Hildegard von Bingen (1098 – 1179)  was an abbess, composer, writer, philosopher, and mystic born in Bermersheim vor der Höhe, Germany.  She is considered one of the most influential women in medieval music and is sometimes referred to as the “Sibyl of the Rhine” or “The First Woman of Western Music.”

At an early age, Hildegard began to experience mystical visions, which she later recorded in her writings.  The tenth child in her family, she was tithed into the Catholic Church.  She joined a convent at the age of eight and became an abbess at the age of thirty-eight.  During her time as abbess, Hildegard founded two monasteries, wrote extensively on a wide range of subjects, and composed a large body of music.

Hildegard’s music consists of over 70 works. Her compositions were recognized during her lifetime and continue to be performed, studied, and rearranged today.  In addition to her music, Hildegard was a prolific writer of poetry, treatises on theology, medicine, and botany, and an autobiography.  She was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church in 2012, and she remains a revered figure in religious and musical history.

“Caritas Abundat” is a poem written by Hildegard von Bingen, set to music and arranged by Michael John Trotta. The text is adapted from Liber Divinorum Operum (The Book of Divine Works), to create a new text to express empowerment and grace.

The piece begins with a hand drum and four-part open harmony.  While the harmonies ebb and flow from dissonance to resolution, the violin part weaves in and out of the choral texture, providing counterpoint, emotional intensity, and a haunting, ethereal effect.  The drums accentuate the rhythmic vitality of the piece and give it a unique flavor, blending ancient and modern musical traditions to create a sound that is both timeless and refreshingly contemporary.

Sarah Quartel was born and raised in Great Britain in a family of musicians.  A typical day would feature mom singing arias in the kitchen while cooking dinner, and dad, a church choir director,  practicing his harpsichord in the basement.  Sarah recalls “I think I was eight years old before I realized that having a harpsichord in your basement was a bit of a unique thing.” 

In spite of her rich musical background, Quartel says that singing in choirs was her most profound influence as a composer, due to the unique marriage of text, melody, harmony, and careful pedagogy among her choral directors.  In her compositions, she emulates this care, while allowing us a glimpse of the heartfelt connections that she made by singing in a choral group.

“Choral music has this incredible way of bringing people together,” says Quartel.

Sarah started her songwriting in high school, singing her original works in cafes and coffee houses. She found that her harmonies and textures were well-suited for choral music.   At university, she began composing in earnest for the choral genre, and she had her first commissioned work, Snow Angel, published in 2017 while in her second year of college.  Since then, she has successfully published close to 30 choral pieces for a variety of voicings. 

For Sara Quartel, composing is “not only a job… it’s also something I feel very emotionally connected to.”

“As You Sing” by Sarah Quartel is a lively and rhythmic SSAA piece that incorporates hand drums as its sole accompaniment. The piece begins with a soloist or small group singing a brief melody, which is then echoed by the full choir. This call-and-response pattern continues throughout the piece, with various sections of the choir taking turns singing the lead melody.

The hand drums enter shortly after the choir begins singing, establishing a driving rhythm that propels the piece forward. The drums play throughout the piece, with occasional breaks or fills that add interest and variation to the accompaniment.

The harmonies in “As You Sing” are largely diatonic and straightforward, with occasional moments of dissonance or unexpected chord progressions. The piece is joyful and celebratory. This is well-suited to its theme of singing and making music together. The final statement of the melody builds with a gradual crescendo, never subsiding until it culminates at the very end of the piece.

Mari Esabel Valverde is a Mexican-American composer based in Forth Worth, Texas. Born and raised in Texas, she began studying music at a young age. All her life, Mari has had a passion for foreign languages.  As a child, she wanted to study French, but her parents wanted her to understand the language of her heritage, so she first studied Spanish.  In high school, she began to study German lieder and French mélodie.  Today, she is proficient in French, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese. Swedish is her next challenge.

Valverde’s music draws on her Mexican heritage and her experiences as a trans woman and a person of color. Her works often incorporate traditional Mexican instruments and folk music traditions, as well as contemporary classical techniques.  

Valverde has been commissioned by ACDA, the Boston Choral Ensemble, the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Seattle Men’s and Women’s Choruses, and the Texas Music Educators Association.

She earned her Bachelor’s degree from St. Olaf College,  a Certificate from The European American Musical Alliance in Paris, France, and her Master’s in Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. During her time at St. Olaf, Valverde was a member of the St. Olaf Choir under the direction of Dr. Anton Armstrong, to whom she attributes much of her growth and nurturing as a composer.  She also studied composition with Timothy Mahr during that time, and she earned opportunities to compose for band and chorus in her undergraduate years.

Says Mari, 

I aspire to create music that is humanist in message and sensual in expression. Dissonance is very purposeful and not to be overindulged. When composing for the voice, I put great care into setting a text.  Before drawing a single notehead, I memorize the text.  I sing it and sketch the composition with attention to articulation and breath.  My goal is to honor the text by ensuring clarity and space for the words and to extend its meaning in melody and harmony.

This Spring, The Canticle Singers will be performing two arrangements of French mélodie, originally set for solo voice by Ernest Chausson and arranged for treble choir by Mari Esabel Valverde:

“Le Colibri” is a setting of a poem by the French poet Leconte de Lisle (1818-1894).  Valverde’s setting of the piece begins with the hummingbird before it takes flight.  Throughout the piece, the voices dance, flutter, and weave in and out in a series of intricate, overlapping phrases.  The voices rise and fall seamlessly throughout the piece, which ends in a hushed, sustained octave unison, creating a sense of quiet wonder, awe, and unity.

“Les Papillons” features a text by the French poet Théophile Gautier (1811-1872).  Valverde’s arrangement is upbeat and playful, featuring lively rhythms and jaunty melodies that capture the flight of the butterfly (papillon) referenced in the poem.  The choral parts are homophonic but rhythmically syncopated.  The piece builds to a joyful climax before ending with a final phrase, and then the piano emulates the butterfly’s flight as it fades into the distance.

Faith Morgan Zimmer is a choral composer, poet, singer, songwriter, illustrator, and pianist based in Minnesota.  She has a diverse background in music, having studied both classical and jazz piano as well as voice, choral conducting, and music theory.  Faith has childhood memories of sitting down at the piano after dinner and experimenting with musical hooks while transforming her thoughts into lyrics. In short, she cannot remember a time when she wasn’t creating and composing music.

Faith is rarely idle. As a Missouri State University student, she published three of her choral compositions while her band at the time, the Faith Morgan Band, also produced an album.

Says Faith:

I am passionate about writing songs I truly feel to the core of my being. Feelings I couldn’t explain without poetry and melody.  I feel that is what I am called to do, to create moments so beautiful it’s like heaven meeting earth.

Faith graduated from Missouri State University in 2019 with a Bachelor of Music in Music Composition, and in 2021 with a graduate certificate in choral studies.  While at Missouri State, she studied with Dr. John Wykoff, Dr. Cameron LaBarr, and Susan LaBarr.  However, Faith’s most profound influence as a composer came from her studies with Alice Parker:

She showed me that I can rely on my ear and sense of melody.  That knowledge helped me find freedom in my writing.  It doesn’t have to be based on a theoretical math problem or calculation, but you can actually base it on beauty and simplicity.

In May 2019 Morgan earned her degree in music composition. Immediately following graduation, Morgan spent six months with Youth with a Mission (YWAM) in South Africa, splitting her time between Cape Town, India, and Namibia. It is notable that this was during the pandemic. While she served as a missionary, she learned about herself as well.

I was able to find my identity, not based on my talents or anything. I feel that I can perform and compose again in a much healthier and holistic state of mind.

Faith’s choral works are published through Walton Music and have been recorded by the Missouri State Chorale.

Faith also records music as a singer-songwriter and leader of her newest band called Adamant Faith. In addition to composing, Faith paints commissioned visual art, writes poetry, teaches voice and songwriting, and leads worship at her local church. Faith lives with her husband, Sam, in Springfield, Missouri.

Says Faith, 

I might never have a five-year or 10-year plan, but I’ll simply go to the next thing I am called to do.

Faith’s arrangement of the American folk song “I Am in Love” begins with the soprano singing the open and somewhat stark melody, while soprano 2 sings a rhythmic augmentation of the phrase with a complementary melody. When the alto part appears, soprano 1 and 2 have joined in unison, so there are essentially two parts that expand again to three as the emotional tension grows and climaxes with the phrase “but love grows old”, and then decrescendos  with the words “fades away.” The latter part of the song is sung in hushed undertones with the ending repeating “I am in love” as the music gradually fades.  

This is the first of Faith’s arrangements that The Canticle Singers will have performed, but I have a feeling it won’t be the last.

Elaine Hagenberg is an accomplished pianist and singer who is becoming well-known as a contemporary American composer and arranger of choral music.  She was born and raised in Vancouver, Washington, and studied at Washington State University, where she earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree, and Portland State University, where she earned a Master of Music degree in choral conducting.  After earning her degree in music, she began raising a family of four children and composing while at home.  Within the last decade, she has become a household word among choral artists, and she composes for a wide range of skill levels.

Hagenberg’s music is known for its lush harmonies, memorable melodies, and sensitive settings of poetry and texts.  Her works have been performed by choruses around the world and have been featured at national and regional music conferences in the United States.  Some of her most well-known pieces include “O Love,”  “The Music of Living,” and “The Tree of Peace.”

In addition to her work as a composer and arranger, Hagenberg is also an active conductor and clinician and has taught at the high school and college levels.  She currently resides in Portland, Oregon, where she continues to compose and arrange music for choirs of all levels.

Hagenberg is a prolific writer. Having been commissioned for over fifty works in the past ten years, she has composed new music for the American Choral Directors Association, professional choirs, colleges, universities, community choirs, high schools, and churches.  

The Canticle Singers will be performing Hagenberg’s “I Am the Wind,” which was commissioned by the National ACDA Women’s Choir Consortium, and named the winner of the 2020 ACDA Brock Competition for Professional Composers.

Elaine Hagenberg’s SSAA setting of “I Am the Wind” is a beautiful and evocative piece of music that captures the spirit of the poem by Zoe Atkins. 

The piece begins with a subtle entrance of a cappella voices, then the piano enters with a simple accompaniment, while the melody is passed between the different voice parts, creating a sense of unity and harmony. The harmonies are lush and complex, with unexpected chord progressions and suspensions that add to the overall sense of wonder and awe.

The poem’s imagery of the wind is reflected in the music through the use of flowing melodies and dynamic contrasts. The choir sings with a sense of longing and nostalgia as if they are being carried away by the wind itself. Beginning with the phrase, “You are the light” there is a very gradual crescendo and building of energy which builds to the end without ever receding.

Says Hagenberg,

In this piece, poet Zöe Atkins compares her uncertainty to the wavering winds and shifting shadows, contrasting with the unchanging stars and secure land. This poetic tension is mirrored musically through rhythmic contrast and dissonant choral harmonies which highlight the power of women’s voices—joining together, offering strength, and, ultimately, soaring as one.