Gloria Patri

Budi Susanto Yohanes [b. 1979], Indonesia
Doxologia Minor
Self-Published
Sung in Latin

Budi Susanto Yohanes is a composer and conductor from Indonesia. Born in Blitar, an East Javenes town, Mr. Susanto now resides in Malang, Indonesia. With a degree in choral conducting from Korea National University of Arts in Seoul, he founded the Gracioso Sonora Choir and currently conducts the Malang Choral Art while regularly serving as an adjudicator and choral clinician at area festivals and workshops. Additionally, he is the artistic director of National Folklore Festivals in University of Indonesia and Soegijapranata International Choir Competition. The International Choral Conductors Federation reports that he is “hailed as one of the few composers with strong ability to take up original ethnic elements of Indonesian traditional music into an intelligent contemporary piece.” The A sections in the Gloria Patri are repleat with these elements of traditional Indonesian music, chiefly Kotekan (interlocking rhythms found in each vocal part) of the Balinese Gamelan style and Slendro (pentatonic scale). The B section (“sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saceula saeculorum”), driven by melody and harmony used as a tool for word painting and a short passage of chant, reflects the European style.

Crucem Tuam Adoramus Domine (from Two Lenten Motets)

Paweł Łukaszewski [b. 1968], Poland
Adapted from Galatians 6:14
Chester Music
Sung in Latin

Esteemed as the successor of such composers as Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Krzysztof Penderecki, Arvo Pärt and John Tavener, Paweł Łukaszewski is a leading composer of Polish choral music and as such, has received commissions from the King Singers and Polyphony among many others. Łukaszewski is in his 28th year as Professor of Composition at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music, where he completed his Ph.D. in Composition; he also holds two master’s degrees (composition and cello) from Academy of Music in Warsaw. With an additional interest in conducting, he received the Post-Graduate Degree Choirmaster with Distinction from the Academy of Music in Bydgoszc, and is the current Artistic Director and Conductor of Music Sacre, located in Warsaw. A majority of his compositional output consists of sacred vocal/choral music, but also includes major orchestral chamber works and electronic music, all of which have awarded him prizes throughout Europe. Two Lenten Motets from which “Crucem Tuam Adoramus Domine” comes, received such an honor when it was awarded the Second Prize at the Florilege Vocal de Tours Competition in France. His music has been described as “anti-modern,” which is overtly apparent in the Two Lenten Motets. “Crucem Tuam Adoramus Domine” is filled with sweeping melodic lines and emotionally rewarding harmonic progressions that highlight the adoring and reverent nature of the liturgical text.

There is a Balm in Gilead

arr. Raymond Wise [b. 1961], United States
Traditional Spiritual
Hindon Publications HPC7106
Sung in English

Dr. Raymond Wise is a composer, conductor, music minister, and current professor in the Department of African American and African Diaspora studies at Indiana University in Bloomington, Illinois. Holding an M.A. and Ph.D. in Music Education from Ohio State University, he also completed studies in opera, art and German at the Institute for European Studies in Vienna, Austria; African-American history, music, and dance at San Francisco State University in San Francisco, California; and completed an apprenticeship in the business and recording of Gospel Music with the Walter Hawkins Corporation in Oakland, California. There is a Balm in Gilead was arranged in 1996 for the Ohio State Chorale, then conducted by Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt. In ancient Biblical times, the land of Gilead was known for its liquid rosin that flowed from certain trees such as pine, cedar, cypress, and terebith, and was used medicinally to heal wounds. Wise’s arrangement of this traditional spiritual is centered on such a story of healing; the well-married music and text paint a journey to a sacred place where one experiences complete healing and transformation and with conviction, encourages others to bring their sorrow from a sinsick soul to the healing balm found in Gilead.

You Do Not Walk Alone

Dominick DiOrio [b. 1984], United States
Traditional Irish Blessing
G. Schirmer 50600396
Sung in English

Composer and conductor Dominick DiOrio is a champion of new music and diverse programming. At Indiana University, where he has served on the choral faculty since 2012, among other courses, he conducts the new music vocal ensemble NOTUS and has premiered over 50 new works. His acclaim as a conductor and composer has gained him conducting positions with ensembles around the world, The American Prize in Choral Composition (2014) and Choral Performance (2019-NOTUS), and his current position as the Artistic Direction & Conductor of the Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia. His compositional style has been described as intelligent, evocative and “a tour de force of inventive thinking and unique colour” (Gramophone) which is exquisitely displayed in DiOrio’s setting of the traditional Irish Blessing, You Do Not Walk Alone. In the composer’s own words, “its meaning speaks of those who give support in times of trial. We rely on the good graces and hope of others even in our darkest moments. My musical tapestry is one of unadorned a cappella mixed chorus, using soft dissonances and free-flowing counterpoint. The voices are sometimes asked to divide, creating a sonic wash of color and overtones. Together in song, we do not walk alone.”

“Ma Bohème” (from Chansons de la Vigne)

Joshua Shank [b. 1980], United States
Arthur Rimbaud
B&F Music Publishing
Sung in French

The works of Boston-based composer, Joshua Shank (b. 1980), have been widely performed by educational and professional ensembles alike. In 2002, he became the youngest recipient ever of the Raymond W. Brock Composition Award by the American Choral Directors Association and, from 2004 to 2014, he served as Composer-In-Residence for the Minneapolis-based professional choir, The Singers. His compositions have sold over 175,000 copies worldwide. Joshua earned master’s and doctoral degrees in both musicology and composition, respectively, from the University of Texas at Austin where he studied with Yevgeniy Sharlat, Charles Carson, Russell Pinkston, Donald Grantham, and the late opera composer Daniel Catán. A native of Minnesota, he has taught at Gonzaga University, Valley City State University, and Eastern Washington University.

Written early in his career, Chansons de la Vigne (“Songs of the Vine”) is a six-song cycle based on the nineteenth-century French poetry of Arthur Rimbaud and Guillaume Apollinaire. Meant to be sung with joyful abandon, “Ma Boheme” is the first movement of the cycle and set to the poetry of Rimbaud, who wrote most of his works between the ages of 16 and 19. The traveler in this poem, wearing a torn jacket, ripped trousers, and “wounded shoes” is happily alone as he wanders nature living a romanticized Bohemian life, sheltered by the stars and free of materialism and vanity.

Tuttarana

Reena Esmail [b. 1983], United States
Based in the Hindi language
A Piece of Sky Music
Onomatopoeic syllables
Ashley Holguin, solo

Reena Esmail is an Indian-American composer who currently resides in Los Angeles and is LA Master Chorale’s Swan Family Artist-in-Residence (2020-2025). A composer of orchestral, chamber and choral works, her life and work was featured in season 3 of the PBS Great Performances series titled, “Now Hear This.” Holding degrees (B.M.) from Julliard and Yale (MM, MMA, and DMA), she wrote her doctoral thesis on “Finding Common Ground: Uniting Practices in Hindustani and Western Art Musicians,” and studied Hindustani music as a recipient of the Fulbright-Nehru grant. Devoted to strengthening cross-cultural musical connections between India and the West, she also currently serves as Artistic Director of the non-profit organization, Shastra.

In the words of the composer, “The title of this piece is a conglomeration of two words: the Italian word ‘tutti’, means ‘all’ or ‘everyone’, and the term ‘tarana’ designates a specific Hindustani (North Indian) musical form, whose closest Western counterpart is the ‘scat’ in jazz. Made up of rhythmic syllables, a tarana is the singer’s chance to display agility and dexterity. While a Hindustani tarana is a solo form, I wanted to bring the tarana into an ensemble setting.” The hand movements, used with permission from the composer, in the Biola Chorale’s performance are based in the style of Bharatanatyam (a form of classical Indian dance) and utilize mudras, hand gestures that form the base of Bharatanatyam movements. Singing lyrics comprised of onomatopoeic rhythmic syllables at a “vibrant and energetic tempo” that mimic instruments, this creative choral version of a tarana serves as a joyful capstone to the Biola Chorale’s 2024 conference performance. The Chorale would like to give a special thanks to soprano, Jesenya Rivera Puls for her research on and choreography of the mudras as well as Shalini Haupt, mudras choreographer for Reena Esmail’s TaReKiTa.