The Assabet Valley Mastersingers will present Celebrate Peace, a collection of four pieces of work entitled Dona Nobis Pacem from four different composers, on Sunday, November 20, at 3:30 p.m. in the Robert R. Jay Performing Center at St. John’s High School, 378 Main Street, Shrewsbury. Founder and Artistic Director Dr. Robert P. Eaton will conduct soloists Soprano Mary Johnston Letellier and Baritone Philip Lima , along with the orchestra and ensemble.
The traditional Dona Nobis Pacem , often attributed to Palestrina or Mozart, is a short prayer for peace from the Agnus Dei of the Latin Mass. In the round for three parts, it is sung twice in every line. The melody has been passed orally. Keane Southard’s setting is a short unaccompanied work written in 2014. The composer indicates the primary themes evolved over the several years and only upon completion did he realize that the opening and closing sections are in the form of a canon as is the traditional. Latvian composer, Pietris Vasks, incorporates elements of Latvian folk music into a contemporary idiom. The emotional content of his setting is reflected in his masterful use of color and texture which holds our attention on this one single phrase, Dona Nobis Pacem, for 12 minutes. R. Vaughan Williams had witnessed war in France 1914-1918.
This powerful work, his setting of Dona Nobis Pacem, vividly proclaims the harshness and cruelty of war, the intense and somber burial of a father and son, the anguished cry for peace, and a final message of good will and peace toward men. Dona Nobis Pacem. Give Us Peace.
Tickets may be purchased online or at the venue the afternoon of the concert. The price is $25 or $20 for seniors and students. It is an AVM core value to be responsible and community-minded. As such, AVM will follow all public health guidelines provided by Federal, state, and local health departments and those of our concert venues.
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For further information, reference www.AVMsingers.org . Our programs are supported in part by grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Cultural Councils of Ashland, Boylston, Grafton, Marlborough, Northborough,
Shrewsbury, Southborough, West Boylston, and Westborough. AVM is also supported in part by grants from the Avidia Charitable Foundation; from Southborough Community Fund, a fund of the Foundation for MetroWest.