June 21: Let Music Fill the Air, 2012

Jon Curtis Season of the Day, SOTD - June

Allan set the following two pieces, from living composers, together.

Let Music Fill the Air (Gwyneth Walker 1947- )
Text: Adapted from a text by Plato, and from a passage in Handel’s opera “Rosalinde”

Stabat Mater dolorosa juxta crucem lacrimosa, dum pendebat Filius. Cuius animam gementem, contristatam et dolentem pertransivit gladius. Vidit suum dulcem Natum moriendo desolatum, dum emisit spiritum.

Are you troubled? Music will calm you. Are you weary? Rest shall be there. Are you fearful, alone and silent? Raise your voice in song. Let music fill the air! Music gives sound to the universe, Music gives wings to the mind, Flight to the imagination, A charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything. Let my voice speak. Let my heart rise on wings of song. It is the essence of order, and leads to all that is good, Just and beautiful, of which it is the invisible, But everlasting dazzling, passionate and eternal glow. Let my voice speak! Let my heart rise on wings of song! Let music fill the air.

Dr. Gwyneth Walker resigned from her post at Oberlin College Conservatory in 1982 to pursue a career as a full-time composer. A proud resident of Vermont, her catalog now boasts over 170 commissioned works for orchestra, band, chorus and chamber music.

Salmo 150 (Ernani Aguiar, 1949-)
Text : Psalm 150

Praise the Lord in his sacred places, Praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts, Praise him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet, Praise him with the psaltery and the harp. Praise him with the timbrel and the dance. Praise him with strings and pipes. Praise him with high-sounding cymbals, Praise him with cymbals of joy. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!

One of the best-known living composers in Brazil, Ernani Aguiar writes choral and instrumental music, and is also a musicologist of Brazilian 18th century music.

Quiz of the Day
This should be an easy one: Speaking of living composers, name one of our most sung, who has also been an Associate Director.
(Answer tomorrow)