Ways of Happiness, Paths of Peace:
Bernstein, Bloch, and Music
of the Jewish Tradition

PENING CONCERT

Sing Joyfully!
Music of the
Jewish Tradition
ASU Chamber Singers
David Schildkret, conductor
Judy May, mezzo-soprano
Robert Barefield, baritone
Thomas Landschoot, cello
Robert Hamilton, piano

Saturday, March 31, 2007
Katzin Hall
7:30 p.m.

MUSIC
-4-1-erbergerCollege
of Fine Arts

ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY

Program
I.

Selections from Mass
Simple Song

Leonard Bernstein
(1918 — 1990)

IV.
"Thou Shalt Love the Lord" from Sacred Service

Judith Lang Zaimont
(b. 1945)

Robert Barefield, baritone
Emily Helvey, piano

Judy May, mezzo-soprano
Robert Hamilton, piano

- Intermission -

Sanctus

Emily Helvey and Joshua Hillman, piano
Elohim hashivenu (No. 8 from Songs of Solomon)
Ton lehodos (Psalm 92)

V.

Salamone Rossi
(1570 — 1630)
Franz Schubert
(1797 — 1828)

Melissa Solomon, soprano; Kimberly Badger, alto
Kenny Miller, tenor; Yevgeniy Chainikov, bass
Robert Barefield, baritone
`Hateh has hem " from Four Motets

Temuna
Kala kalla
Larov
Eyze sheleg!
Rakut

Jamilyn White, soprano
Jennifer Allen, Joshua Hillmann; speakers
Shannon Thomas, violin
Emily Helvey, piano
Ryan D. Garrison, conductor

Paul Schoenfield
(b. 1947)

Ryan D. Garrison, conductor
Halalujoh, halalu el b'kod'sho (Psalm 150)

Emily Helvey, piano

Louis Lewandowski
(1823 — 1894)

III.

"Prayer" from From Jewish Life

Ernest Bloch
(1880 — 1959)

Thomas Landschoot, cello
Robert Hamilton, piano
Four songs by Leonard Bernstein
"Rabbit at Top Speed" from La bonne cuisine
"My House" from Peter Pan
"I Hate Music" from I Hate Music
"Dream with Me" from Peter Pan
Judy May, me-soprano; Thomas Landschoot, cello
Robert Hamilton, piano

Eric Whitacre
(b. 1970)

Five Hebrew Love Songs (Hila Plitmann)

VI.

Jody Rockmaker
(b. 1961)

Yiddish Choruses (world premiere)
Bulbe
Shlof meyn kind
Ma noymar uma nedaber
Zackele
Volt ikh

VII.
Around the Campfire
Finjan
Rad halailah
Zemer lath

arr. Joshua Jacobson
(b. 1948)

Mark Klein, Katharine Norman; clarinet
Emily Helvey, piano

NOTES ON THE PROGRAM

David Schildkret
ONIGHT'S CONCERT opens a series of events that will
culminate on April 26 with a performance of Leonard
Bernstein's Jeremiah (Symphony No. 1) and Ernest Bloch's
Sacred Service. The series aims to place these two principal works in
the context of music created by Jewish composers (and specifically by
Bernstein and Bloch), music created for Jewish worship, and music
inspired by the daily life of Jews. All of those categories are
represented in this evening's program.
As must be evident, I am defining "Jewish music" in the
broadest possible sense. Not all of the music we are performing has
specifically Jewish themes (and indeed some of it is not by Jewish
composers), but all may be said to be rooted in a Jewish
consciousness. That consciousness is formed partly by Jewish
worship with its emphasis on discovering and recognizing God's
presence in all things, praise of God for the gift of the Law's
discipline, and the desire for all to accept the perfection of that law.
It is also formed from the varied experience of Jews, marked both by
great suffering and remarkable triumphs.
We begin with two excerpts from Leonard Bernstein's great
testament, his Mass, written in 1971 for the opening of the Kennedy
Center in Washington, D.C. Essentially a theatrical work (Bernstein
subtitled it "a theatre piece for singers, players, and dancers"), the
Mass continues an exploration of ideas that Bernstein had begun 30
years earlier in Jeremiah. As the composer himself said: "In a sense, I
suppose, I am always writing the same piece, as all composers
do....The work I have been writing all my life is about the struggle
that is born of the crisis of our century, a crisis of faith." He then
goes on to talk about how these themes manifest themselves in his
three symphonies (Jeremiah, Age of Anxiety, and Kaddish) and come
together in Mass. The text of a "Simple Song" is loosely based on
Psalm 96. "Sanctus" presents the liturgical text from Isaiah in
English, Latin, and its original Hebrew in a setting replete with
Bernstein's characteristic use of irregular meters.
Next are four settings of Psalm texts. The first is by the
seventeenth-century Mantuan composer Salamone Rossi. Not much
is known about Rossi; as a Jew he was probably barred from
substantial participation in the lively musical life of the Mantuan

T

court, though he seems to have made very occasional appearances
there (statements in some modern sources that describe him as a
regular musician for the Gonzagas cannot be supported by
documentary evidence). He left a small but interesting body of work
that includes vocal chamber pieces, instrumental music, and a
collection of music for Jewish worship published in 1623 as The Songs
of Solomon, a pun on the composer's first name. The present motet,
which comes from that collection, sets three lines from Psalm 80,
which recur in the psalm itself as an ever-expanding refrain.
Schubert wrote his setting of Psalm 92—his only work in
Hebrew—as a result of his friendship with the celebrated Viennese
cantor Salomon Sulzer. As Joshua Jacobson observes, the setting
"betrays [Schubert's] unfamiliarity with the pronunciation of
Hebrew," but it is nevertheless compelling and dramatic and
thoroughly suffused with Schubert's mature voice: it was written in
months before the composer's death in 1828.
Paul Schoenfield's twentieth-century motet on Psalm 86 (one
of a cycle of four composed in 1996 on a commission from the Dale
Warland Singers, the Phoenix Bach Choir, and LaVie) pays homage
to the Renaissance style of Rossi using modern harmonies.
Lewis Lewandowski, a nineteenth-century Polish composer
and instrumentalist, is represented by his most famous work: his
setting of Psalm 150. In addition to this and other choral songs,
Lewandowski composed numerous instrumental works, many of
them popular dances of the day.
Bloch, the composer of the Sacred Service that has provided the
inspiration for the series and that will conclude it, is represented in
tonight's program by "Prayer" from his suite for cello and piano,
From Jewish Life. Born in Switzerland, Bloch made most of his career
as a composer, conductor, and music educator in the United States.
Written in 1924, a decade before the Sacred Service, "Prayer" comes
from a period when the composer was intensely interested in
portraying Jewish themes in music. Some of Bloch's best-known
works come from this period, including Schelomo and Israel, both
completed in 1916.
The group of four songs by Leonard Bernstein shows the
playful and lighthearted side of the composer's nature. "Rabbit at
Top Speed" is one of four songs from the cycle La bonne cuisine. Each
song is a recipe (originally in French by Emile Dutoit and translated
into English by Bernstein). The cycle was written in 1947 while

Bernstein was active both as a conductor and as a composer for the
musical theatre. "My House" and "Dream With Me" come from this
same period, from his little-known musical based on James M.
Barrie's play Peter Pan. Though intended as a full musical, it was
eventually performed as a straight play with a few songs. The
production, with Jean Arthur in the title role and Boris Karloff as
Captain Hook, was a modest success, but it was quickly
overshadowed by the 1954 musical starring Mary Martin as Peter. "I
Hate Music" is the title song of an early cycle. Written in 1943, it was
inspired by Bernstein's flat-mate, Edys Merrill (to whom the set is
dedicated). Tormented by Bernstein's practicing, composing, and
coaching, she reportedly would storm through the apartment with
her hands over her ears saying, "I hate music!"
The first half of our program concludes with an excerpt from
American composer Judith Lang Zaimont's setting in English of the
Sacred Service for the Sabbath Evening (1975; note that Bloch's Sacred
Service is a setting of the liturgy for the Sabbath morning), originally
for baritone, chorus, and orchestra. This is the second portion of the
Shemah, in which the believer is exhorted to love God "with all thy
soul, with all thy heart, and with all thy might."
The second half explores aspects of secular Jewish life.
Whitacre's Five Hebrew Love Songs are settings of texts by his wife, Hila
Plitmann. Originally conceived as solo songs, Whitacre reset them
for chorus and string quartet, and later for chorus and solo violin
with piano. This is the version we perform this evening.
ASU composer Jody Rockmaker's Yiddish Choruses are
variously dedicated to members of his family. The opening song is a
humorous take on the poor Jew's monotonous diet of potatoes, the
second is a haunting lullaby, the third is a traditional counting song
sung at Passover (which begins this year on April 2). The fourth
song is especially touching as the speaker looks for a song or dance
to relieve his suffering, and the final movement is a passionate lovesong with an refrain that evokes the instrumental music that might be
played at a Jewish wedding in an eastern European shtetl (village).
The final set of three songs comes from modern Israel and captures
the exuberant dancelike quality that is typical of so much Israeli
music.

Translations

Elohim hashivenu
God, restore us; cause your face to shine, and we shall be saved.
God of hosts, restore us; cause your face to shine, and we shall be saved.
Lord God of hosts, restore us; cause your face to shine,
and we shall be saved.
Psalm 80:4,8,20

Toy lehodos

Come, give thanks to the Lord God,
and sing praises to His name on high;
and declare by day His mercy,
in the night sing of His faithful love.
Come praise the Lord with the lyre and harp,
with joyous song come praise the Lord.
For Thou hast shown me the bounty of Thy creation;
Rejoicing in Thy works I shall praise Thee.
Thy creation, 0 Lord, is above all praise,
and how deep are Thy meditations.
The wicked know it not, nor does the fool understand.
The wicked may succeed and may prosper in the pathways of evil.
So destroy them forever.
For the Lord on high is for everlasting, forever, forever.
Psalm 92: 2-9
--trans. Joshua Jacobson

Hatch hashem
Lord, incline your ear, answer me, for I am poor and destitute.
Guard my soul, for I am devout; save your servant who trusts in You.
Psalm 86:1-2

V. Volt ikh
He was full of tenderness;
She was very hard.
And as much as she tried to stay thus,
Simply, and with no good reason, he took her into himself,
And set her down
in the softest, softest place.

Halalujoh, halalu el b'kod'sho
Hallelujah. Praise God in His sanctuary;
praise Him in the firmament of His power.
Praise Him for His mighty acts;
praise Him according to His abundant greatness.
Praise Him with the blast of the horn;
praise Him with the psaltery and harp.
Praise Him with the timbrel and dance;
praise Him with stringed instruments and the pipe.
Praise Him with the loud-sounding cymbals;
praise Him with the clanging cymbals.
Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Hallelujah.

Yiddish Choruses
1. Bulbe (Potatoes)

Psalm 150

Sunday potatoes, Monday potatoes
Tuesday and Wednesday potatoes, Thursday and Friday potatoes.
On Sabbath day a novelty, potato pie! Sunday again potatoes!

Five Hebrew Love Songs

Temuna
A picture is engraved in my heart;
Moving between light and darkness:
A sort of silence envelopes your body,
And your hair falls upon your face just so.

Bread with potatoes, meat with potatoes,
Lunch and dinner potatoes, Over and over potatoes.
One time a novelty, potato pie! Sunday again potatoes!
Again potatoes, more potatoes,
More and more potatoes, Evening and morning potatoes,
But on the Sabbath, a treat, potato pie! Sunday again potatoes!

II. Kala kalla
Light bride
She is all mine,
And lightly
She will kiss me!
III. Larov

"Mostly," said the roof to the sky,
"the distance between you and me is endlessness;
But a while ago two came up here,
And only one centimeter was left between us."
IV. E_Re sheleg!
What snow!
Like little dreams
Falling from the sky.

2. Sleep, my child
Sleep, my child
my hope, my pretty one,
go to sleep, hush, hush.
Sleep, the apple of my eye,
my only one,
Sleep, sleep my daughter.

3. What shall we say?
What shall we say? Oh my! What shall we say?
Who can tell me what seven means?

Seven are the days of the week,
Six are the Orders of the Mishna,
Five are the books of the Torah,
Four are the Mothers,
Three arc the Fathers,
Two are the Tables of the Covenant,
God is One,
God Alone and no one else.

II. Rad halailah

Night falls—our tremendous songs split open the skies.
Come back—our dance multiplied sevenfold
III. Zemer lach

A song for you, my homeland!
The circle dance springs around, a song calls for you,
a song for you, my homeland!
Your hills will bloom as the horah dance thunders.
Thousands of flowers will suddenly blossom,
will cover the face of the desert.

4. Zackele

Zackele, Zackele, play me a Russian dance. Although poor, yet with a spirit.
Poverty is not good, poverty is not good.
Let us not be ashamed of our own blood.

Zackele, Zackele, play me a ballad. Although poor, yet with piety.
Poverty is not good...

Zackele, Zackele, play a merry song for all my friends.
Poverty is not good...

5. If I had golden wings
If I had golden wings, I would fly over to you.
If I had golden wheels, I would drive over to you.
If I had horse and saddle, I would ride over to you.
If I had ink and quill, I would write to you.
If I had a golden ring, I would give it to you.
Around the Campfire

I. Finjan
The chilly wind is blowing, let's add some kindling to the fire.
So with purple arms, Like a sacrifice, it will go up in flames.
The fire is flickering, our song is blossoming,
around, around the coffeepot.
The flames whisper to the kindling: the fire has turned our faces red.
If some reinforcements are prepared from the tip of every branch
in the garden, Then every tree and every plank will whisper this song
around, around the coffeepot.

Arizona State University Chamber Singers
David Schildkret, conductor
Ryan D. Garrison, assistant conductor
Jennifer Garrett, teaching assistant
Emily Helvey, accompanist
Soprano

Tenor

Veronica De Larrea
Ingrid Israel
Joanna Provencal
Riki Sloan
Melissa Solomon
Allison Stanford
Jamilyn White

Paul Betz
Timothy Glemser
Ryan C. Keller
Kenny Miller

Alto
Jennifer Allen
Kimberly Badger
Jennifer Garrett
Kerry Ginger
Brianna Kramer
Danielle Kris on
Michele Paynter Paise

Bass

Yevgeniy Chainikov
Brady Cullum
Ryan D. Garrison
Joshua Hillmann
Jae Ho Lee
John Miller
Robert Wright

David Schildkret is Professor of Music and Chair of the Choral Program
at Arizona State University. He conducts ASU's highly select Chamber
Singers, leads the Choral Union, teaches classes in conducting and choral
repertory, and oversees the doctoral program in choral conducting.
Schildkret holds the Doctor of Music and the Master of Music degrees in
Choral Conducting from Indiana University School of Music. His principal
teachers were Robert Porco, Alan Harler, Jan Harrington, and David
Drinkwater. He has also studied with Julius Herford, Margaret Hillis, and
Helmuth Riling.
Prior to his appointment at ASU, he served for seven years as the Dean of
the Salem College School of Music in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He
has also taught at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, and at the
University of Rochester. Since 1999, he has been the Music Director of the
Mount Desert Summer Chorale in Bar Harbor, Maine. His conducting
experience also includes nine seasons as Music Director of the Finger Lakes
Symphony Orchestra in Geneva, New York.
Judy May, mezzo-soprano, holds the position of artist/faculty at Arizona
State University. A winner of the Mu Phi Epsilon International
Competition, she has performed recitals extensively both in the US and
abroad. In addition to her appearance at Carnegie Hall with the Manhattan
Philharmonic, she has been featured with the Phoenix Symphony, Sapporo
Symphony Uapan), Central Wisconsin Symphony, the Aspen Chamber
Symphony with Luciano Berio conducting and at the Grand Teton Music
Festival. A versatile interpreter of modern music, she has several world
premieres to her credit, including Spiral /I by Chinery Ung in Japan and
Dream Sequence by Arthur Weisberg. Before her appointment in 1986 to the
voice faculty at Arizona State University, Professor May was on the faculties
of Westminster Choir College, the University of Wisconsin/Stevens Point
and the University of Southern Mississippi. Judy May holds degrees from
the University of Illinois and The Juilliard School.
Robert Barefield, baritone, is a frequent performer in opera, oratorio, and
recital. He has performed with organizations throughout the country
including the New Orleans Opera, the Central City Opera, the Ohio Light
Opera, the Abilene Philharmonic, the Evansville Philharmonic, the
Maryland Lyric Opera, the South Texas Symphony, Houston's Opera in the
Heights, the Mississippi Symphony, and the Dorian Opera Theatre.
Operatic roles have included Figaro in The Barber of Seville, Germont in La
Traviata, Sid in Albert Herring, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, the title role in
Gianni Schicchi and John Proctor in Robert Ward's The Crucible. As an
oratorio soloist, Barefield's performances have included Orffs Carmina

Burana, the Sea Symphony of Vaughan Williams, Mendelssohn's Elijah and
Handel's Messiah.
An accomplished recitalist, Robert Barefield has performed programs
throughout the United States and in Europe. His wide-ranging repertoire
has encompassed major works such as Schubert's Winterreise, as well as
premiere performances of songs by composers, including David Conte,
Simon Sargon and Robert Maggio. For many years, he served on the opera
faculty at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival in Alaska. Articles on voicerelated topics by Robert Barefield have appeared in The Journal of Singing, The
American Music Teacher and Music Educators Journal. He has offered
lecture/recitals on a variety of topics at national and international music
conferences.
Barefield received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of
Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he was a Corbett Opera
Scholar. Prior to his work at ASU, he served on voice faculties at Southern
Methodist University, the University of Mississippi and West Chester
University of Pennsylvania. His current and former voice students are
active as performers and educators throughout the United States.
Thomas Landschoot, cello, joined the music faculty of Arizona State
University in 2001 after having taught at the University of Michigan. He
performs virtually the entire standard and contemporary repertoires of the
cello, and several composers have dedicated new works to him. Mr.
Landschoot regularly performs as soloist and in recital in concert halls
across Europe, the United States and Japan. Mr. Landschoot holds a Master
of Music degree from the Conservatory in Antwerp, Belgium, a Master of
Music degree from the University of Michigan, an Artist Diploma from
Indiana University and an Artist Diploma (cum laude) from the Conservatory
of Maastricht, Netherlands. His major teachers include Erling Blondal
Bengtsson, Antonio Meneses and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, for whom he served
as a teaching assistant. He also enjoys a close relationship with Bernard
Greenhouse, the distinguished former cellist of the Beaux Arts Trio.
Recipient of the 2005 "Distinguished Teaching Award", he has given
master classes at conservatories and universities throughout the United
States, Europe and Japan. During the summers he has been on the faculty
of the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, the Texas Music
Festival in Houston, the Meadowmount School of Music in New York and
many others.
Robert Hamilton is an internationally respected pianist, recording artist
and teacher. An official Steinway Artist, he serves on the faculty of the

School of Music in the Herberger College of Fine Arts at Arizona State
University (ASU). Hamilton has had numerous concert tours on four
continents, appearing in the major halls of most music capitals. His
orchestral engagements have included the Chicago Symphony, National
Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Phoenix
Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Grant Park Symphony, Chautauqua
Symphony and S.O.D.R.E. in Uruguay. An appearance at the great hall of
the Moscow Conservatory brought a ten-minute standing ovation, and he
made an appearance in St. Petersburg that was televised across Russia.
Hamilton has been heard over numerous radio networks including NPR,
ABC, BBC London, Voice of America, Armed Forces Network, DRS
Zurich and Radio Warsaw. He has recorded for Phillips, Orion and Summit
Records.
Featured in the book The Most Wanted Piano Teachers in the USA, Hamilton
has given master classes throughout the world and is currently teaching an
exciting group of international students at ASU. Over the years, many of his
students have also won prizes and awards and performed with leading
orchestras. Hamilton served as artistic director of the London Piano
Festival during the 1990s, and since 2000, he has joined with Vladimir
Feltsman and a distinguished group of prominent international pianists for
the annual PianoSummer in New York.
Hamilton studied at Indiana University with the first winner of the coveted
Leventritt award, Sidney Foster, and graduated summa cum laude. A move to
New York City brought studies with Dora Zaslaysky of the Manhattan
School, additional coaching from legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz and
monetary awards from the Rockefeller Fund and U.S. State Department,
launching a distinguished career here and abroad. He has won five prizes in
major international competitions.
Jody Rockmaker received his Ph.D. in Composition from Princeton
University. He has studied at the Manhattan School of Music, New England
Conservatory and the Hochschule fur Musik and darstellende Kunst in
Vienna. His principal teachers have been Erich Urbanner, Edward T. Cone,
Milton Babbitt, Claudio Spies, Malcolm Peyton and Miriam Gideon. Dr.
Rockmaker is also the recipient of numerous awards including a Barlow
Endowment Commission, Fulbright Grant, two BMI Awards for Young
Composers, an ASCAP Grant, the George Whitefield Chadwick Medal
from New England Conservatory, and a National Orchestral Association
Orchestral Reading Fellowship. He has held residencies at the MacDowell
Colony, Yaddo, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program and Villa Montalvo,
and has been a Composition Fellowship at the Tanglewood Music Center.

He taught at Stanford University and is currently an associate professor at
the School of Music at Arizona State University.
Ryan Derrick Garrison attended the University of Wyoming where he
graduated with a degree in Music Education in 2001. While there he was
involved in numerous ensembles as well as opera and musical theatre
productions. As a soloist in 2001, he was selected finalist winner in the UW
Symphony Orchestra's Concerto competition. That same year, he also
played the role John Styx in Orpheus in the Undenvorld. At Wyoming,
Garrison studied voice with Dr. Larry Hensel. After teaching three years of
middle and high school orchestra and choir in Denver, Colorado, Garrison
came to Arizona State University to pursue a master's degree in Music
Education, which he obtained in Spring 2006. While living in Phoenix, he
has performed with the ASU Concert Choir, Herberger Singers and
Chamber Singers, as well as the Phoenix Bach Choir. At ASU, Garrison has
studied voice with Dr. Robert Barefield, choral conducting with Dr. David
Schildkret and Dr. Gregory Gentry, and Opera/Musical Theatre conducting
with Dr. William Reber. Garrison is currently pursing a Doctorate of
Musical Arts degree in Choral Conducting.

Coming Choral Events
Thursday, April 26, 7:30 p.m.
Choral Union, Symphonic Chorale, Chamber Singers,
Carol FitzPatrick, soprano, Robert Barefield, baritone
ASU Symphony Orchestra; David Schildkret, conductor
"From Sorrow to Happiness:
Bernstein's Jeremiah Symphony and Bloch's Sacred Service"
This will be the concluding event in the series "Ways of Happiness, Paths of
Peace: Bernstein, Bloch and Music of the Jewish Tradition." Brochures are
available in the lobby. See other series events at this website:
http://music.asu.edu/bloch
Monday, April 30, 7:30 p.m.
Men's Chorus, Brook Larson, conductor
Women's Chorus, Michele Paynter Paise, conductor
First United Methodist Church, 215 E. University Drive, Tempe

Before the concert we invite you to visit the exhibit
"Teach Them Diligently to Your Children:
Jewish Ritual and Music"
(A display of prayer books, ritual objects and memorabilia
from the ASU libraries and private collections).
Take the stairs or elevator located just outside of Katzin Hall
to the Music Library on the 3 rd floor.

Please enjoy refreshments in the
lobby following the concert.

Events Information Call 480-965-TUNE (480-965-8863)

©2006 ASU Herberger College of Fine Arts 0706