8:00 pm – Saturday, December 20, 2008 – Fairfield
3:00 pm – Sunday, December 21, 2008 – Vacaville

Francesco Onofrio Manfredini (1688-1750) Christmas Symphony, Op. 2, No. 12
Not much is known about Francesco Manfredini except that he worked as a violinist in Bologna, Italy, and later was Music Director at St. Philip’s Cathedral in Pistoia, Italy, his birthplace.  Only 40-odd of his works survive, among them, trio sonatas, a set of 12 Concerti Grossi, and several sinfonias, including this Christmas Sinfonia (Symphony).  If he composed sacred music, such as masses or oratorios, it does not survive.  The Christmas Symphony was written in 1709 for strings only, with the lower strings taking the role of the bass “ground”—i.e., keeping a steady rhythm—while the violins play the melody.  It consists of three movements: Largo, Adagio, and Largo e Puntato.

Ralph Vaughan-Williams (1872-1958) Fantasia on “Greensleeves” (1929)
British composer Ralph Vaughan-Williams took classes in piano, violin and composition at the Royal College of Music with his friend and contemporary Leopold Stokowski, and later studied in Paris under composer Maurice Ravel.  Starting in 1904, he became an avid collector of English folk songs, working diligently to preserve this heritage for future generations, and incorporating elements and themes from traditional songs into his own work.  Although Vaughan-Williams was closely associated with a pastoral style of music, he also composed more modern-sounding, even dissonant, music, especially in the symphonic works written after his disturbing experiences as an ambulance-bearer in World War I.  For his 1929 opera about Shakespeare’s character Falstaff, Sir John in Love, Vaughan-Williams composed the “Fantasia on ‘Greensleeves,’” based on a well-known tune dating from at least the 16th century.  The “Fantasia” freely borrows from the traditional melody, recasting it in a simple style as an instrumental piece for two flutes, harp, and strings.  Vaughan-Williams emphasizes the sweet,
melancholy beauty of this tune, whose original lyrics lament unrequited love.  “What Child is This?” (or “The Manger Throne”) was written to the tune of “Greensleeves” by William C. Dix in 1865.

Arthur Harris (1927-1992)  A Medley of Well-Known Carols 
You might see musician and arranger Arthur Harris’s name on many arrangements of orchestral and choral music, especially choral arrangements sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  This simple, warm collection of Christmas songs includes a host of favorites: “Good King Wenceslas,” “Silent Night,” “Joy to the World,” “The First Noel,” “Deck the Halls,” “What Child is This?” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”

Leroy Anderson (1908-1975)  Christmas Festival
The child of Swedish immigrants, Leroy Anderson grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  He attended the New England Conservatory of Music, and continued as a graduate student at Harvard, studying Germanic languages and intending to be a language teacher.  While a student, he directed the Harvard Band (and played trombone), writing arrangements of light pops music for the group.  These clever and appealing works came to the attention of Arthur Fiedler, conductor of the venerable Boston Pops Orchestra.  Soon, the Boston Pops was showcasing Anderson’s work on a regular basis.  Although Anderson made some attempts at writing purely classical music, he is best known for imaginative, witty pieces, such as “The Typewriter,” “Fiddle Faddle,” “Blue Tango,” and “The Waltzing Cat,” that chart a course between classical and pops and stretch the resources of the orchestra to create sound effects and flights of fancy that Mozart and Bach never dreamed of.  “Christmas Festival” includes excerpts from “Joy to the World,” “Deck the Halls,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” “Good King Wenceslas,” “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” “Silent Night,” “ Jingle Bells,” “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” and “Adeste Fidelis.”  Listen for the clever ways that Anderson weaves these themes together, and his unconventional treatments of one or two of the traditional carols: “O Little Town of Bethlehem” sounds almost like a military march. 

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)  Pavane, op. 50  (1887)
Born in southwest France, Gabriel Fauré was sent to school in Paris at the age of nine to be educated as an organist and choir director.  After a stint in the army during the Franco-Prussian War, and some time in Switzerland, he returned to Paris, where he served as organist and choirmaster in a series of prestigious churches, eventually becoming chief organist of the rich Eglise de la Madeleine in Paris and director of the Paris Conservatory.  His composing, which in leaner days was relegated to his spare time and earned him little income, became more widely known after 1905, when he took over at the Conservatory and had more time to devote to it.  The Pavane, based on the slow Spanish dance of the same name, was intended for performance at outdoor summer concerts.  (Maurice Ravel, a student of Fauré’s, also wrote a pavane [“Pavane for a Dead Princess”] that is widely performed today.)  Fauré later dedicated it to his patron, Elisabeth, Countess Greffulhe, and added the choral parts, with words by her cousin, Robert de Montesquiou.  The countess eventually staged a complete version of the Pavane, with orchestra, chorus and dancers, at a grand garden party given at her Paris estate.  The piece is scored for strings and pairs of winds and horns, and is played in four at a slow, walking pace.  Its wistful main theme, accompanied by pizzicato strings, creates a sense of longing, as it gradually builds to an emotional climax before subsiding, leaving us with a melancholy impression.

W. A. Mozart (1756-1791)  Mass in C major, K.167 (Trinity)
Mozart wrote this Mass in C major (Missa in honorem Sanctissimae Trinitatis, or Mass in Honor of the Sacred Trinity) in 1773 while in the service of Salzburg’s newly appointed Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo, a stern man for whom any displays of complexity or extravagance in music were strictly anathema.  One might say that he was one of the people in the world least equipped to understand or enjoy Mozart’s music.  (In letters to his father, Mozart referred to Colloredo as the “Arch-Dunce.”)  Mozart adhered to the Archbishop’s timetable for a mass—he kept the total at about 30 minutes—but he apparently could not resist including some examples of the complex, polyphonic harmonies to which his patron objected.  The Trinitatis Mass is written in the sunny key of C major, and the melodies are suitably majestic and inspiring for their setting as parts of the traditional mass.  The instrumentation is simple, and requires, besides strings, only oboes, trumpets, trombones, and timpani.  There is no record of how Archbishop Colloredo reacted to this particular composition; however, we do know that, after years of conflict and misunderstanding, Mozart resigned from Colloredo’s service at the age of 25, and was duly kicked down the stairs by the nobleman’s steward.  Mozart moved to Vienna, and hardly ever visited Salzburg again.