As the tag line says, “Nothing moves the needle on evolution like the arts.”, and I am hoping this edition of The Other Side of the Keyboard helps demonstrate that.
My wife is a watercolor artist. Her mentor and friend is the remarkable Alice Meyer-Wallace, artist extraordinaire.
Through my wife I met Ms. Alice and many of her students at the Community Arts Center in Wallingford, PA and at the historically famous Plastic Club in center city Philadelphia. If you aren’t familiar with the Plastic Club, treat yourself: https://www.plasticclub.org/
Soon, Gretchen, my wife, honored to say, will have her own web site. I shall keep you updated.
But that is not what this submission is all about. It is about a message from the heart.
Alice’s talented older brother, Richard Meyer, a talented artist and architect was married to Alice’s best friend Lesley Hopwood Meyer. Imagine being best friends with your brother’s best friend. How does that happen?
I was not gifted with knowing Lesley but I depend on the stories told by Richard and Alice. However, Lesley had to have been a special and storied woman of great empathy and love. Lesley would, every year, compose a special Christmas Carol set in olden times, and they were recorded in her honor by Richard with the help of some extremely talented people. I’ll explain later.
As the story goes, well, let me stop here and use some of Lesley’s own words from the jacket to help with the explanation.
“I live in a lovely rural suburb of Philadelphia called Rose Valley, in a carriage house among the trees. In March, the migrating birds wake you up at 5:30 or so every morning. One morning, being rudely awakened, I decided to get up and write down the birds’ songs – the rhythm and pitch. I did this for three or four hours. Later that day, I used the song to write Bird Warmup #1, Morning (really me waking up – no bird song there) and Bird Warmup #2. I had already written the chilly middle movement, Antarctica, and it needed to be warmed up!
Real ornithologists have listened to my piece and not recognized my interpretation of the robins, cardinals, and house finches, but that’s what is nice about being a composer rather than a naturalist – you can make things up!”
This turned out to be “Six Short Works for Piano and String”
Think about this: This is evolution at its very best! What love a body must have to hear, feal, and set to music the highest levels of nature itself.
The CD is no small effort as the mission, which was executed by the following, some of whom you may recognize. This is best offered in Richard’s, aka Dick’s, own words:
“I am grateful for the significant contributions of Liz Cochran, Bill Hayward, Carol Briselli, Charlie Abramovic, Vivian Barton, Barbara Jaffe, and Igor Szwec to the beauty and character of Lesley’s music. I appreciate being able to use the ballroom at the Wallingford Art Center to make the five original recordings. The CD cover art was created by Sarah Moody.”
It didn’t stop there, and as promised, back to the carols. Each year, for 26 years. Lesley would write a Christmas Carol in the style or the “olden days.” This collection was held for posterity on a CD created by her husband Richard in her honor and set to disc by some very, very talented local artists.
The CD was titled “Mr. and Mrs. O.L.D. Fezziwig requests the honour of your presence at a domestic Ball.”
Fezziwig -wig, Fezziwig-wig, Fezziwig’s Ball
In came a fiddler and tuned like fifty stomachaches,
In came Mrs. Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile,
In they all came:
Some shyly, some boldly;
Some gracefully, some awkwardly;
Some pushing, some pulling;
In they all came!
In came the three Miss Fezziwigs, beaming and lovable,
In came the six young followers whose hearts they broke,
In came the house maid with her cousin, the baker,
In came the cook, with her brother’s friend, the milkman.
This is from the famous: A Christmas Carol by Dickens.
John Richardson: The Fiddler
Veronica Chapman-Smith: Mrs. Fezziwig
Karen Wapner The Three Miss Fezziwigs
Kent Schauble: The Six Young Followers
Paulo Faustini: The Housemaid
Wallace Umberger: The Cook
Choir:
St. Luke’s Chamber Singers
Jonathan Bowen, Organist and Choirmaster
Again, in Richard’s own words:
This is the complete collection of 26 Christmas Carols composed each December from 1976 to 2001 by Lesley Hopwood Meyer, and recorded between November 14, 2001 and November 15, 2007.
All the carols have been arranged for four voices from the original Christmas cards by Jonathan Bowen, Choirmaster of the Church of St. Lukes and the Epiphany in Philadelphia, and recorded under his direction in seven sessions between 2001 and 2007. Janathan’s work is distinguished by its wonderful musicianship and his exceptional faithfulness to the spirit of each individual song.
I am grateful to The Church of St. Luke and the Epiphany for graciously allowing the repeated use of its warm and evocative space for rehearsal and performance.
Uncompromised engineering and editing is by Bill Hayward of Hayward Productions, Swarthmore. For the final eleven recordings he was assisted by Chris Gately. Mastering for this recording was done by Bill and John Senior at Elm Street Studios in Conshohocken, incorporating 15 songs that were produced by Bill and George Blood Audio in Chestnut Hill between 2001 and 2005. Ed McCann helped to develop the playlist through endless variations. CD duplication was provided by Syndicate Pictures, Media PA. The booklet insert was provided by Disc Hounds, West Chester Pennsylvania.
The original group was assembled by Elizabeth Cochrane, a friend of Lesley, Jonathan, and Bill, who did not know each other. Without the help of Liz, it is doubtful that any of these songs would ever have been performed or heard.
Many beautiful versions of the carols have been passed over in this effort, including the Robert Ross setting of Nunc Gaudet Maria that was published through the Woman’s Sacred Music Project by Oxford University Press in 2005, and Alice McIntyre’s Latin translations that were performed by the Goffredo Petrassi Chamber Ensemble, presented by Fondazione Atkins Chiti in Rome for Christmas, 2005. All of these will be included in a forthcoming collection of the Complete Works of Lesley Hopwood Meyer.
Finally, a word about the words: Lesley was drawn into the project because the 13th Century sentiment “Kick and beat the grumblers out” appealed to her. Whether “The prunes so lovely” (15th C) “Squadrons of spirits” (16th C) or the autobiographical “A babe is born all of a may, in the salvation of us..”, there was always a bite of charmed language that set the music in motion. In some cases, the preservation of these old texts in Lesley’s settings may be their salvation.
Music by Lesley Hopwood Meyer.
The songs:
1. Proface (1993)
2. Fezziwig’s Ball (1989)
3. A Hymn on the Nativity (1992)
4. Hymn to Joy (1997)
5. All That Believe in Christmas Lay (1994)
6. All You that in the House Here (1982)
7. A,a,a,a Nunc Gaudet Maria (1991)
8. Get Ivy and Hull, Woman (1990)
9. Furry Day Carol (1984)
10. From: In Memoriam XXVIII The time draws near (1998)
11. Carol For Austrian Hunting Horm (1983)
12. For Christmas Day (2000)
13. So, Brother Fesans, Reijouissance (1986)
14. Christ is Come Well (1980)
15. Now is Christmas Ycome (1979)
16. Sun of Righteousness (1988)
17. Out of Your Sleep Arise and Wake (1977)
18. Minuet (1978)
19. Now Christmas Draweth Near (2001)
20. Now All is Well That Ever Was Woe (1983)
21. Christmas Day 1995)
22. Anglo-Norman Carol (1976)
23. A Christmas Carol In the Blead Mid-Winter (1996)
24. Good Day, Good Day (1999)
25. The Star Song (1981)
26. Song of the Nuns of Chester (1987)
The glorious part of this effort is the love of one for nature and the ultimate love of one for another. The sad part of this is I can not share this CD as it is not, I believe, available for sale, only gifting, and that is how I received this gift.
At Richard’s house last evening, I attempted a tuning on the 1939 Lester Spinet that Richard and Alice grew up with. In response to that offering, Richard gifted me the two CD’s. I remarked at the picture of Lesley on the front of one of them, and how utterly beautiful she was which brought Richard to a pause…he misses her so. That was my queue to stop talking and just take the CD’s with gratitude.
Tonight, we celebrate the holiday season at Richard’s. Gretchen baked a Christmas Tree cake, and I bring the Ouzo…Alice’s favorite.
With this I wish all of you the kind of love Richard, Lesley and Alice experienced and continue to this day.
As coincidence would have it, the two CDs were produced by a great many of my family. The singers, players, directors, and engineers are many of whom I have worked with as a concert/studio piano technician. I was so elated to see them on this, a most joyous collaboration.
Happy Christmas to all and to the rest who may celebrate other occasions, just as solemn and important, may the holidays bring you all that you require to be happy, healthy and surrounded by love.
Remember Ye this: Santa is secular. He doesn’t disappear when one reaches the age of 10 or 12, he is simply passed on to a generation of new, eager parents!