VOLTI: HOUSE OF VOICES

Innova 834

VoltiÕs twenty professional singers, under the direction of founder and Artistic Director Robert Geary, are dedicated to the discovery, creation, and performance of new vocal music. The ensembleÕs mission is to foster and showcase contemporary American music and composers, and to introduce contemporary vocal music from around the world to local audiences. The group has commissioned more than 70 new works, by emerging and established composers.

Hailed by San Francisco Classical Voice as Òpossibly the finest collection of chamber singers in the country,Ó Volti boasts a 32-year record of exploring some of the most imaginative and innovative repertoire yet composed. Composers seek opportunities to partner with Volti, whose musicians are known for their sheer technical brilliance as well as their vibrant, passionate sound. Nationally recognized as a pioneer in new vocal music, Volti is the first and only ensemble to have won the ASCAP/Chorus America Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music six times, a testament to the fresh perspective and new voices the group brings to life.

Art is redefined in every generation by the best and the brightest, artists who are paying attention to the world around them. Volti seeks composers who explore timely issues of the modern human experience. At a Volti concert you might hear music addressing such topics as social justice, responsible citizenship, diverse conceptions of God/spirit, political strife, class distinctions, and internet culture. Volti explores the nexus between poetry and sound, the translation of inspiration to creation, the evocative power of an artist compelled to express this thing, at this time, in this way. At its best, itÕs the aural equivalent of a sunspot -- an explosion of energy, a flash of brilliance, a glimpse of some eternal truth seen in a new and breathtaking way.  

Attending a Volti concert has been likened to a visit to a museum of modern art, stimulating the mind, the imagination and the heart. 

VOLTI: HOUSE OF VOICES

YU-HUI CHANG (b. 1970) 
Being: Two Collins Songs (2009)* 
1	Shoveling Snow with Buddha 5:15
2	The Night House 7:00

TED HEARNE (b. 1982) 
Privilege (2010)* 
3	Motive/mission 2:29
4	Casino 2:08 
		Lindsey McLennan, soprano 
		Joseph Sargent, tenor
5	Burning tv song 1:44 
6	They get it 2:03 
		David Kurtenbach, tenor
7	We cannot leave 5:47 

DONALD CROCKETT (b. 1951)
8	Daglarym / My Mountains (2008)* 12:08			Pam Igelsrud, Amy White, sopranos 
		Julia Metzler, alto 
		Michael Eisenberg, tenor 
		Sidney Chen, Joseph Trumbo, basses 

ERIC MOE (b. 1954) 
9	The Crowds Cheered 
	as Gloom Galloped Away (2008)* 9:43 
		Madison Emery Smith, soprano

WAYNE PETERSON (b. 1927) 
Two Poems of Delmore Schwartz (2006)
10	She Lives with the Furies of Hope 
	and Despair 4:44
11	I Am Cherry Alive, the Little Girl Sang 3:01

MARK WINGES (b. 1951) 
Luna, Nova Luna (2010)** 
12	Procession I 4:20
13	Welcome 1:40
14	The Moon-Dance 3:49
15	Nuntius Noctis 1:47
16	Procession II 4:17

with Ensemble from Piedmont East Bay 	ChildrenÕs Choir
Volti soloists:	Julia Fabrizio, alto 
		Michael Eisenberg, 
		David Kurtenbach, tenors 
		Philip Saunders, bass
Ensemble soloists: 
		Madeline Heaps, Kristi Hong, 			Kai Vogel, Michelle Wan 

* Commissioned by Volti
** Co-commissioned by Volti 
and Piedmont East Bay ChildrenÕs Choir




Volti is a 20-voice chamber choir. Singers vary slightly from concert to concert. Starred names appear on every track. 

Soprano: Kristen Brown, Tonia DÕAmelio, Pam Igelsrud*, Lindsey McLennan*,
Madison Emery Smith, TJ Togasaki*, Christa Tumlinson, Amy White 

Alto: Naomi Braun, Julia Fabrizio, Marjorie GÑmez, Verah Graham*, Julia Metzler, 
Emily Ryan, Celeste Winant, Jessica Winn

Tenor: Seth Arnopole, Andrew Cox, Michael Eisenberg*, Paul Ingraham, David Kurtenbach*, Roderick Lowe*, Joseph Sargent

Bass: Jeff Bennett, Eric Carter, Sidney Chen, Adam Cole, Joshua Fishbein, E.E. ÒChipÓ Grant IV*,
Philip Saunders*, Cole Thomason-Redus, Joseph Trumbo, Donald A. Ziff


Robert Geary, founding Artistic Director of Volti, the Piedmont East Bay ChildrenÕs Choir, and the Golden Gate International Choral Festival, also serves as Artistic Director of the San Francisco Choral Society. His multi-dimensional commitment to the choral arts over the past thirty-five years has led him and his choirs to national and international prominence.

Geary has conducted first performances of more than 100 compositions. He has conducted in dozens of countries, served as a clinician and guest conductor in the US, Finland, Denmark and Singapore, and his choirs have been recognized in the United States by invitations to perform for the national conferences of Chorus America, the American Choral Directors Association, the Organization of American Kodaly Educators, and the College Music Society.

His choirs can be heard on recordings with many labels including Other Minds, Harmonia Mundi, Koch International, Swiss International Radio, Ablaze, and Innova. They have performed for radio, television, opera, symphony and music festivals nationally and internationally. Geary also has prepared his choirs for some of the worldÕs leading conductors, including Helmuth Rilling, Robert Shaw, Kurt Herbert Adler, Edo de Waart, Krzysztof Penderecki, Herbert Blomstedt, Dale Warland, Kent Nagano and Michael Tilson Thomas.

Recipient of awards for Outstanding Conductorial Achievement in Giessen, Germany, and Artistic Interpretation from the Miedzyzdroje Festival in Poland, Geary has also received the KDFC Music Educator of the Year Award and the Lois B. Rawlings Educational Inspiration Award.

Being: Two Collins Songs 	Yu-Hui Chang (b. 1970)
2009 Volti Commission

Award-winning composer Yu-Hui Chang has written a wide range of music that compels and resonates with professional musicians and audiences alike. Her compositions have been performed to critical acclaim throughout the U.S. and across continents in the Netherlands, Italy, UK, China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University, and commissions from Fromm, Koussevitzky, Barlow, and Meet The Composer. A native of Taiwan, Yu-Hui is an Associate Professor in Composition and Theory at Brandeis University. She also serves as a Co-Artistic Director of the Boston-based Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble, a leading exponent of contemporary music performance since 1975. 

The texts for Being are by Billy Collins, who served two terms as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. Poet Stephen Dunn has said of Collins, ÒWe seem to always know where we are in a Billy Collins poem, but not necessarily where he is going. I love to arrive with him at his arrivals. He doesnÕt hide things from us, as I think lesser poets do. He allows us to overhear, clearly, what he himself has discovered.Ó

ComposerÕs Note: 
Reading Billy CollinsÕs poems is like having a good conversation with a long-time friend Ð comfortable and without pretension. Insight and reflection emerge from everyday topics. Wisdom about life is shared not with the sternness of a lecture, but often with humor. The two poems set in Being - Shoveling Snow with Buddha and The Night House - are both about the awareness of the physical and psychological selves. In the first poem, the bodily snow-shoveling transfigures into a sense of deep understanding, while in the second mental faculties metaphorically materialize out of mundane activities. 

Musically, Shoveling Snow with Buddha is lively with its irregular rhythm, reflecting the subtle humor of the text. The Night House has a veiled quality in its harmony and texture, as a portrayal of the poemÕs subliminal setting. Despite the difference in character, both pieces strive to retain the clarity and the narrative nature of Mr. CollinsÕs writing.


Shoveling Snow With Buddha -- Billy Collins

In the usual iconography of the temple or the local Wok
you would never see him doing such a thing,
tossing the dry snow over a mountain
of his bare, round shoulder, his hair tied in a knot,
a model of concentration. 

Sitting is more his speed, if that is the word
for what he does, or does not do. 

Even the season is wrong for him.
In all his manifestations, is it not warm or slightly humid?
Is this not implied by his serene expression,
that smile so wide it wraps itself around the waist of the universe? 

But here we are, working our way down the driveway,
one shovelful at a time.
We toss the light powder into the clear air.
We feel the cold mist on our faces.
And with every heave we disappear
and become lost to each other
in these sudden clouds of our own making,
these fountain-bursts of snow. 

This is so much better than a sermon in church,
I say out loud, but Buddha keeps on shoveling.
This is the true religion, the religion of snow,
and sunlight and winter geese barking in the sky,
I say, but he is too busy to hear me. 

He has thrown himself into shoveling snow
as if it were the purpose of existence,
as if the sign of a perfect life were a clear driveway
you could back the car down easily
and drive off into the vanities of the world
with a broken heater fan and a song on the radio.

All morning long we work side by side,
me with my commentary
and he inside his generous pocket of silence,
until the hour is nearly noon
and the snow is piled high all around us;
then, I hear him speak. 

After this, he asks,
can we go inside and play cards? 

Certainly, I reply, and I will heat some milk
and bring cups of hot chocolate to the table
while you shuffle the deck.
and our boots stand dripping by the door. 

Aaah, says the Buddha, lifting his eyes
and leaning for a moment on his shovel
before he drives the thin blade again
deep into the glittering white snow.


The Night House	                        -- Billy Collins

Every day the body works in the fields of the world
Mending a stone wall
Or swinging a sickle through the tall grass -
The grass of civics, the grass of money -
And every night the body curls around itself
And listens for the soft bells of sleep. 

But the heart is restless and rises
From the body in the middle of the night,
Leaves the trapezoidal bedroom
With its thick, pictureless walls
To sit by herself at the kitchen table
And heat some milk in a pan.

And the mind gets up too, puts on a robe
And goes downstairs, lights a cigarette,
And opens a book on engineering.
Even the conscience awakens
And roams from room to room in the dark,
Darting away from every mirror like a strange fish.

And the soul is up on the roof
In her nightdress, straddling the ridge,
Singing a song about the wildness of the sea
Until the first rip of pink appears in the sky.
Then, they all will return to the sleeping body
The way a flock of birds settles back into a tree,

Resuming their daily colloquy,
Talking to each other or themselves
Even through the heat of the long afternoons.
Which is why the body - the house of voices -
Sometimes puts down its metal tongs, its needle, or its pen
To stare into the distance,

To listen to all its names being called
Before bending again to its labor.

Lyrics from the poems ÒThe Night HouseÓ and ÒShoveling Snow with BuddhaÓ from Picnic, Lightning, by Billy Collins, © 1998. All rights controlled by the University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. Used by permission of University of Pittsburgh Press.



Privilege 	Ted Hearne (b. 1982)
2009/10 Volti Choral Arts Laboratory Commission

VoltiÕs Choral Arts Laboratory (ÒCALÓ) is an annual commissioning and residency program designed to give American composers under the age of 35 the opportunity to create a piece for the ensemble, and work with VoltiÕs singers during the compositional process. Submissions are solicited every year, the deadline falling around January 1. Ted Hearne was the composer chosen for the CAL program in 2009/10. 

Ted Hearne is a dynamic composer, conductor and performer living and working in Brooklyn. His Katrina Ballads, a modern-day oratorio with a primary-source libretto, received the 2009 Gaudeamus Prize in composition and was listed as a Top 10 Classical Album of 2010 by The Washington Post and Time Out Chicago. Upcoming commissions include works for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, eighth blackbird, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble and A Far Cry.

ComposerÕs Note: 
Privilege is a collection of five short pieces. The first and third movements are both little snapshots of a contemporary privileged life, set to texts written by a contemporary privileged person (me). Motive/mission captures the thought-stream of an ambitious and conscientious individual, at the moment those thoughts are interrupted with a circumstance that begs uncomfortable comparisons: ÒHow much of my life is given? How much is earned?Ó Burning tv song is a love letter to the comfort found in a modern media apparatus whose output so alluringly confirms our visions of ourselves.

The second and fourth movements are set to portions of an interview with David Simon (creator of HBOÕs The Wire) by journalist Bill Moyers, which aired in April 2009 on PBS. Casino sets SimonÕs response to MoyersÕ question: ÒWhy do you think that we tolerate such gaps between rich and poor?Ó They get it addresses the idea that there is a large segment of our population - Simon guesses ten to fifteen percent - whose existence is unnecessary to the American economy, especially those who Òare undereducated, that have been ill served by the inner city school system, that have been unprepared for the technocracy of the modern economy.Ó Until there is a place for them in the American ideal, Simon posits, drug trafficking and other illegal activity will provide a more viable financial option. The final movement, We cannot leave, is set to an English translation of AsÕ KwazÕ uKuhamba, a black South African anti-Apartheid song, the original words of which are in Xhosa, the native language of Nelson Mandela. South Africa has a strong tradition of music being used as a tool to fight societal oppression and inequality. This setting is a tribute to that practice.

I. Motive/mission 
	motive/mission 

	you were always fair 
	you were almost always kind 
	werenÕt you? 

	you always reached out your hand 
	you almost always refused to lie 
	didnÕt you? 

	you wouldnÕt shut your shining eyes 
	would you?

II. Casino 
	itÕs almost like a casino 
	youÕre looking at the guy winning, 
	youÕre looking at the guy who pulled the lever 
	and all the bells go off 
	and all the coins are coming 
	out of a one-armed bandit 
	and youÕre thinking 
	that could be me. 
	IÕll play by those rules.

III. Burning tv song 
	flashing window 
	empty street 
	burning tv song 
	stay

IV. They get it 
	we pretend to need them 
	we pretend to educate the kids 
	but we donÕt 
	and theyÕre not foolish 
	they get it

V. We cannot leave 
	we cannot leave 
	this land of our ancestors 
	on this earth 

	we are being killed by the monster 
	on this earth 

	shuku shuku 		(the sound of the train) 
	oh, mother, itÕs leaving me behind! 
	i want to get on the train 
	to get on the train in the morning 
	i want 
	oh, mother, itÕs leaving me behind! 

				text: AsÕ KwazÕ uKuhamba 
				traditional Xhosa anti-Apartheid song 
				translation by Patiswa Nombona 
				and Mollie Stone, 2003




Daglarym / My Mountains 	Donald Crockett (b. 1951) 
2008 Volti Commission

Donald Crockett has received commissions from the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (Composer-in-Residence 1991-97), Kronos Quartet, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Hilliard Ensemble, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Firebird Ensemble, the California EAR Unit, and Volti, among many others. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2006, and has also received grants and prizes from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Barlow Endowment, Copland Fund, Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards, Meet the Composer, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He is Chair of the Composition Department and Director of the Contemporary Music Ensemble at the USC Thornton School of Music, and Senior Composer-in-Residence with the Chamber Music Conference and ComposersÕ Forum of the East.

ComposerÕs Note:
The title of Daglarym/My Mountains is drawn from folk music of Tuva, an autonomous republic of the Russian Federation bordering Mongolia. The texts, adapted from folk song lyrics by Katherine Vincent, are the fruit of an excursion to Tuva for linguistic and folk song research in which Kate took part. These brief poems are evocative of the vast expanses of this country through which nomadic tribes of herdsmen move across the landscape in an eternal seasonal cycle. As a musical basis for the piece I used melodic fragments from folk tunes which the poet and violist, Kate Vincent, notated in her journal.

There are several Tuvan words in the text: 
daglarym (Òmy mountainsÓ)       
barypla (ÒgoingÓ)      
bazala (Òonce againÓ)
honash (Òthe flattened circle in the grass left by the departed yurt after the nomads have moved onÓ)
aal (Òa nomadic encampment of several yurtsÓ) 
Saryglyg (as in Ôthe plains of Saryglyg,Õ Òa yellow-ful placeÓ) 
Translations and transliterations of Tuvan words provided by K. David Harrison.

Daglarym/My Mountains 
-- Text by Katherine Vincent, adapted from Tuvan folk song lyrics

I. Daglarym
	Daglarym, my mountains.
	Like cranes flying, gliding in formation,
	silently through this nomadic night.

II. Honash
	Barypla, bazala.
	Honash.
	The yurt has left its echo in the pasture.
	As the season exhaled the aal moved on.
	Barypla, bazala.

III. Daglarym
	Daglarym, my mountains.
	Youth recalled from your whisperings.
	Remembering cliffs where goats were herded by moonlight
	under your gaze.

IV. Honash
	Honash.
	Barypla, bazala.
	The land mourns the sounds of children
	Herding goats across the plain.
	Barypla, bazala.
	The land mourns the sounds of children
	and the heat of a fire which warms the chai.

V. Daglarym
	Daglarym, my mountains.
	Climbing toward twilight beyond the plains of Saryglyg,
	The child runs with the herd, invisible.
	You bear our mortality,
	and our aal moves on.
	Daglarym.
	The child runs with the herd,
	invisible in this nomadic night.


The Crowds Cheered as Gloom Galloped Away 	Eric Moe (b. 1954)
2008 Volti commission 

Eric Moe, composer of what the New York Times calls Òmusic of winning exuberance,Ó was educated at Princeton University (A.B.) and the University of California, Berkeley (M.A., Ph.D). He has held visiting professorships at Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania
and is currently Professor of Composition and Theory at the University of Pittsburgh.

A founding member of the San Francisco-based Earplay ensemble, he currently co-directs the Music on the Edge new music concert series in Pittsburgh. He has received commissions from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Fromm Foundation, the Koussevitzky Foundation, the Barlow Endowment, and Meet-the-Composer USA. 

The Crowds Cheered as Gloom Galloped Away is VoltiÕs second commission from Moe of a setting of poetry by Matthea Harvey, the first being O the flesh is hot but the heart is cold, premiered in 2005 and recorded on VoltiÕs CD Turn the Page. Both poems may be found in Sad Little Breathing Machine (2004), the poetÕs collection of prose poems that she describes as Òtiny stories on narrative steroids . . . half narrative, half lyric; half melancholy, half mischievous; half head, half heart.Ó

ComposerÕs Note: 
The poem begins: ÒEveryone was happier. But where did the sadness go? People wanted to know.Ó The plot of The Crowds Cheered ...  arose when the poet dreamt that antidepressants came in cases with tiny ponies. It explores the fantastical premise of a world in which a monthÕs dosage of antidepressants includes six miniature ponies that make the patientÕs sadness visible and tangible. The piece is a simultaneously funny and profound look at contemporary culture, our attempts to externalize ÒbadÓ feelings and emotions.



The Crowds Cheered as Gloom Galloped Away 
-- Matthea Harvey

Everyone was happier. But where did the sadness go? People wanted to know. They didnÕt want it collecting in their elbows or knees then popping up later. The girl who thought of the ponies made a lot of money. Now a monthÕs supply of pills came in a hard blue case with a handle. You opened it & found the usual vial plus six tiny ponies of assorted shapes & sizes, softly breathing in the Styrofoam. Often they had to be pried out & would wobble a little when first put on the ground. In the beginning the children tried to play with them, but the sharp hooves nicked their fingers & the ponies refused to jump over pencil hurdles. The children stopped feeding them sugarwater & the ponies were left to break their legs on the gardensÕ gravel paths or drown in the gutters. On the first day of the month, rats gathered on doorsteps & spat out only the bitter manes. Many a ponyÕs last sight was a bounding squirrel with its tail hovering over its head like a halo. Behind the movie theatre the hardier ponies gathered in packs amongst the cigarette butts, getting their hooves stuck in wads of gum. They lined the hills at funerals, huddled under folding chairs at weddings. It became a matter of pride if one of your ponies proved unusually sturdy. People would smile & say, ÒThis would have been an awful month for me,Ó pointing to the glossy palomino trotting energetically around their ankles. Eventually the ponies were no longer needed. People had learned to imagine their sadness trotting away. & when they wanted something more tangible, they could always go to the racetrack & study the larger horsesÕ faces. Gloom, #341, with those big black eyes, was almost sure to win.

ÒThe Crowds Cheered as Gloom Galloped Away,Ó copyright © 2004 by Matthea Harvey. Reprinted from Sad Little Breathing Machine with the permission of Graywolf Press, 
Saint Paul, Minnesota.


Two Poems by Delmore Schwartz (2006) 	Wayne Peterson (b. 1927)
 
Wayne Peterson, born in Albert Lea, Minnesota, has been a San Francisco resident since 1960. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and was a Fulbright Scholar at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Peterson was Professor of Music at San Francisco State University for more than three decades, and from 1992 to 1994 was a guest professor of composition at Stanford University. 
 
He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 1992 for The Face of the Night, The Heart of the Dark, commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony, crowning a distinguished career that has included fellowships and commissions from the Guggenheim, Koussevitzky, Fromm, Gerbode, and Djerassi Foundations, and Meet The Composer, as well as an award of distinction from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Volti has commissioned and performed several works by the composer including A Robert Herrick Motley (five a cappella choruses) in 1996, An e.e. cummings Triptych (three a cappella choruses), composed in 1962 and performed in 2005, and Carol in 2001.
 
Poet Delmore Schwartz (1913-1966) pursued a degree in philosophy and, though he did not complete an advanced degree, became a lecturer at Harvard. He later followed a more itinerant teaching career at various schools in the Northeast. Schwartz succumbed to the ravages of alcoholism and drug abuse at the age of 52.
 
ComposerÕs Note:
She Lives with the Furies of Hope and Despair caught my attention with its sensitive, yet occasionally somewhat bizarre, references to Jan VermeerÕs famous Dutch Renaissance painting, ÒThe Girl with the Pearl Earring,Ó the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan, HamletÕs Ophelia, the Classical Age and New York City. Essentially, this poem champions Goodness, Purity and Candor, suggested by the beautiful young woman in VermeerÕs masterpiece, as a welcome antidote to the cruel wantonness of our contemporary society. I Am Cherry Alive, the Little Girl Sang contrasts the light, sweet and unbridled enthusiasm of a young child who insists that she will not grow up and have her joyous innocence stifled like those Ògrown-upsÓ around her. I have endeavored to set both of these poems as simply and directly as possible, in keeping with the sentiments expressed.

She Lives with the Furies of Hope and Despair 

She lives with the Furies of Hope and Despair.
O Jan Vermeer of Delft, descend,
Come near the Hudson and the WestÕs last capital.
Here is the new Ophelia, beautiful:
Only your lucid brush could make her clear
and vivid as the daughter of the Swan.
Vermeer, you too! The early morning light
Only the sleepless see gazing all night
Return as faint and delicate as dawn.
Pretty and beautiful, romping and yet
Serene as statues of the classic age,
Her goodness generous in her luminous face.
Though cruel pride rack the world with rage,
Or power and vanity dance, they dance their minuet,
Her candor and her gaze are marvelous:
Marvelous shines her candor and her gaze. 
		  Ð Delmore Schwartz

ÒShe Lives with the Furies of Hope and Despair,Ó from VAUDEVILLE FOR A PRINCESS, 
copyright ©1950 by Delmore Schwartz. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.



I Am Cherry Alive, the Little Girl Sang 

ÒI am cherry alive,Ó the little girl sang,
ÒEach morning I am something new:
I am apple, I am plum, I am just as excited
As the boys who made the HalloweÕen bang:
I am tree, I am cat, I am blossom too:
When I like, if I like, I can be someone new,
Someone very old, a witch in a zoo:
I can be someone else whenever I think who,
And I want to be everything sometimes too:
And the peach has a pit and I know that too,
And I put it in along with everything
To make the grown-ups laugh whenever I sing:
And I sing: It is true; It is untrue;
I know, I know, the true is untrue,
The peach has a pit,
The pit has a peach:
And both may be wrong
When I sing my song,
But I donÕt tell the grown-ups: because it is sad,
And I want them to laugh just like I do
Because they grew up
And forgot what they knew
And they are sure
I will forget it some day, too.
They are wrong. They are wrong. When I sang my song, I knew, I knew!
I am red, I am gold, 
I am green, I am blue,
I will always be me, 
I will always be new!Ó 
		        -- Delmore Schwartz

ÒI Am Cherry Alive, the Little Girl Sang,Ò from SELECTED POEMS, copyright ©1959 
by Delmore Schwartz. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.



Luna, Nova Luna 	Mark Winges (b. 1951)
2010 Joint Commission, Volti and Piedmont East Bay ChildrenÕs Choir

Luna, Nova Luna was part of a multi-year cycle of commissioning new works for professional choir and high-level childrenÕs choir. This project resulted in 15-minute works by Mark Winges, Elliott Gyger, and Kui Dong.

Mark Winges, born in Louisville, Kentucky, currently resides in San Francisco, where he is composer / advisor for Volti, a position he has held since 1990. He is a graduate of the College-Conservatory of Music - University of Cincinnati, SF State University, and has studied at the Musikh?gskolan in Stockholm, Sweden. His principal teachers have been Ellsworth Milburn, Henry Onderdonk, and Arne Melln?s. His works have been performed by the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, the SF Contemporary Music Players, Earplay, Works-in-Progress: Berlin, the Empyrean Ensemble, pianist Teresa McCollough, Volti, the Piedmont East Bay ChildrenÕs Choir, the San Francisco Girls Chorus, the Pharos Music Project (NY), Carmina Slovenica (Slovenia), the Guangdong Choir (China), the Marin, Berkeley and PiteÎ (Sweden) Symphonies and many others. Gramophone magazine has characterized his music as ÒStylistically adventurous in setting, but strongly beholden to conventional means.Ó 

ComposerÕs Note:
In agrarian societies, the power of the moon, in all its manifestations, was worshiped, celebrated and feared. Even today, some of that fascination persists: who of us has not looked up at the night sky and been drawn in by the moonÕs silvery presence? Luna, Nova Luna is my own response to the recurring patterns of the moon: its nightly rising, its longer cycle of waxing and waning.

The origin of the piece is a bit unusual. It started with The Moon-Dance, which was composed as an independent piece for the Piedmont Choir in 2002. When planning Luna, Nova Luna, it seemed quite natural to use the earlier work as a centerpiece to and from which other pieces of the moon-story could relate. Having the expanded forces of two choirs allowed for more dramatic contrasts in sound: treble voices alone, mixed voices alone, younger treble voices with men, a multi-hued treble sound (using both adult and younger sopranos and altos as a unit), and of course, the full sound of both choirs together. The way these different forces are used
and where they occur in the piece is a part of the unfolding drama of the music.

Composing for each of these inspiring ensembles individually is a joy IÕve experienced many times. Being able to work with both of them in combination has been a treat, and has opened my own ears to new possibilities in choral sound. I am sure that hearing them together will open your ears as well.

Luna, Nova Luna was made possible in part by a generous gift from Lewis Butler, and is dedicated 
                       To Catherine, Elena and Tobias -- May your creativity have no limits.


I.  Procession I 
Luna, nova luna,	Moon, new moon, 
panem bis scinde	cut the bread in two 
et nobis dona	and give us 
semissem tibi,	half to thee, 
salutem mihi.	health to me. 
		Latin version by Ciara Sanker		Romanian prayer for the new moon 

II. Welcome 
Welcome, precious stone of the night, 
Delight of the skies, precious stone of the still night 
Mother of stars, precious stone of the night skies 
Child raised by the sun, precious stone of the silent night 
Excellency of stars, precious stone of the night 
		Anon. translation of a pre-11th century Gaelic poem 

III.  The Moon-Dance 
gotta dance 
moon gotta dance 
moon roll 
sky roll 

La luna blanche	The white moon 
Votre ame est un paysage choisi	Your soul is a landscape rare 
Que vont charmant masques et bergamasques 	Where masks and bergamasks charming pass 
		- Verlaine Clair de lune 

	Dans lÕgiron      	On the lap 
	Du Patron,      	Of our Master 
On y danse, on y danse   	We are dancing, fast and faster 
   Dans lÕgiron       	On the lap 
   Du Patron       	Of our Master 
On y danse tous en rond.   	Dancing faster in a ring. 
- Laforgue Complainte de cette bonne lune

	See the moon climb.
	Dream road beyond time, 
O route sans terme 	Dream road without end 
		- Laforgue Solo de lune

La luna cava un blanco abismo 	The moon carves a white abyss
de quietud, en cuya cuenca 	of silence, socket in which
las cosas son cadaveres 	objects are corpses
y las sombras viven como 	ideas and shadows alive like ideas 
		- Lugones La blanca soledad

E a lua que baila 	It is the moon that dances
na Quintana dos mortos 	in the courtyard of the dead 
		- Lorca Danza da lÏa en Santiago

La luna esta redonda 	Moon is round
La luna se ha hecho làminas 	MoonÕs become a gilt leaf
como un pan de oro blanco 	like a loaf of white gold 
		- Lorca Juego de lunas

countdown claptrap moon-prints rock-box 
		- Plomer To the Moon and Back

cheese
no door
no more

sail off in a wooden shoe
Wynken, Blynken and Nod 
		- Field Wynken, Blynken and Nod

midsummer not-to-call night in the white and walk of the morning
paring of paradisaical fruit
A cusp still clasped him, a fluke yet fanged him, entangled him 
- Hopkins Moonrise

The moonÕs a steaming chalice
of honey and venom-wine
		- Lindsay What Semiramis Said

IV. Nuntius Noctis
nuntius noctis 	Messenger of the night
primas referens tenebras 	who brings back the first shadows
clarior quanto micat orbe pleno 	more lovely than the full-orbed moon
cum suos ignes coeunte cornu 	your beauty shines more brightly 
iunxit et curru properante pernox 	when with meeting horns she has joined her fires,
exerit vultus rubicunda Phoebe 	and with speeding chariot Phoebe
nec tenent stellae faciem minores; 	shows her blushing face and the lesser stars fade;
talis est, primas referens tenebras, 	it is the one, who brings back the first shadows,
nuntius noctis. 	messenger of the night. 
		- Seneca (4 BCE Ð 65 CE) Phaedra 		trans. adapted from F. Miller

V. Procession II
Luna, nova luna, 	Moon, new moon, 
panem bis scinde 	cut the bread in two
et nobis dona 	and give us
semissem tibi, 	half to thee,
salutem mihi. 	health to me. 
		Latin version by Ciara Sanker 		Romanian prayer for the new moon



Federico Garcia Lorca texts and translations are from Obras Completas (Galaxia Gutenberg, 1996 edition) copyright © Herederos de Federico GarcÕa Lorca. Reprinted by permission of William Peter Kosmas, Esq. (lorca@artslaw.co.uk), 8 Franklin Square, London W14 9UU.

William Plomer text reprinted by permission of Duff Hart-Davis, literary executor for William Plomer.

Other translations are public domain or are reprinted by permission of the translator. Texts not otherwise attributed were written by the composer.

The internationally-acclaimed Piedmont East Bay ChildrenÕs Choir offers children throughout 
San FranciscoÕs East Bay an outstanding program of choral training and performance. Ensemble is the ChoirÕs flagship group. They tour annually and have claimed first prizes and gold medals at many prestigious competitions world-wide. www.piedmontchoirs.org

Ensemble singers: 
Rachel Adams ¥ Madeleine Ahlers ¥ Lauren Boranian ¥ Alexander Browne ¥ Antonia Calabrese-Thomas ¥ Kennedy Christensen ¥ Renzo Downey ¥ Emi Fogg ¥ Emma Grove ¥ Rebecca Havian Madeline Heaps ¥ Kristi Hong ¥ Apryl Hsu ¥ Erin Hutchinson ¥ Amalia Isen ¥ Samantha Lai Andrea Lee ¥ Sarah Lo ¥ Alison Mathews ¥ Tlalli Aztlan Moya-Smith ¥ Bahar Ostadan ¥ Francine Penikis ¥ Catherine Phillips ¥ Annalisa Piccinini ¥ Claire Pinkham ¥ Ailey Simpson ¥ Josef Starc Rachel Stewart ¥ Sabrina Tobe ¥ Kai Vogel ¥ Michelle Wan ¥ Alina Whatley ¥ Daphne Williams Maya Wong ¥ Paige Woolman ¥ Steve You



CREDITS
PRODUCED BY Lolly Lewis, Robert Geary, Mark Winges, Sidney Chen and Barbara Heroux
Recorded November 2009 - May 2011 at St. Ignatius Church, San Francisco, CA
RECORDING ENGINEER: Don Ososke
RECORDING EDITOR: Lolly Lewis
Mastered by Piper Payne at Michael Romanowski Mastering

GRAPHIC DESIGN: Tim Dunn, DUNN@DUNN Graphic Design; Anna Singer
PHOTOGRAPH OF VOLTI: Betsy Kershner
PHOTOGRAPH OF ROBERT GEARY: don fogg
Liner Notes: Paul Ingraham, Barbara Heroux

VOLTI: HOUSE OF VOICES is made possible by the generous support of The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Recording Program. This project is supported by the American Music CenterÕs CAP Recording Program, made possible by endowment funds from the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust and The Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University.