Portara Ensemble Presents:
New-Fallen Snow - a winter meditation
Sunday, December 17, 2023

Jason Shelton, Artistic Director
Patrick Dunnevant, Assistant Director
Lydia Warren, Accompanist

Program

Sing We Now of Christmas
NOEL NOUVELET (trad. French carol); arr. Kyle Pederson (2022)
Keith Sorrels, oboe

Welcome
Jason Shelton, Artistic Director

A Stranger and a King
Words: Alfred Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918); Music: Emily Feld (2017)

Winter Wind
Words: William Shakespeare (1564-1616); Music: Brandon Williams (2017)

Solstice
Words: Milton Brasher-Cunningham; Music: Taylor Scott Davis (2020)

 Room in the Inn
Melanie Ober, Community Development Director

A Winter Breviary
Words: Rebecca Gayle Howell; Music: Reena Esmail (2021)
featuring di Mossa dance company:
Allison Hardee, Molly Haslag, Marisa Pace, Matthew Robinson
Lisa Valeri, Choreographer & Artistic Director

I. We Look For You (Evensong)
(Raag Hamsadhwani)

II. The Year’s Midnight (Matins)
(Raag Malkauns)

III. The Unexpected Early Hour (Lauds)
(Raag Ahir Bhairav)

 Remembering Fr. Charles Strobel
Merrill (Strobel) Bohren

Wexford Carol
Trad. Irish Carol; arr. Kara Zeeman Rugen (2022)
Josh Post and Elizabeth Miller, solos

There Is No Rose
Words: Anon 14th c. ; Music: Rafael Sánchez Mombiedro (2022)

Love’s Pure Light
Words: Franz Mohr; Music: Elaine Hagenburg (2022)
Keith Sorrels, oboe

We Toast the Days
Words & Music: Linda Kachelmeier (2013)
Elizabeth Grossman & Greg Gunther, solos

Program Notes

Sing We Now of Christmas

Kyle Pederson (b. 1971) is a Minneapolis-based composer, lyricist, pianist, and educator. "Noël Nouvelet" is a traditional French Christmas and New Year's carol dating to the late 15th century. The song was long ago translated into English as "Sing We Now of Christmas."

Sing we now of Christmas, sing we now Noel;
hearts in expectation, Noel drawing near. 
Sing we Noel, Noel, Noel;
sing we now of Christmas, Noel sing we here. 

In stillness waits the world in silent reverie--
longing for the birth of love and mercy.
Yearning for hope, good news to fill our soul;
turning to the manger that grounds all mystery.

Angels bending low and shepherds bend their knee;
wisemen from the east have come the child to see.
All of creation where love has come to dwell--
sing we now of Christmas, the good news now we tell.

A Stranger and a King

Emily Feld is a pianist, composer, and teacher, based in Rosemount, MN. Her setting of Alfred Joyce Kilmer's powerful text calls for us to welcome the stranger, cast aside fear and doubt, and to 'unlatch, unlock, unbar' our hearts as the birth of Jesus approaches. Kilmer (1886-1918) is best known for his iconic verse, “I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree…”

Oh, let the gate swing open
However poor the yard,
Lest weary People visit you
And find their Passage barred.
Unlatch the door at midnight
And let your lantern's glow
Shine out to guide the traveler's feet
To you across the snow.

Unlock the door this evening
And let your gate swing wide,
Let all who ask for shelter
Come speedily inside.
What if your yard be narrow?
What if your house be small?
There is a Guest coming
Who will glorify it all.

Unbar your heart this evening
And keep no stranger out,
Take from your soul's great portal
The barrier of doubt.
To humble folk and weary
Give hearty welcoming,
Your breast shall be tomorrow
The cradle of a King.

Winter Wind

Shakespeare’s text is sung by Amiens in As You Like It. Amiens is a lord who chose to follow Duke Senior, who was banished by his brother. In this song, Amiens comments on how human insolence and lack of appreciation are more bitter than anything the winter could deliver. This poem reflects the harm and misery those closest to us can inflict, while the optimism of the jolly refrain could signify cause for hope in spite of the pain.

Composer Brandon Williams is an Assistant Professor of Choral Music and Choral Music Education at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Blow, blow, thou winter wind
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.

Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then heigh-ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.

Freeze, freeze thou bitter sky,
That does not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As a friend remembered not.

Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then heigh-ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.

Solstice

From composer Taylor Scott Davis:

What is a winter piece in times of a pandemic? And what is a season of connection when we can’t connect? After receieving this commission from VOCES8, I reached out to my friend, (American poet) Milton Brasher-Cunningham, whose poetry and writings and theology have resonated in my soul for more than two decades. I needed his words on this project. This bespoke text starts with a lonely invitation to ‘come sit in the dark with me,’ yet the phrases that follow are, like watching friends come into the frame, filled with warmth and aspiration. I sincerely hope you and I, weary from the journey, will find each other there.

come sit in the dark with me
and look at that moon that
is so at home in the night
let us reach deep into the
pockets of our souls for
scraps of hope and wonder 
come gaze at the firefly stars
sing softly into this silent night
oh that we had a ladder to make
a constellation of ourselves
a consolation of ourselves
come sit in the dark with me 

A Winter Breviary

Indian-American composer Reena Esmail works between the worlds of Indian and Western classical music, and brings communities together through the creation of equitable musical spaces. She lives in Los Angeles. About A Winter Breviary she writes:

This set of three carols, on new texts by poet Rebecca Gayle Howell, traces a journey through the solstice, the longest night of the year. The texts follow the canonical hours of Evensong, Matins and Lauds, and the music maps onto Hindustani raags for those same hours (Raag Hamsadhwani, Malkauns, and Ahir Bhairav). This set is a meeting of cultures, and of the many ways we honor the darkness, and celebrate the return of light.

The poet Rebecca Gayle Howell introduces the set thusly:

A Winter Breviary is a triptych of carols that tells the story of a person walking in the woods on solstice night. This pilgrim—she, he, they—searches for hope, the hope they cannot name, or hear or see. And still, they walk deeper and deeper into the dark. 

Solstice night is the longest night of the year. Or, as John Donne put it, “the year’s midnight.” Its lightlessness stretches out past our assumptions. On such a night, a person might feel it will never not be night again, that day is done. But the truth is, for us to awaken again to spring’s glory, the day must come to us differently. And, so it does. 

Explore this piece more in-depth here.

I. We Look for You
(Evensong – Raag Hamsadhwani)

Eventide, our single star,
One looking star, this night.
Next to me, the sparrow hen,
Two pilgrims small and bold.
Dusking hour, that lonely hour
The sky dims blue to grey.
Our forest road will fade,
We look for You.
Pines glisten wet with sleet,
She looks with me,
We look for You.
Fog falls in
So close, my breath,
She looks with me,
We look for You:
Great Silent One Unseen,
We look for You.
Eventide, our single star,
One looking star, this night.
We look for You,
Forgiving light, our guide.

II. The Year’s Midnight
(Matins – Raag Malkauns)

The longest night is come,
A matins for beasts, they low, they kneel,
O, their sleep, their psalm sung.
A matins for trees, they slow, they stem,
O, their reach, their psalm won.
Hush, hush,
Can I hear them?
Can I hear what is not said?
Hush, hush,
Can I hear You?
Ev'ry need met.
To light, the path is dark,
Our star has gone.
Beneath my feet a year of leaves fallen, frozen, done.
I walk these woods,
The longest night is come,
Above me, the sparrow,
She brings our new seed home.
Brown true sparrow,
Take tomorrow home.

III. The Unexpected Early Hour
(Lauds – Raag Ahir Bhairav)

Praise be! praise be!
The dim, the dun, the dark withdraws
Our recluse morning's found.
The river's alive
The clearing provides
Lie down, night sky,  lie down.
I feel the cold wind leaving, gone,
I feel the frost's relief.
My tracks in the snow can still be erased
In us, the sun believes.
Winter is, Winter ends,
So the true bird calls.
The rocks cry out
My bones cry out
All the trees applaud.
Ev'ry hard thing lauds.
Lie down, night sky, lie down.
I know the seeding season comes,
I know the ground will spring.
My fate is not night
I don't need to try
Behold! The dawn, within.
Horizon lights across my thoughts,
Horizon lines redraw.
Inside of my throat a rise of the gold
Inside my chest I thaw.
Winter is, Winter ends,
Nothing stays the same.
The moon strikes high,
The sun strikes high and
Now I hear your name:
Earth's Untired Change.
Praise be! praise be!
The unexpected early hour
grows the good light long.
Our darkness ends,
O mercy sun,
Trust can warm us all.
Begin again, again, again,
O may our day begin!

Wexford Carol

Dr. Kira Zeeman Rugen is a composer, conductor, academic professor, and professional soprano from Scottsdale Arizona. She founded and is the Artistic Director for Solis - Choir of the Sun, a professional choir, in 2011. She arranged this setting of the 15th century Irish carol for Catholic Phoenix for their annual concert “A Sacred Celtic Christmas."

Good people all, this Christmas time,
Consider well and bear in mind
What our good God for us has done
In sending His beloved Son
With Mary holy we should pray,
To God with love this Christmas Day
In Bethlehem upon that morn,
There was a blessed Messiah born.

The night before that happy tide,
The noble virgin and her guide
Were long time seeking up and down
To find a lodging in the town.
But mark how all things came to pass
From every door repelled, alas,
As was foretold, their refuge all
Was but a humble ox's stall.

Near Bethlehem did shepherds keep
Their flocks of lambs and feeding sheep
To whom God's angels did appear
Which put the shepherds in great fear
Prepare and go, the angels said
To Bethlehem, be not afraid
For there you'll find, this happy morn
A princely Babe, sweet Jesus, born.

There Is No Rose

Rafael Sánchez Mombiedro is an active choral composer, arranger, director, and a professor of improvisation at the Conservatorio Superior de Música in Valencia, Spain. After directing community choral ensembles for several years, in 2003 he founded the all-professional chamber choir, NEOVOCALIS. This group’s repertoire is varied but specializes in contemporary choral literature, and as such, it has premiered most of Mombiedro’s compositions. There Is No Rose is of unknown origin, dating back to 13th century England.

There is no rose of such virtue
As is the rose that bare Jesu;
Alleluia.

For in this rose contained was
Heaven and earth in little space;
Res miranda.

By that rose we may well see
That He is God in persons three,
Pares forma.

The angels sungen the shepherds to:
Gloria in excelsis Deo:
Gaudeamus.

Now leave we all this worldly mirth
And follow we this joyful birth;
Transeamus.

res miranda = marvelous thing!
pares forma = of equal form
gaudeamus = let us rejoice!
transeamus = let us go across! (from worldy to heavenly things)

Love’s Pure Light

Iowa-based composer Elaine Hagenburg is a prolific composer and a rising star in the choral world. With over fifty commissioned works, she has composed new music for the American Choral Directors Association, professional choirs, colleges and universities, community choirs, high schools, and churches. Love’s Pure Light is a recasting of the beloved carol Silent Night, with subtle references to the traditional tune embedded within her lush new setting.

Silent night, holy night!
All is calm, all is bright.
Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child.
Holy infant so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.

Silent night, holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight.
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia,
Christ the Saviour is born!
Christ the Saviour is born

Silent night, holy night!
Son of God, love’s pure light.

 We Toast the Days

Linda Kachelmeier (b. 1965, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA) is a composer, conductor, and professional singer. Since 1991 she has been the Director of Music at First Presbyterian Church in South St. Paul.

When the clock strikes twelve and another year has gone,
I give a kiss to you
As remembrance of the past we have shared and the future yet to come.
We toast the days, both good and bad,
the old friends and the new.
When the clock strikes twelve and another year has gone,
I give a kiss to you.

While the night is long and the bitter cold has come,
we lengthen our embrace
To sustain us as we mourn our regrets and the fear of days unknown.
We toast the days…

As we stand on the edge of another bright new year,
I take your hand in mine
With assurance of the courage we will find
and the hope that leads us on.
We toast the days…