Magnificat

Magnificat: Songs of Reflection

The Magnificat is one of the earliest Christian hymns, taken from the Gospel of Luke, in which Mary proclaims « My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God the Saviour. » Stephen Chatman gave the familiar text a multilingual setting for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games (in Latin plus six official languages: English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and German). The composition was commissioned by the Vancouver Chamber Choir, Jon Washburn, director, with assistance from British Columbia Arts Partners in Creative Development. MAGNIFICAT, for soprano solo, SATB chorus and string orchestra is a 24 minute piece in eight movements. Through its marriage of multilingual texts and contrasting musical idioms, the work expresses not only strongly held religious convictions but also hope for universal peace and harmony within our global community. To complement the spiritual nature of MAGNIFICAT, the subsequent tracks of this collection are « songs of reflection » for either accompanied or unaccompanied SATB chorus. These often subdued, contemplative songs are settings of words by some of Stephen Chatman’s favourite poets, primarily Walt Whitman (1819-1892), Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), and Sara Teasdale (1884-1933). In common among these poems are themes of love – memories of love and lost love, death and transcendence, peace and nature.

Works/Tracks

Music by Stephen Chatman (1950 – )
University of British Columbia University Singers
Graeme Langager, conductor

Magnificat (23:32)
1 I Magnificat anima mea Dominum (My soul doth magnify the Lord) 1:48
2 II Mon âme, my soul (My soul, my soul) 2:51
3 III Porque el Poderoso es grande (For he that is mighty) 2:29
4 IV Und mein Geist freuet sich Gottes (And my spirit hath rejoiced in God) 4:05
5 V ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? (He hath filled the hungry with good things) 3:11
6 VI ???? ???? ????? C??e? (He hath shewed strength with his arm) 2:57
7 VII He hath helped his servant Israel 3:49
8 VIII Magnificat anima mea Dominum – Reprise and Doxology 2:10
Bahareh Poureslami, soprano soloist
University of British Columbia Orchestra
Jonathan Girard, conductor

9 The half moon (Rossetti) 2:47 *
Arianna Ervin – soprano, SATB, Piano

10 I am not yours (Teasdale) 2:23

Songs of Remembrance
11 1. Come to Me (Rossetti) 3:33 † *
Keira Chapman – soprano, SATB, Piano, Clarinet
12 2. And if thou wilt, remember (Rossetti) 4:30 † *
Sasha Kaye – soprano, SSATB, Piano, Clarinet

13 In Flanders Fields (McCrae) 1:59
SATB

14 Dreaming (Khayyám/FitzGerald) 2:40 ‡ ~
Bahareh Poureslami & Keira Chapman – sopranos
SATB, Oboe and Zheng

15 Darest thou now O soul (Whitman) 4:02 *
SATB, Piano

16 Come, said my Soul (Whitman) 3:19 ‡
SATB, Oboe

17 The Cloud (Teasdale) 3:24 *
SATB, Piano

18 I would live in your love (Teasdale) 2:38
SATB

19 Alas, that Spring should vanish with the Rose! (Khayyam/FitzGerald) 4:05 †
Paula Berry – soprano, SATB, Clarinet

20 Peace (Teasdale) 2:57 *
SATB, Piano

* Terence Dawson, piano † Cris Inguanti, clarinet
‡ Geronimo Mendoza, oboe ~ Geling Jiang, zheng

PERFORMERS:
University of British Columbia University Singers
Graeme Langager, conductor

REVIEWS:

« Students at UBC are fortunate to have one of Canada’s most popular choral composers close at hand. Stephen Chatman, multiple JUNO nominee and a Member of the Order of Canada, is Professor and Chair of Composition at the UBC School of Music. In this recording, the UBC University Singers and Symphony Orchestra begin with his setting of the Magnificat, a work commissioned in 2010 by the Vancouver Chamber Choir. Chatman begins the piece with the traditional Latin text, and then sets the following sections in the six official languages of the Vancouver Winter Olympics: French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Russian and English. The 40-voice choir handles the linguistic transitions well and there are some wonderful changes of cultural idiom for the orchestra. A fourth year student (at the time of recording), soloist Bahareh Poureslami manages the voice of Mary with lovely expressiveness ranging from tender anticipation to soaring joy and divine rapture.

Following with a collection of « songs of reflection » the choir performs (sans orchestra) Chatman’s settings of contemplative poetry by Christina Rossetti, Sara Teasdale and Walt Whitman, as well as two from FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat and John McCrae’s In Flanders Fields. Themes of love, loss and longing, followed by transcendence and peace, find tender expression through skilful composition and artful nuance in the choir’s performance. » – Dianne Wells, the WholeNote