by Brian Hathaway

“When life hands you lemons, make lemonade”

To me the larger nugget of wisdom in this saying is that things don’t always go our way in life, but when we encounter an obstacle, how we respond is a measure of who we are and what we are made of. We can either accept defeat or we can decide that we will overcome the obstacle by turning it into an opportunity to achieve a greater good.

In March 2020, the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay was handed a big lemon in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic. As we were in the final preparations for a concert of Bach’s “St. John Passion” with The Florida Orchestra, we all went into hiatus as part of efforts to slow the spread of the pandemic. Live singing was put on the back burner as arts organizations around the world cancelled rehearsal and concert schedules. 

by Brian Hathaway

by Brian Hathaway

Most recently during the fall of 2018, the Master Chorale visited elementary schools in Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties and are currently between two day-time concert presentations titled "Going to the Show."  On Tuesday, February 5th, excited students came to Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg for our first of two “Going to the Show” events that we have planned this season.  This concert program is now part of Mahaffey Theater's Class Acts presentations, which offers a wonderful array of cultural initiatives for children. We are thrilled to be partnered with Mahaffey Theater and Bill Edwards Foundation for the Arts and most grateful for their co-production on this special program.

​“Going to the Show” addressed six different standards for music education set by the State of Florida.  This was done by presenting a concert program with a focus on interaction between the singers and the students in the audience.  Songs presented by the Chorale's Education and Outreach Ensemble offered examples of four-part harmony through songs such as Lloyd Pfautsch’s “Consecrate the Place and Day”, Tim Osiek’s “Like a River in My Soul”, and Carly Simon’s “Let the River Run” as arranged by Craig Hella Johnson, which ended in an energetic hand-clapping recapitulation of the main theme.

For the concert finish, Master Chorale's Artistic Director Brett Karlin led the Education and Outreach Ensemble, combined with the Honor Chorus and the Baby Grands to create a combined choir for a rousing performance of “Lift Every Voice and Sing”.  The high energy finale was Edwin Hawkins’ “Oh, Happy Day” with Master Chorale Soprano Sherry Fagan Martin belting out the solo line.

We look forward to presenting this program again to elementary students in Hillsborough County at the Tampa Theatre in March. 

​Even though singing as an adult has brought me tremendous joy, I still recall those magic moments when my elementary school music teacher, Miss Passenger, brought out my love of music and an appreciation of the beauty that music can bring.  The children who attended this event may have experienced a similar moment, either at Mahaffey or perhaps at the hands of their own music teacher.  To be a part of creating one of those moments is a special honor.

The performance at Mahaffey Theater was co-produced by Mahaffey Theater and the Bill Edwards Foundation for the Arts, and the Youth Initiative program is made possible through the generosity of Cynthia and Peter Zinober, donors of The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay, and sponsored in part by the Tampa Bay Times (official media sponsor of The Master Chorale), the City of St. Petersburg, and by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, The Florida Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts. 

by Brian Hathaway

​The performances of Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem by The Florida Orchestra and The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay are only about a month away on the weekend of April 20-22.  As part of The Florida Orchestra’s Masterwork Series, Verdi’s Requiem is one of the most dramatic Requiems in the choral repertoire. 
 
When I prepare for a Masterwork Concert, there are several components to my preparation, including score study, individual practice, and rehearsal with my Master Chorale colleagues.  To further enhance my understanding of the music, I research the history of the music, so I can better appreciate what the composer was trying to achieve in composing and performing it.  During my research for this concert series, I uncovered several facts about Verdi and his Requiem.  Some of these facts are very well known, while others may qualify as trivial or little-known facts.  I would like to share the facts I uncovered.

At the time of Rossini's death, Verdi called him "one of the glories of Italy," asking, "When the other one who still lives is no more, what will we have left?" The other one was Alessandro Manzoni, a celebrated poet, and the author of the landmark nineteenth-century novel, “I Promessi Sposi” (The Betrothed), a book Verdi himself had read when he was sixteen.  When Manzoni died on May 22, 1873, Verdi returned to the idea of a requiem.
 
When poet and novelist Alessandro Manzoni died, Verdi was too grief-stricken to attend his funeral, and the entire country mourned the loss of one of its leading cultural icons.  Verdi shared the same national aspirations that Manzoni had, and Manzoni’s literature helped fuel an Italian national identity.  Verdi also supported Italian unification, and his last name was used as an acronym for support of unification under Sardinian King Victor Emanuel: Vittorio Emanuel, Rei di Italia (Victor Emanuel, King of Italy).  Following unification in 1860, Verdi served as a Senator.

​Verdi went to the mayor of Milan and proposed composing a memorial in the form of a requiem to honor the memory of Manzoni. Verdi reworked the existing Libera me from the “Messe per Rossini” and incorporated thematic material from it in the other movements. While he was quite sincere in his desire to memorialize Manzoni, Verdi, a successful businessman, was also aware of the commercial possibilities for the Requiem. While he was negotiating with the city of Milan to underwrite the premiere and with the Church to allow women singers to appear, he was also arranging publication and performance royalties.  As part of the arrangement with the city of Milan, Verdi offered to pay for the score printing himself on the condition that Milan assume responsibility for the cost of the performances.
 
The premiere took place in May 22, 1874, at the Church of San Marco as part of a liturgy so no applause was allowed. Women (Soprano Theresa Stolz and Mezzo Maria Waldmann, soloists who performed in Verdi’s European premiere of Aida four years earlier) were given a special exemption to perform by the local Archbishop on the condition that they must be veiled in black and hidden behind a grating.  Verdi also arranged three concert performances at La Scala a few days later which were greeted with great enthusiasm. In the year following the premiere, it was performed all over Italy, in Paris, London, Vienna and even in America. The Requiem had become one of Verdi's most popular compositions.

​Verdi composed his Requiem with Soprano Theresa Stolz and Mezzo Maria Waldmann in mind as the female soloists.  Soprano Stolz has been described as "the Verdian dramatic soprano par excellence, powerful, passionate in utterance, but dignified in manner and secure in tone and control” and premiered many of Verdi’s Operas.  Verdi hired Mezzo Waldmann for the mezzo-soprano role in his Requiem, for which he wrote the Liber Scriptus with her voice in mind. Verdi particularly valued her for the rich, dark color of her lower, contralto register.  For a Paris performance, Verdi revised the Liber Scriptus to allow Maria Waldmann a further solo for future performances.  Previously, the movement had been set for a choral fugue in a classical Baroque style. With its premiere at the Royal Albert Hall performance in May 1875, this revision became the definitive edition.
 
When German conductor, composer, and virtuoso pianist Hans von Bülow, a close friend of Verdi’s rival Richard Wagner, stole a look at the Requiem score just days before the Milan premiere, he offered his famous snap judgment, "Verdi's latest opera, though in ecclesiastical robes," and decided not to attend the concert. When he finally heard it, at a parish performance eighteen years later, he was moved to tears. Bülow wrote to Verdi to apologize, and Verdi replied, with typical generosity, that Bülow might have been right the first time. By then, Verdi had grown accustomed to critical disdain, especially from the followers of Richard Wagner. And he knew that Bülow, who once switched his allegiance from Wagner to Brahms, wasn't the last listener who would change his mind about this music as well.

​Playwright and music critic George Bernard Shaw had a different opinion.  Attending the London premiere, Verdi’s Requiem captivated him.  His first impression stayed with him, as he had the “Libera me” performed at his funeral in 1950. 
 
In January 1901, while staying in Milan, Verdi suffered a stroke. He died a few days later. Arturo Toscanini conducted the vast forces of combined orchestras and choirs composed of musicians from throughout Italy at his funeral service in Milan. To date, it remains the largest public assembly of any event in the history of Italy.

The Nazis tried to make Terezin a model village as an example of how they were treating Jews humanely.  Part of the façade was to create an active cultural environment in the ghetto, so shortly after arriving, Schacter was given the task of assembling a choir of 150 to perform Verdi’s Requiem.  Not having enough scores for all the singers, he taught them the music by rote.  The first performance took place in January 1942. 

It is interesting to note that this Requiem for the dead premiered in January 1942, the same month that SS General Rheinhard Heydrich led the Wannsee Conference that approved the “final solution” to the Jewish question.  Immediately following the premiere, about half the chorus members were loaded on a train bound for Auschwitz.  Rafael Schachter was forced to reconstitute the chorus for the fifteen subsequent concerts as chorus members were either taken away or died in Terezin.  The final concert was performed for members of the International Red Cross, who were visiting the camp at the invitation of the Nazi SS.  Rafael Schachter was finally taken by train to Auschwitz in October 1944, subsequently dying while a prisoner. ​

​Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem has been loved by audiences and performers since its premiere in 1874.  It is recognized as one of the most frequently performed masterworks in the choral repertoire.  For me, I will have a completely different emotional connection to the Requiem because of the research I completed for this blog post. 
 
Foremost in my mind will be the unknown victims who created a work of drama and beauty in the face of death and terror.  I am drawn to recall the opera “Nabucco” by Verdi, where in The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, they sang “let the Lord inspire you a harmony of voices which may instill virtue to suffering.”  For the prisoners of Terezin, the closing “Libera me” (Deliver me) was their most fervent plea for deliverance. 
 
Even if you have listened to recordings of Verdi’s Requiem, the beauty and drama of the music is best experienced during a live performance.  Please consider attending one of our concerts to experience it yourself. 

By Brian Hathaway

​Yes!  “Dacci un Dramma!”, or in English “Give us drama!” is the topic of my latest post.  I was drawn to this phrase because the current season of the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay is all about drama, especially the way we create it through our voices in collaboration with The Florida Orchestra.  To make it more interesting, this season is unique in that through four concerts, we take a “grand tour” of the history of creating drama with the voice through several musical genres that go back five hundred years.  Let us take this tour in chronological order, even though the concerts this season do not necessarily follow that order.

​Genre #1: Opera. Opera was the first musical form that combined voices and instruments to create drama as entertainment.  The first opera, “Dafne” was composed by Jacopo Peri in Italy in 1597, although it is now largely lost.  The earliest opera still performed is Claudio Monteverdi’s “L’Orfeo” composed in 1607.  The opera genre was exported to Germany in 1627 and later to England and France in the mid 1600’s.  As an art form, the opera has been widely performed up until the current time, although the mid to late 19th century is widely recognized as the “golden age of opera”, dominated by Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi.

​Giuseppe Verdi started composing his Requiem in June 1873, shortly following the death of famed Italian writer and humorist Allessandro Manzoni, whom Verdi met in 1868.  Manzoni’s death was the impetus for Verdi to write a complete Requiem, expanding upon the “Libera me” that he wrote in Rossini’s memory following his death in 1868.  Verdi’s Requiem is not normally regarded as a liturgical Requiem and is primarily performed as a theater piece, and the music is infused with the same level of drama we would encounter in his operas such as “Aida” (1872) or “Othello” (1887).  For me as a singer, I love dramatic moments such as the pounding of the bass drum in the “Dies Irae”, the unison opening of the “Sanctus” or the power of the opening phrase in the “Rex Tremendae”.  The Verdi Requiem will be performed with The Florida Orchestra on the weekend of April 20-22.

Genre #2: Musical Theatre.  Musical theatre grew out of the comic operettas of the 1800’s by composers such as Jacques Offenbach in Paris and Johann Strauss Jr. in Vienna.  From 1871 to 1896, William Schwenk Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan collaborated on numerous comic operettas such as “The Pirates of Penzance” and “The Mikado” that poked fun at English society and became internationally famous.  In America composers such as George M. Cohan and Victor Herbert gave musical theatre a distinctively American flavor.  Throughout the first four decades of the 20th Century composers such as Jerome Kern, George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart and Irving Berlin popularized the musical theatre genre.  Songs from musicals have become part of The Great American Songbook and an integral part of American culture.
​
In the 1940’s Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma” was the first fully integrated musical, incorporating song and dance to develop the characters and the plot.  The three decades of the 1940’s through 1960’s were marked by the worldwide popularity of the genre spurred on by the availability of original cast recordings and film versions of the musical.  There are so many dramatic moments arising from musical theatre that they are almost too numerous to mention.  Personal favorites of mine are the title song from “Oklahoma,” “I Am a Pirate King” from Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance,” and “It’s a Grand Night for Singing” from Rodgers and Hammersteins’s “State Fair.”

Concertgoers will be able to hear many of their favorites in the “Celebrate Broadway” concert series with The Master Chorale and The Florida Orchestra during the weekend of April 27-29th.

Genre #3: The Film/TV Score.  As musical theatre became a dominant force in bringing live music to the masses, the advent of films allowed even more people to experience the way music can combine with the moving picture to add drama and meaning to a story.  The development of talking pictures starting with “The Jazz Singer” in 1927 added the component of sound to movies. This film incorporated a musical play where singer Al Jolson played a cantor’s son who ran away from home to become a famous jazz singer.  The film is recognized as one of the 100 most influential films of all time.

Genre #4:  The Video Game.  Since the advent of electronic gaming in the late 1970’s, their complexity of the stories and images has been increasingly coupled with the development of music scores that are now equal to and in some cases exceeding the level of artistic expression in film scores.  We are now light years beyond the “beeps” and “boops” we heard when playing “Pong” or the simple 8-bit compositions we heard when playing “Donkey Kong” almost 40 years ago. 
 
Video game score composition now attracts some of the best composers who have embraced this avenue of artistic expression.  These include Koji Kondo (Legend of Zelda), Jeremy Soule (The Elder Scrolls) and Michael Giacchino (Medal of Honor).  Michael Giacchino also composed music scores for J.J. Abrams, producer of the current generation of Star Trek movies.  Nobuo Uematsu, composer of the Final Fantasy music scores has been composing them for more than two decades, and concerts of his music play to sell-out crowds around the world.

​In conclusion, do you remember what we were discussing 1,300 words ago?  Looking back at the operatic roots of combining the human voice with instruments, we can see a kind of musical karma.  I think if Richard Wagner were alive today, he would enjoy an animated conversation regarding leitmotifs with Nobuo Uematsu.  What is seen through these very broad brush-stroke discussions of musical history is the unmistakable impact the human voice can have on listeners.  The current Master Chorale Season still offers opportunities to experience live music that you will find enjoyable and memorable.  As a singer, it is a joy to be a part of the creative process that takes place when we prepare and present great music for our Tampa Bay community.
 
Dacci un Dramma!    

by Brian Hathaway

​Yes, Mahler is in the middle, book-ended by two Requiems.  The first is Maurice Durufle’s Requiem, a flowing piece of music based upon Gregorian chant.  The Master Chorale just completed a series of concerts with The Florida Orchestra featuring this French gem, an intimate work of about 40 minutes’ duration. 
​
The second bookend is Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem, a work of considerable scope and drama written by Verdi primarily as a concert piece to honor his friend, poet Alessandro Manzoni on the first anniversary of his death.  It is dramatic and grand in scope with a performance duration of about 85 minutes.  The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay will perform this work on April 23rd in Sarasota with Gloria Musicae and the Sarasota Orchestra.

​​In the middle, we have Mahler in a work of no small proportion.  I have three recordings of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 ("Resurrection"), and they all have performance durations of about 90 minutes.  The choral portion comprises about 16 minutes at the end of movement 5, but heavens, what music it is!  We will perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with The Florida Orchestra in only three weeks, on March 17-19.

It was several years later that I got a copy of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2.  The experience literally blew me away and quickly became one of my favorite symphonic works.  The lyrics, first encountered in “Urlicht”, another song taken from “Das Knaben Wunderhorn” in movement 4 pulled at my emotions: “O red Rose!  Man lies in direst need!  Man lies in deepest pain!  I would rather be in heaven!”  The Alto solo was in stark contrast to the power of the orchestra and caused a sense of peace to wash over me.

However, it was the fifth movement that held me transfixed, with a quiet choral entrance that builds to a final powerful climax.  As I read the lyrics from Friedrich Klopstock’s poem while I listened I found they spoke to my soul.  “What has come into being must perish!  What perished must rise again!”  I was so profoundly affected by these lyrics with their message of hope that I read them as part of the eulogy at my father’s funeral when he passed away in 2006.

​Now eight years after my first experience singing Mahler’s Second, I can approach it with the special joy that comes from combining with The Florida Orchestra and my colleagues in The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay to create a truly unforgettable musical experience.

by Brian Hathaway

by Brian Hathaway

​This is a tale of three friends named Mike, Brian and Ludwig.  It is a tale that transcends time and space, a tale of mortality and immortality.  It is a tale of things that last and things that don’t, of joy and sorrow, but mostly it is about friendship through music.  Let me start at the beginning.
 
I had just graduated from high school and as a boy from upstate New York was faced with changes my life.  For the first time in my life, I was going to be away from home for an extended period of time as I began my freshman year at the SUNY at Buffalo.  At the same time, my friend, Mike Debatt was facing a similar situation.  The boy from Brooklyn was away from home too as a part of that same freshman class.  We met each other when we joined the AFROTC Program.  As classmates, we got to know each other well and discovered that our interests intersected in many ways.  We both ended up as Political Science majors, and we both loved classical music.  Within two years we were roommates in an apartment near school.
 
As we shared that apartment, we also shared our interest in music.  Even with our meager resources as college students, we grew our collection of classical albums.  The real cherished albums were produced by either Angel Records or Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft, or DGG.  They usually had the finest orchestras and the greatest selection of repertoire.  Among the many composers we listened to, one of our favorites was Ludwig van Beethoven.  There were times when the three of us would gather in that apartment, Ludwig, Mike and me, sharing in some of the greatest music of the last two centuries.
 
In 1970, the focus on Ludwig van Beethoven became quite intense, as Beethoven’s 200th birthday would fall on December 16th, 1970.  I was always able to remember Ludwig’s birthday, as mine was one day earlier on December 15th.  On that day, we all gathered in the apartment and I was given several gifts to open.  I will never forget Mike’s gift.  It was a DGG boxed set of Beethoven’s nine symphonies, performed by the Berlin Philharmonic.  I was ecstatic! Beethoven’s birthday was going to be very special that year.
 
We spent many hours listening to that wonderful set.  Beethoven’s famous symphonies like the “Eroica”, the “Pastoral” and his monumental 5th were a joy to hear, articulated by one of the great Beethoven interpreters of that age, Herbert von Karajan.  Of all these symphonies, one stood out above all others, Beethoven’s 9th.  In a stroke of genius, Beethoven included a choral finale in the fourth movement based upon Schiller’s poem “An die Freude” or “Ode to Joy”.  The joining of orchestral and choral voices during the finale was a revolutionary step, but the product is simply amazing and unforgettable.  Ludwig, Mike and I became fast friends, cemented in a common love of Ludwig’s amazing 9th.
 
In less than two years, our friendship entered a new phase.  We graduated from college, accepted our USAF commissions and went to different parts of the country.  Mike went to Navigator Training in California.  I went off to Illinois to Aircraft Maintenance Officer Training.  In a way our lives intersected again, as we both ended up in the Strategic Air Command, Mike as a B-52 crew member in Georgia, and I as a Maintenance Officer in New Hampshire.  We still got together on a few occasions.  He was in my wedding party and I was in his.  We maintained contact with letters and phone calls as time went on.  We both ended up separating from the USAF and moved into civilian jobs.  Mike moved to Rhode Island and went into the investment community.  I moved to Saratoga Springs, New York and went into manufacturing.
 
Living in Saratoga had a neat benefit.  The Saratoga Performing Arts Center was only four miles from my home and was the summer home of the New York City Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra.  While there I had the chance to visit our friend Ludwig.  The Philadelphia Orchestra was performing Beethoven’s 9th!  I had never seen Beethoven’s 9th performed live and couldn’t wait to go to the concert.  What an experience!  As I sat on the lawn on a gorgeous summer night, I looked at the heavens above me while I was transcended by Schiller’s words and Beethoven’s music; “Ahnest du den Schopfer, Welt?  Such ihn uber’m Sternenzelt.  Uber Sternen muss ehr wohnen.”  Yes, I felt the creator, knowing that He dwelt beyond the stars.  O Freude, what joy!
 
As the years went by, our respective lives changed yet again.  I moved to Florida many years ago and began feeding my love of music by joining our church choir and singing.  Mike moved into management with his company and accepted a position as Branch Manager in Albany, New York, my hometown.  We had an opportunity to visit while we were on vacation in New York about fifteen years ago and had a chance to reminisce and share our friendship.
 
In 2005, I had yet another opportunity to visit with Ludwig.  The Florida Orchestra and The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay were performing Beethoven’s 9th.  Lynn and I went to the concert and savored that wonderful music yet again, but with a slightly different feeling as we knew several of the orchestra members and had friends who sang in the Master Chorale.  During that concert, I told myself that, should my schedule permit, I would love to be a part of the Chorale.
 
In late 2005, the lives of Mike and I intersected again.  Mike had been diagnosed with a brain tumor.  As he and his wife Jan sought treatment from doctors throughout the northeast, they were given the news that the tumor was inoperable.  They came to the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, where surgeons felt that they may be able to excise the tumor and offer Mike a chance to recover.  The surgery was scheduled for November.  Mike and I made tentative plans to meet for dinner once the surgery was complete.  Unfortunately, the surgery did not go as planned and complications set in.  The next time I saw Mike at Moffitt, he was in a coma from which he would not recover.  I did my best to support Jan and her family as she faced difficult decisions.  Mike was placed in a hospice facility in Dade City.  I made several trips to the Hospice to see Mike.  My last trip was the night before he passed away in January, 2006.
 
A year later in April, 2007, we all returned to the Dade City Hospice for a reunion.  Mike’s family had made a donation to the facility and was awarded a plaque to honor their contribution.  Lynn and I went to the reunion, where we met Mike’s former B-52 crew.  I decided to honor Mike by singing a song called “Eternal Father Strong to Save”, which asks help from God in caring for those in the military.  We all shared our memories of Mike, and I recounted the story of the Beethoven boxed set he gave to me which I still own and treasure.
 
In August of 2007, I learned that The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay was holding auditions for new singers.  Since my work schedule had changed and would permit me to attend rehearsals, I signed up to audition.  We were told to bring a favorite song to sing as part of the audition.  I selected “Eternal Father, Strong to Save”.  I was pleasantly surprised to hear from the Master Chorale that I passed the audition and was now a member of the ensemble. 
 
At the end of my third year in the Chorale, I learned that we were scheduled to perform Beethoven’s 9th in 2011.  Once again, I was ecstatic.  I would now have the opportunity to become even more intimate with Ludwig’s beloved 9th.  Since then I have had the honor of performing Beethoven’s 9th two more times, once with The Florida orchestra and once with the Cleveland Orchestra in Miami.
 
Oh, by the way, the last building I see before I turn into the USF School of Music parking lot on the way to Master Chorale rehearsal each week is the Moffitt Cancer Center.  Having spent so many hours there visiting Mike, I think of him every time I see it.
 
This week, we are in final rehearsal for the opening concert of The Florida Orchestra’s 2016-2017 season, featuring Poulenc’s “Gloria” and Beethoven’s beloved 9th Symphony.  150 voices are prepared to join with the Florida Orchestra and soloists as we put life into the notes printed on a page.  Under Maestro Michael Francis’ direction, we will combine our preparation with Dr. James K. Bass and Brett Karlin to create a memorable event for all in attendance to hear. 
 
I know it will be both memorable and emotional for me.  As I stand on the risers, my mind will go back to that apartment in Buffalo, the DGG boxed set, and a pair of friendships going back more than forty years.  Ludwig went on to be with the Creator centuries ago.  Ten years ago, Mike joined him.  I know that they are both watching and will be at that performance with all of us on that stage.
 
As for me, I will sing for Mike:  “Einem Freund gepruft im Tod”

by Brian Hathaway