Something Old, Something New: A Choral Music Concert Not To Be Missed

Rhode Island based composer Steven L. Jobe has been very busy lately. His latest piece, “The Newman Cantata,” will have its world premiere this Sunday at the spring choral concert at Newman Congregational Church in Rumford.

Geoffrey Greene, music minister at Newman Congregational Church, collaborated with Jobe on this project. The two have worked together in the past. In fact, while performing together in a concert featuring the music of early American composer Daniel Read, the idea for this piece was born.

Greene talks about how this project came to fruition: “Steve and I have worked together closely for the last few years. We had a concert last year at Newman where we did several of Steve’s works. We have a very active music committee at Newman. We raise money through concerts that we always put right back into the music program.”

The Newman music committee decided to commission a new work for the choir and chose Jobe to compose it.

“When I heard that I would be commissioned by Newman Church to compose a vocal work, I was elated but also intimidated.” says Jobe. “I had composed arias and art song before, but very few choral passages. Still, I knew that I had a strong capacity to be inspired by the text and I felt that such inspiration would guide me through any difficulties.”

The new work contains three movements of original music, set to preexisting historical texts. Jobe and Greene, scholars both, collaborated on the texts chosen for the work.

“We identified ‘Darest thou now, O’ Soul’ by Walt Whitman and a shortened version of William Blake’s ‘Auguries of Innocence’ as suitable for the outer movements. For the middle, slow movement I chose the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount, a passage I had found moving when I heard it as a young person in church.

“The really amazing part for me was what happened when we were able to finally juxtapose this set of texts against the [musical] sketches I had in place.” says Jobe of the project.  “The two outer movements were textures I’d been working with for four or five years. The middle movement I’d been working on for almost a year. The final outcome of setting the words to the music was an amazing process, to be able to hear each of these movements come alive in relation to these texts. That’s going to be the lasting memory for me.”

This is Jobe’s first work for full chorus. He has written art song, chamber music, concertos and an opera in three acts titled Joan Of Arc, which premiered in Providence in 1993. The latter features some unique instruments that Jobe himself custom-designed specifically for the work. Over the last seven years, Jobe has been working on his second opera, and he is nearing completion on it. “I’m about 24 bars from the end, and I can see the finish line.”

Jobe’s creative process resembles that of a visual artist. He creates melodies that are often independent of any underlying harmony, and collects them as “sketches.” He then looks for ways to incorporate them into larger works. Jobe speaks about his compositional process: “I’m always generating new melodies, mostly on viola. I’ll make a note of it when they start to feel like they’re substantial. Then they start fermenting in different ways. Sometimes they stay in the realm of a simple fiddle tune. Other times they grow roots and branches and become foundational passages.”

The concert will open with a short chamber work of Jobe’s titled “Diptyche Celtique.” Geoffrey Greene will perform on accordion for this piece. The concert closes with Gabriel Faure’s “Requiem,” a setting of the Latin mass for the dead.

The Newman Spring Choral Concert will take place on Sunday, May 18, at 3pm. There is a suggested donation of $10. Tickets are available at the Newman Church office or by calling 401-434-4742. Childcare is provided for this event by a professional staff. A reception will follow the concert with an opportunity to meet the musicians and the composer. Newman Church is located at 100 Newman Avenue, Rumford.