February Program | Serenade

SOUTH FLORIDA’S GRAMMY® NOMINATED VOCAL ENSEMBLE

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Ser enad e Four Levertov Settings iv. One December Night...

Images Book One I. Reflets Dans l’eau (Reflections in the water) All-Night Vigil, op. 27 Blessed is the Man The Blue Bird

Images Book One II. Hommage à Rameau (Tribute to Rameau) In Bright Mansions Above

It is Not Too Late

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day

Images Book One III. Mouvement (Movement) Ubi Caritas

Christopher Theofanidis (b.1967) Patrick Dupré Quigley, conductor Claude Debussy (1862-1918) Anna Fateeva, pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) Elena Sharkova, conductor Charles Stanford (1852-1924) James K. Bass, conductor Debussy Anna Fateeva, pianist arr. Roland Carter (b.1942) Anthony Tracek-King, conductor Carlitos Fernando López (b.1977) James K. Bass, conductor Nils Lindberg (b.1933) James K. Bass, conductor Debussy Anna Fateeva, pianist Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986) Patrick Dupré Quigley, conductor

Serenade | Text & Translations Four Levertov Settings, Christopher Theofanidis (b.1967) One December Night…

This I had not expected: the moon coming right into my kitchen, the full moon, gently bumping angles of furniture, seeming to like the round table but not resenting corners.

Somehow the moon filled all the space and yet left room for whatever was there already, including me, and for movement. Like a balloon, the moon stirred at a breath and unlike a balloon did not rise to the ceiling, but wandered as if sleep-walking, no more than a foot from the floor.

Music accompanied this lunar visitation you would imagine harp or lute, but no, I’d say it was steel drums, played with an airy whispering touch.

(Those scooped concavities might serve as moon-mirrors.)

The greenish tint of white spider chrysanthemums resembled the moon’s color, but that was lighter, lighter.

I have been given much, but why this also?

I was abashed.

What grand gesture of welcome was I to make? I bowed, curtsied, but the modest moon appeared unaware of homage.

I breathed, I gazed; and slowly, mildly, the moon hovered, touring stove and cupboards, bookshelves and sink, glimmering over a bowl of tangerines.

And gently withdrew, just as I thought to summon courage to offer honey-mead or slivovitz.

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Serenade | Text & Translations All-Night Vigil, op. 27, Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) Blessed Is the Man Blazhen muzh, izhe ne ide na sovet nechestivykh.

Alliluya.

Yako vest Gospod put pravednykh, i put nechestivykh pogibnet. Alliluya.

Rabotaite Gospodevi so strakhom i raduitesya Emu strepetom.

Alliluya.

Blazheni vsi nadeysushchisya Nan. Alliluya.

Voskresni, Gospodi, spasi mya, Bozhe moy. Alliluya.

Gospodne est spaseniye, i na lyudekh Tvoikh blagosloveniye Tvoye. Alliluya.

Slava Otsu, i Synu, i Svyatomu Dukhu, i nyne i prisno i vo veki vekov. Amin. Alliluya. Slava Tebe, Bozhe.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked.

Alleluia.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous but the way of the wicked will perish. Alleluia.

Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice in him with trembling.

Alleluia.

Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! Alleluia.

Salvation is of the Lord; and thy blessing is upon thy people.

Alleluia.

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever and unto ages of ages.

Amen. Alleluia. Glory to thee, O God

The Blue Bird, Charles Stanford (1852-1924) The lake lay below the hill.

O’er it, as I looked, there flew Across the waters, cold and still, A bird whose wings were palest blue.

The sky above was blue at last, The sky beneath me blue in blue.

A moment ere the bird has passed It caught his image as he flew.

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Serenade | Text & Translations In Bright Mansions Above, arr. Roland Carter (b.1942) In bright mansions above Lord, I want to live up yonder In bright mansions above.

My mother’s gone to glory I want to go there too Lord, I want to live up yonder In bright mansions above.

My father’s gone to glory I want to go there too Lord, I want to live up yonder In bright mansions above.

My sister’s gone to glory I want to go there too Lord, I want to live up yonder In bright mansions above.

My brother’s gone to glory I want to go there too Lord, I want to live up yonder In bright mansions above.

My Savior’s gone to glory I want to go there too Lord, I want to live up yonder In bright mansions above.

It is Not Too Late, Carlitos Fernando López (b.1977)

It’s not too late, too late to dream.

It’s not too late to build, to share the land.

The only way I dare to die, is if I die because of love.

It’s not too late to share the land, a land in peace.

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Serenade | Text & Translations Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day, Nils Lindberg (b.1933) Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st, Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade, When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Ubi Caritas, Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986) Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.

Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor.

Exultemus, et in ipso iucundemur.

Timeamus, et amemus Deum vivum.

Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero. Amen.

Where charity and love are, God is there.

Christ’s love has gathered us into one.

Let us rejoice and be pleased in Him. Let us fear, and let us love the living God. And may we love each other with a sincere heart. Amen.

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PRODUCTION CREDITS

Audio Engineer: Jamie Tagg (IN) Video Production: Enrico Lagasca (NY) Head of Production: Alexis Aimé (FL) Producer/Director: Southern Land Films (FL) Executive Producer: James K. Bass (CA) A Seraphic Fire Media Production (SFM ™)

SOUTH FLORIDA’S GRAMMY® NOMINATED VOCAL ENSEMBLE

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