CHAMBER CHOIR IRELAND – OH MY AMERICA

Ireland’s national chamber choir presents a tapestry of American choral music, this February at the Pepper Canister.

From the lively 18th-century anthems of a newly-formed nation, to mid-century minimalism and pioneering composers of the New York School and Bang on a Can.

Chamber Choir Ireland and conductor Paul Hillier explore the early choral heritage of the United States of America, with the psalms and anthems that flourished in New England during the American Revolution.

These include ‘Old North’ by William Billings, ‘Montgomery’ by Justin Morgan, and ‘Brevity’ by Abraham Wood—a former drummer boy in the Revolutionary War.

In 1976, avant-garde composer John Cage was commissioned to compose a work for the American Bicentennial. This new work took inspiration from Billings’ ‘Old North’, using a technique of “harmonic subtraction” to produce a sublimely beautiful series of long overlapping tones and empty spaces. Both appear side by side in this concert.

The programme also features Paul Hillier’s own setting of To see a World in a Grain of Sand , written by William Blake around the same time as those New England psalmodists, and composed by the conductor himself during his time in California in the 1990s.

The final group of pieces focuses on three generations of New York composers: Cage’s fellow members of the ‘New York School’, Morton Feldman and Christian Wolff; the minimalist Steve Reich; and Michael Gordon and Julia Wolfe of the contemporary music collective Bang on a Can.

The concert concludes with another psalm—this time, a contemporary one—in Wolfe’s Guard my tongue.

This programme will also be performed in Limerick on Sunday 4 February 2024.

Programme

John Cage (USA, 1912-1992)—ear for EAR

William Billings (1746-1800)—O praise the Lord of heaven: An Anthem for Thanksgiving

Abraham Wood (1752-1804)—Brevity

John Cage—Hymn A (after W. Billings’ ‘Old North’) from Hymns and Variations

William Billings —Old North

Justin Morgan (1747-1798)—Montgomery

Jeremiah Ingalls (1764-1828)—Evening Shade

Paul Hillier (England, b.1949)—To see a world

Christian Wolff (USA, b. 1934)—Evening Shade, Wake up

Morton Feldman (USA, 1926-1987)—Christian Wolff in Cambridge

Steve Reich (USA, b. 1936)—Clapping Music (arr. Paul Hillier)

Michael Gordon (USA, b. 1956)—He saw a skull

Julia Wolfe (USA, b. 1958)—Guard my tongue