Laura Stanfield Prichard CC '90

It just started snowing in Boston, so it's time for Fenno's winter music. Our favorite is Fenno "Winter Prayer," which I first encountered at eighteen in a handwritten version on a snowy afternoon in the Glee Club room - Miriam Pelikan (Pittenger) ('89) and Karen Daehnick (Poirier) ('90), sitting on either side of me, remarking that it sounded a little like Britten to them (we'd just sung his "Festival Te Deum" in Battell). It was the first piece of Fenno's in which I could really hear his training with Paul Hindemith (all those fourths!) and feel a sense of repose and serenity in a CT winter (I certainly never felt a sense of response during my own studies!). Now "Winter Prayer" is my favorite of his works, although I'll always remember Tom Porter ('90) singing "Fern Hill" and see Fenno's "whip" gesture during the downbeat rests in the four-spirituals-by-Fenno-Heath (that's the way the Princeton and Harvard Glee Clubs used to announce our second half set).

It's Christmas Eve, so I'm off to conduct Fenno's "The Lamb" at First Parish Arlington, where I was first welcomed by Graham and Liz (Hopkins) Stevens ('90 and '91) and later worked with Jonathan (Markowitz) and Rebecca (Benefiel) Bijur ('01?), who we met singing. My only good memories of Yale are of food and music, and that's a lot, thanks to Maggie Brooks, to the Glee Club, and to Fenno.

Red beans and ricely yours,

Laura Stanfield Prichard CC '90

Central European "Bringing down the Wall" Tour, Co-Manager, '90

Chamber Singers Director, '90

Founding Pitch, Untapped Potential (now called Out of the Blue)

Freshman Chorus Accompanist & Chamber Singers member, '86-87

YGC, Battell, YSM Lab Choruses, Gilbert & Sullivan Society, Calhoun Dramat, YPMB, YAC

231 Bingham Road, Carlisle, MA 01741

978.369.7329  laura@prichard.net

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My Olympic Game! My Olympic Game was written for the 1984 Los Angeles Games by Arthur Hamilton and William Goldstein. It was performed by the Yale Glee Club on NBC's Olympic special.

Under the direction of Sherri A. Matthews, this is the 2004-2005 Godwin High School Madrigals ensemble from Richmond, Virginia singing the epic "General William Booth Enters Into Heaven." Based on the poem by Vachel Lindsay Composed by Fenno Heath

Rehearsal before the memorial service! Alleluia, Randall Thompson

(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)


Alleluia is a piece for unaccompanied SATB chorus by Randall Thompson. Composed over the first five days of July in 1940, it was given its world premiere on July 8 of that year at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood under the direction of G. Wallace Woodworth.

The work was written on a commission from Serge Koussevitzky, director of the Tanglewood Festival. Koussevitzky wanted a "fanfare" for voices to be performed at the opening exercises of the new Berkshire Music Center, and he asked Thompson to contribute such a piece. Instead of the joyous work expected of him, the composer produced a quiet and introspective piece. Thompson was inspired by the war in Europe, and the recent fall of France; given these events, he felt that to write a festive piece would be inappropriate.

The text of the work is simple; it consists of the word "Alleluia" repeated over and over again. The only other word in the text is "Amen", which is used once at the end. The end also divides the choir into seven parts.

Thompson once wrote that the Alleluia is

a very sad piece. The word "Alleluia" has so many possible interpretations. The music in my particular Alleluia cannot be made to sound joyous. It is a slow, sad piece, and...here it is comparable to the Book of Job, where it is written, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."

The piece has become Thompson's most popular work, and is frequently performed today.

Mother of Men

A Peaceful and Beautiful Place in the Lovely Grove Street Cemetery at Yale

Do Not Stand By My Grave and Weep. I Am Not There. I Do Not Sleep.