Palm Sunday Praise – Grove City College Touring Choir

March 29 Concert Program

Exultate Deo                                                    G.P. da Palestrina (1525-1594)

Sing for joy to God our strength; make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. Begin the music, strike the timbrel, play the melodious harp and lyre. Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon and when the moon is full, on the solemn feast day.  

Laudate Dominum                                        W. A. Mozart (1756-1791)

Praise the Lord, all nations, Praise Him all people, for He has bestowed His mercy on us, and the truth of the Lord endures forever. Glory to the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and forever, and for generations of generations, Amen.

The Heavens are Telling                               Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Nora Russell, student conductor

Ubi Caritas (women)                                     Ola Gjeilo (b. 1978)

Where charity and love are, God is there. The love of Christ has gathered us together.Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Let us revere and love the living God. And let us love from a pure heart. Amen.

Chichester Psalms, Mvt. I                             Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

Awake, psaltery and harp! I will rouse the dawn! Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness, come before His presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord, He is God. It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endureth to all generations.

Heavenly Light                                                 arr. Peter Wilhousky (1902-1978)

O Day Full of Grace                                         F. Melius Christiansen (1871-1955)

Notre Père (The Lord’s Prayer)                   Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986)

Go and Tell John                                              Larry Fleming (1936-2003)

The Chamber Singers
Daniel Garner, student conductor

INTERMISSION

The Lamb                                                            John Tavener (1944-2013)

Let Everything That Hath Breath                Jeffery Ames (b. 1969)

Peter Hasse, bass and Hannah Terebessy, tambourine

Hold Out Your Light (men)                            arr. Stacey Gibbs (b. 1962)

Lux Aurumque                                                  Eric Whitacre (b. 1970)

and the swallow (surround)                          Caroline Shaw (b.1962)

City Called Heaven                                            Josephine Poelinitz (b. 1942)

Elijah Rock                                                           arr. Moses Hogan (1957-2003)

God Be in My Head                                            John Rutter (b. 1945)

Sarah Altman, Jaden Espenshade and Wesley Morgan, Accompanists

Program Notes

Palestrina’s Exultate Deo is a 5-voice motet, first published in his Fifth Book of Motets in 1584. He set three verses of Psalm 81—each section of text has a different character and musical motif. There’s the opening ascending line of “Exultate,” the joyous “Jubilate,” the syncopation of the “drums” of “tympanum,” and the buoyant descending triad of “Buccinate” the articulation of which imitates a brass instrument (“blow the trumpet”). The work is a beautiful example of Palestrina’s mastery of counterpoint.

Laudate Dominum is the fifth movement of Mozart’s six-movement sacred work Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, written in 1780 while he was employed by the Bishop of Salzburg, and was Mozart’s last Salzburg liturgical work. The text is drawn from five Psalms and a Magnificat canticle, and was meant to be used for a “Saint’s (“Confessore) Day.” This beautiful piece is a lovely showcase for a soprano soloist, aided by warm choral writing.

The Heavens are Telling is the final triumphant chorus of Part I of Haydn’s three-part oratorio The Creation, composed in 1797. An admirer of Handel’s oratorios, Haydn used as text sources the Book of Genesis, the Book of Psalms, and John Milton’s Paradise Lost. This chorus features the three main soloists of Parts I and II—the angels Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael.

Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo’s Ubi Caritas is considered his “break-through” work in the United States. Composed in 1999, the work was influenced by Gjeilo’s own experience singing Maurice Duruflé’s setting of this text and its Gregorian chant influence. It was originally written for SATB choir, but has since been adapted for both men’s and women’s choirs. The text is traditionally sung on Maundy Thursday.

Leonard Bernstein’s three-movement Chichester Psalms for choir and orchestra was composed in 1965 for the Chichester Cathedral’s music festival, during his sabbatical from conducting the New York Philharmonic. Bernstein chose Psalm texts with the themes of peace, unity, and hope, and set them in the original Hebrew language. In this first movement, the choir triumphantly declares the text from Psalm 108 – then moves to the dance-like meter of 7/4 for Psalm 100 (the number seven is symbolic in Hebrew numerology). The opening melodic motif sung by the chorus is prevalent in each of the three movements. The choir sang the entire work with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 2016.

Peter J. Wilhousky’s arrangement of Alexander Kopylov’s (1854-1911) Heavenly Light is an oft-performed and well-loved choral work. Kopylov was a Russian composer and violinist who wrote over thirty sacred works, and he based the text for “Heavenly Light” on an ancient Orthodox hymn-“O Gladsome Light/Evening Hymn.”

A Danish folk hymn for Pentecost dating back to 1450, O Day Full of Grace focuses on Christ and His redemptive work. Arranged by Norwegian composer F. Melius Christiansen (founder of the St. Olaf Choir), the song is based on an 1826 tune by Christoph E.F. Weyse and begins with a solemn and reverent setting of the first two verses of the hymn. The third and fifth verses (the fourth is omitted) are set in a contrasting joyous polyphonic tapestry of active women’s vocal lines, with the men of the choir singing the hymn tune below in octaves.

French composer and organist Maurice Duruflé wrote the sacred motet Notre Père (Our Father, or The Lord’s Prayer) in 1977, near the end of his career, and dedicated it to his wife who was also an organist. It was originally for unison male voices and organ; he wrote this four-part a cappella version in 1978. It is set in French, omits the doxology, and is homophonic like a hymn. Meter changes follow the rhythm of the words (much like his Gregorian Chant-inspired work Requiem).

Larry Fleming was an American composer from Montana who is best known as the founder and music director of the National Lutheran Choir. Go and Tell John was published in 1983 as part of the National Lutheran Choir Series, and is a setting of Matthew 11: 4-5.

British composer Sir John Tavener was from the minimalist school of composition, using a small amount of musical material in creative ways and often writing works that emphasize space, transparency, and religious tradition. The Lamb is a 1982 setting of William Blake’s famous poem of 1789 and is told from the perspective of a child. It is about the wonders of God’s creation, with the lamb symbolizing both nature and Christ. There is no time signature….rather, the text determines the rhythm. Tavener takes a tone row, then inverts it or sets it in retrograde within the vocal parts to create dissonant lines that return to a unison note. “The Lamb” is frequently performed by the King’s College Choir Cambridge for their annual Lessons and Carols service at Christmas.

Composer and conductor Jeffrey Ames is Director of Choral Activities and Professor of Music at Belmont School of Music. He serves as a choral clinician throughout the United States, and his music has premiered at multiple state and national ACDA (American Choral Directors Association) festivals. Let Everything that Hath Breath was written in 1998 and is a joyous song of praise in the gospel style. The text is taken from several Psalms.

Stacey V. Gibbs is a composer, arranger, and clinician best known for arrangements of spirituals. His work has been commissioned by many prominent vocal groups, including the King’s Singers, United States Air Force Sergeants, the St. Olaf Choir, and Chanticleer. His 2021 a cappella arrangement of Hold Out Your Light is a traditional spiritual in barbershop-style and features the men of the Touring Choir.

American composer Eric Whitacre discovered his love of classical music when he joined a college choir. He ended up attending the Julliard School of Music in NYC for graduate study in composition, studying with renowned composer John Corigliano. Whitacre is known for his close dissonances and lush harmonies, and his 2000 composition Lux Aurumque is a beautiful and expressive example of his style. The text is a poem by Edward Esch, translated into Latin by American poet Charles Anthony Silvestri.

and the swallow is an 8-part a cappella work written in 2017 by American composer, violinist and singer Caroline Shaw. It is a setting of several verses of Psalm 84 and was written as a response to the Syrian refugee crisis. The themes of searching for home and the longing for peace are beautifully depicted, with the “home” key of Gb major as a starting and ending point. She also uses creative vocal effects (repeated n’s) to mimic the falling of the autumn rains. Shaw won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013 for her Partita for 8 Voices, and Grammy Awards in 2022 (Best Contemporary Classical Composition) and in 2025 (Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance). She is currently the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair for the 2026-27 season at Carnegie Hall in New York City, where her music will be featured in 12 programs.

The 1994 gospel setting of Mahalia Jackson’s sorrow song City Called Heaven is by Josephine Poelinitz, who was the Elementary Resource Specialist with the Chicago Public Schools, and the Director of the All-City Elementary Youth Chorus in Chicago. It is her only known published work. Composer and conductor Henry Leck encouraged her to get it printed after hearing her teach the song to her youth chorus, and he is quoted as saying “it should be performed in the style of a surge-singing” (where a solo voice and the congregation overlap melodically and rhythmically, decorating the melody with embellishments).

Moses Hogan was one of the most celebrated contemporary directors and arrangers of spirituals during his life, creating dozens of new original arrangements of classic spirituals. He formed several choirs, like The Moses Hogan Chorale, that performed these works for audiences all over the world. Over his lifetime, he published 88 arrangements. Elijah Rock is one of his most exciting arrangements and was written in 1994.

John Rutter was born in London in 1945, and studied at Clare College, Cambridge with Sir David Willcocks, with whom he later famously collaborated on five anthologies of Christmas carol arrangements. In 1981, Rutter formed his own choir, the Cambridge Singers, a professional chamber choir that was primarily dedicated to recording choral works, including his own. His significant compositional output includes anthems, carols, and larger works including his Gloria, Requiem, Magnificat, and Mass of the Children. God Be in My Head, published in 1970, is a setting of an old English prayer.