John Burge

Commissioner: The Windsor Classical Chorale, Richard Householder, Music Director

Premiere: The Windsor Classical Chorale, Richard Householder, conductor,Mackenzie Hall, Windsor, ON; May 7, 2000.

Duration: 14 minutes

Program note: Matins is a setting of a poem written by the Canadian poet, Eugene McNamara.  The work is scored for choir and piano and was commissioned by The Windsor Classic Shorale, Richard Householder, Music Director.  for many people, the word, "matins," will be familiar as the name for the first of the seven canonical hours, properly beginning at midnight but sometimes starting at daybreak.  The Anglican Church uses the term interchangeably for their service known as Morning Prayer.  A more secular interpretation can gound when the word is used to simply describe a morning song, as in bird song.  McNamara's poem captures all of these meanings in lines that can be interpreted from iewpoints both secular and spiritual.  There is even an obvious sacred reference when the poem emphatically states, :and we shall gather at the river," which alludes to the opening question of the famous hymn, "Shall we gather at the river."

A prominent feature of the music is the opening melodic gesture that the choir sings to the words, "Bells in far off steeples summon."  This musical motive is heard throughout the work, often in the piano accompaniment.  to have set this poime without incorporatng the melody of the hymn, "Shall We Gather At The River,: would have beem a lost opportunity on the composer's part and John Burge does not disappoint the listener here.

MATINS is published by Boosey and Hawkes Music Publishers (UPC: 073999186932)

Text:

     MATINS

Bells in far off steeples
summon and birds announce
morning–bellsong birdsong–

Come and walk with me my
ove listen to what my eyes
sing to you: I will not
let you go–

As a man carries a glass
of water to his child in
the  night-not a drop will
fall the bough will not
break and we shall gather at
the river–

Remember the dry light
over the ocean and the
long grass in morning
light and wild ponies
running on the beach
plunging in the surf
their manes shaking
in the wind?

Remember the prairie
swift seen between the freight cars?

The prairie will be there
when the trains long gone
the ponies will be there
when we return–

Here are trees shaking
swaying in the wind and staying in calm silence–

Train horns in the hill
the hoarse muttering of the river where it falls–

What I hold in my hands–
not a drop will spill and
the bough will not break
and we shall gather at
the river and I will not
let you go–

-Eugene McNamara (used by permission of the poet)