CARMINA BURANA - The Chicago Bar Association

CBA SYMPHONY & CHORUS OFFICIAL PROGRAM
Gretchen Zook, Erik Eisenmann, Peter Maltese,
David Coronna, Michael Poulos, and Andrew Pigott
perform at Winter Wonderfest
14 | CBA SYMPHONY & CHORUS
calls for two), the idea of giving the central narrative
role to the chorus, and the prominent use of
insistent rhythms. But where Stravinsky achieves a
certain complexity of style and idea, Orff keeps his
music stripped to its bones. In Carmina burana he
avoids complicated rhythm and harmony (several
numbers subsist on a steady diet of two chords),
and eschews polyphony altogether. His melodies
are plain and syllabic. Occasionally a single driving
rhythmic pattern alone keeps the music going.
(Imagine the courage it must have taken to write a
pit-band oom-pah accompaniment in 1935.) Despite
the spartan recipe, Orff succeeds brilliantly because
of his flair for dramatic pacing, his ear for dazzling
and seductive color, the energy of his rhythms, and,
perhaps above all, the number of catchy tunes he
composed. The result is a highly charged, expressive
work of undeniable power and immediacy—claims
that can be made for few pieces of serious music
written in our century.
Orff begins and ends with the wheel of fate—a
massive chorus that slowly turns, building in speed
and volume as it goes. In between these two pillars,
he writes three large chapters. The first celebrates
springtime in a series of songs and dances. The
dance music is for orchestra alone; the vocal pieces
are scored for baritone solo and various combinations
of full chorus and small choir, often singing in
alternation. The second section moves indoors to
iN MeMOriAM
evelyn Meine (1926 to February 24, 2011), long time Coordinator of Education
and Outreach for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Evelyn was key in the
creation of the CBASO. In the spring of 1986 it was Evelyn Meine, at the suggestion
of Margaret Hillis, David Katz’s boss at the Elgin Symphony, who first got
the young conductor together with a handful of Chicago lawyers looking to
start an orchestra. David Katz writes: “Talk about a Citizen Musician Initiative!
Evelyn somehow knew that I might have the right combination of personality
and musical skill to guide and grow an ensemble of attorneys and judges. I am
delighted that our silver anniversary concert will be held in the building where
she herself championed music for so many years.”
John Burke. Noted Chicago recording engineer and friend to the Chicago
community of opera singers, John recorded many of the leading professional
Chicago music ensembles and most of the concerts of the Chicago Bar Association
Symphony Orchestra. He is remembered in the wonderful recordings he
made and the careers he fostered.
William Warfield. Acclaimed throughout the world as one of the great vocal
artists of our time, Warfield was a star in every field open to a singer’s art. He
is best known to the world as Joe, the dockhand in the movie version of the
musical showboat, singing “Ol’ Man River.” He sang the role of Porgy in George
Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess. He recorded Messiah with Leonard Bernstein and won
a GRAMMY award for his recording of Copland’s Lincoln Portrait. In 1998 he reprised
his role reading the words of that great Illinois lawyer in the Daley Center Plaza
accompanied by the Chicago Bar Association Symphony Orchestra.
hon. Bernard S. Neistein. State Sen. Bernie Neistein was one of the first violinists
to join the CBASO. He graduated from DePaul Law School at the age of 19.
He played a 17th century Amati violin on the floor of the Senate. He obtained the
CBASO’s first actual conductor’s podium, and always called David Katz “teacher.”
He was 87 when he passed away in 2003.
the tavern—the exclusive province of male voices
and the temple of food and drink. (The saga of the
roasted swan, sung by a wailing tenor, is a marvel
of exotic color.) In the sensuous music of the third
section, set in the courts of love, we hear the solo
soprano and the voices of children for the first
time. Almost all of these nine pieces are scored
for different vocal forces, and the final sequence
of numbers is swift and dramatic. From a rowdy,
swinging chorus (no. 20, for split choirs), Orff turns to
the soprano, who is lost in thought as she vacillates
between chastity and physical love (a measured
monologue, set in the soprano’s lowest range).
Encouraged by the baritone and choruses, she
makes her choice, suddenly soaring to the highest
reaches of the soprano voice. The music erupts in
a magnificent hymn of praise (“Noble Venus, hail”),
and the circle starts again, as the wheel of fate spins
around.
Phillip Huscher is the program annotator for the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Program comments copyright © 1995 by The Chicago
Symphony Orchestra Association. All rights
reserved. Reprinted by permission.