THERE ARE MANY
OTHER LEGENDS
Jonathan Santore composer
Dan Perkins conductor
New Hampshire Master Chorale
Manchester Choral Society & Orchestra
OVERVIEW
Both the New Hampshire Master Chorale and the Manchester Choral Society elevate the works of composer-in-residence Jonathan Santore on THERE ARE MANY OTHER LEGENDS, an expansive collection of works from Santore’s choral catalog. Each piece highlights the composer’s impressive command of choral writing and the ensemble’s traditions.
Through their texts and other premises, several works on THERE ARE MANY OTHER LEGENDS are referential pieces, some alluding to other works of vocal music while others recall the mythology of distant cultures. Requiem: Learning to Fall, a work which is both internally and externally referential, yielding a compelling, multi-layered musical text. The composition demonstrates Santore’s command of vocal texture and ability to add character to the choir’s text through instrumental accompaniments.
At the heart of Requiem is the cyclical recurrence of multiple musical and textual ideas, including the ancient “dies irae” Gregorian Chant and various musical cues of Santore’s creation. The most important of these is his setting of the word “alleluia,” which opens the work and returns multiple times as a positive counterbalance to the darker, more dissonant instrumental representations of the “dies irae” chant.
Requiem and Forgetting are the album’s only two pieces containing orchestral arrangements, featuring the New Hampshire-based Manchester Choral Society and Orchestra. However, several of the pieces on THERE ARE MANY OTHER LEGENDS are written for both choir and additional instrumentation, including strings, piano, and soprano saxophone. While choral music is the focus of this album, Santore’s instrumental writing and orchestration for heterogeneous ensembles should not be overlooked.
For example, Santore’s three-movement work O Sweet Spontaneous Earth evocatively pits the choir against a string trio as it conveys its transformative musical and textual form. In this way, O Sweet Spontaneous Earth stands alongside Requiem as the album’s most structurally nuanced and narratively cogent works.
HIGHLIGHTS
Jonathan Santore teaches Music Theory and Composition at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire, where he previously served as chair of the Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance.
Santore has received numerous awards, including The American Prize in 2013, two New Hampshire Composer of the Year awards and an Individual Artist Fellowship from the New Hampshire State Council of the Arts, being one of only six recipients from an applicant pool of 90 professional artists.
Founded in 2003 by conductor Dan Perkins, the New Hampshire Master Chorale is a non-profit choir comprised of New England singers with international performance experience. The chamber ensemble commissions and premieres works by New Hampshire composers.
Perkins is also Music Director of the Manchester Choral Society, a non-profit choir established in 1961 which he describes as a “magnet for serious singers”
New Hampshire Magazine awarded the Master Chorale with its “Best in NH 2008 – Musical History Program” award, citing Santore’s setting of “texts from New Hampshire [history] to compose music, creating a unique blend of Granite State history, music and art.”
ALSO ON NAVONA
A CELEBRATION OF AMERICAN CHORAL MUSIC
CREDITS
Walden Recessional
Recorded November 21, 2004 at Plymouth Congregational Church in Plymouth NH
The Return (Armistice Poems)
Recorded November 20, 2005 at Plymouth Congregational Church in Plymouth NH
Kalevala Fragments
Recorded May 7, 2006 at Plymouth Congregational Church in Plymouth NH
Recording Engineer Scott Loiselle
Eight Gypsy Songs After Brahms
Recorded May 2, 2009 at St. Katherine Drexel Church in Alton NH
Love Always!
Recorded November 21, 2010 at Plymouth Congregational Church in Plymouth NH
O Sweet Spontaneous Earth
Recorded November 20, 2011 at Plymouth Congregational Church in Plymouth NH
Requiem: Learning to Fall
Recorded May 22, 2016 at Ste. Marie Parish in Manchester NH
Recording Engineer Ken Silber
Forgetting
Recorded May 22, 2016 at Ste. Marie Parish in Manchester NH
Recording Engineer Ken Silber
Executive Producer Bob Lord
Executive A&R Sam Renshaw
A&R Chris Robinson
Audio Director Jeff LeRoy
Mastering Lucas Paquette, Levi Brown
Art & Production Director Brett Picknell
Graphic Design Emily Roulo
Marketing Scott Murphy
Release Date: March 10, 2017
Catalog #: NV6086
TRACK LISTING
Dan Perkins conductor
01 Walden Recessional
New Hampshire Master Chorale
Linda Galvan cello
The Return (Armistice Poems)
New Hampshire Master Chorale
Dan Perkins piano
02 I. The Return
03 II. November 11, 1918
04 III. The Country of the Camisards
05 Kalevala Fragments
New Hampshire Master Chorale
Eight Gypsy Songs After Brahms
New Hampshire Master Chorale
06 I. “Hey, Gypsy, strike the strings!”
07 II. “The bronzed boy”
08 III. “The moon shrouds its face”
09 IV. “Does it sometimes come to mind”
10 V. “Hark, the wind wails in the branches”
11 VI. “Dear God, you know how often”
12 VII. “High towering Rima tide”
13 VIII. “Hey, Gypsy, strike the strings!”
14 Love Always!
New Hampshire Master Chorale
Rik Pfenninger soprano saxophone
O Sweet Spontaneous Earth
New Hampshire Master Chorale
Eva Gruesser violin Daniel Doña viola Leo Eguchi cello
15 I. “O sweet spontaneous”
16 II. “pity this busy monster, manunkind,”
17 III. “when God lets my body be”
Requiem: Learning to Fall
Manchester Choral Society and Orchestra
Emily Jaworski mezzo-soprano
Part One
18 I. “And now, as I prepare to fall”
19 II. “Tigers either way, before me and behind me”
20 III. “All winter beech leaves remind us of what we have lost”
21 IV. “Haul the wood, hammer the shingles”
22 V. “Cultivating wildness takes practice”
23 VI. “Seek the holy quiet of solitude”
24 VII. “In mud season”
Part Two
25 VIII. “As the tree puts forth new branches”
26 IX. “On the edge of a moonlit field”
27 X. “Do not suffer change”
28 XI. “Throw clay on the wheel”
29 XII. “It is at the edge of night”
30 Forgetting
Manchester Choral Society and Orchestra
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