Chapter VI
: ‘King Gorm the Grim’ (1908), a fiery choral ballad on a Danish theme (words after Theodor Fontane); ‘The Leap of Roushan Beg’ (1913), a ballad for men’s voices with tenor solo (poem by Longfellow); ‘Alice Brand’ (1913), a short cantata for three-part female chorus with solos (poem by Sir Walter Scott); and ‘A Song of Times,’ a short cantata for chorus and orchestra.
In ‘Morven and the Grail,’ Parker has produced his largest choral work since the _Hora Novissima_ and ‘Legend of St. Christopher.’ This oratorio was written for the Centenary Festival of the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, April 11-15, 1915. It calls for four soloists--Morven, baritone; Sigurd, tenor; St. Cecilia, soprano; Our Lady, alto; Angels of the Grail, a second solo quartet. The poem by Brian Hooker is a work of unusual charm and has accompanying it a quaint synopsis of the story, relating how ‘Morven, seafaring upon the quest of the Grail, heareth the Angels thereof calling to him, and will follow the world’s dream even unto the end of the world. He cometh to Avalon, the heaven of Pleasure, and there for a time abideth in bliss.’ But hearing Sigurd, the Volsung, riding against the Dragon and realizing that man can not be content forever in joy, he departeth and cometh to Valhalla of the Old Gods, where he abideth in glory until, ‘hearing in his soul as it were the voice of St. Cecilia hymning Christ her Lord,’ he proceedeth to the Saints in Paradise, the heaven of holiness, where again for a time he abideth in peace. In spirit he heareth ‘Our Lady communing with her child new-born into the world’ and learneth that man may not forever content himself at rest and that the desire of the soul is not to be found in Paradise, nor in any place, but that it followeth everywhere; ‘wherefore he will depart out of that heaven to be born again and become as a little child.’ The heavens being then opened to him, in a vision he heareth the song of the Grail and the Angels singing of man, living on ‘between Hell and Heaven in wonder everlasting.’ The closing argument is as follows: ‘And forasmuch as God of His own heart so imagineth all things that they die and rise again, therefore shall the earth declare the glory of God, world without end.’
George W. Chadwick has written in nearly all the larger forms of choral, orchestral and chamber music. In the opening years of the century he wrote two choral works of large dimensions, ‘Judith’ and ‘Noël,’ both in oratorio form, though the action of the first is so intense and dramatic that it could well be performed with full operatic machinery. Both are conceived in the form of the classical oratorio, though Chadwick’s musical vocabulary is clearly modern, his harmony being rich, warm and distinctly individual. ‘Judith’ is a work of massive proportions, one of the few great choral works yet produced in America. ‘Noël’ is simpler in structure, yet contains numbers of compelling beauty.
‘Judith,’ a lyric drama in three acts, was published in 1901. The persons represented are Judith, mezzo-soprano; Achior, tenor; Holofernes, baritone; Ozias, bass; and Sentinel, tenor. The text by William Chauncey Langdon is cast in three acts. The first, in Bethulia, pictures the sorrows of Israel beset by Asshur’s host, to which the Israelites are about to yield when the entreaties of Ozias persuade them to trust the Lord five days longer. Judith relates her vision, in which her departed husband directs her to save her people by destroying Holofernes. The second act brings her to the camp of Holofernes, who is completely infatuated with her beauty. She insists upon becoming his cup-bearer, and after he has partaken too freely of wine, she (still responding to the vision) slays him with his own sword and conceals his head in the folds of her dress as she passes the guards, whom Holofernes had commanded to let her pass freely in and out. The third act begins with her return to Bethulia just as Ozias once more kneels at the wall, praying for deliverance. As she shows the head of Holofernes there is great rejoicing and the victory of the Israelites over the Assyrians is proclaimed.
‘Noël,’ a Christmas pastoral for four solos, chorus and orchestra, was written for the Litchfield County (Conn.) University Club and published in 1909. The text is compiled from various sources, most of which are named. The work consists of twelve numbers, besides an orchestral prelude entitled ‘The Star.’ No. 1 is a chorus, ‘This is the month’ (words by Milton); No. 2, ‘From the eastern mountains’ (words by Thwing), depicts the journey of the Wise Men; No. 3, ‘Long and darksome was the night,’ is an alto solo (words by Ray Palmer, 1830); No. 4 is a chorus for female voices, _Parvum quando cerno Deum_, the authorship of the Latin text being unknown; No. 5 is a bass solo, ‘I was a foe to God,’ words by Torsteegen, 1731; and No. 6 a chorus of praise, ‘Praise Him, O ye heaven of heavens,’ with words by Prudentius, A. D. 405. No. 7 begins the second part with ‘While to Bethlehem we are going,’ for alto solo and chorus, words by Violante de Ceo, 1601; No. 8 is a soprano solo, ‘Hark! a voice from yonder manger,’ words by Gerhardt, 1656; No. 9 is a carol from the Latin of the fourteenth century, ‘A child is born in Bethlehem,’ which can be sung unaccompanied; No. 10 is a tenor solo, ‘O holy Child, Thy manger streams,’ words from the Danish; No. 11, a quartet, ‘Hither come ye heavy-hearted,’ words by Gerhardt, 1656; and the last number, ‘How lovely shines the morning star,’ words by Nikolai, 1597, is a stately chorale and fugue for chorus and quartet.
VII
Henry K. Hadley (born 1871) is prominent among the group of younger Americans who have assiduously cultivated choral writing, having published seven or eight choral works of varying size, up to the present time (1915). His first cantata was ‘In Music’s Praise,’ which won the prize offered in 1901 by the Oliver Ditson Company, music-publishers. This was followed in 1904 by ‘A Legend of Granada,’ a cantata for women’s voices with soprano and baritone solos (words by Ethel Watts Mumford). Four other cantatas for women’s voices with various solo parts succeeded this one--‘The Fate of Princess Kiyo’ (1907), a legend of Japan (words by Edward Oxenford); ‘The Golden Prince’ (1914); ‘The Nightingale and the Rose’ (1911); and ‘The Princess of Ys.’
Hadley’s longest choral work is the lyric drama ‘Merlin and Vivian’ (1907), to the poem by Ethel Watts Mumford, an ambitious composition calling for the full resources of solo, choral and orchestral forces. It is in three parts, whose scenes are laid respectively on the ‘Isle of Avalon,’ at King Arthur’s court, and at Castle Joyousguard. The characters are Morgan-le-Fay, the enchantress, Queen of Avalon; Vivian, the sorceress; King Arthur; Merlin, the enchanter, Arthur’s councilor; Adrihim, the spirit of the architect of King Suleiman; and Ariel, the spirit of music and light.
Frederick Shepherd Converse (born 1871), after several orchestral works in the larger forms, entered the choral field with a composition of oratorio dimensions, ‘Job,’ a dramatic poem for solos, chorus and orchestra, which was composed for the fiftieth annual festival of the Worcester (Mass.) Musical Association in 1907. The text is taken from Job and the Psalms in the Vulgate. accompanied with an English paraphrase. The characters represented are Job, tenor; his Friend, baritone; a woman of Israel, mezzo-soprano; and the voice of Jehovah, bass; the chorus represents the voices of prayer and adoration. A preface to the work points out that ‘the dramatic motive of the poem is the development of the moods of Job, distress under suffering, rebellion, doubt, and final submissive understanding of the will of God. In emotional contrast with him is the Woman of Israel, who represents the spirit of unquestioning faith. The Friend stands, like the three friends of the Bible story, for the spirit of conventional piety. The chorus represents superhuman voices, which declare the glory of God; against their sustained mood of adoration and praise beats the contest of human emotions. The impersonal universal spirit of the chorus is conveyed in the music by simple diatonic harmonies, the warp upon which the solo parts are woven in modern chromatic design.’
Other choral compositions by Converse are a ‘Serenade’ (1908) for soprano and tenor solos, male chorus and small orchestra (text by John Macy) and ‘The Peace Pipe’ (1915), a cantata for baritone solo, mixed chorus and orchestra to text from Longfellow’s ‘Song of Hiawatha.’ Longfellow, who has probably furnished more texts for cantatas and choral ballads than any other one poet, is also drawn upon by Carl Busch for his cantata, ‘The Four Winds’ (1907) (again from ‘The Song of Hiawatha’), a lengthy work calling for soprano and tenor solos with chorus.
Rossetter Gleason Cole (born 1866), in his lyrical idyl, ‘The Passing of Summer’ (1902), written to a libretto by Elsie Jones Cooley, presents a pastoral scene in which two lovers go forth at the dawning of summer’s last day and witness gracious Summer’s farewell to all her children--the summer winds, the falling leaves, the soft-hued flowers--but as evening falls they rejoice that love’s flower, which Summer had planted in their hearts, dies not. The score, which is quite lengthy, demands soprano, tenor and contralto solos, chorus and orchestra.
David Stanley Smith (born 1877) appears among the list of choral writers with two short works--‘The Logos’ (The Word is Made Flesh), published in 1908, which is a Christmas cantata for three solo voices (The Logos, the Angel Gabriel and Mary) and chorus of angelic voices and voices from earth; and ‘God our Life’ (1906), a sacred cantata for general use.
FOOTNOTES:
[88] _Les Post-Elgariens_, par X.-M. Boulestin, S. I. M., Jan., 1914.
[89] Schering: _Geschichte des Oratoriums_, pp. 591-592.
##