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Program Notes

Welcome to Music of the Sister Queens — the opening concert of the inaugural Winnipeg Baroque Festival! Canzona is delighted to present this program which spans the full breadth of human emotion — from mourning to exultation. In these turbulent times, it sometimes feels difficult to reconcile the pain of the world with the glimmers of hope we may feel in our own lives. It is our challenge this evening to explore this conflict of emotion; to dive into the depths of plaintive prayer and come out on the other side with hope and perseverance for a peaceful future. 

We begin with the most famous piece on the program, Henry Purcell’s (1659-1695) Hear my prayer, O Lord. A funeral anthem thought to have been left unfinished, the short piece consists essentially of one crescendo, underscoring a steadily intensifying emotional plea “Let my crying come unto Thee.” We finish where Purcell left off by segueing into funeral music he wrote for the venerable Queen Mary II (Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary), whose death deeply shook the country of England in 1694. Mary was a beloved monarch and it took three months to plan a funeral of the grand scale demanded by her adoring public. At the beginning of Purcell’s solemn music for the occasion, three hundred women in black capes led the funeral procession. The music depicts a sense of despair, loneliness, and human vulnerability. Purcell draws on earlier musical styles while using very audacious harmonic ideas to express the collective grief of the time. No one would have predicted that this deeply personal music would be used at the composer’s own funeral just eight months later at his untimely death at the age 36. 

To conclude this portion of the program, we commissioned Canadian composer Dorothy Chang to compose a response to the opening plea of Purcell’s “Hear my Prayer.” About the work, Dorothy writes: 

Hear my prayer (After Purcell) was commissioned by Canzona and Artistic Director Kathleen Allan as a companion piece to Purcell’s Hear my prayer, O Lord. It is fascinating and humbling to work with musical material surviving from 1682, and even more so the text from Psalm 102, originally written and sung almost three millennia ago. My approach to this piece was to present fragments of Purcell’s composition as if looking through the distorted lens of time; bits of original material are warped, stretched out or sliced into small fleeting moments, and woven together with new material. The use of audible breath in my work alludes to its significance in prayer and meditation, and its ability to help steady and calm oneself in moments of affliction. In this piece, I reflect on the inhale and the prayer itself as part of a timeless ritual of sorts, one that has been passed down over thousands of years, a collective breath uniting countless individuals across time, space and circumstance.

George Frederic Handel first arrived in London from Germany in 1710 at age 25 and quickly found success as an opera composer. Unlike Purcell, however, he had not grown up in the English musical establishment, and needed to prove himself in order to gain royal support. His Birthday Ode for Queen Anne was one of the first works he wrote in England and was intended to celebrate not only the birthday of the queen, but the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht which ended the War of Spanish Succession. Each verse of the ode fittingly concludes with the text, “The day that gave great Anna birth / Who fix'd a lasting peace on Earth.” Soon after he wrote this piece, Anne granted him a pension of £200 per year — for life! 

Thank you for coming along this journey with us! Please check out all of the other events at the festival and make sure to spread the word. We couldn’t be happier to be singing for you again. 

— Kathleen Allan, Artistic Director

Texts

Henry Purcell (1659-1695), Hear my prayer, O Lord

Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my crying come unto thee.

— Psalm 102:1

H. Purcell, Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary

Man that is born of a woman
hath but a short time to live,
and is full of misery.
He cometh up, and is cut down like a flower;
he fleeth as it were a shadow,
and ne'er continueth in one stay.

In the midst of life we are in death:
of whom may we seek for succour,
but of thee, O Lord,
who for our sins art justly displeased?

Yet, O Lord, O Lord most mighty,
O holy and most merciful Saviour,
deliver us not into the bitter pains
of eternal death.

Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts;
shut not thy merciful ears unto our pray'rs;
but spare us, Lord most holy, O God most mighty.

O holy and most merciful Saviour,
thou most worthy Judge eternal,
suffer us not, at our last hour,
for any pains of death, to fall from thee. Amen.

— Book of Common Prayer (1662)

Dorothy Chang, Hear My Prayer (After Purcell)
*world premiere

Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my crying come unto thee.

Hide not thy face from me.

— Psalm 102:1

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne

1. ARIOSO (Alto) | Dan Rochegood, alto
Eternal source of light divine
with double warmth thy beams display,
and with distinguish'd glory shine,
to add a lustre to this day.

2. ARIA (Alto) & CHORUS | Dan Rochegood, alto
The day that gave great Anna birth
who fix'd a lasting peace on earth.

3. ARIA (Soprano) & CHORUS | Nikita Silagy Labdon, soprano
Let all the winged race with joy
their wonted homage sweetly pay,
whilst tow'ring in the azure sky
they celebrate this happy day:
The day that gave great Anna birth
who fix'd a lasting peace on earth.

4. ARIA (Soprano) & CHORUS | Deanna Smith, soprano & Kirsten Schellenberg, alto
Let flocks and herds their fear forget
lions and wolves refuse their prey
and all in friendly consort meet,
made glad by this propitious day.
The day that gave great Anna birth
who fix'd a lasting peace on earth.

5. DUET (Alto & Bass) & CHORUS | Kirsten Schellenberg, alto & Kris Kornelsen, bass
Let rolling streams their gladness show
with gentle murmurs whilst they play,
and in their wild meanders flow,
rejoicing in this blessed day.
The day that gave great Anna birth
who fix'd a lasting peace on earth.

6. DUET (Soprano & Alto) & CHORUS | Marni Enns, soprano & Kirsten Schellenberg, alto
Kind health descends on downy wings;
angels conduct her on the way.
T'our glorious Queen new life she brings,
and swells our joys upon this day.

7. DUET (Soprano & Alto) & CHORUS | Sarah Sommer, soprano & Karla Ferguson, alto
The day that gave great Anna birth
who fix'd a lasting peace on earth.

8. ARIA (Bass) & CHORUS | Scott Braun, bass
Let envy then conceal her head,
and blasted faction glide away.
No more her hissing tongues we'll dread,
secure in this auspicious day.
The day that gave great Anna birth
who fix'd a lasting peace on earth.

9. ARIA (Alto) & CHORUS | Dan Rochegood, alto
United nations shall combine,
to distant climes the sound convey
that Anna's actions are divine,
and this the most important day!
The day that gave great Anna birth
who fix'd a lasting peace on earth.

About the Artists

Daniel Rochegood, countertenor soloist

Daniel Rochegood (née Peasgood) has been singing and working on the ancestral lands of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and the homeland of the Metis nation since 2000. He has performed with numerous ensembles including The Winnipeg Singers, Dead of Winter, Canzona, The Canadian Chamber Choir, Antiphony, and Polycoro. Dan studied with Mel Braun at the University of Manitoba while completing his Bachelors of Music. In 2015 Dan was part of Manitoba Underground Opera's presentation of Massenet's Cendrillon, and he also had the opportunity to sing in Laura Gow's world premiere of her one-person opera Morgues And Meows in 2016. Dan was the alto soloist in Handel's Messiah in 2017 with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and performed the role again with the Okanagan Festival Singers in 2018. Dan recently had the pleasure of performing the Messiah with Canzona and the Regina Symphony Orchestra this past Christmas season. Dan is grateful to be a part of the Winnipeg Baroque Festival through collaboration with Canzona. Peace on Earth and love to all!

Canzona

SOPRANO
Marni Enns
Leona Hildebrand
Deanna Smith
Sarah Sommer

ALTO
Kim Brown
Karla Ferguson
Kirsten Schellenberg
Nikita Silagy-Labdon

TENOR
Nolan Kehler
Scott Reimer
Chris Donlevy
Doug Pankratz

BASS
Kris Kornelsen
John Anderson
Scott Braun
Jereme Wall

Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra

VIOLIN
Gwen Hoebig
Kristina Bauch

VIOLA
Greg Hay

CELLO
Yuri Hooker

DOUBLE BASS
Meredith Johnson

KEYBOARDS
Cary Denby

OBOE
Robin MacMillan
Tracy Wright

TRUMPET
Chris Fensom
Isaac Pulford

TROMBONE
Steven Dyer
Keith Dyrda

PERCUSSION
Andrew Johnson

Thank you!

Canzona acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for “Music of the Sister Queens” and Canzona’s part in bringing the Winnipeg Baroque Festival to life. 

We are also grateful to the Manitoba Arts Council, The Winnipeg Foundation, and the Foundation for Choral Music in Manitoba.

Thank you to the following generous supporters: ​​Anonymous / Kathleen Allan / Lois Braun / Gerald Brown / Ron & Lorna Brown / Ross Brownlee / Ruth Cameron / Eleanore Campbell / Christine Constabel / Christine Dewar / Irmgard Doerksen / Joan Dougherty / Len Dueck / Brigitte Dupuis / Henry J Engbrecht / Lottie Enns-Braun / Philipp R. Ens / Juliana Fast / Richard Fast / Gregory Fearn / Elroy Friesen / Greg Giesbrecht / Susan Glass & Arni Thorsteinson / Don Heinrichs / Eugene Janzen / Eileen Klaassen / Kris Kornelsen / Letty Lawrence / Bill & Shirley Loewen / Laurence Mardon / Sharon Marshall / Jill Mathews / Karen & Bob McManus / Derek Morphy / Milton Penner / Ron & Ruth Penner / Bill Quinn / Scott Reimer / Jessie Schellenberg / Moira Swinton / Zubert Sylvia / Lloyd Talbot / Corinne Tessier / Dr. Helen A Toews / Edith A. Toews / Rose Van der Hooft / Paul Wiebe / Roberta Wiebe / Harry Wiens / Raymond & Shirley Wiest / Triple E Recreational Vehicles / Dorcas Windsor

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