The Stephen F. Austin State University College of Fine Arts and School of Music will present the A Cappella Choir, Choral Union and Women’s Choir performing their annual end-of-the-year celebration in the Choral Masterworks Concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 2, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus.
The performance will showcase the brass section of the SFA Wind Ensemble with Jeremy Bruns on organ. The concert will feature only two works – both for brass choir and organ – including “Apparebit Repentia Dies” by Paul Hindemith and “Missa Octava” by György Orbán.
“The program is quite diverse with a wide variety,” said Dr. Tim King, director of choral activities at SFA. “On the one hand you have Hindemith, a naturalized (1940) U.S. citizen born in Germany, who used a complex musical system of both extremely consonant and dissonant music. On the other hand, you have Orbán, a Hungarian composer of Romanian birth whose choral compositions mix traditional renaissance and baroque counterpoint with jazz harmonies.”
Both were educators – Hindemith at Yale and Orbán at Cluj-Napoca Academy of Music.
King explains that the text for “Apparebit Repentia Dies” is taken from an anonymous sacred text that is set in four movements.
“The first movement warns of the dire consequences of the Day of Judgment, the second is a dialogue of the righteous and unrighteous, the third portrays the unrighteous being swept away, and the fourth a tribute to J.S. Bach in a harmonized hymn,” King said.
The text for “Missa Octava” is taken from the traditional Mass ordinary set in five movements.
Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.
