Strong Voices

The Bucks County Choral Society celebrates its 30th anniversary with concerts in Doylestown, Pa., Langhorne, Pa., and Philadelphia.

By: Amy Brummer

"Composer
"Mezzo Composer Robert Maggio (above, left) and Bucks County Choral Society Artistic Director Thomas Lloyd (right) will premiere a new work at the group’s upcoming concerts. Mezzo soprano Suzanne DuPlantis (left) will perform with the group.

   The assignment is to act out the words. Standing in a row, the first child shows an open hand, the second a closed fist. The next one puffs up to look big, the one after that swoons. Another steps forward shivering, and the one after that falls to the ground.
   Together they have successfully mimed a stanza from Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem, "Small Hands Relinquish All," translating the bard’s delicate and complex words into a few simple gestures. Previewing a new work to commemorate the group’s 30th anniversary, the Bucks County Choral Society performed the work at its annual children’s concert, held this year at Lutheran Church of God’s Love in Newtown, Pa.
   The piece, Rachel and Her Children – Small Hands Relinquish All, will be performed in its entirety in Doylestown, Pa., Langhorne, Pa., and Philadelphia over the weekend of Feb. 28-March 2.
   Written by Robert Maggio — a professor of music theory and composition with the School of Music at West Chester University who has composed works for the Boston Pops, the Atlanta Symphony and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center — it is a vivid and emotional piece that ranges from exuberance to quiet reflection. The work is the result of collaboration with Thomas Lloyd, who chose the texts for the piece and arranged the libretto.
   Mr. Lloyd, who has been the choral society’s artistic director for three years, was looking to commission a piece that would celebrate the ensemble as well as make a contribution to the community and the repertoire. He wanted it to include both sacred and secular texts that would work together.
   "I went to the library to get some ideas," says Mr. Lloyd, who also is director of choral and vocal studies for Haverford and Bryn Mawr colleges. "I came across Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poetry, which is both very personal and very spiritual in the way she explores the imagination. The poems have a musical sound to them, and for that reason, during her time she had a number of her poems set to music by various composers usually for solo voices and piano."
   Once he found a poem that spoke to him, Mr. Lloyd sought a religious allegory to complement it.
   "The image of Rachel appealed to me for its symbolism," he says, "and the fact that it is as powerful and well known a symbol as it is in the Bible in its reference in Matthew, Jeremiah and the Torah. It lent itself to the framework for a larger piece that would deal with a sense of fear, expectation, hope that children and adults have from different perspectives at different times."
   Mr. Lloyd was also looking to include children’s voices in the concert, as the society is always looking for a way to communicate with young people. Having worked with the Pennsylvania Youth Choir in the past, he felt that the group would provide the element he was seeking. Mr. Maggio, who had only written one piece for a children’s choir, was thrilled at the prospect of including the youth choir.
   "When I was told that we would have children’s voices in this piece," he says, "I was pretty excited about the opportunity because just hearing kids sing in unison gives me goose bumps. I thought, ‘Oh, wow, if that is part of the fabric of this piece, that will be the most powerful sound images in the piece.’ The children begin and end the piece and also have what I think of as the quiet climax of the piece, the place where the piece really turns to the children for some kind of response."

"The
The Bucks County Choral Society will perform Rachel and Her Children – Small Hands Relinquish All in its entirety over the weekend of Feb. 28-March 2.


   As he often does in his compositions, Mr. Maggio will try to find a few notes that can be used in an elemental way. He will take them in different musical directions, at one point jazzy and up-tempo, at others spare and austere. This is beneficial to a work comprised of different text by creating unity in the music, even when it branches into different styles or moods.
   "In the children’s movement, for example, it draws on something like chant or early music," Mr. Maggio says. "In the title song, ‘Small Hands Relinquish All,’ there is a more playful, sometimes even jazzy harmonic world. The second movement is really spare and haunting and a bit more dissonant. It recalls an early 20th century kind of sound. The important part is that every movement doesn’t use everything, they use what the text suggests.
   "These texts are all very different from one another, and they all have a different kind of sound world that they suggest and that they will resonate best with. So after this very tuneful beautiful songlike movement, the children’s choir switches toward the end. When the approach changes from a big songlike melody to something flat on a single note, you pay attention to it in a different way."
   Another unusual aspect of the work will be the use of an all-wind orchestra, a development that comes as a result of its pairing with Anton Bruckner’s Mass No. 2 in E Minor. Mr. Lloyd, a bassoonist by training, finds that the piece has an intriguing quality due to its use of breath in both the instruments and the voices.
   "It is a truly inspired piece," Mr. Lloyd says. "It is transcendent in many ways, intimate in many ways. Bruckner has a special language of his own that I find to be deeply spiritual as well as musically exciting and moving. It is also a piece that is a real challenge for a choir because it is written in eight parts — that is, two different soprano parts, two different alto parts, and so on, as opposed to the usual four — soprano, alto, tenor, bass. That gives it a richness and makes it more challenging for the choir because you have fewer people in each part and there are long sections where the choir sings unaccompanied. It shows off the choir and is a real benchmark challenge for a choir to work to attain a certain proficiency doing it."
   Setting the bar higher and rising to a challenge have helped to keep the choral society vibrant and successful for three decades. Looking toward the future, their hopes are high. Having received a grant for the commission and concert from the highly competitive Philadelphia Music Project, the Bucks County Choral Society is seeing its efforts rewarded.
   "There are only 16 awards given each year," explains Mr. Lloyd. "Generally, they go to well-established musical organizations such as the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, and chorally, the Philadelphia Singers, the Mendelssohn Club, which is the oldest choir in the area.
   "This was the first time we applied, and we were the only first-time recipient of an award. So that was a nice way to recognize how far the choir had come on its 30th anniversary and that it was progressing to new levels of quality."
The Bucks County Choral Society will perform its Gala 30th Anniversary Concert at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, 235 E. State St., Doylestown, Pa., Feb. 28, 8 p.m.; Langhorne Presbyterian Church, 125 E. Gillam Ave., Langhorne, Pa., March 1, 8 p.m.; and First Baptist Church of Philadelphia, 123 S. 17th St., Philadelphia, March 2, 4 p.m. Tickets cost $20, $18 seniors and $15 students. For information, call (215) 598-6142. On the Web: www.buckschoral.org