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[MUSIC PLAYING] [APPLAUSE]
[NON-ENGLISH SINGING]
[APPLAUSE]
SARAH BOWE: Good evening, everyone. My name is Sarah Bowe. I am this year's director of the Cornell University Chorus, and it is my pleasure to welcome you to our annual Twilight Concert This Year.
[APPLAUSE]
This is also very special for all of us because it's our first one since 2019, so we're so excited.
[APPLAUSE]
There's a set of chorusters that I would love to just have show their hands to introduce themselves to you. We were so lucky to get a number of new members this year and also new members last year who have yet to experience the glory of a twilight evening. So those of you in the chorus for whom this is your first twilight, will you please raise your hands?
[APPLAUSE]
So little note on the music, our last piece, the [INAUDIBLE] especially, is part of the chorus' is permanent repertoire. This is one of the pieces that has stayed with us through chorus generations, and we're very happy to bring that back to you today. The text, you'll actually hear different versions of this text. There is the [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH], which is the one that we sang this evening, and then there's also a [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH], which is actually the original one.
It comes from the Song of Solomon, which is filled with beautiful rich romantic poetry, and they changed two words to make it about Mary. One is they added the word Maria instead of my love, of course, and they added the word originales, which is original stain or the original sin. And that changes it from the general love poem that existed prior to this Marian poetry instead.
Next, we would love to offer you a set of three pieces by Melissa Dunphy on poetry by Lola Ridge. Lola Ridge is a fantastic early 20th century poet that Melissa Dunphy found an excellent affinity with and just started setting her poems-- the first one was "It's Strange About Stars." that was the first setting. We'll perform that last. And if you read through, you'll notice these are really deep and evocative poems about shadows and light and darkness.
So the first three were composed sometime between believe 2014 and 2018 or 2016, excuse me, and then there was a fourth one added in 2018, which was actually a chorus commission called "It Isn't a Dream." We don't have that on the program this evening, but we will be bringing it with us on our tour in January. So we'd like to offer these to you next.
[VOCALIZING]
[NON-ENGLISH SINGING]
[APPLAUSE]
[VOCALIZING]
[NON-ENGLISH SINGING]
[APPLAUSE]
[VOCALIZING]
[NON-ENGLISH SINGING]
[APPLAUSE]
SPEAKER: Hello. Happy, happy twilight and Happy Halloween weekend. I wanted to introduce the official a cappella subset of the Cornell University Chorus After 8. We actually--
[APPLAUSE]
We're really excited to have a concert coming up in two weeks. It'll be on the 12th at 8:00 PM in Call Auditorium, and you can check our social media. It's CU like the letters CU and the words After 8 for more information. Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
[VOCALIZING]
[SINGING]
[VOCALIZING]
[SINGING]
[VOCALIZING]
[SINGING]
[VOCALIZING]
(SINGING) Life could be a dream. Life could be a dream, sweetheart.
[APPLAUSE]
SARAH BOWE: Hello. Our next piece is called "The Road Home" by Stephen Paulus, and this is a piece that's also a part of our chorus permanent repertoire, a little bit newer than the [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] certainly. The words to this one have been especially meaningful to us this year and lately as we begin to come home to our places and our spaces and singing, of course, music and each other as well.
[VOCALIZING]
[NON-ENGLISH SINGING]
[VOCALIZING]
[APPLAUSE]
We have one more piece to share with you for the concert portion of our program before we shift gears and move into our Cornell songs, and this is called "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." This one also means a lot to us as when we think of our circle, we think of our entire chorus and Cornell family of past and present. And at this time I would love to point out another group of choristers to you today or chorus member, excuse me, for whom this is their last twilight performance. So could you raise your hand if this is your final twilight.
[APPLAUSE]
[VOCALIZING]
CHORUS: (SINGING) Will the circle be unbroken by and by [INAUDIBLE]
I was singing--
I was singing [INAUDIBLE]
Will the circle be unbroken by and by [INAUDIBLE]
Will the circle be unbroken by and by [INAUDIBLE]
Will the circle be unbroken by and by [INAUDIBLE]
[APPLAUSE]
SARAH BOWE: But wait there's more. Thank you, everyone, so much. So now we're going to head into the last portion of our program, which is Cornell songs, of course. Before we do, we are going to do the raffle, so I'd love to introduce our president Caroline Hicks.
[APPLAUSE]
CAROLINE HICKS: Thank you very much, Sarah. Yeah, I bet you thought today you were going to go home with many beautiful musical memories of the songs of the chorus, but did you think you would go home with the raffle prize?
AUDIENCE: No.
CAROLINE HICKS: Well, you just might. Have my raffled-- here we go. We have five wonderful raffle baskets generously donated-- sure you can-- generously donated by businesses in the Ithaca and Cornell community, and the proceeds from this raffle will go towards fundraising for our centennial tour of the northeast United States. Yes, centennial. It's the chorus's 100th year if you didn't know.
[APPLAUSE]
So we will get right to it. This first basket is called It Comes Adorned. It features a chorus [INAUDIBLE] as well as a $25 gift card to the Cornell Store. And the winning ticket is 134-059. One more time.
[APPLAUSE]
Next we have-- congratulations to Professor Wendy Williams-- next we have the Sweet Dreams Basket. This one has a gift card for a night in the suite at an Inn on Columbia. It has snacks and relaxing face masks. Lots of tickets in this one. So the winner is 134-066.
134-066
AUDIENCE: Yes.
[APPLAUSE]
CAROLINE HICKS: Come on down and congratulations.
And our next basket is the Just the Two of Us Basket. It is a gift certificate for brunch for two at Taverna Van Feen. This one was very popular. Let's see.
And the winner is 001-34063.
Hey.
[APPLAUSE]
Congratulations to our winner. And last but not least, we have the Happily Ever-- oh, not last second to last but not least, we have the Happily Ever After Basket. It has some homemade applesauce from our chorus member Ketchel and also some local apples. Let's see. 001-34054.
Oh, hey.
[APPLAUSE]
Congratulations.
And last but not least, we have the Fall for Ithaca Basket. It has a hand knit hat from another chorus member, Han Soros, and it also has two free learn to climb lessons at Cornell Outdoor Education. It's rock climbing just in case you thought it was ice climbing. I'm sorry. I have to break it to you. And the winner is 001-34036. Is this a repeat? No? 00-34036.
Hey, congratulations.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you to all of our ticket and raffle helpers. Congratulations to everyone who won a basket. Thank you to all who entered. With that, we'll continue on with our Cornell songs. Thank you, everybody.
[APPLAUSE]
SARAH BOWE: So we're about to sing some Cornell songs for you. Please if you do know them, feel free to join in. How many Cornellians do we have in the audience?
[APPLAUSE]
Fabulous. How many Cornell alum do we have in the audience?
[APPLAUSE]
How many Cornell chorus alum do we have? Yay!
[APPLAUSE]
And then, of course, it's a very special weekend. So how many of you are family and parents who have come to town.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you so much. Without further ado, some Cornell songs for you.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[SINGING]
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[SINGING]
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[LAUGHTER]
SOLOIST: (SINGING) Oh, [SINGING]
I was nursed by my mommy, but now I drink beer.
[LAUGHTER]
I miss my old model. It's sad for to tell, but soon I'll be busted right out of Cornell.
[SINGING]
The things I can teach him you won't find in books. I joined the sorority. The parties are the t-- But I fear that my brains are--
[SINGING]
I am a junior. I'm taking my youth. I go to my classes whenever I please. I frequent the bars, bartenders as well. I [INAUDIBLE] wasted my time at Cornell.
[SINGING]
I-- I am a senior tormented with doubt. My time at Cornell has almost run out. The state of the world has me quite annoyed. You see, I'm magna cum laude yet still unemployed.
[SINGING]
[APPLAUSE]
SARAH BOWE: Thanks, everyone. So this is a very special year for the chorus. We are beginning the year belated celebrations of our centennial.
[APPLAUSE]
I'd like to introduce our centennial chairs within the chorus who are going to chat with you a little bit about that as well as invite you to our reception after the concert.
[APPLAUSE]
SPEAKER 1: Hello, beautiful people. It's so nice to see all of you here I'm [INAUDIBLE].
SPEAKER 2: And I'm Joelle, and we're the centennial officers.
SPEAKER 1: Yeah. So the past two years has been just everything's up in the air. It's like hard to enjoy life, but we will celebrate our centennial year even if it's a year late. So snaps to that because we're very happy to be celebrating 100 years of an amazing organization.
[APPLAUSE]
SPEAKER 2: And so after this concert, we would like to invite you all to the reception. It's going to be really fun. We have candy. We have a photo booth. It's going to be at the Klarman Atrium. It's that way. So once the concert's over, feel free of you to head on over there. And, yeah, that's all we'll say. Thank you so much.
[APPLAUSE]
SARAH BOWE: And next, we have a very special Cornell song to share with you from the chorus. It's called "The Hill."
[VOCALIZING]
[SINGING]
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you all again for coming. We will close our program with the Cornell evening song and then our alma mater, and you can find the words in your program.
[VOCALIZING]
[SINGING]
[APPLAUSE]
[SINGING]
[APPLAUSE]
Sarah Bowe, director. Cornell University's acclaimed treble choir presents their annual Twilight performance, showcasing repertoire across the Chorus's past and present. This concert marks the beginning of the Chorus's live Centennial year celebrations. Parents and families are warmly welcomed! The program concludes with traditional Cornell songs.
