UMS Concert Program, November 15, 1959: The Pamplona Choir From Spain -- Luis Morondo

Concert: Fifth
Complete Series: 3274
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

1959 Eightyfirst Season 1960
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Charles A. Sink, President Gail W. Rector, Executive Director Lester McCoy, Conductor
First Concert Eightyfirst Annual Choral Union Series Complete Series 3274
The Pamplona Choir from Spain
Luis Morondo, Conductor
Sunday Afternoon, November 15, 1959, at 2:30 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
The Four Great Spanish Polyphonic Composers:
Fantasia.............Antonio de Cabezon
Sanctus.............Cristobal de Morales
Villanesca............Francisco Guerrero
Responsorium V.........Tomas Luis de Victoria
INTERMISSION
Catulli Carmtna...............Carl Orff
Excerpts from Act I, Act II, and Act III
INTERMISSION
Five Spanish Songs...........Manuel de Falla
Cancion
El pano moruno
Nana
Polo
Jota
Ancient Basque Songs.............Traditional
Illun abarra Goizeko izarra
Ituna Din dan boleran
Binbili bonbolo Itxasoa
Urrundik Prasku Chomin
Errikofesta Agur Jaunak
Columbia Masterworks Records The Steinway is the official piano of the University Musical Society.
ARS LONGA VITA BREVIS
PROGRAM NOTES
The Four Great Spanish Polyphonic Composers
Antonio de Cabezon, a blind organist of the sixteenth century, was one of the earliest composers of keyboard music. His works are mostly liturgical pieces, although he experimented with variations on some of the wellknown tunes of the day. Cabezon's style is surprisingly advanced; in technique and expression his works recall that of the best of the virginalists.
Cristobal de Morales, born in Seville in 1500, was famous among his contemporaries for the personal qualities in his style. He held that the object of music was "to give nobility and austerity to the soul," yet it is precisely the nobility and austerity of his music which has tended to banish him from the church service in favor of Victoria.
Francisco Querrero, the gifted maestro from Seville, contributed this charming unpublished villanesca--one of the musical joys of Spanish litera?ture of the sixteenth century. In it the lofty song of the Virgin seems a divine expression of her great soul.
Tomas Luis de Victoria belonged to the Roman school of Palestrina and, next to the master, was the greatest musician of that school. Filled with religious mysticism and highly accented drama, the Responsorium V is one of the most important works of Spanish Polyphonic music.
Catulli Carmina...............Cakl Orff
Catulli Carmina by Carl Orff belongs to a triptyche of cantatas that begins with Carmina Bitrana, followed by Catulli Carmina, and ending with the Triumph of Aphrodite. The texts are always in Latin, and usually in vulgar Latin. The Carmina Burana is a collection of songs of the errant clergy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In the Catulli Carmina we hear of the love antics of the poet Catullo with Claudia, a noble Roman lady who seemed to drift easily towards this sort of erotic adventure.
The work expresses the fiery passion of the two lovers in erotic and obscene language, that in our own puritanical era would be completely impossible, but which seems to have been very natural to the Romans.
The opera itself, of which this is an excerpt, is in three main scenes for a capella choir, soprano, and tenor. It also has a prelude and a postlude. The music ends on a high rhythmical sense and a very simple construction to give it essential quality. Many say that Orff's work is reminiscent of the art and music comedies of the Renaissance.
Carl Orff was born in Munich 65 years ago and still lives in that city. He started writing music at a very early age, but has since found fault with everything he wrote before 1933, and has either corrected those works or destroyed the manuscripts.
He is neither a classicist nor a romantic, nor is he a postromantic nor a neoclassicist. Neither Debussy nor Schoenberg had any influence on him. In fact, he is unique among modern composers.
Five Spanish Songs. These five songs, composed originally for one voice and piano, reveal the artistry of Manuel de Falla the great Spanish com?poser from Cadiz. His melodies, although condensed, are wrapped in a richness of harmony and bring forth a truly Spanish popular flavor. The sweet sadness and the Andalusian climate of the song, "Paiio Moruno," the candid cradle cadence of "Nana," the graceful, noble elegance of "Polo" and of the "Jota," are vivid examples of the rich genre of Spain, served by de Falla's masterful technique.
Ancient Basque Songs. This group of songs is composed of romantic melodies, humoristic songs, lullabies, and songs to nature; or that is, all those things about which people sing who are close to the soil.
Mocoroa, Almondoz, Sagasti, Padre Donosti, Arin, Zubizarreta, and Morondo are the composers who have arranged these Basque melodies.
Twentieth Annual Chamber Music Festival
Rackham Auditorium
THE FESTIVAL QUARTET
Victor Babin, Piano Szymon Goldberg, Violin William Primrose, Viola Nikolai Graudan, Cello
Friday, February 12, 8:30 p.m.
Quartet in Eflat major, Op. 16 .... Beethoven
Quartet in A minor, Op. 133.....Max Reger
Quartet in G minor, Op. 25, No. 1 .... Brahms
Saturday, February 13, 8:30 p.m.
Quartet in G minor, Op. 43...... Faure
Quartet in Eflat major, K. 493..... Mozart
Quartet in A major, Op. 26, No. 2 .... Brahms
Sunday, February 14, 2:30 p.m.
Quartet in G minor, K. 478......Mozart
Quartet in C minor, Op. 60, No. 3 .... Brahms Quartet in Eflat major, Op. 47 . . . . Schumann
Season Tickets: $4.00 and $3.00. Single Concerts: $2.00 and $1.50.
1959 UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY CONCERTS 1960
Eightyfirst Annual Choral Union Series
Jan Smeterlin, Pianist .... Tuesday, November 24
Program: Sonata in A minor, Op. 143 . Schubert
Paganini Variations, Op. 3S .....Brahms
Sonata in F major, K.V. 332 .....Mozart
Mazurkas, No. 20, 17, 23, 25
Valse, Aflat, Op. 64, No. 3
Berceuse, Dflat, Op. 57 .... Chopin
Scherzo J
David Oistrakh, Violinist Tuesday, December 8
Program: Chaconne..... VlTALI
Sonata in A major Franck
Five Melodies, 6p. 35 . Prokofieff
Prelude and Fugue on a Theme by Bach . A. Mendelsohn
Sonata in Eflat major, Op. 11 No. 1 . . Hindemith
Four Hungarian Dances BrahmsJoachim
Witold Malcuzynski, Pianist . Friday, January IS
Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra . Monday, February 8
Antal Dorati, Conductor
Bach Aria Group..... Tuesday, February 16
William H. Scheide, Director
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Monday, February 29
William Steinberg, Conductor
Giulietta Simionato, Mezzosoprano (2:30) Sunday, March 13
Lamoureux Orchestra (from Paris) Thursday, March 24
Igor Markevitch, Conductor
Chicago Symphony Orchestra Monday, April 4
Fritz Reiner, Conductor
Tickets: $3 .SO--$3.00--2.50--$2.00--$1.50
Extra Series
Annual Christmas Concerts
Messiah (Handel)..... December 5, 8 30
December 6, 2 30
Saramae Endich, Soprano YiKvei Sze, Bass
Gladys Kriese, Contralto Mary McCall Stubbins, Organist
Charles O'Neill, Tenor Lester McCoy, Conductor
Choral Union and Musical Society Orchestra
Tickets: $1.00, 75?, 50?. Now on sale.
For tickets or information address:
University Musical Society, Burton Memorial Tower.