# Cantus at First Congregational Church, December 4, 2014

[Cal Performances](http://calperformances.org/performances/2014-15/chamber-orchestra/cantus.php) presents _All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914_ featuring [Cantus](http://www.cantussings.org/)  
2014-12-04  
[First Congregational Church](http://www.calperfs.berkeley.edu/)  
[2345 Channing Way, Berkeley, CA  ](http://maps.google.com/maps?q=2345+Channing+Way,+Berkeley,+CA++&hl=en)  
8:00 PM, Thursday, December 4, 2014

[[2014-12-04_1|Back to the previous event!]] ☸ [[:#section2014|Up to the 2014 yearbox!]] ☸ [[:2014#December_events|Up to the 2014 event list!]] ☸  [[2014-12-05|On to the next event!]]

## All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914

[8:04 PM lights down, announcements]

### Prelude: Carols for male voices (1942) arr. Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)

01. [8:05 PM] _God Rest You Merry_
02. [8:08 PM] _As Joseph Was a-Walking_
03. [8:09 PM] _The First Nowell_
04. [8:12 PM] Coventry Carol
05. [8:14 PM] _I Saw Three Ships_  
[8:16 all off briefly, then back]

### Prologue

06. [8:20 PM] _Will Ye Go to Flanders?_, (Scottish folksong, arr. Erick Lichte)

### the Optimistic Departure

07. [8:22 PM] _Alexander’s Ragtime Band_, (1911) by Irving Berlin (1888–1989) ¢
08. [8:23 PM] _God Save the King_, (English traditional) ¢
09. [8:25 PM] _Good-bye-ee_, (1917) by R. P. Weston (1878–1936) and Bert Lee (1880–1946) ¢
10. [8:26 PM] _It’s a Long Way to Tipperary_, (1912) by Jack Judge (1872–1938) and Harry Williams (1874–1924)
11. [8:27 PM] _Les Godillots_, arranged by Paul Briollet and Eugène Rimbault, based on a traditional French song

### the Grim Reality

12. [8:30 PM] _Pack Up Your Troubles_, (1915) by George Henry (1880–1951) and Felix Powell (1878–1942) ¢
13. [8:33 PM] _The Old Barbed Wire_, (English traditional) ¢
14. [8:33 PM] _I Want to Go Home_, (1917) by Lieutenant Gitz Rice ¢
15. [8:35 PM] Deutschlandlied, (1797) by Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)
16. [8:35 PM] _Keep the Home-Fires Burning_, (1914) by Ivor Novello (1893–1951) ¢
17. [8:38 PM] _O Come, O Come Emmanuel_, (Twelfth-century plainchant)

### Christmas

18. [8:39 PM] _Christmas in the Camp_, by Harrington and Scott
19. [8:39 PM] _We Wish You a Merry Christmas_, (English traditional carol)
20. [8:40 PM] _Die Wacht am Rhein_ (1840), by Karl Wilhelm (1815–1873)
21. [8:41 PM] _Christmas Day in the Cookhouse_, (English traditional) ¢
22. [8:42 PM] _O Tannenbaum_, (traditional German carol, arr. Timothy C. Takach)

### the Truce

23. [8:45 PM] _Silent Night_, (1818) Franz Xaver Gruber (1787–1863) (arr. Lichte)
24. [8:53 PM] _Angels We Have Heard on High_, (French traditional) ¢
25. [8:55 PM] _Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella_, (French carol) ¢
26. [8:56 PM] _In Dulci Jubilo_, (German carol) ¢
27. [8:58 PM] _Wassail_, by Erick Lichte, based on traditional texts
28. [9:00 PM] _Minuit chrétiens_ (O Holy Night), (1847) Adolphe-Charles Adam (1803–1856), harmonized by Erick Lichte
29. [9:03 PM] _Will Ye Go to Flanders?_ (reprise), (Scottish folksong, arr. Lichte)
30. [9:04 PM] _Es ist ein Ros entsprungen_, (German traditional) ¢
31. [9:05 PM] _Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern_, (1597) by Philipp Nicolai (1556–1608), arr. Lichte
32. [9:11 PM] _Good King Wenceslas_, Piæ Cantiones ¢

### the Return to Battle

33. [9:13 PM] _Auld Lang Syne_ (Scottish folksong, arr. Takach)

### Epilogue

34. [9:15 PM] _The Last Post_ (English bugle call -- played over the PA from a recording)
35. [9:16 PM] _Silent Night_ (reprise), (1818) Franz Xaver Gruber (1787–1863) (arr. Lichte)
[show ends 9:17 PM, all off, back for the ovation, then off up the aisle into the lobby to mingle and sign CDs by 9:18 PM]


## Performers

### Cantus

[Cantus](http://www.cantussings.org/)

* Zachary Colby: tenor vox;
* Chris Foss: bass vox;
* Matthew Goinz: baritone vox;
* Samuel Green: bass vox;
* Aaron Humble: tenor vox;
* Blake Morgan: tenor vox;
* Paul J. Rudoi: tenor vox;
* Shahzore Shah: tenor vox;
* Matthew Tintes: baritone vox.

### Readers

* Patrick Bailey: reader;
* Matt Rein: reader;
* David Roberts: reader.

### Production Credits

* Erick Lichte: arranger;
* Peter Rothsetin: creator, director;
* Timothy C. Takach: arranger.

Songs marked by ¢ have been harmonized by Cantus

## Notes

Easy parking again, in the same block as this afternoon. Yay! I am grateful for small miracles!

Because the songs were not always distinctly demarked, and sometimes the stops and starts were obscured by the readings, tonight's timings should be considered less reliable than usual.

As in past visits, Candid Pitt together a highly structured program, in this case augmented by three actors who read from a selection of letters and diary entries from soldiers of both sides in the first World War. While the readings were quite interesting, I wasn't so happy to have the done over the. Singing of Cantus, and in more than one case, this obscured the end/start of a tune listed on the program. Surprisingly, the program did not directly reference these readings, though the program included a reference list as a sort of postscript.

In any case, it was a moving event, both for reminding us of the terrible horror of that war, and for bringing a remembrance of the first Christmas of that event, when the soldiers and enlisted men exchanged greetings and gifts of brotherhood in celebration of Christian tradition before being coerced back to the ordinary business of killing enforced by the officers running the war effort.

Way cool!

My only quibble was the use of a pre-recorded part for the bugle call at the end ... was it really too difficult to find a live musician to produce that part? I would have preferred to hear that call from a performer blowing in the choir, or at the back of the hall instead of over the PA, but my guess is that the cost of including another member on tour was too high. Sigh. Budgetary realism is nearly always the enemy of artistic expression!

{{tag>music oratorio Cantus First_Congregational_Church  Zachary_Colby Chris_Foss Matthew_Goinz Samuel_Green Aaron_Humble Blake_Morgan Paul_J._Rudoi Shahzore_Shah Matthew_Tintes Patrick_Bailey Matt_Rein David_Roberts Erick_Lichte Peter_Rothsetin Timothy_C._Takach}}

[[2014-12-04_1|Back to the previous event!]] ☸ [[:#section2014|Up to the 2014 yearbox!]] ☸ [[:2014#December_events|Up to the 2014 event list!]] ☸  [[2014-12-05|On to the next event!]]