Program Notes

NWCS Christmas Concert 2022 Program NotesThis evening’s concert program, “What sweeter music”, is envisioned as a musical tour of the sounds and themes of the holiday season. We’ll celebrate Christmas and the New Year with some old, familiar carols and some new favorites; we’ll take a moment to celebrate the timeless wonder of snow, and… Continue reading Christmas 2022

“Get Happy” is the first of three songs on this program, which we perform back to back, with music by Harold Arlen. Most famously performed by Judy Garland in the 1950 film Summer Stock, and subsequently featured throughout her career, it was originally sung twenty years earlier by Ruth Etting in the stage musical The… Continue reading Cherish the Ladies

“Get Happy” is the first of three songs on this program, which we perform back to back, with music by Harold Arlen. Most famously performed by Judy Garland in the 1950 film Summer Stock, and subsequently featured throughout her career, it was originally sung twenty years earlier by Ruth Etting in the stage musical The… Continue reading Program Notes Cherish the Ladies by Kevin Kelly, June 1, 2019

“If Music Be the Food of Love” by Kevin Kelly Today concertgoers may know Brahms best for his instrumental music, in particular the four symphonies, four concertos, much chamber music and many piano works, large and small, plus the German Requiem. Fans of vocal and choral music will also know that, like all the composers… Continue reading Program Notes for If Music Be the Food of Love by Kevin Kelly March 23, 2019

Marc-Antoine Charpentier was one of the most outstanding musicians in late 17th-century France. As a young man he had spent three years in Rome studying with one of the leading Italian composers of the day, Giacomo Carissimi, with whom he acquired valuable first-hand experience of opera and oratorio—both relatively new forms at that time. On… Continue reading Program notes for Once as I Remember by Kevin Kelly, December 2018

Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 62 by Johann Sebastian Bach is a cantata based on Martin Luther’s chorale in eight stanzas. The violins start the cantata and in the third measure, the bass line enters dramatically, but it isn’t until the fourth note that the melody of the chorale tune in long note values… Continue reading Program Notes for Come Celebrate! December, 2016

For millennia, human beings have been fascinated by the heavens. The vastness of the night sky reminds us of our place in the universe, our smallness. And yet, we have typically found it difficult to cope with this relative smallness, inventing stories of gods and giants and fantastic creatures commemorated in constellations, in an attempt… Continue reading Program Notes for ‘Celestial Songs’, April, 2018

Noel, Todd Smith, Arranged by Brad HolmesWith text in the African Kituba dialect, this bright, rhythmic piece captures the feeling of a tribal celebration as it expresses the joy of the Christ Child’s birth. Djembe and hand-claps add to the excitement. James Todd Smith (who goes by Todd Smith) is a singer and founding member… Continue reading Program Notes for Global Holiday, December, 2017

  Go back to the disco era today with the Northwest Choral Society as we “Celebrate the 70s”!  To help mark the 40th anniversary of the release of the film, Saturday Night Fever, we invite you to go back with us to a time when mirrored balls, lighted dance floors and platform shoes were coming… Continue reading Program Notes for Celebrate the 70’s by Kristie Webb Williams, June, 2017

Mendelssohn was born in 1809 and died in 1847 at the age of thirty-four. How did this young man live to be the great composer we know today? His full name, Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, was born in Germany and was discovered as a prodigy at a young age. Not only was he gifted,… Continue reading Program Notes for Hymn of Praise, April, 2017