ACDA Announces Major New Choral/Orchestral Work from Dominick Argento

Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award winning composer Dominick Argento has composed the American Choral Directors Association's 2009 Raymond W. Brock Memorial Commission, a multi-movement choral-orchestral work, to be performed at the ACDA 50th Anniversary National Convention, March 4-7, 2009 in Oklahoma City. With the composer in residence, guest conductor Ann Howard Jones will conduct the festival chorus and Oklahoma Philharmonic Orchestra in this world premiere.

The seven movement work dramatically progresses from I. Dedication (orchestral overture), II. Parade (SATB choir and orchestra), III. Elegy (SAT choir and orchestra), IV. Chorale (SATB choir unaccompanied), V. Admonition (SA choir and orchestra), VI. Cenotaph (STAB choir and orchestra), VII. The Last Post (SATB choir and solo trumpet). Commenting on the new composition, ACDA Executive Director Tim Sharp stated, "With his characteristic melodic beauty and signature harmonic language, Argento has created a colorful and dramatic work that offers a reflection on war from a future time when war is only a distant memory. This major new contribution to the choral repertoire will evoke thoughts of Bach's major choral works with its self-borrowings, variety of choral display, and centerpiece Chorale 'Let Us Now Praise Famous Men'." Philip Brunelle, conductor of the Minneapolis based choral ensemble VocalEssence states, "This is a composer who knows his instruments and uses them with great color and beauty. Many composers can write for chorus OR orchestra: few have the skill to compose equally for both."

Argento has weaved a collection of poetry together that offers a unique perspective on war and peace. Using Sara Teasdale's poem There will come soft rains as inspiration for the work, the composer named the composition Cenotaph, a word which signifies a memorial built to honor lives whose remains are elsewhere. The title and the work convey universal significance when reflecting on war, but also convey specific meaning when considered in light of the lives that are memorialized at the Oklahoma City National Memorial (www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org).

In the title movement Cenotaph (Movement VI), the four part fugue begins with the words "Who will remember, passing through this Gate . . . " This text specifically references the new Menin Gate at Ypres, which honors soldiers who died in WWI. However, one cannot help but also reflect on the fact that the Oklahoma City National Memorial is bordered by two memorial gates, signifying 9:01 a.m., Wednesday, April 19, 1995, by the East Gate of the memorial, and 9:03 a.m. by the West Gate. The space in between interprets 9:02 a.m. when the bomb exploded, killing 168 men, women, and children at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The concluding movement is for unaccompanied chorus (wordless) and solo trumpet intoning "The Last Post", the bugle call that, since 1928, has been played every night at 8 o'clock at Menin Gate.

Cenotaph will be paired with Ralph Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem in the premiere concert which will take place Thursday, March 5, 2009 at 8:00 PM at the Civic Music Hall in Oklahoma City. The performance will be offered to the public on March 6, and will be repeated for the ACDA Convention on Saturday.