Fantasy on a Theme by
William Billings

Instrumentation: SATB chorus and SSAA semichorus

Completed: January 2, 2008

Dedicated to: the Pacific Chorale, John Alexander, artistic director

Duration: 4 minutes

Text: from "Fairfield" and "A Canon of Four in I" by William Billings (1746-1800)

Premiered: March 29, 2008 by the Pacific Chorale, John Alexander, artistic director


Commissioned as a result of first prize in the 2007 Pacific Chorale Young Composer Competition

Media

Program Note

As the son of two folk musicians, I grew up surrounded by bluegrass, old time, and other folk styles. This music always carried an air of mystery - who composed these tunes? How had they changed, and grown, as they were passed from one musician to the next? The more I learned, the more fascinated I became with the music of William Billings, whose works have been fully adopted by folk musicians over the last two centuries. This composer, a contemporary of Mozart and Haydn, wrote pieces of such unique character that he has been called the “father of American choral music.” Billings composed some of our nation’s first significant musical works, and they continue to be performed in both classical and folk contexts.

Thus, when I was asked to combine the same two genres in a piece for the Pacific Chorale, I immediately thought of Billings’ works. Fantasy on a Theme by William Billings is a choral meditation on two of his sacred Lenten pieces: Fairfield and When Jesus Wept. The main chorus starts the piece with the text of Fairfield, set to new music. As they call out to their Lord for forgiveness, a small group of treble voices responds with the circular canons of When Jesus Wept. These two groups, the old and the new, search for redemption, and they eventually find solace in the cleansing images of water.

Text

from "Fairfield"

From lowest Depths of Woe,
To God I sent my Cry;
Lord, hear my supplicating Voice,
And graciously reply.

Should'st thou severely judge,
Who can the Trial bear?
But Thou forgiv'st, lest we despond,
And quite renounce thy Fear.

My longing Eyes look out
For the enliv'ning Ray,
More duly than the Morning Watch
To spy the dawning Day.

Let Isr'el trust in God,
No Bounds his Mercy knows;
The plenteous Source and Spring from whence
Eternal Succor flows.

Whose friendly Streams to us
Supplies in Want convey;
A healing Spring, a Spring to cleanse,
And wash our Guilt away.


from "A Canon of Four in I"

When Jesus wept, the falling tear

in mercy flowed beyond all bound;
when Jesus groaned, a trembling fear
seized all the guilty world around.

Performances (3)

March 29, 2008, 8:00 pm
(premiere)		The Pacific Chorale, John Alexander, conductor

Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Costa Mesa, CA
April 23, 2008, 7:00 pmThe Pacific Chorale, John Alexander, conductor

Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Costa Mesa, CA
October 25, 2009, 3:00 pmIllinois Wesleyan University Choir; Brian Russell, director

Second Presbyterian Church, Bloomington, Ill