Handel Society celebrates bicentennial
The Handel Society of Dartmouth College will perform Saturday, May 19, at 8
p.m. in Spaulding Auditorium. (Photo by Tim Calabro)
Andrea Clearfield composed Fire and Ice for the Handel Society's
bicentennial. (Photo by Joseph Mehling '69)
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For two centuries, students, staff, faculty, and community members have sung
together as part of the Handel Society of
Dartmouth College, the nation's oldest town-gown choral society. The group
celebrates its bicentennial with a series of concerts this year, and the debut
of a newly commissioned work by composer Andrea Clearfield, Fire and
Ice, on May 19. The four-part choral cantata for soprano and baritone
soloists, chorus and orchestra, is based on eight poems by Robert Frost and was
scored specifically for the Handel Society with the Hanover Chamber Orchestra
and guest soloists.
Clearfield's works have been performed by noted artists in the United States
and internationally. A Philadelphia native, she is the host and founder of the
Philadelphia
SALON Concert Series, featuring contemporary, classical, jazz, electronic,
and world music since 1986. Of Fire and Ice, she says, "I wanted
the work to have a sense of place with a relationship to Dartmouth, and so I
chose early poems by Robert Frost for the texts. I also incorporated the melody
of the hourly carillon into the structure of the work."
The Handel Society was founded in 1807 by John Hubbard, a Dartmouth
professor of mathematics and philosophy, who advocated musical reform in church
music and encouraged the performance of European works in America. Hubbard
created the ensemble to "promote the cause of true and genuine sacred
music," exemplified by the works of George Frideric Händel, whose name the
society adopted.
Today, the society performs a wide selection of choral-orchestral
masterworks—old and new, secular and religious.
Melinda O'Neal directed the Handel Society from 1979 until 2004. Robert
Duff, the group's current director, says, "I continue to be impressed by
the beauty created by such a diverse group of singers. Comprised of students,
faculty, and members of the community, this Handel Society is intergenerational
and interdisciplinary. Undergraduates sing alongside physicians, educators, and
dairy farmers."
By GENEVIEVE HAAS
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