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December 6, 2002
Christmas
Vespers Set for December 8
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Photo: Fred LeBlanc
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Putting
together your holiday schedule? Be sure to include Mount Holyoke's
annual Christmas Vespers, a concert tradition more than a century
old. More than two hundred students and faculty will participate
in the event, which is set for Sunday, December 8, with performances
at 4 and 7:30 pm in Abbey Chapel. On stage will be the College's
Glee Club and Chamber Singers, directed by Hammond-Douglass Professor
of Music Catharine Melhorn; the Concert Choir and Orchestra, conducted
by Visiting Instructor in Music Mark Bartley; the Vocal Jazz ensemble,
directed by Director of Jazz Ensembles and accompanist and Catholic
Music Director Mark Gionfriddo; and the English Handbell Choir,
led by Beverley Griffith '03. College organist and Associate
Professor of Music Larry Schipull will also be featured.
In addition to familiar
congregational carols and the candlelight Gregorian chant processional,
the concert will include seasonal choral works from around the
world—from the English cathedral to contemporary reggae.
Concert Choir's selections include a Swedish carol and "This
Little Babe" from Britten's popular Ceremony of Carols.
Chamber Singers will offer two short a cappella works: one quite
technically challenging and dissonant by Australian composer Anne
Boyd, the other an Advent spiritual called "Keep Your Lamps
Trimmed and Burning." The Glee Club's set is entirely
English: movements from Britten's Missa Brevis, Harold Darke's
"In the Bleak Midwinter," and John Rutter's "Shepherd's
Pipe Carol." The Vocal Jazz Ensemble will premiere an unconventional
setting of "Bring a Torch," commissioned from Westfield
resident Clifton J. Noble Jr. Several works touch on the idea
of joyous Christmas bells, a theme that pervades this year's
Vespers concert. The organ prelude is a setting of the French
carol "Ding Dong Merrily on High"; the orchestra will
play "Carillon" from Bizet's L'Arlesienne
Suite and will join with the combined choirs and the Handbell
Choir to perform the "Bell Chorus" from Mahler's
Third Symphony.
There is no admission
charge for the concert, but seating in Abbey Chapel is limited.
Doors will open thirty-five minutes prior to each performance.
The
counter is
1,734
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