Time Warp (Richard O'Brien/Mac Huff) Jacksonville University Choirs, Dina Barone, Conductor

Time Warp
from Rocky Horror Picture Show

Richard O’Brien, songwriter (Living)
Adams Anders, Tim Davis, & Mac Huff, arrangers (Living)

Jacksonville University Choirs
Julian David Bryson, director
Dina Barone, conductor
Chandler Bartley, percussionist
Nickolas Kepe, Alyssa Stark, & Anna Evans, soloists

Season Theme: SoundS
Concert Title: The SoundS of Shibboleth
Recorded live in Terry Concert Hall, October 31, 2023

Selected annually by audition, the members of the Jacksonville University Singers perform an eclectic and challenging repertoire spanning the centuries and the globe including Renaissance polyphony, Baroque and Classical masterworks, folksongs, music theatre, opera and new music by living composers. The University Singers have performed for conferences of the American Choral Directors Association, the Florida Music Educators Association and the Music Teachers National Association. Other notable performances include concerts in New York’s Avery Fisher Hall, England’s Canterbury Cathedral, Chartres Cathedral, La Madeline – Paris, the Basilica of St. Nicholas – Nantes, TEDx Jacksonville, and numerous collaborations with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra. The University Singers give many performances each year on campus, in the community, and on tour, most recently in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York City.

Concert description:
Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth:
for he could not frame to pronounce it right.
Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan:
and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand.
--Judges 12:6 (KJV)

According to the book of Judges and Tele-President Josiah Bartlet, a Shibboleth is a test. If you know how to pronounce it, you’re safe. If you don’t, well, you may be in for more tricks than treats. #IYKYK #DictionMatters

Like a Shibboleth, tonight’s program is filled with twists and turns, double meanings, puzzles, humor, and even beauty! A Halloween concert could never be complete without a sprinkling of spookiness, including a musical theatre ballad turned iconic music video (Total Eclipse of the Heart), Libby Larsen’s chromatic transfiguration of Shakespeare, the creepiest ghost story ever set to music (thanks Schubert), and the world premiere of lyrics by Charles Anthony Silvestri set to Grieg’s infamous earworm. We also offer some hidden jokes, most notably in the MANY double entrendres of Josquin des Prez’s Italian cricket (El Grillo), perhaps wooing a Spanish lover with a mixture of archaic Italian and poorly pronounced Spanish. For those new to Renaissance party hits, know that if you happen to find a reference to something unseemly, you’ve likely only missed fifteen or twenty other innuendos. Happy hunting!

Stay on your toes, and you’ll enjoy plenty of treats. Just be careful when pronouncing the titles—those Skaldic curses are powerful! Mwahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To learn more about studying music or singing in an ensemble at Jacksonville University, visit https://www.ju.edu/music/vocalensembl...