NEC Preparatory School: Youth Chorale Concert

Sid Robinovitch | Sensemayá from Canciones por las Americas

Giovanni Gastoldi | Amor vittorioso

Robert A. Harris | The Silver Swan (1999)

Yu-Wei Hsie | Fa Shu Ha (Under That Flower Tree)

arr. Yu-Shan Tsai

Program note

The island of Taiwan was originally inhabited by more than a dozen tribes of aboriginal people, many with their own customs and languages.  In the 17th century, Chinese migrant workers – including two different ethnic groups, the Hoklo and the Hakka – began to settle on the island.  Today, the Hoklo account for nearly 70% of the population while only 15% of the residents are Hakka. Mandarin is now the dominant language, and the indigenous non-Mandarin dialects are in danger of disappearing.
       Fa Shu Ha is the old name for a Hakka village remembered by the lyricist, Gu Siou-Ru, as a place bustling with people like the flowers on the Tung flower tree and proud of its traditional blue-dyed garment shops.  Sadly, both the flowering trees
and the traditional customs are now gone.  Fa Shu Ha is set in the Hakka dialect.

Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol | Şu Yalan Dünya

dedicated to the loving memory of my father, Dr. Hüseyin Parkan Sanlıkol

Program note

This composition was commissioned by an amateur choir in Bursa, Turkey which was founded by my late father to feature professionals such as doctors and lawyers. As a result, I decided to rely on the piano harmonically while writing simpler melodies and countermelodies for the voices. The text was selected by my father who had also specified a desire toward a Turkish folk music inspired composition. Since I did not want to arrange an already existing Turkish folk song I first began by composing the Turkish folk song-like tune which is sung by a soloist according to the specifics of Turkish makam (mode) tradition at the end of the composition.
         After creating this tune I then created the larger structure of the composition with the goal of setting this tune up. The polyphonic as well as the harmonic structures throughout the piece have been carefully constructed with the unique qualities of the chosen makam in mind.        – Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol

Fanny Hensel | Lockung, from Gärtenlieder, op. 3 no. 1 (1846)

Jocelyn Hagen | On my dreams (2007)