishment at the creation of heaven andearth,” writes Swüste, and expressed a belief that the wonders of the physical world andthe blessings of human well-being—like liberation from slavery—“are given to us as a gift.”It is the firm trust in the rightness of the creation and the creator that is expressed in sucha psalm as “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott” (“A Mighty Fortress is our God”), familiarthrough the Protestant hymn book and through settings by such composers as Bach andMendelssohn. In this concert, however, we hear this text—Psalm 46—in a vivacious motetby Georg Philipp Telemann, the 250th anniversary of whose death is being observed thisseason. It was Telemann who the city administrators of Leipzig really wanted when theyadvertised for a music director in 1723, but when he and their next choice proved unavail-able, they settled on Bach instead. “Since we cannot get the best,” wrote one of Leipzig’stown councilors, “then we will have to settle for average.”
Rock-solid faith also shines through the pages of works by other famous figures ofBaroque music, including the double-chorus motet “Jauchzet dem Herrn alle Welt” byTelemann’s German predecessor Johann Pachelbel. Two important composers demon-strate the range of choral style at the dawn of the Italian Baroque: Giovanni Gabrieli,
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whose 12-voiced “Plau dite, psallite, jubilate, omnes terra” (published in his SacraeSymphoniae of 1597) demonstrates the antiphonal choral style developed by composersin Venice, and Alessandro Grandi, who worked under Monteverdi in that city before mov-ing to Bergamo, where the lower cost of living enabled him to support his large familyuntil he died suddenly of the plague in 1630.
This very international program also includes psalm settings from France, by the Baroquemaster Marc-Antoine Char pentier, whose works glow with inward luminosity; from GreatBritain, by way of the 16th- and 17th-century Welsh-born composer Thomas Tomkins,Edward Elgar’s stalwart “Great is the Lord,” and a 1974 anthem by Nicola LeFanu, “TheLittle Valleys;” from Sweden, via Waldemar Åhlén’s arrangement of a motet by GermanBaroque composer Severus Gastorius; and Russia, through the tranquil setting of“Blagoslovi, dushe moya Gospoda” (“Praise the Lord, O my soul”) from the Vespers ofSerge Rachmaninoff, who maintained a lifelong passion for liturgical music of the Easterntradition.
Adapted from essays by Leo Samama
James M. Keller is program annotator of the New York Philharmonic (The Leni and PeterMay Chair) and of the San Francisco Symphony. He also serves as critic-at-large for TheSanta Fe New Mexican, the oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi.
Please turn to page 22 for an article on the enduring resonance of the Psalms.
Meet the Artists
As director of music at New York’s historicTrinity Church Wall Street, Julian Wachneroversees an annual season of hundreds ofevents, conducting Trinity’s flagshipweekly series Bach at One, which can-vasses the entire choral-orchestral outputof J.S. Bach, and leading Compline byCandlelight, Trinity’s innovative and fullyimprovised variation on this ancientmonastic ritual. He also curates theConcerts at One series, an eclectic pro-gram of weekly concerts for lowerManhattan and beyond through its HD liveand on-demand webcasting. In addition toserving as principal conductor of Trinity’sresident contemporary-music orchestraNOVUS NY, The Trinity Baroque Orchestra,and The Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Mr.Wachner is also music director of theGrammy Award–winning Wash ingtonChorus, with whom he won ChorusAmerica/ASCAP’s Alice Parker Award foradventurous programming and ChorusAmerica’s Margaret Hillis Award for ChoralExcellence.
Mr. Wachner also enjoys an active sched-ule as a guest conductor. Orchestralengagements have included performanceswith the Philadelphia Orchestra, PittsburghSymphony Orchestra, New York Philhar -monic, Pacific Symphony, Montreal Sym -phony Orchestra, Calgary PhilharmonicOrchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra,and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, inaddition to Philharmonia BaroqueOrchestra & Chorale, Seraphic Fire, Bangon a Can All-Stars, and Apollo’s Fire. Hehas also conducted the San Francisco,Glimmerglass, New York City, and JuilliardOperas, Hawaii Opera Theatre, as well as
for Carnegie Hall Presents, NationalSawdust, and Lincoln Center Festival.
With multiple Grammy nominations to hiscredit, Mr. Wachner has recorded forChandos, Naxos, ATMA Classique, Erato,Cantaloupe Music, Arsis, Dorian Recordings,Acis, and Musica Omnia. He also has anextensive catalogue of highly acclaimedoriginal compositions. He is publishedexclusively by E.C. Schirmer Publishing andrepresented worldwide by Opus 3 Artists.
The Choir of Trinity Wall StreetGrammy-nominated interpreters of bothearly and new music, The Choir of TrinityWall Street has changed the realm of 21st-century vocal music and continues to breaknew ground with its profound artistry.Under the direction of Julian Wachner, thispremier ensemble can be heard in superbperformances in New York City and aroundthe world. The choir leads the liturgicalmusic on Sundays at Trinity Church and St.Paul’s Chapel, performing in Bach at Oneand Compline by Candlelight, alongsidemany other concerts and festivals through-out the year, often with the Trinity BaroqueOrchestra, NOVUS NY, and the TrinityYouth Chorus. Critically acclaimed annualperformances of Handel’s Messiah are partof the choir’s long and storied tradition; formany New Yorkers, the choir’s perfor-mances at Trinity’s annual Twelfth Nightand Time’s Arrow Festivals have alsobecome a tradition.
The choir has toured extensively throughoutthe U.S., making appearances at CarnegieHall, Lincoln Center, the MetropolitanMuseum of Art, Berkeley Festival &Exhibition, BAM’s Next Wave Festival, andat the Prototype Festival. Recent seasonshave seen performances abroad, withappearances at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris and the Barbican Centre inLondon. The choir has been featured withthe Bang on a Can All-Stars, the New YorkPhilharmonic, and with the Rolling Stoneson their 50th anniversary tour.
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In addition to its Grammy-nominated CDIsrael in Egypt, The Choir of Trinity WallStreet has released several recordings onNaxos, Musica Omnia, VIA Recordings,Arsis, and Avie Records. The ensemble’slong-term commitment to new music is fur-ther underscored by collaborations withsuch composers as Du Yun, winner of the2017 Pulitzer Prize in music for her operaAngel’s Bone; Paola Prestini; Ralf YusefGaw lick; Elena Ruehr; and Julia Wolfe,whose 2015 Pulitzer Prize–winning andGrammy-nominated work Anthracite Fieldswas recorded by the choir. The choir collabo-rated with Du Yun on Angel’s Bone, present-ing a fully staged production under the batonof Wachner at the Prototype Festival in 2016.
Rev. Phillip A. JacksonThe Rev. Phillip A. Jackson became theVicar of Trinity Church Wall Street inFebruary 2015. He leads ministry programsthat touch upon every aspect of parish life,including liturgies, music, education pro-gramming, the Trinity Preschool, member-ship, and stewardship.
Prior to Trinity Church, Fr. Jackson was therector of Christ Church of the Ascension inParadise Valley, Arizona, leading reconcilia-tion programs, congregational growth, andcommunity engagement. During histenure, he grew the children’s Christianeducation program twentyfold. He devel-oped and taught parish formation classesincluding Women’s Bible Study, a men’sreading group, and contemplative Christianspirituality, also initiating a lecture seriesfeaturing prominent members of thePhoenix community.
Fr. Jackson has served parishes in Houstonand Detroit, and was an attorney inHonolulu. He holds a bachelor’s degree inhistory from Amherst College, a JD from
Yale Law School, and an MDiv from theChurch Divinity School of the Pacific.
White Light Festival I could compare my music to white light,which contains all colors. Only a prism candivide the colors and make them appear;this prism could be the spirit of the listener.—Arvo Pärt. Now in its eighth year, theWhite Light Festival is Lincoln Center’sannual exploration of music and art’s powerto reveal the many dimensions of our inte-rior lives. International in scope, the multi-disciplinary festival offers a broad spectrumof the world’s leading instrumentalists,vocalists, ensembles, choreographers,dance companies, and directors, comple-mented by conversations with artists andscholars and post-performance White LightLounges.
Lincoln Center for the PerformingArts, Inc.Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts(LCPA) serves three primary roles: presen-ter of artistic programming, national leaderin arts and education and community rela-tions, and manager of the Lincoln Centercampus. A presenter of more than 3,000free and ticketed events, performances,tours, and educational activities annually,LCPA offers 15 programs, series, and festi-vals including American Songbook, GreatPerformers, Lincoln Center Festival,Lincoln Center Out of Doors, MidsummerNight Swing, the Mostly Mozart Festival,and the White Light Festival, as well as theEmmy Award–winning Live From LincolnCenter, which airs nationally on PBS. Asmanager of the Lincoln Center campus,LCPA provides support and services for theLincoln Center complex and the 11 resi-dent organizations. In addition, LCPA led a$1.2 billion campus renovation, completedin October 2012.
The Choir of Trinity Wall StreetJulian Wachner, Director of Music
SopranoMegan ChartrandMadeline HealeyLinda Lee JonesMolly NetterNola RichardsonMelanie RussellAmaranta VieraElena Williamson
Daniel Mutlu, Cantor
AltoMelissa AtteburyClifton MasseyDaniel MoodyTimothy ParsonsPamela Terry
Lincoln Center Programming DepartmentJane Moss, Ehrenkranz Artistic DirectorHanako Yamaguchi, Director, Music ProgrammingJon Nakagawa, Director, Contemporary ProgrammingJill Sternheimer, Director, Public ProgrammingLisa Takemoto, Production ManagerCharles Cermele, Producer, Contemporary ProgrammingMauricio Lomelin, Producer, Contemporary ProgrammingAndrew C. Elsesser, Associate Director, ProgrammingLuna Shyr, Senior EditorRegina Grande Rivera, Associate ProducerDaniel Soto, Associate Producer, Public ProgrammingWalker Beard, Production CoordinatorNana Asase, Assistant to the Artistic DirectorOlivia Fortunato, Programming AssistantDorian Mueller, House Program CoordinatorJanet Rucker, Company Manager
For the White Light FestivalKarissa Krenz, Project Manager, The Psalms ExperienceMegan Young, Supertitles
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