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Remembering Daniel Pearl
A Celebration in Music

The combined choirs of
the LISD high schools - Lewisville, Hebron, The Colony,
Marcus, Flower Mound
Guest of Honor: Dr. Judea Pearl
Friday, April
30,
2010 at 7:30 p.m.
Lakeland Baptist Church, Lewisville
(Directions)
Adults $25, Seniors (60+) $20, Students $10
Families $60 no matter how large the family.
Special UNT student and faculty rate: $5
Sponsored by the City of Lewisville and the Medical
Center of Lewisville. Co-sponsored by Duane and Judi Johnson and by The Friends of the Symphony
Flower Mound High
School Jaguar Chorale
Mark Rohwer, Director
Hebron High School A Cappella Choir
Rachel Forester, Director
The Colony High School Tempo Varsity Choir
Margaret Miller, Director
Marcus High School Varsity Mixed
Choir
Jason Dove, Director
Lewisville High School Cantori Choir and the Main Street Singers
Terri Jarvis, Director
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings
I. Pezzo in forma di Sonatina:
Andante non troppo; Allegro moderato
II. Valse: Moderato; Tempo di Valse
III. Élégie: Larghetto elegiaco
IV. Finale (Tema Russo): Andante; Allegro con
spirito
- Intermission -
Benjamin Britten: Simple Symphony: 3rd Movement
(Sentimental Sarabande)
Lord
Byron: Prometheus
Read by R
Neil Ferguson
Timothy Brown: There are Stars Whose Radiance is
Visible on Earth
(The Texas premiere of a work for chorus and
chamber orchestra commissioned by the Daniel Pearl Foundation.)
The Daniel Pearl
Foundation
The Daniel Pearl Foundation was formed in memory of
journalist Daniel Pearl to further the ideals that inspired Daniel's
life and work. The foundation's mission is to promote cross-cultural
understanding through journalism, music, and innovative communications.
'There are Stars Whose Radiance
is
Visible on Earth' - composer's notes
"Daniel Pearl was dedicated to the Jeffersonian ideals of freedom
and equality and saw America as a beacon of hope for the rest of the
World. We envision this new choral work to reach out to the entire world
to express the oneness of mankind and the victory of humanity over
brutality."
Dr. Judea Pearl, President of the Daniel Pearl Foundation
The first movement of “There are Stars Whose Radiance is Visible on
Earth” begins with a simple statement of a "four part chorale" that sets
the tone and mood for the rest of the three movements of the choral
work.
The
text of the first movement, “Lord, May it Never End,” is from the
writings of Hannah Senesh, an inspirational figure that inspired me due
to the many parallels of her short life and the life of the journalist,
Daniel Pearl.
Hannah Senesh, diarist, poet,
playwright
and parachutist in the Jewish
resistance
under the British Armed
Forces during
World War II was born and
died in
Budapest, Hungary.
The first movement is a powerful portrayal of the strength of the
goodness found in mankind . “A victory of humanity over brutality”. The
first movement has an immediate impact with a fullness of dynamic ranges
and energetic moments pushing the music continually forward in it’s
representation of “a cry from the darkness”
The second movement, an "Alleluia," is solemn, and reflective of it’s
initial use in the ancient Greek Liturgy of St. James. It’s “chant like”
opening gradually builds to a tremendous climax towards the end of the
movement in both dynamics and harmonic development.
The movement uses an " A cappella" setting and serves as a decisive
dividing point between the first and final movement. The "Alleluia" or
Hebrew word "Halleluya" text can be used interchangeably to suit both
traditional Jewish and Christian performance practice. The overall
message of thanksgiving, joy, and triumph is interwoven throughout this
movement as a vocal tapestry.
The static monophonic beginnings of the third movement “Of Thine
Impenetrable Spirit,”reflects the story and struggle of the titan
“Prometheus” found in Greek mythology. The text is from the third verse
of the poem “Prometheus” by the English poet, Lord Byron.
The movement slowly builds from the opening moments of the movement to a
triumphant restatement in fullness of intensity in both the choral and
orchestral parts. The concluding section features a violin solo
introducing a theme of hope and purity .
The violin continues as if following the process from afar, yet having
an important role of leading the choir and orchestra to the final
statement of the opening chorale which was first presented in the
opening of the first movement.
Timothy Brown, composer (2009)
Timothy Brown
Lewisville
composer Timothy Brown’s works are frequently performed throughout North
America and Europe His music has been recently performed at the Spoleto
Music Festival, in The Library of Congress Concert Series in Washington
D.C., and on National Public Radio.
He has just finished a commission by the Dallas Ballet Foundation for
the ballet “The Happy Prince” based on a short story by Oscar Wilde. Mr.
Brown is currently a fine arts specialist for the Dallas Public Schools
and serves on the advisory board of the “Booker T. Washington High
School for the Performing and Visual Arts” in Dallas. He leads a very
active career as an exclusive composer with over one hundred
compositions now in print.
Timothy
Brown’s music has been influenced greatly by the Italian film composer
Ennio Morricone and also by the composer Luciano Berio. His music is
noted for it’s “immediate emotional impact” and it’s roots in the
neo-romantic style. His traditional formal structural elements are
embedded in his wide array of orchestral, ballet, chamber, and piano
music.
He did his undergraduate studies at Bowling Green State University and
received his masters degree from the University of North Texas where he
studied piano with Adam Wodnicki, and music composition with Newel Kay
Brown. He later was a recipient of a research fellowship from the Royal
Holloway, University of London where he did his post-graduate studies in
music composition and orchestration studying with the English composer,
Brian Lock.
Dr. Judea Pearl
Guest of Honor
Dr. Judea Pearl is one of the pioneers of Bayesian networks and the
probabilistic approach to artificial intelligence, and one of the firsts
to mathematize causal modeling in the empirical sciences. His work is
also intended as a high-level cognitive model. He is interested in the
philosophy of science, knowledge representation, nonstandard logics, and
learning. Pearl is described as "one of the giants in the field of
artificial intelligence” by UCLA computer science professor Richard Korf.
His work on causality has "revolutionized the understanding of causality
in statistics, psychology, medicine and the social sciences."
Serenade for Strings, Op. 48
Peter I. Tchaikovsky
Among the most charming of Tchaikovsky’s compositions is his
Serenade for Strings, composed in 1880. Tchaikovsky confided to his
publisher that this work took the form of a serenade by accident. When
he made preliminary sketches he envisioned it as something between a
symphony and a string quartet. Its final form was an inspiration that
delights all his admirers. Despite his tendency to underestimate even
his best works, Tchaikovsky seems to have had a fondness for this
score. “I wish with all my heart that you could hear my Serenade
properly performed,” he wrote to Mme. Von Meck in 1881 . . . . “The
first movement is my homage to Mozart. It is intended to be an
imitation of his style, and I should be delighted if I thought I had in
any way approached my model.”
I. Piece in Form of a Sonatina: Andante non troppo; Allegro
moderato. The main body of this movement is lively and energetic
with a strongly rhythmic first theme and a lightly skipping second theme
for contrast.
II. Waltz: Moderato, tempo di valse. The graceful, lilting
melody of this Waltz is one of the most popular and most charming in all
of Tchaikovsky. He had an especial flair and so loved the Viennese
waltz style that the melody is hard to forget.
III. Elegy: Larghetto elegacio. The wistful mood of the opening
contrasts with a livelier middle section. For the return of the opening
music the entire orchestra plays with mutes, producing a delicately
veiled tone.
IV. Finale: Andante; Allegro conspirito. The slow introduction
is based on a Russian folk tune, a Volga "hauling song". There is a
bustling main theme that is related to the slow introduction to the
first movement, which also returns toward the end in its original form.
The conclusion comes with another brilliant outburst of the bustling
main theme.
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Born on May 7, 1840 in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia
Died On November 6, 1893 in St. Petersburg, Russia
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, probably the most famous of all Russian
composers, was the son of a mine inspector. He started piano studies at
age five and soon showed remarkable gifts. He attended law school in
St. Petersburg, and, while studying law and government, he took music
lessons, including composing.
At age nineteen he took a job as a bureau clerk, a job which he hated.
By this time he was totally absorbed by music, and he began to study
music in earnest at the relatively late age of twenty-one. His progress
in music was rapid, however. After graduating from the St. Petersburg
Conservatory, he became a professor of harmony at the Moscow
Conservatory and became a very prolific composer: a symphony, an opera,
a tone poem – and by the age of thirty – his first great orchestral
work, Romeo and Juliet.
In 1877 he acquired a wealthy benefactress,
Nadezhda von Meck, with whom he
had a curious relationship – they corresponded but never met in person.
Madame von Meck gave him an annuity that allowed him to leave the
conservatory and devote himself totally to composition; fourteen years
later, he was deeply hurt when she cut off the stipend and stopped
writing to him.
During these years Tchaikovsky achieved success
conducting his own works throughout Europe (and the United States in
1893), but he always remained a spiritually troubled man. In 1893, nine
days after conducting the premiere of his Symphony No. 6 (Pathetique)
– which ends unconventionally with a slow, despairing finale – he died
at the age of fifty-three.
Tchaikovsky’s music is extremely tuneful, colorfully
scored, and filled with emotional fervor directed to the heart rather
than the head. In 19th Century Russian music Tchaikovsky
stands alone. He did not fall under the influence of Brahms nor Wagner,
but greatly admired the French music of Bizet and Saint-Saens.
He had a
lifelong passion for Mozart, and many passages in Tchaikovsky’s music
are as delicately detailed and colored as works by Bizet and Mozart. In
addition to his orchestral master-pieces he is noted for the success of
his operas, ballets and songs.
Simple Symphony, Op. 4
Benjamin Britten
III. Sentimental Sarabande
The Sentimental Sarabande for strings was based on original piano pieces
and songs written when the composer was twelve years old. Here the ideas
of a highly musical child give shape to the work as occasional changes
form symmetrical classicist structures. The twenty-year-old composer
added a few touch-up strokes of sophistication, but the great merit of
the work lies in its range of idiomatic string textures. This third
movement of the symphony has an expressiveness gained from using
orthodox progressions against a pedal tone. The middle section abandoned
conventional textural fullness for melody with transparent accompaniment
figures.
Benjamin Britten
Born on November 22, 1913 in Lowestoft, United
Kingdom
Died on December 4, 1976 in Aldeburgh, United Kingdom
After
two hundred years with no major composer to speak of, English music
enjoyed a great renaissance throughout the 20th century, through the
compositional talents of Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughn-Williams and
Benjamin Britten. Britten stands at the center of this admirable talent.
While Elgar and Vaughn-Williams wrote mainly for the concert hall,
Britten concentrated more on vocal music, and especially opera. Hence,
symphonic audiences generally are not as familiar with his music.
Britten was born in 1913 in Lowestoft, Suffolk. He was a child prodigy
who wrote his first music at the age of four. In 1924 he began his
formal music studies with composer Frank Bridge, and by the time he was
twelve he had composed a dozen large works. At age 14 he had written
over one hundred youthful pieces of music, some of which were to form
the basis of his early Simple Symphony. In 1930 he entered the Royal
College of Music in London, and by the age of twenty-one he was
self-supporting as a composer, chiefly from writing film-scores and
incidental music for radio plays. The sensational success of his
Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge at the 1937 Salzburg Festival
clinched his reputation.
He moved to the United States in 1939. His composing career ran parallel
to the growth of the recording industry after World War II. A
relationship with Decca records flourished and his War Requiem, with its
universal appeal, creatively utilized the then relatively new techniques
of stereophonic sound. After the war he returned to the United Kingdom
and in 1948 founded the Aldeburgh Festival, which became the major
musical focus for him for the rest of his life. He composed a continual
flow of operas, orchestral and choral works, but he generally focused on
conducting and accompanying the English Opera Group in Aldeburgh until
his death in 1976.
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