Magic. — Program Notes

Music: magic as old as memory. The power of sound, and its profound ability to affect our minds and bodies, is a universal human experience. Sacred sounds fill our holy spaces, surround rituals and tradition, and invoke the supernatural. What is this power that sound has over us? Is music a kind of magic? Does this magic extend beyond us, and into the world? What is the connection between music and the soul?

Join the Nightingale Vocal Ensemble for a night of music, magic, and mysticism.

REPERTOIRE
​
Spiritus Sanctus Vivificans Vita
     Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179)
     solo: Motomi Tanaka

Earth Seen from Above (from Atlas)
     Meredith Monk (1942–)

Ritual to Learn Tongues
     Nicholas Ford (1993–)
     quartet: Rose Hegele, Emerald Barbour, Angie Grau, Nicholas Ford

Scry   |   world première
     Nicholas Ford (1993–)

Vocal Incantation   |   world première
     Rose Hegele (1993–)
     solo: Nicholas Ford

Magic Songs
     R. Murray Schafer (1933–2021)

Alive and Aware   |   world première
     Nathan Halbur (1993–)
     quintet: Olivia de Geofroy, Cara Bender, James Walsh, Nicholas Fahrenkrug, Thaddeus Bell

Hocket (from Facing North)
     Meredith Monk (1942–)
​     duet: Rose Hegele, Nicholas Ford

Chesterfield ("Death may dissolve my Body now")
​     Willam Billings (1746–1800)

PERSONNEL
​
SOPRANOS
Motomi Tanaka
Rose Hegele
Hannah Carlson
Olivia de Geofroy

ALTOS
Cara Bender
Rachael Murray
Emerald Barbour
Angie Grau

TENORS
Will Farell
James Walsh
Joshua Glassman
Will Peacock

BASSES
Nicholas Ford
Nick Fahrenkrug
Thaddeus Bell
​Elijah Botkin


CONDUCTOR: Benjamin Kapp Perry
SECTION LEADER: Elijah Botkin
PROJECT LEADER: Nicholas Ford

TEXTS

Spiritus Sanctus Vivificans Vita
text by Hildegard von Bingen
​translation by Nathaniel M. Campbell
collated from the transcription of Beverly Lomer and the edition of Barbara Newman
​
Spiritus sanctus vivificans
     The Holy Spirit: living and life-giving,
vita movens omnia,
     the life that’s all things moving,
et radix est in omni creatura
     the root in all created being:
ac omnia de inmunditia abluit,
     of filth and muck it washes all things clean–
tergens crimina ac ungit vulnera,
     out-scrubbing guilty staining, its balm our wounds constraining–
et sic est fulgens ac laudabilis vita,
     and so its life with praise is shining,
suscitans et resuscitans
     rousing and reviving
omnia.    
     all.


Alive and Aware
text by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, & Steven Soter
​adapted by Nathan Halbur
from Cosmos: A Personal Voyage​
​
​All that is or was.
All that ever will be.

Immensity and Eternity:
lost somewhere between, we float
like dust in the morning sky.

Galaxies, suns, and planets –
life and consciousness –
coming into being
and evolving, perishing.

It’s a story about us.

Elegant truths,
exquisite interrelationships,
the awesome machinery of nature.

The surface of the Earth
is the shore of the cosmic ocean.
On this shore we have learned
most of what we know.
We’ve waded a little way out,
ankle-deep – the water seems inviting.

This is where we came from.
We long to return, and we can,
because the cosmos is within us.

We’re made of star-stuff.
We are a way for the cosmos
to know itself.

Cosmic harmonies
carry us to worlds of dreams
in space and time.

The end of our journey
is the world where we began.
See Earth anew,
as if we came from
somewhere else.

The cosmos has become
alive and aware.


Chesterfield
text by Isaac Watts

Death may dissolve my body now,
And bear my spirit home;
Why do my minutes move so slow,
Nor my salvation come?

God has laid up in heav’n for me,
A crown which cannot fade;
The righteous judge at that great day
Shall place it on my head.

God is my everlasting aid
And hell shall rage in vain
To Him be highest glory paid
And endless praise – Amen!

SPECIAL THANKS
​to St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Katie Geissenger, Meredith Monk, Rose Hegele, Alexandra Ghiz, Alejandro Carillo, Elijah Botkin, Nathan Halbur, Angela Yam, & the entire Nightingale family.