The Capitol Hill Chorale presented its 2007 holiday concert, "Heralds of the Season," at Lutheran Church of the Reformation on December 1 at 7:00 p.m. and December 2 at 4:00 p.m., led by Artistic Director Frederick Binkholder in the Chorale’s 15th season. The program moved from medieval and Renaissance sacred works — including Ockeghem’s L’homme armé, Sweelinck’s Gaudete omnes, and Palestrina’s Hodie Christus natus est — into three new pieces by living composer Kevin Siegfried, a set of Hanukkah and Jewish liturgical works for the season, and a closing run of English and French holiday songs.
Binkholder built the concert around the 15th-century French tune L’homme armé, whose melody had served generations of Renaissance composers as the cantus firmus for dozens of Mass settings, using it as a starting point for the concert’s idea of heralding, or proclaiming, the season. The evening also premiered "I Sing of a Maiden," a new choral work by Kevin Siegfried that the Chorale commissioned after already programming two of his other pieces on the concert, "Adam Lay Ybounden" and "There Is No Rose."
Program
- L’homme armé — Johannes Ockeghem
- Riu, Riu Chiu — Anonymous
- Gaudete omnes — Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
- Magnificat — Robert Parsons
- Hodie Christus natus est — Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
- Adam Lay Ybounden — Kevin Siegfried
- I Sing of a Maiden — Kevin Siegfried
- There Is No Rose — Kevin Siegfried
- A Spotless Rose — Herbert Howells
- Det är en ros utsprungen — Michael Praetorius, arr. Jan Sandström
- Exultate Deo — Francis Poulenc
- Adon Olam — Salomon Rossi
- Hanukkah Blessings — Ron Jeffers
- Tov L’hodos — Louis Lewandowski
- Joy to the World — George Frederic Handel
- The Holly and the Ivy — Unknown
- Hark! The Herald Angels Sing — Felix Mendelssohn
- Deck the Hall — John Rutter
- Wassail Song — Ralph Vaughan Williams
- Toast pour le nouvel an — Gioacchino Rossini
Frederick Binkholder conducted, with Todd Fickley serving as assistant director, organist, and accompanist.
