CHORAL WORLD PREMIERE
Sun-Dogs for Chorus a Cappella
by James MacMillan
August 6, 4 p.m. Auer Hall - FREE
Contemporary Vocal Ensemble
Carmen Helena Téllez, Conductor
The world premiere of this latest work by Scottish composer James MacMillan, one of today’s most successful living composers, is not to be missed! The IU Jacobs School of Music has commissioned the work in conjunction with the Netherlands Chamber Choir, the Three Choirs Festival (England), and the Soundstreams Festival (Canada).
Sun-Dogs is a setting of a poem by Michael Symmons Roberts. The text is richly allegorical, iconographic with a deep well of Christian symbolism. The metaphors are complex, evoking a range of emotions and images, dark and terrifying one minute, radiant and ecstatic the next.
The composer will be present at the premiere, and will participate in a Colloquium in Honor of Thomas Dunn, Professor Emeritus of Choral Conducting
Saturday, August 5, 3-6pm. Ford-Crawford Hall
Papers and Panel Discussion on "Composers, Text and Music."
James MacMillan, Keynote Speaker.
PARTICIPANTS
Marika Kuzma, University of California, Berkeley
"
On language in Stravinsky's Svadebka"
Alfred Calabrese, Southern Methodist University
"
On Auden and Britten"
Sunday, August 6, 2:30pm. Ford-Crawford Hall
Pre-Concert Lecture on Sun-Dogs by James MacMillan
Monday, August 7, 10:30-noon, MA452
Composers and Conductors, An Informal Conversation.
PROGRAM NOTES BY THE COMPOSER
Sun-Dogs is a setting of a poem by Michael Symmons Roberts. The text is richly allegorical, iconographic with a deep well of symbolism. The metaphors are complex, evoking a range of emotions and images, dark and terrifying one minute, radiant and ecstatic the next. I have divided the poem into five movements for large unaccompanied choir.
‘I first saw them’ is generally slow and sombre but introduces the image of the dogs, racing at speed, intent on a kill. This is represented by a free and fast delivery of the text in certain parts of the choir, counterpointing with the narrator’s voice.
‘Domini canes’ – Dogs of the Lord – spare, monochrome, simultaneously tense and serene.
‘I saw them leading’ introduces the interpolated text of a related medieval folk-song to set the scene, whispered by the men. This is the fast movement and I try to communicate the energy as well as the majesty and mystery of the animals, with their violence and dreams.
‘Sometimes, like Tobias’.
There seems to be a sensuous and bestial eucharistic scene evoked in these words. This is the serene core of the piece – glossolalia- type chanting of the Latin prayer of consecration, framed by whistling and the deep breathing of sleep.
‘If you turn down the offerings’ begins with a full-throated recapitulation of the opening idea, before drifting into more mysterious territory with much free, soloistic texture and hazy memories of ‘Domini canes’.
