AT DAWN
Kaitlin Simonson, conductor
Dan Meinhardt, piano
​
November 6, 2021
5:30 & 7:30pm
How can I keep from singing?, Sarah Quartel
Bailey Wells, solo
​
Muusika, Pärt Uusberg
​
Gloria, Ola Gjeilo
Renee Ong, piano
​
In Autumn, Gwenyth Walker
Julia Napolitano, soprano
Isabella Kopits, mezzo-soprano
​
Blow, blow, thou winter wind, Sarah Quartel
​
Song of Miriam, Elaine Hagenberg
​
I Lift my Voice, Andrea Ramsey
​
What happens when a woman?, Alexandra Olsavsky of Artemisia
​
O vos omnes, Miklós Kocsár
​
Light of a Clear Blue Morning, The Wailin’ Jennys
Jayne Edwards, solo
​
Marie Madeleine, Traditional Acadian arr. Jeanette Gallant
Dan Meinhardt, spoons
TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS
HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING?
Robert Lowry (1862-99)
arr. Sarah Quartel
​
Bailey Wells, solo
My life flows on in endless song;
Above earth's lamentations,
I hear the real, though far-off tune
That hails a new creation.
Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear its music ringing.
It sounds an echo in my soul,
how can I keep from singing?
While though the tempest loudly roars,
I hear the truth, it liveth.
And though the darkness 'round me close,
songs in the night it giveth.
No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that rock I'm clinging.
Since love is lord of heaven and earth,
how can I keep from singing?
I lift my eyes, the cloud grows thin;
I see the blue above it,
And day by day this pathway smooths
since first I learned to love it.
The peace of love makes fresh my heart,
a fountain ever springing;
All things are mine in love and joy!
How can I keep from singing!
MUUSIKA
Music
Text: Juhan Liiv (1864-1913)
Music: Pärt Uusberg (b. 1986)
Somewhere the original harmony must exist,Â
hidden somewhere in the vast wilds.Â
In Earth’s mighty firmament,Â
in the far reaches of swirling galaxies,Â
in sunshine,Â
in a little flower, in the song of a forest,Â
in the music of a mother’s voice,Â
or in teardrops --
somewhere, immortality endures,
and the original harmony will be found.
How else could it have formed in human hearts --
music?
GLORIA
Ola Gjeilo
Gloria in excelsis Deo.Â
Et in terra pax hominibus
bonae voluntatis.
Laudamus te,Â
benedicimus te,Â
adoramus te,
glorificamus te.
Cum Sancto Spiritu in Gloria Dei Patris,Â
Amen
IN AUTUMN
from Songs for Women's Voices
Text: May Swenson (1913-1989)
Music: Gwyneth Walker (b. 1947)
​
Julia Napolitano and Isabella Kopits, duet
I will lie down in autumn
let birds be flying
Swept in a hollow by the wind
I’ll wait for dyingÂ
I will lie inert unseen
my hair same-colored with grass and leavesÂ
Gather me for the autumn fires
with the withered sheaves
I will sleep face down in the burnt meadow
not hearing the sound of water over stones
Trail over me cloud and shadow
Let snow hide the whiteness of my bones
BLOW, BLOW THOU WINTER WIND
from As You Like It (Act 2, Scene 7)
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Composer: Sarah Quartel
Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.
Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
That does not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remembered not.
Heigh-ho! sing . . .
SONG OF MIRIAM
Text: Rabbi Ruth SohnÂ
Music: Elaine Hagenberg
I, Miriam, stand at the sea
and turn
to face the desert
stretching endless and
still.
My eyes are dazzled
The sky brilliant blue
Sunburnt hands unyielding white.
My hands turn to dove wings.
My arms
reach
for the sky
and I want to sing
the song rising inside me.
My mouth open
I stop.
Where are the words?
Where the melody?
In a moment of panic
My eyes go blind.
Can I take a step
Without knowing a
Destination?
Will I falter
Will I fall
Will the ground sing away from under me?
The song still unformed---
How can I sing?
To take the first step---
To sing a new song---
Is to close one’s eyes
and dive
into unknown waters,
For a moment knowing nothing risking all---
But then to discover
The waters are friendly
The ground is firm.
And the song---
the song rises again.
Out of my mouth
come words lifting the wind.
And I hear
for the first
the song
that has been in my heart
silent
unknown
even to me.
I LIFT MY VOICE
We invite the audience to join in singingÂ
Words and Music by Andrea Ramsey
When I lift my voice, let it be in song,
A defiant note in the face of wrong,
I won’t stand alone, we’ll stand side by side,
‘cause we know that love is always justified.
REFRAIN:
When they try to divide us,
it will only unite us.
I lift my voice.
When I lift my voice, let it be for good,
Let me care as much as I know I should,
I won’t stand alone, we’ll stand side by side,
‘cause we know that love is always justified.
REFRAIN
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A WOMAN?
Alexandra Olsavsky
​
Maria Chelko and Aysha Maisonet, duet
What happens when a woman takes power?
What happens when she won’t back down?Â
What happens when she wears the crown?Â
What happens when she wears her own body?Â
What happens when she sets the beat?Â
What happens when she bows to nobody?Â
What happens when she stands on her own two feet?Â
We rise above;Â
We lead with love;Â
We have won;Â
We are one;Â
We’ve just begun.
O VOS OMNES
Miklós Kocsár
O vos omnes qui transitis per viam:
attendite et videte si est dolor sicut dolor meus.
Oh all you who pass along this way,
Behold and see if there is any sorrow like unto my sorrow.
LIGHT OF A CLEAR BLUE MORNING
As sung by The Wailin' Jennys
Transcribed by Julia Napolitano
​
Jayne Edwards, solo
It's been a long dark night
And I've been a waitin' for the morning
It's been a long hard fight
But I see a brand new day a dawning
I've been looking for the sunshine
You know I ain't seen it in so long
But everything's gonna work out just fine
And everything's gonna be alright
That's been all wrong
'Cause I can see the light of a clear blue morning
I can see the light of a brand new day
I can see the light of a clear blue morning
Oh, and everything's gonna be alright
It's gonna be okay
It's been a long, long, time
Since I've known the taste of freedom
And those clinging vines
That had me bound, well I don't need 'em
Oh, I've been like a captured eagle,
you know an eagle's born to fly
Now that I have won my freedom,
like an eagle I am eager for the sky
MARIE MADELEINE
Traditional Acadian
arr. Jeanette Gallant
​
Dan Meinhardt, spoons
Marie Madeleine ton p’tit jupon de laine,
ta p’tite jupe carreautée, ton p’tit jupon piqué.
Mon père avait une p’tite vache noire.
Ell’ donnait yin que du lait caillé.
Elle cherchait yin qu’à m’en corner.
J’étais obligé de l’attacher.
Un jour son câbl’il a cassé.
La vache m’a envoyé revolver.
La vache m’a envoyé revoler.
À plat ventre sur le tas d’fumier.
J’étais beau quand je m’suis relevé.
Ça a pris trois jours pour m’nettoyer.
Mary Madeleine your little woolen petticoat,
your little checkered skirt, your little fitted petticoat.
My father had a little black cow.
She gave nothing but sour milk.
She wanted nothing but to corner me,
I was obliged to tie her up.
One day her cable broke.
The cow sent me flying.
The cow sent me flying.
Lying on a heap of manure.
I was sightly when I got up.
It took three days to get clean.
POETRY
Morning
Edith Henrich
Morning is lifting slowly out of darkness,
white as devotion, skywide, without knowing
how like belief is the implicit, outward
motion of growing.
Shape is restored at dawn to objects singly
as though each separate thing were beautiful
because of its existence, difference seeming
To be the soul.
Solids are whole again, as though discovered
with love, with hands; dimensions are made clear
as though it were an act of faith: the circle
Becomes the sphere.
Color is new upon each sunlit surface;
lifting lines are reimbursed with flight;
cool and level lie the planes of morning
covered with light.
Slow as belief is all awakening:
the groping leaf, the groping hand, the blind
blood groping out of chaos toward whatever
pattern it can find.
Sunrise with ScaffoldingÂ
MRB Chelko
What wakes me is not the usual
sudden burst (the sun:
yesterday’s dough repurposed).
This summer morning comes
with construction crews, thick
dust on their boots, crumbled mortar
speckling their shoulders.
On a suspended platform
they move across the window. The yellow pads
velcroed to their knees
a new kind of dawn.
Busy and helmeted,
correcting some flaw in the masonry, they
drill the wall beside my bed. They drill
the inside of my head. Inside my head, the world
vibrates, hums, crumbles.
Gravity is the will
to conform. Still, the human race has trained
even the spears of its buildings toward the sky as an act of resistance.
So too the trees break form.
Given the opportunity of a breeze
Their million hands attempt flight.
But leaves only fly in death. And bricks
in destruction.
How should a person rise?
Woman, FluxÂ
Jonterri Gadson
Night birds
know nothing
of me
in my lone bed
making lists
of things
I cannot change.
Let me be
a harmonious interruption
of hair and eyes,
skin, voice, and darkness,
my body
an intermittent flash
of starlight
that, at least,
from a distance
appears constant.
Phenomenal Woman
Maya Angelou
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms,
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them,
They say they still can’t see.
I say,
It’s in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see my passing,
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
The palm of my hand,
The need for my care.
‘Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Wild GeeseÂ
Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
Clear MorningÂ
Louise Gluck
I’ve watched you long enough,
I can speak to you any way I like--
I’ve submitted to your preferences, observing patiently
the things you love, speaking
through vehicles only, in
details of earth, as you prefer,
tendrils
of blue clematis, light
of early evening--
you would never accept
a voice like mine, indifferent
to the objects you busily name,
your mouths
small circles of awe--
And all this time
I indulged your limitation, thinking
you would cast it aside yourselves sooner or later,
thinking matter could not absorb your gaze forever--
obstacle of the clematis painting
blue flowers on the porch window--
I cannot go on
restricting myself to images
because you think it is your right
to dispute my meaning:
I am prepared now to force
clarity upon you.
BarbariansÂ
Mary Ruefle
Here and there, between trees,
cows lie down in the forest
in the midafternoon
as though sleep were an idea
for which they were willing
to die.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Special thanks to
Advent Lutheran Church
Katie Gallardo, choir headshots @katiegallardophoto
Evan Kirby, program design @evankirby2
Ryan Krukowski, concert photos and video @ryankrukowskimedia
Rebecca Soelberg, vocal coach and administrative consultant @soelsoprano