MANSFIELD, PA—The Mansfield University Music Department will present the annual Fall Choral Collage on Sunday, October 25, at 2:30 p.m. in Steadman Theatre.
The concert is free and open to the public. Due to the popularity of this event, audience
members are urged to arrive early.
The program, produced and conducted by Peggy Dettwiler, director of Choral Activities, will feature the Mansfield University Festival Chorus, Women’s Chorus, Men’s Chorus, Mansfieldians, Chamber Singers and the Concert Choir.
The music will include the choral canon from the 20th century through the 21st, musical genres from motets to spirituals to vocal jazz, and repertoire for mixed, female, and male choirs. Works by composers such as Hildegard, Handel, Billings, Sibelius, Parry, Tavener, Whitacre, and the rising star, Esenvalds, are all included.
The Festival Chorus will perform Agnus Dei (Lamb of God), the final movement from the High Lonesome Mass to be performed in its entirety in April. The High Lonesome Mass, composed by Tim Sharp and Wes Ramsay, is a brief mass in bluegrass style. The words “high, lonesome” come from Bill Monroe’s famous description of bluegrass music.
Composers Sharp and Ramsay combine the sound of southern vocal and instrumental harmony with the traditional form of the mass using early American hymn tunes and bluegrass instruments. The work is a combination of the ageless words of worship from the mass ordinary (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei) and the indigenous music of the south. Elements of shape-note singing and sacred harp are intertwined with beautiful melodies and harmonies of Appalachian folk music.
The movement Agnus Dei features the southern hymn, What Wondrous Love is This. Add the energy and color of bluegrass instruments, and you have a delightful work displaying a variety of musical styles. David Cavage will perform on banjo for this concert.
All of the ensembles will focus on the various styles by addressing vocal timbre, range, dynamics, and agility as well as developing their musical understanding of tonality, rhythmic complexity, and cultural background. A number of vocal soloists will be featured along with Victoria Nance, Mitchell Sensenig and Kyle Rusk, who will accompany the various ensembles at the piano.
The Choral Collage is sponsored in part by student activity fees.