Under Covid-19 situation, July 11, 2021 at the Matsumoto City Music and Culture Hall (The Harmony Hall), Gasshodan Mai performed songs that the choir members have been cherishing, with a small ensemble including multiple choruses and solos.

Let's move forward, even if it's only a little. Life is short, and music still abounds in the world.

Music Director: Fumiya Amamori
Piano Tomoko Hirabayashi
Cello: Nakako Nishizawa
Harpsichord, Organ: Asami Hirosawa

1st STAGE
Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden BWV 230
Johann Sebastian Bach（1685-1750）

In 1723, when he became the cantor of St. Thomas's Church in Leipzig, a church musician who was in charge of the church choir and worship music, as well as teaching and being the music director for the entire city, Bach wrote a great deal of music to meet the needs of worship.
Although he was an industrious and prolific composer, the main music for worship services was shifting from motets (relatively small choral works with religious content) to larger cantatas with alternating chorales (hymns) and arias (chanting) with instrumental accompaniment. There are four four-voice double choruses, a five-voice one, and a four-voice "Praise the Lord, all nations.
Published in 1821 by Breitkopf und Härtel in Leipzig, the first edition of the work was "according to the original manuscript", but its existence cannot be confirmed today. The motet was composed for celebrations and funerals.
Motets were often written for celebrations or funerals, and the texts and tunes chosen seem to indicate that it was written for some kind of celebration.
The theme in C major at the beginning of this work is wonderful, with a clarity that makes one feel taller.
The heart of unshakable faith goes to the heavens, and the joy spreads to the nations.
It is like a vocal "prelude and fugue," with the first part singing the words of the psalm and the fugue of "Alleluia" in three-quarter time.

2nd STAGE
Monteverdi Stage
Claudio MONTEVERDI（1567-1643）

- Parlo, miser, o taccio
- Tu dormi? Ah, crudo core
Born in Cremona, northern Italy, Monteverdi was one of Italy's most famous musicians, active as a court musician in Mantova for 22 years from 1590. He reached the pinnacle of his career in traditional madrigale, advocating the "second technique" (the traditional technique was called the "first technique"), which boldly expresses words and sorrowful sentiments using dissonance and chromatic writing, and successfully combined the traditional Renaissance style with the bold "second technique" in the fourth volume of his Madrigale collection. In 1607, his first opera, Orfeo, was premiered, and he pursued the unity of words and music, transforming polyphony into "narrative" music. Since the seventh volume (1619), there have been no works in the polyphonic style, but rather works for multiple voices and solo voices with instrumental accompaniment.
It is no exaggeration to say that Monteverdi opened up the era from the harmonious and supple "Renaissance" to the dramatic "Baroque" and showed the direction.
Today's program, "Shall I say, wretch, or shall I be silent?" and "Are you asleep, harsh-hearted one?" are works from the seventh volume of the Madrigale collection and are multiple choruses with bass continuo. I will try to perform them with one voice, cello and harpsichord as I did at that time.

- Sestina: Lagrime d'amante al sepolcro dell'amata
"Lagrime d'amante al sepolcro dell'amata" is a work from the sixth volume of the Madrigales (1614) that combines Renaissance polyphony with Baroque technique.

The birth of this work has a great deal to do with Monteverdi's loss of two muses (goddesses of music).

After the success of his opera Orfeo in February 1607, Monteverdi's fame as a composer spread throughout Italy with his many reprints of madrigals. In September of the same year, Monteverdi lost his beloved wife, Claudia, a court musician and a great admirer of his music, to illness. He was forced to work for the Duke of Mantova's feast, and was in debt to make ends meet due to delays and non-payment of salaries, as well as suffering from poor health due to hard work.

It was during this time that he began work on the opera "Arianna. The leading role was to be played by Caterina Martinelli, a favorite of the Duke of Mantova and Monteverdi's pupil, who had been brought to him from Rome in 1603 at the age of thirteen for her talent, and who would have been like a daughter to him as they lived together like a family. However, she suddenly contracted smallpox and died quickly at the age of 18.

The Duke of Mantova built a magnificent marble tomb for his beloved diva, and notified the monks not to miss mass and prayers every year after the first anniversary of her death. Two years later, in 1610, he ordered Monteverdi to write a sestina in memory of Catherine, "The Tears of a Lover on the Grave of a Beloved Woman," a poem consisting of 39 lines, including six lines of six-line verse and three lines of three-line verse, and to set it to music.

In July 1612, Monteverdi received a whimsical notice of dismissal from the Duke of Mantova, and about a year later, in October 1613, he became the new music director of St. Mark's Church in Venice. The sixth volume of his Madrigales was published a year later, in 1614, but most of the works are presumed to be from late Mantova, and since they are the only part of his Madrigales without a dedicatee, they may have been his own idea or the result of a contract between him and his publisher.
The sixth collection of Monteverdi's madrigales is a combination of two "five-voice serial madrigales, an unaccompanied piece on a poem by Petrarch, and two or three pieces in concertato style (with bass continuo)" with a seven-voice piece placed at the end as a coda. The first half of the work, including the five-voice madrigale "Lamento d'Arianna" which is an arrangement of an aria from the opera "Arianna," seems to be dedicated to his wife Claudia, and the second half, including "Lagrime d'amante al sepolcro dell'amata," to Katerina.

Even before the Baroque period, it was common practice to add bass passages and to replace some of the voices with instruments, even if not specified in the score. The phrase "first with bass continuo" is a "first" in the sense that the score was written with the assumption that bass continuo would be added. The common sense of the times changes. It is difficult to know and reproduce all of them. However, the way people grieve and cry out in times of sorrow will never change, and the way they are filled with joy will never change. That is why Monteverdi's songs, even after a long time, still reach our hearts deeply.
Today's performance will be accompanied by a bass continuo.

-----------------------------

3rd STAGE
For mixed chorus and piano Akai Tori Kotori -Kitahara Hakushu Nursery Rhyme Collection- (Japanese)　
Arranged by Takatomi Nobunaga

Kitahara Hakushu (1884-1942) left behind about 1,200 children's poems, about 400 of which are accompanied by music.
Although he moved more than 30 times during his life, the eight years or so he lived in Odawara were a period of intense creation of nursery rhymes, and the place must have had a great influence on his creation.
This work was commissioned by the Odawara District Chorus Federation as a commemorative project for its 40th anniversary.
There are three versions: mixed voice, female voice, and male voice.
First performance: October 18, 2009 at Odawara Citizen's Hall, Odawara, Japan "43rd Odawara Citizen's Chorus Festival" 40th Anniversary Chorus

"The Red Bird
In 1918, in the midst of Taisho Democracy, when democracy was in its infancy and the world was filled with dreams and hopes, the children's literary magazine "Akai Tori" (Red Bird) was launched to nurture the innocence of children, instead of the government-led shoka and sermons. Suzuki Miekichi (1882-1936, novelist, a student of Natsume Soseki, who switched to children's literature after 1916) presided over the first issue.
Akutagawa Ryunosuke, Arishima Takero, Izumi Kyoka, Kitahara Hakushu, Takahama Kyoko, Tokuda Akise and others expressed their support for the launch of the magazine, and the cover and illustrations included countless works of children's art to foster artistic sentiment. Hakushu's nursery rhymes were published there one after another.

-----------------------------

4th STAGE
Song of Takatomi NOBUNAGA

Takatomi Nobunaga is now an indispensable composer in the Japanese choral world.
The beautiful melodies he creates are loved by many people of all ages.

Jade for mixed chorus (or multiple chorus) and piano　
Poem by Shuji Terayama
The choral version of "Jade" is probably more famous for its a cappella version. This work was performed at the joint concert "Nobunaga Takatomi's Works Exhibition" by Schola Cantorum Kumamoto and "Nobunaga Sensei's Women's Chorus Singing Group" at Wing Matsubase Cultural Hall in Ujo City, Kumamoto Prefecture in February 2018, on a stage titled "The World of Shuji Terayama" with the composer himself selecting and conducting the music. At that time, "Jade" was included in "Cowboy Pop" for unaccompanied mixed chorus, and a new arrangement "for mixed chorus (or multiple chorus) and piano" was made. (The program also includes "Even if I Die" from "To Remember," six songs based on poems by Shuji Terayama, and "To Sing," "Songs," and "Incomplete Corpse" from "Incomplete Corpse," a mixed chorus song theater.
Shuji Terayama (1935-1983) was a poet and playwright born in Aomori Prefecture who, armed with his imagination, ran supple and fierce through the turbulent postwar era. His works, which provoked the times, were said to be unorthodox, and varied, are still loved today.
I performed "The World of Shuji Terayama" with the same selection at the 20th concert (2018), and I used part of it as a free piece when I participated in the competition in the same year.

Mixed Chorus: A Reason to Live
Poem by Kazue Shinkawa
Kazue Shinkawa (1929-) is one of Japan's most famous poets. Her works have been featured in textbooks, and many of them have been appended to music, and are widely loved. Her works give the impression of being fresh and free, flexible and powerful.
The work was originally composed for women's chorus in 2010, and arranged for solo voice the following year, and for mixed voices in 2014. At the beginning of the mixed chorus version, the composer writes, "Having acquired the ability to sing, we can use this act to express and share the fact that we are alive, the joy of being alive, and the determination to continue living. I hope that we can share this poem with those who sing it and those who listen to it, and feel the joy of sharing the present.

Refrain from "Isobarsen," a collection of mixed choral music in poetry by Wakako Kaku
Poem by Wakako Kaku　　　
This work is the final piece from the mixed chorus collection "Isobarisen," which was premiered in its entirety by the mixed chorus Nagoya University Chor Granze (conductor: Keiji Ito, piano: Tomoko Hirabayashi) in February 2012. "It is an arrangement of "Refrain," a three-part work for children's chorus and piano, published in 2009. With the birth of the mixed version, the opportunity to share the joy of singing this song has been expanded. The more we share the joy, the greater it becomes. And the world becomes more beautiful and richer when it is refrained.
Lyricist and poet Wakako Satoru is the author of many works, including "Always and Again," the theme song of "Spirited Away. Her words resonate with the melody of Nobunaga Takatomi, and you can feel the joy of a simple life.