Timing, Part II

Gloria, The Sacred Music of John Rutter; The Cambridge Singers; The Philip Jones Brass Ensemble; The City of London Sinfonia; John Rutter, conducting

Chip Davis - yes, I’m still talking about Chip Davis – toured with the Norman Luboff Choir for a few years in the early 70’s. Then landed a job writing jingles for an advertising agency in Omaha, NE. While having some fun and doing some crazy bank writing trucker songs, and even garnishing the ASCAP Country Music Writer of the Year Award in 1976, he was anxious to get his more serious compositions performed. He submitted some of his work to Omaha choral conductor Mel Olson, who graciously premiered Mr. Davis’ music on his concerts with the Voices of Mel Olson. And it was during this time that Chip Davis certainly would have met John Rutter.

Mel Olson had commissioned John Rutter to compose a setting of the Gloria. Gloria is the Hymn of Praise, the second section of the Ordinary of the Mass and is typically sung in Latin. The text comes from the Angels announcing the birth of Jesus in the second chapter of the Gospel of St. Luke.

Mr. Rutter wrote the piece in the traditional three movement structure, like a symphony or a concerto. And, true to convention, he uses a version of fast-slow-fast that he describes as “exalted, devotional and jubilant”. The outer movements contain elements and an overall nature of a fanfare in the style of William Walton. The middle movement delivers a haunting and ethereal temperament

This is a concert piece. It captures brilliantly the mystique, wonder, joy and even a little bit of the fear experienced by the shepherds who witnessed a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, good will toward men.” And, though that’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown, it’s too big of a setting to sit with its siblings in a daily Mass choir stall. So, it is a constantly tramping pilgrim, forever on tour and estranged from a liturgical home, proclaiming a Messianic birth announcement to those who can afford concert tickets. My job in this work is to refrain from getting lost in the music and to find myself on the ground with the shepherds, anticipating the time where I, like the shepherds, will come face to glorious face with my Messiah.

Mel Olson personally invited John Rutter to conduct the world premier of this work in Omaha, NE, in 1974. Chip Davis must have had the opportunity to do a networking job with Mr. Rutter, for some nine years later, Mr. Davis was in need of a choir to help the listener of Fresh Aire V accurately place Johannes Kepler at the beginning of the 17^th Century. John Rutter’s Cambridge Singers set the tone of the album with a Gregorian chant, declaring: Lumen ad revelationem gentium et gloriam plebis tuae Israel: A light to the revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel.

I have heard tell that a pianist should learn the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat Major when at a relatively young age. And then put it away for ten to fifteen years, because no artist younger than 30 years of age is in possession of enough expressive and emotional depth to carry off the masterpiece in the manner that Mr. Brahms intended.

In 1987 at SDSU, the Concert Choir performed the Rutter Gloria. I considered it at the time one of the great compositions of all time and anxiously awaited my next opportunity to indulge in its excesses. It’s twenty-two years later and preparations for a performance have been underway for several weeks. It’s fun to play the orchestral transcription on the piano. It’s nice to get reacquainted with an old friend. But the scope of maturity that I had hoped to swim laps in came up to my knees.

Mr. Rutter puts on a good show, everything that a young, energetic adventure-seeker would want to find. It’s dazzling. Anyone who hears it the first few times won’t be disappointed. But it’s a short ride in a fast machine. It’s the Oreo crème without the chocolate. It’s the tenth time on the Crazy Mouse on the same day at the State Fair.

Credits: To Chip Davis, for resilience in the face of rejection, for knowing that your vision and product is right when experts declare that it’s wrong. And for availing yourself of opportunities that were cast to you perfect in the timing: a CB craze and a CD craze. You’re the patron saint for artists who have something new to say.