`THE CREATION'

The poetry of the Book of Genesis and John Milton's "Paradise Lost" is sung to Joseph Haydn's dramatic orchestral music in "The Creation," the latest in an impressive array of oratorios to be under taken by the Southeast Missouri State University Department of Music.

Dr. John Egbert will conduct when the Choral Union, the University Choir and the University Orchestra perform "The Creation" at 8 p.m. Tuesday in Academic Auditorium. The performance culminates a two-week Haydn Festival presented by the university.

Dr. Sara Edgerton, conductor of the University Orchestra, will give a pre-concert talk from 7 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Room 265 of Academic Hall. The talk will be illustrated by CD excerpts.

Free shuttle service will run from the parking lot on Henderson just north of Broadway to the back of Academic Hall before the performance and back to the parking lot afterward. A shuttle will be available for anyone who leaves early.

Egbert conducted the recent successes "Carmina Burana," John Rutter's "The Magnificat," Bernstein's "Chichester Psalms," and Durufle's "Requiem" and says "The Creation" fits right in.

"It is one of the major works that has withstood the test of time," he said. "It literally is performed around the world."

Haydn modeled "The Creation" after Handel's "Messiah," but 50 years later was able to write an orchestration that benefited from advances in instrumentation.

Compared to the Baroque period's spare orchestrations, the Haydn work written in 1798 has the full instrumentation and dramatic impact of the full symphonic orchestras listeners now are accustomed to.

The University Orchestra has been augmented for this performance by an extra oboe and bassoon player and a contrabassoonist.

Some familiar voices will sing solos and come together as a trio as the archangels. Soprano Dr. Elizabeth James-Gallagher has the role of Gabriel, tenor Dr. Christopher Goeke will sing the part of Uriel and bass Jonathan Stewart is Raphael.

James-Gallagher and Goeke are members of the Southeast music faculty. Southeast alumnus Stewart is the director of music at Centenary Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau.

The other soloists are baritone Tom Lowery as Adam and soprano Lorie Schaffer as Eve. Lowery, a Southeast alumnus, teaches choral music at a St. Louis high school. Schaffer, who is married to Goeke, is a Southeast adjunct faculty member and teaches at the Southeast Music Academy.

Director of the Choral Union for 10 years now, Egbert is amazed at the progress the organization has made since its membership was opened to the public and nighttime rehearsals were instituted seven or eight years ago.

"It was a watershed move," he said. "...With the influx of community singers, some being music teachers and music majors in college, it really has added a tremendous dynamic to the group it wouldn't have had."

Requirements of size and technique put some pieces of classic choral work beyond the 110-member group's grasp, Egbert said, giving Britten's "War Requiem" and the Verdi "Requiem" as examples.

But Egbert isn't putting any limits on what the Choral Union could someday accomplish, and promises more world-class works will be heard in Academic Auditorium in the coming years.

"We're doing great literature," he said. "Ten years ago, I never dreamed we would be doing something like ("The Creation.")