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Program

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Words: Jane Taylor; Music: arr. Patrick Dunnevant (2023)

The Race for Space
Words: John F. Kennedy; Music: J. Willgoose Esq. (2015)
as performed by Public Service Broadcasting

Sogno di Volare
Words: Leonardo da Vinci (adapted by Chiara Cortez);
Music: Christopher Tin (2016)
from the video game Sid Meier’s Civilization VI

The Evening Star
Words: Thomas Campbell; Music: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1911)

Light
Words: Selections from Genesis, 2 Samuel, Psalms, Isaiah, Matthew, and Acts; Music: Deen Entsminger (1996)

Yes, It’s Beautiful
Words: The crew of Apollo 8, December 24th, 1968;
Music: Kile Smith (2014)
from The Consolation of Apollo

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Words: Jane Taylor; Music: arr. Jason Shelton (2023)
Erika Taylor, Molly Lins, Destin Weishaar, Jason Shelton, quartet

Out of the Stars
Words: Robert Weston; Music: David Beaubien, arr. Jason Shelton (2023)
Jared Morrison, Amy Darrow, Jordan Simpkins, Shelley Schneider, solos

Orbits
Words: Richard La Gallienne; Music: Thomas LaVoy (2015)

I Am Voyager
Words and Music: Robin Salkeld (2015)
Elizabeth Miller, solo

Measure Me, Sky!
Words: Leonora Speyer; Music: Elaine Hagenberg (2022)

VOYAGER
World Premiere - Commissioned by Portara Ensemble
Words selected from the Voyager Golden Record;
Music: Sarah Rimkus (2020)

Space Oddity
Words and Music: David Bowie, arr. Patrick Dunnevant (2023)
Danny Rhodes, solo

Underneath the Stars
Words and Music: Kate Rusby, arr. Jim Clements (2013)

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Words: Jane Taylor; Music: arr. Patrick Dunnevant (2023)

Program Notes

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Words: Jane Taylor; Music: arr. Patrick Dunnevant (2023)

This concert is about wonder, about contemplating our place in the universe. What better song to capture that sense of wonder than the one that most of us learned as children - perhaps even the first song we ever learned? Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star will play an important role in this concert as transitional pieces, each setting a different verse. All three of these arrangements were created specifically for this performance.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are

The Race for Space
Words: John F. Kennedy; Music: J. Willgoose Esq. (2015)

The London-based band Public Service Broadcasting defies easy genre categorizations, but if I were to try, I’d call them “ambient history rock”. They have released multiple concept albums depicting events in history, such as the rise and fall of the coal mining industry in Wales, as well as tracks about the invention of color television and the first expedition of Mount Everest.

Their sophomore album, The Race for Space, uses recorded speeches and news reels from the 1950s and 60s to tell the story of the journey to set foot on the moon. The opening, title track of the album features a lush choral texture underneath recordings of John F. Kennedy’s “We Choose to Go to the Moon” speech.

We meet in an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear,
In an age of both knowledge and ignorance.
The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds.

The eyes of the world are now looking to space,
To the moon, and to the planets beyond.
And we have vowed that we shall not see it governed
by a hostile flag of conquest,
but by a banner of freedom and peace.

We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things,
not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

Many years ago, the great British explorer George Mallory,
who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked "Why did he want to climb it?"

He said, "Because it is there".

Well, space is there. And we're going to climb it.
And the moon and the planets are there.
And new hopes for knowledge and peace are there.
And therefore as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous, and dangerous,
and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.

Sogno di Volare
Words: Leonardo da Vinci (adapted by Chiara Cortez);
Music: Christopher Tin (2016)

Since I was given a Super Nintendo for Christmas at the age of six, I’ve been a huge fan of video game music, and Christopher Tin is one of the best-known video game composers in the world. His piece Baba Yetu (for Civilization IV ) was the first track from a video game to be nominated for a Grammy Award, and he was commissioned to write a five-movement choral/orchestral work for Civilization VI. Sogno di Volare, or “The Dream of Flight”, is the first movement of that work.

The Evening Star
Words: Thomas Campbell; Music: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1911)

Venus is sometimes called “the evening star” due to its bright appearance at twilight. To laborers, its appearance would signal the end of a long day of work, and the beginning of a time of rest, reflection, and peace. The Evening Star is an evocative setting that gives tribute to Venus; British-Sierra Leonean composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s setting adds even more depth to the descriptive, tranquil poem by Thomas Campbell.

Star that bringest home the bee,
And sett’st the weary labourer free!
If any star shed peace, ’tis thou,
That send’st it from above,
Appearing when Heaven’s breath and brow
Are sweet as hers we love.

Come to the luxuriant skies
Whilst the landscape’s odours rise,
Whilst far-off lowing herds are heard,
And songs, when toil is done,
From cottages whose smoke unstirred
Curls yellow in the sun.

Star of lover’s soft interviews,
Parted lovers on thee muse;
Their remembrancer in heaven
Of thrilling vows thou art,
Too delicious to be riven
By absence from the heart.

Light
Words: Selections from Genesis, 2 Samuel, Psalms, Isaiah, Matthew, and Acts; Music: Deen Entsminger (1996)

This performance will be preceded by a recording of an address given by the crew of Apollo 8 on Christmas Eve 1968. Each of the astronauts, in turn, read a portion of the Biblical creation account in Genesis 1. In the spirit of that address, we are presenting Light, a work by local Nashville composer and Belmont University professor, Deen Entsminger.

And God said, “Let there be light!”
And there was light.

Let the light of your face shine upon us, oh Lord.
You are my lamp, oh Lord.
Come, oh house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord.
I have made you a light for the Gentiles,
That you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.

Arise, shine, for your light has come
And the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
Arise, shine!

Yes, It’s Beautiful
Words: The crew of Apollo 8, December 24th, 1968;
Music: Kile Smith (2014)
from The Consolation of Apollo

Kile Smith’s The Consolation of Apollo is a five-movement work for chorus and percussion originally commissioned for The Crossing Choir in Smith’s hometown of Philadelphia. Yes, It’s Beautiful is the second movement, which uses the text of a recorded conversation on board Apollo 8 as the astronauts rotated the craft and saw Earth from space for the first time. The sections of the choir play the role of specific astronauts: Commander Frank Borman (the basses), Command Module Pilot James Lovell (tenors), and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders (altos). The sopranos hover above them, halo-like and mysterious, as if they represent space itself.

Borman: How’s that steam pressure, Bill?
Anders: Good.
Lovell: Frank.
Anders: It isn’t even boiling yet. Yes, we just started.
Borman: Here it comes!
Anders: Okay.
Borman: Oh boy!
Lovell: Get a good shot of her?
Borman: Yes, see it?
Lovell: Well, keep the camera there. Keep the camera.
Anders: Here it comes. Here it comes. But you’re not on yet. You got it…you got to do something. Pitch up or yaw.
Borman: Yaw right?
Anders: Yaw right.
Lovell: Oh, Jesus.
Lovell: Houston, Apollo 8.
Anders: Roll her a little bit. Roll her a little bit to the…to the right.
Lovell: Here, you want me to fly it just to come a…
Anders: That one’s got it, the roll. Yes, yes. It’s the roll that’s got it. Roll right, if you can.
Lovell: We’re rolling.
Anders: Come on, gang.
Lovell: We’re going to radial out. Are we…you got her coming up? You see her, Frank?
Borman: Yes, it’s beautiful.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Words: Jane Taylor; Music: arr. Jason Shelton (2023)

When the blazing sun is gone, 
When he nothing shines upon, 
Then you show your little light, 
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are

Out of the Stars
Words: Robert Weston; Music: David Beaubien, arr. Jason Shelton (2023)

Science and religion are thought by some to be at odds. Out of the Stars sits right in the middle of that divide: a work about biological evolution, about how life developed from stardust into creatures that can love, that uses the structure of a religious psalm chant. David Beaubien composed this piece while serving a Unitarian church in Chicago; he is now a Catholic priest serving in Leonardtown, MD.

Out of the stars in their flight, out of the dust of eternity,
Here have we come, stardust and sunlight,
mingling through time and through space.

Out of the stars have we come, up from time.

Time out of time before time in the vastness of space, Earth spun to orbit the sun,
Earth with the thunder of mountains newborn, the boiling of seas.

Earth warmed by sun, lit by sunlight; this is our home;

Mystery hidden in mystery, back through all time;
Mystery rising from rocks in the storm and the sea.

Out of the stars, rising from rocks and the sea,
Kindled by sunlight on earth, arose life.

Ponder this thing in your heart, life up from sea:
Eyes to behold, throats to sing, mates to love.

Life from the sea, warmed by sun, washed by rain,
Life from within, giving birth, rose to love.

This is the wonder of time; this is the marvel of space;
Out of the stars swung the earth; life upon earth rose to love.

This is the marvel of life, rising to see and to know;
Out of your heart, cry wonder: sing that we live.

Orbits
Words: Richard La Gallienne; Music: Thomas LaVoy (2015)

This work by Michigan-based composer Tom Lavoy is the final movement of “Songs of the Questioner”, a three-movement work featuring poems by Richard La Gallienne (1866-1947). The text of this piece is quite melancholy: two stars, unaware of how far away they are from each other, dream that they could merge and shine more brightly together, even as they drift further away.

Two stars once on their lonely way
Met in the heavenly height,
And they dreamed a dream they might shine alway
With undivided light;

Melt into one with a breathless throe,
 And beam as one in the night.

And each forgot in the dream so strange
How desolately far
Swept on each path, for who shall change
The orbit of a star?

Yea, all was a dream, and they still must go
 As lonely as they are.

I Am Voyager
Words and Music: Robin Salkeld (2015)

Continuing the journey we began in Orbits, we arrive at I Am Voyager, which personifies the satellite as it drifts further and further out of our solar system and into the utter darkness of deep space. Canadian composer Robin Salkeld uses a Latin translation of text found on the Voyager Golden Record, a gesture of goodwill and peace to any creature that may find this satellite thousands of years from now, a message in a bottle from our pale blue dot.

I am Voyager
I am sailing to the stars
I am rejoicing in the stars
I am drowning in the stars

Forty years ago I was born of thunder and fire
To Mother Earth, tethered by radio waves
Silently screaming through the cold dark void
Spinning spider silk, thin as light in the sky beyond sky
A message in a bottle adrift on the interstellar sea

Salvete quicumque estis (Greetings to you, whomever you are)
Bonam ergo vos voluntatem habems (We bring good will)
Et pacem per astra ferimus (and peace through the stars)

I am Voyager
I am falling through the stars
I am breathing in the stars
I am reaching for the stars

Now my eyes are blind as I cross the heliopause*
Dear Mother Earth only a pale blue dot;
My instruments dying as my heart runs out.
Forty thousand years from now, if ever I am found
A message in a bottle is all there will be left of me

Greetings to you, whomever you are;
We bring good will and peace through the stars.

Pacem (peace)

*Heliopause - the boundary between our sun’s solar wind and the interstellar medium;
a boundary of our solar system, roughly 11 billion miles from the sun.
Voyager crossed the heliopause on 25 August, 2012.

Measure Me, Sky!
Words: Leonora Speyer; Music: Elaine Hagenberg (2022)

Measure Me, Sky! for chorus and piano expresses the joy of flight and the longing for more. The triumphant work makes frequent use of ascending lines, both in the piano and the choir, providing a constant and energetic upward motion to complement the text. Composer Elaine Hagenberg is based in Des Moines, Iowa.

Measure me, sky!
Tell me I reach by a song
Nearer the stars;
I have been little so long.

Horizon, reach out!
Catch at my hands, stretch me taut,
Rim of the world:
Widen my eyes by a thought.

Sky, be my depth,
Wind, be my width and my height,
World, my heart's span;
Loveliness, wings for my flight.

VOYAGER
World Premiere - Commissioned by Portara Ensemble
Words selected from the Voyager Golden Record;
Music: Sarah Rimkus (2020)

This concert was originally scheduled to take place in May of 2020, but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Michigander Sarah Rimkus’ VOYAGER, which we commissioned for that performance, has since been waiting on the launch pad until now. We are thrilled to finally bring this piece to life.

Notes from the Composer

“In 1977, two robotic probes named Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched into space. The trajectory of the probes used gravitational assists from the alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune to propel them efficiently through our solar system and beyond. The probes have provided scientists on Earth with a wealth of data and observations, including discoveries of active volcanoes on Jupiter and detailed information about the rings of Saturn. As of November 5th, 2018, both probes have entered interstellar space. At the time of the completion of this work, some systems are no longer functioning, but the probes continue to transmit useful data to Earth about this region of space between stars. They are expected to lose sufficient power to operate any scientific instrumentation by 2025.

Each probe carries a “Golden Record” – a phonograph system with a record containing various greetings in fifty-five world languages, messages from the United Nations, and a selection of music from around the world. These recordings were intended to give greetings and introduce human culture to any extra-terrestrial beings which the probes might encounter. The first musical track on the Golden Record is the first movement of J. S. Bach’s second Brandenburg Concerto.

Inspired by the Voyager probes, their missions of exploration and discovery, and their potential as ambassadors of humanity, this piece is a choral reflection on this Brandenburg Concerto movement. The constant motion and florid lines in Bach’s work reflect the never-ending journeys of the probes. The texts in this piece were taken from the greetings in various languages on the Golden Record, personifying the good will and curiosity of humankind toward the rest of the universe represented by the Voyager mission.” 

This performance will be preceded by a recording of the Secretary General of the United Nations at the time, General Kurt Waldheim. This recording is the opening track of the Golden Record.

Hello everybody!
Hello! Let there be peace everywhere.
Hello to the residents of far skies.
Greetings to all peoples of the universe
From the planet Earth of the star Sun.

Hello from the children of planet Earth.
Greetings to our friends in the stars...whoever you are.
We wish that we will meet you someday.

Hello? How are you?
Are you well?
How are all you people of other planets? We come in friendship.
We are thinking about you all. Please contact.

We are sending greetings from our world,
Wishing you happiness, goodness, good health and many years. Wishing you a peaceful future.
May all be well.
Peace and happiness to all.
Peace on you.
Peace.

Space Oddity
Words and Music: David Bowie, arr. Patrick Dunnevant (2023)
Danny Rhodes, solo

Several of the pieces on this program have a more melancholy tone to them, and it’s easy to see why. Space is dark, almost entirely empty, and very cold; our best efforts to find sentient life outside of this planet so far have been unsuccessful. “Space Oddity” by David Bowie leans into that sorrow, and the surreality of floating above the world and being unable to help (or be helped). I arranged this version of “Space Oddity” for Portara specifically for this concert.

Ground control to Major Tom…
Ground control to Major Tom:
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on!

Ground control to Major Tom…(ten, nine, eight, seven…)
Commencing countdown, engines on, (six, five, four, three)
Check ignition and may God's love be with you. (two, one)

This is ground control to Major Tom:
You've really made the grade
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear,
But it's time to guide the capsule if you dare.

This is Major Tom to ground control:
I've left for ever more
And I'm floating in a most peculiar way,
And the stars look very different today.

For here am I sitting in a tin can far above the world.
Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do.

Ground Control to Major Tom
Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you?

Here am I floating in my tin can,
Last glimpse of the world,
Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do

Underneath the Stars
Words and Music: Kate Rusby, arr. Jim Clements (2013)

This version of English folksinger Kate Rusby’s tune Underneath the Stars was arranged by Jim Clements for the British ensemble VOCES8. 

For us here on Earth, the stars are a constant presence in our lives, a distant reminder every night that we are but a very small part of an unfathomably large universe. The stars watch over all of the events of our lives, and will watch over all the events of all the lives to come. The words of this song speak to the stages of a relationship, from beginning to end, all of which happen under the watchful eyes of the stars.

Go gently

Underneath the stars I'll meet you
Underneath the stars I'll greet you
And there beneath the stars I'll leave you
Before you go of your own free will

Go gently

Underneath the stars you met me
Underneath the stars you left me
I wonder if the stars regret me
At least you'll go of your own free will

Go gently

Here beneath the stars I'm landing
I'm here beneath the stars not ending
Why on earth am I pretending?
I'm here again, the stars befriending
They come and go of their own free will

Go gently

Underneath the stars you met me
And underneath the stars you left me
I wonder if the stars regret me
I'm sure they'd like me if they only met me
They come and go of their own free will

Go gently

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Words: Jane Taylor; Music: arr. Patrick Dunnevant (2023)

This final work on the program will be preceded by a recording of Gene Cernan, the commander of the Apollo 17 mission, as he gave a farewell address. These would be some of the last words spoken on the surface of the moon; no human has set foot on it since Cernan stepped back into the Lunar Lander in December of 1972.

We invite you to sing along on the second stanza!

Choir Only:

As your bright and tiny spark 
Lights the traveler in the dark, 
Though I know not what you are, 
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
How I wonder what you are

Choir and Audience:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are

Thank you for joining us tonight! We hope we’ll see you (and a few of your friends) at our next concert.

Portara Presents: New-Fallen Snow
A Winter Meditation
Sunday, December 17, 4:30pm
Trinity Presbyterian Church, Green Hills