Voices of Connection: 03/23 Melinda Bargreen: Stella Spendens

MELINDA BARGREEN Stella Splendens

Voices of Ascension
Dennis Keene, Artistic Director

Recorded live in concert at the Church of the Ascension in April of 2013.
The singers in this performance are represented by the American Guild of Musical Artists, AFL-CIO.

Requested by Voices of Ascension board member Wende Persons

Over the years Voices of Ascension has given premieres of many, many pieces by women composers, especially through a fruitful collaboration with the Sorel Organization, which promotes women in music (SorelMusic.org). Washington State composer Melinda Bargreen was one of the winners of the Sorel Medallion for Choral Composition. I have been unable to forget the discovery of her beautiful piece, Stella Splendens, at a Voices concert. Until that moment I had only known of Melinda as the longtime music critic of the Seattle Times.

The Latin text she selected is from one of the medieval Spanish songs of pilgrimage. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to hear those words in a new way,” she wrote in her program note, “a way that was less of a marching song and more of a radiant reverie on the ‘resplendent star’ lighting the pilgrims’ path?” Her richly textured piece is exquisitely crafted for unaccompanied voices. “The substantial divisi of the score (six parts, including some very deep bass lines) reflects the diverse humanity that joins us all on our path toward enlightenment,” adds Melinda.

– Wende Persons

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Stella Splendens

Stella splendens in monte
Ut solis radium
Miraculis serrato

Ex audi populum
Concurrunt universi
Gaudentes populi
Divites et egeni
Grandes et parvuli
Ipsum ingrediuntur

Et cernunt oculi

Et inde revertuntur
Graciis repleti

Hic Ave Maria.

Resplendent Star

Resplendent star on the mountain,
Like a sunbeam miraculously glowing,

Hear the people.

All joyous people come together:
Rich and poor, young and old,
Climb the mountain to see with their own eyes,

And return from it
fi
lled with grace.

Hail Mary.

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