Love can make us happy or sad. Soli Deo Gloria offers a concert with both takes.
By Donald Munro
Soli Deo Gloria, Fresno’s premier all-women’s choral ensemble, is devoting its latest concert to love.
Don’t expect it to be all sweetness and kisses.
Julie Carter, music director of the group, put together a program that explores both extremes of love titled “In Love’s Shadow,” a concert exploring the dual nature of love. (The concert is 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 2, at University Presbyterian Church.) A quick interview:
Q: You’ve said that love casts both light and shadow. Can you talk a little more about this?
A: I think of love casting light on us when we’re falling in love because everything feels wonderful and special. Even mundane tasks are better when we’re in that magical time of young love. When we love nature, God, friends, good times, it’s a warm wonderful feeling — light. But the flip side is when we lose someone we love and a shadow falls over us. Or when our love is rejected, life can feel dark.
Q: What is the saddest love song on the program?
A: I think there are two that are sad. The first is “Mainacht” (May night) by Johannes Brahms. A young man enjoys the exquisite beauty of a night in May but a single tear flows down his cheek as he misses the one he loves. There is beauty: the silver moon beams through the shrubs, the nightingale sings, a pair of doves coo their ecstasy, but his love isn’t there (we don’t know why) and a single tear trembles hot down his cheek.
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The second sad song is “Only My Dreams” by Rob Kean. The singer dreams of her love. She imagines weaving a heavenly cloth of silver and gold light that she would spread under his feet. But being poor, she has only her dreams. She is unsure of returned love and at the end begs him to tread softly because he treads on her dreams. A cool thing about this song is that it’s accompanied by piano and “whirlies.” These are basically plastic tubes about 2-3 feet long that vibrate a pitch when you whirl them. Makes a very unique and ethereal sound!
Q: How about the happiest?
Probably “All That Hath Life & Breath Praise Ye the Lord!” By Rene Clausen. It’s a very exuberant, joyous arrangement that expresses clear, undiluted joy in praise of God. In the middle of the song the sopranos repeat 3 different melodic snippets of phrases all at different times in quite a cacophony of sound. Then they come together again, similar to the beginning. The other happy song is “I’ll Tell My Ma” (The Belle of Belfast City) which is an Irish Children’s Song. The lighthearted piece has a couple of solos, it’s accompanied by piano, but most interestingly, it employs quite a bit of body percussion that adds a new dimension to the vocal art. The arranger got the idea for it while watching children on a playground playing patty-cake and singing a nonsense rhyme. The story is about a girl who is very pretty courting multiple suitors. The other children ask her who she loves and she doesn’t want to tell he “Ma” when she gets home so she can keep the news from her mother.
Q: Tell me about Kirke Mechem’s “Kansas Boys.”
A: This is a fantastic piece! Musically it’s difficult to learn at first because he incorporates several folk like melodies with Home on the Range, using multiple meters which keep you a little off kilter! It’s from a Madrigal cycle Mechem wrote. The storyline is quite fun: it starts with a stern warning “not to fall in love with no Kansas boys.”
The reason is that they’ll woo you and talk pretty to you: “Honey”, “turtle dove”
But then they take you out on the plain against your will with a home that’s a cabin with big log walls, no windows, a smoky chimney and a shaky floor, a clapboard roof and a broken-down door. Where the cyclones are blowing’ all day. (Home on the range sung in the background). After they’re married they have a rude awakening!
It seems that life after marriage doesn’t quite live up to the expectations! This piece brings a playful yet pointed look at how romantic ideals sometimes clash with reality, including dealing with the hubby’s smelly socks and eating many humble meals of, “hoecake, hominy, and sassafras tea.”
Q: What do you hope audiences walk away with from this program when it comes to love?
I hope the audience will relate to the varied themes of love and feel joy, wistfulness, relive happy memories , and the pleasure experienced from beautiful music sung exquisitely. I hope they’ll forget the stresses and concerns of life for at least this one evening!
