Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said, "Physical strength can never permanently withstand the impact of spiritual force." Spiritualism in music is the theme of the February 9^th concert by the JSO as it continues its season celebrating The Expressive and Colorful World of Music.

Webster defines spiritualism as "the view that spirit is a prime element of reality." Composers varied greatly in their own personal beliefs, but certainly most would agree that music has great power to express the deepest yearnings of the soul and to help the human spirit connect with the infinite. As Beethoven once said, "Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life."

Certainly, Johann Sebastian Bach (1865-1750) was one of the most devout of all composers. He wrote an abundance of deeply felt sacred music, and it is well known that he wrote the initials "SDG" on his manuscripts to signify soli deo Gloria (To God be the glory).

My Spirit Be Joyful is from Bach’s Cantata #146, one of several written for the Easter season. Hundreds of cantatas were written during Bach’s time, but the musical richness of Bach’s music has made his cantatas enduringly popular while most of the others have been forgotten. Bach probably wrote over 300 cantatas, but only about 200 are currently known to be in existence.

Cantatas were usually written as special music for public events or church services, which in churches like Bach’s Thomaskirche in Leipzig were no small affair! A cantata normally includes a variety of choruses, solo arias, and duets, and similar pieces based on a single dramatic or religious text. My Spirit Be Joyful was originally a vocal duet for tenor and baritone. It lends itself beautifully for performance by cello and viola, as it will be heard on this program.

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The "Reformation" Symphony of Felix  Mendelssohn (1809-1847) is known as his fifth, even though it was the second in order of composition. Mendelssohn wrote the symphony in 1829-30, hoping it would be performed during the festivities celebrating the 300^th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, the central faith statement of the Lutheran Church.

Mendelssohn and his family were faithful Lutherans, even though his grandfather, Moses Mendelssohn, was a famous Jewish philosopher. Some have charged that Mendelssohn’s symphony was shunned at the anniversary events for anti-Semitic reasons. Whatever the cause, the music was not performed until 1832, and the symphony wasn’t published until after Mendelssohn’s death.

Two well-known pieces of music are woven into the fabric of the symphony. The "Dresden Amen," which is still sung in churches today, is heard several times as a peaceful counterbalance in the stormy opening movement. The Dresden Amen became even more familiar in classical music when Wagner adopted it in Parsifal as a significant theme and a representing the Holy Grail. The finale is a set of variations of Luther’s mighty Hymn Ein’ feste Burg is unser Gott ("A Mighty Fortress is Our God").

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The Swiss-born composer Ernest Bloch (1880-1959) spent most of his career in the United States, where he served as the founding director of Cleveland Institute of Music, the director of the San Francisco Conservatory, and a professor of music at the University of California at Berkely.

Bloch was an outstanding composer with a special affinity for music for stringed instruments. His music for viola is especially valued by performers, since that instrument often seems neglected in the solo repertoire. Bloch became well known as a composer of Jewish music through works such as Schelomo (Solomon), a "Hebrew Rhapsody" for cello and orchestra, and his Israel Symphony, both written in 1916.

Suite Hébraïque ("Hebrew Suite") was written quite a bit later, in 1951. In all of these pieces Bloch was seeking to create very original music with an intrinsically Jewish character, rather than quoting existing folk songs or Jewish melodies. "I’m not an archeologist," as he put it. The Suite Hébraïque consists of three short movements, but abounds in richness, beauty and inventiveness.

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Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) has been described as "cool and objective to an unusual degree, a religious skeptic [who] delighted in depicting religious ceremonies…" He was a fascinating figure, who began his adult life as a naval officer and became a famous composer and conservatory professor, even though he was completely unschooled in traditional techniques when he started teaching. Rimsky-Korsakov’s textbook "Principles of Orchestration" is a landmark in the field. His ideas were a significant influence for many composers, especially his pupils Glazunov, Stravinsky and Prokofiev.

Rimsky Korsakov’s purely orchestral music reached its zenith in 1888 with Scheherazade and Svetlïy prazdnik, better known as his Russian Easter Overture. After this time his interest turned mainly to opera composition. The Russian Easter Overture, which he called "an overture on liturgical themes," is based on two Russian melodies, Let God Arise and An Angel Cried Out, from the Obikhod, a collection of Russian orthodox canticles. Rimsky-Korsakov’s exciting, imaginative treatment of these themes creates a beautiful fabric of orchestral colors and textures that evokes dramatic images of Easter celebration in old Russia.