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IMMORTALITY - Nicholas White (b. 1967)

World Premiere of Nicholas White's IMMORTALITY on January 13, 2019 (3rd performance of three that weekend.)

The Concord Chorale (Concord, New Hampshire, USA) performs "Immortality" which sets the William Wordsworth poem, "Ode: Intimations on Immortality."

Annamarie Zmolek, soprano
Limmie Pulliam, tenor
Kristofer Johnson, conductor
Molly Lozeau, piano
Violin I - Heather Braun*
Violin II - Rose Drucker*
Viola - Daniel Doña*
Cello - Kate Jensik
Bass - Jered Egan
Trumpet I - Adam Gallant
Trumpet II - Greg Bechtold
French Horn - Orlando Pandolfi
Trombone - Brandon Newbould
Bass Trombone - Claude Fried
Glockenspiel - William Manley
Timpani - Desiree Glazier-Nazro

*Arneis String Quartet Member

This commissioned work was presented as the final celebratory touch to Concord Chorale's 50th Anniversary Season.

A musical setting of Ode: Intimations of Immortality by William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

World premiere piece commissioned by the Concord Chorale to commemorate its 50th Anniversary.

1. There Was A Time
2. Endless Imitation
3. Too Deep For Tears

“THERE WAS A TIME”

“But there's a Tree, of many, one,
A single field which I have looked upon,
Both of them speak of something that is gone;
The Pansy at my feet doth the same tale repeat:
Whither is fled the visionary gleam?
Where is it now, the glory and the dream?”

In recent years, I have become increasingly appreciative of the musical potential behind poetry of the 18th and 19th Centuries. Put another way, I have been fascinated by the opportunity to illuminate these poetic masterpieces through music, and captivated by the challenge of setting expansive, dense, and timeless texts. As a church musician, I have spent my life singing, accompanying, conducting, and composing musical works which have been created over a span of many centuries, ancient to modern, and these texts continue to occupy a deeply meaningful place in my soul. Beyond the strictly sacred or liturgical, I have occasionally been asked to compose music for medieval lyrics, metaphysical poetry, Shakespeare, Victorian epics, Romantic odes, and even nonsense verse. Having developed a deep appreciation for the settings of such texts over the last century by composers such as Elgar, Parry, Finzi, Britten and others, it was a tremendous privilege and a welcome challenge to tackle Wordsworth’s famous Ode, Intimations of Immortality.

Kristofer Johnson and the Concord Chorale gave me complete freedom to select my text for this commission. Kris told me that he would like it to feature significant solo roles for tenor and mezzo-soprano, as well as a prominent role for the piano. Beyond this, we discussed various options for text and orchestration, ultimately agreeing on the Wordsworth, with strings, brass, percussion and piano. I took a good deal of time, and several attempts, to divide up the poem for each soloist and the chorus. I also settled on three separate movements, each of which I gave a title drawn from the text therein.

There was much to consider in the setting of this extraordinary poem. I have long admired the settings of the same text by Gerald Finzi (Intimations of Immortality) and Richard Rodney Bennett (The Glory And The Dream) and yet I felt that I had something fresh and interesting to say with a musical setting. More than simply a pastoral or elegiac musical representation, I wanted to create something that involved drama, passion, and a tangible, heart-on-sleeve, deep level of emotion. I wanted the soloists to sing powerfully and operatically, as well as with huge sensitivity. I wanted to test the abilities of the chorus, but also to give them memorable and beautiful lines to enjoy singing. I wanted the audience to feel every bit as much involved as the performers, in the story, in the journey, in the tears and laughter, and in the dreaminess of it all. Beyond this, the text seemed so ideally matched for a celebration of the 50 years of the Concord Chorale’s existence, that it was irresistible.

Above all, having now composed the piece, I hope that we can ask ourselves the two questions posed by Wordsworth, as we navigate twenty first century society, reflecting on the place in which we find ourselves today, and what brought us here.

"Whither is fled the visionary gleam?
Where is it now, the glory and the dream?"

(From Program Notes by Nicholas White)