Vocal and Choral

Wound Turned to Light – New Songs by James Rolfe
Alex Samaris; Jeremy Dutcher; Andrew Adridge; Lara Dodds-Eden
Redshift Records TK540 (redshiftmusicsociety.bandcamp.com)

We ought to have been done with COVID-19, but the effects of “The Pandemic of the Century,” has had a lasting, profound psychological and sociological effect on humanity, even as the health of the species bounces back. Happily, we have been rescued (again) by poets, the very tribe that Plato – who disparaged them for relying on imagery at some distance from reality – would rather have nothing to do with in his Republic of Grecian times. But oh… how times have changed!

Former Poet Laureate of both the City of Toronto and the Canadian Parliament, George Elliott Clarke commissioned 15 Canadian members of this very (disparaged) tribe to lift our sinking hearts. The result is some edifying poems – including two of his own – the eloquence of which James Rolfe has turned to exquisite music. And so, our existential angst has been briefly assuaged, and Rolfe lifts our hearts with his Lieder. 

Wound Turned to Light dwells not in some forgotten utopia or impending dystopia, but in nature, dreams – broken and fulfilled – and in the mysticism of life and death asking, as Schiller once asked in Die Götter Griechenlands: “Schöne Welt, wo bist du?” (Beautiful world, where are you?). 

Alex Samaras does much of the lifting of Rolfe’s music with a combination of rich and lofty vocals in his singular, delicious tenor sound (cue Marigold). His mature insights into the lyrics are utterly convincing, all but eclipsing the celebrated Jeremy Dutcher who shines on Set me as a seal. Andrew Adridge is elegant on Bombastic. Pianist Lara Dodds-Eden is the uber-sensitive accompanist.

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Frank Horvat – Fractures
Meredith Hall; Brahm Goldhamer
I Am Who I Am Records (iam-records.com)

Canadian composer and environmental activist Frank Horvat’s most recent album, Fractures, is a cycle of 13 songs performed by soprano Meredith Hall and pianist Brahm Goldhamer. Inspired by the 2016 anthology Fracture: Essays, Poems, and Stories on Fracking in America, this work explores the controversial practice of fracking, a method used to extract natural gas and oil from deep rock formations known as shale. With lyrics curated from several Canadian and American writers who have been directly affected by fracking, the song cycle explores various viewpoints that surround the procedure. 

Horvat’s song cycle speaks to the ramifications of fracking, from the resources required to the impact on both the land and surrounding communities. Each song has an independent theme and musical structure and the cycle is unified by recurring motifs of fire and water. Although Hall and Goldhamer, both seasoned performers, demonstrate great commitment to the text and the music, listening to Fractures is, at times, difficult, for it requires a certain window into the knowledge of fracking to better understand the ironies and or musical choices that accompany certain texts. To the uninitiated, a more relatable song can be found in Lullaby in Fracktown, where a mother sings to her young child against the backdrop of her husband’s employment insecurity. 

Notwithstanding, it is a gift when living composers take time to explain their work and thought processes, which is what Horvat does in the generous liner notes of Fractures. His explanations enhance our ability to reflect more deeply on fracking and our environment. Horvat’s activism and dedication to this project (and others) are reminiscent of R. Murray Schafer’s soundscape work and that’s a very good place to be.

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Jérôme Blais – Mouvance
Suzie LeBlanc; Jérôme Blais
Centrediscs CMCCD 31223 (cmccanada.org/product-category/recordings/centrediscs)

It is on notes to this disc Mouvance that Jérôme Blais – a Québécois – alludes to the “…sense of uprootedness despite our migrations within the same expansive and culturally diverse country, Canada.” Meanwhile, in music of uncommon beauty, Blais gives wing to the poignant lyrics by Acadian poet Gerald Leblanc. His poem, parts of which appear four times during the recording, not only makes for the theme of the album but also sets the tone for Blais’ music, voiced with featherlight expressiveness by Suzie LeBlanc, a Vancouverite of Acadian descent. 

Blais has also set the exquisite elegiac work of nine other poets all of whom explore bluesy emotions – of otherness and unbelonging – so deeply felt in the proverbial “mouvance” of migration. Eileen Walsh’s woody, eloquently dolorous clarinets, Jeff Torbert’s lonesome twangy guitars, Norman Adams’ soaring cello and Doug Cameron’s often rumbling hand drums and hissing and swishing percussion heighten the atmosphere and bring experience and technique to these pieces. 

All this is just as well, given the varied types of text setting involved. LeBlanc is exquisite in her many contributions, her creamy soprano soaring in the four iterations of Mouvance, and in the finale Tu me mouves, deftly supported by the instrumentalists playing Blais’ distinctive music. 

The close, slightly resonant recording is never uncomfortable and weaves voice and instruments into a kind of damask musical fabric. Discerning lovers of song – particularly Francophonie Canadians – will enjoy investigating these charming works.

David Shapiro – Sumptuous Planet: A Secular Mass
The Crossing; Donald Nally
New Focus Recordings FCR389 (newfocusrecordings.com)

What is a secular Mass? What does it sound like? What is it about? These are just a few of the questions your reviewer had upon receiving this recording, as its apparent juxtaposition of secularism with one of the most apparent expressions of religiosity is inherently counterintuitive. Indeed, the relationship between a secular Mass and the humanist movement, which places prime importance on human rather than divine matters, is the nearest analogy that came to mind and, as it turns out, was not entirely incorrect.

Philadelphia-based composer David Shapiro has composed solo, chamber, vocal and instrumental works including commissions for several prominent American choirs, among them The Crossing, a professional choir dedicated to exploring and recording new music. For Sumptuous Planet, Shapiro uses the musical form of a Christian Mass to advance a scientific, atheistic vision of the world. Drawing on texts by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, physicist Richard Feynman and 17th-century Dutch microbiologist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Shapiro builds on the venerated tradition of the musical mass, adapting it for contemporary ideas about science and nature.

The Introit opens with towering harmonies setting a quote from Feynman: “Is no one inspired by the present picture of the universe?”, while Death sets Dawkins’ text of gratitude celebrating the improbability of our existence with luminous, soaring melodies. Despite his subversive premise of positing an atheist perspective within the structure of a Christian Mass, Sumptuous Planet largely exists in the same aesthetic space as its religious predecessors, drawing on a contemporary musical palette that is, perhaps rather ironically, quite divine.

In addition to being thought-provoking, this recording is also musically superb, with The Crossing and conductor Donald Nally providing a flawless interpretation of Shapiro’s harrowing, transparent score. Any error in pitch, rhythm or intonation would be dreadfully and immediately apparent. The Crossing tackles this score’s challenges in a way that approaches perfection.

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George Lewis – Afterword, An Opera in Two Acts
International Contemporary Ensemble
Tundra TUN014 (newfocusrecordings.com)

In 1971, George Lewis joined the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) as a precocious 19-year-old trombone player. Today he is celebrated as a performer, composer, scholar, developer of groundbreaking interactive improvising software and longtime chronicler of the AACM. In 2008 he produced a monumental history of the now-legendary collective of experimental African-American musicians, A Power Stronger Than Itself. This brilliant opera came eight years later. 

Afterword is based on the book. It draws on Lewis’ extensive interviews, plus recordings of early meetings made by AACM co-founder Muhal Richard Abrams. The delightful scene which opens the second act comes from a poetic journal by Claudine Myers. We’re given a colourful glimpse into an afternoon at the AACM’s center in Chicago. The playful camaraderie among such luminaries of experimental music as Anthony Braxton, Wadada Leo Smith and Roscoe Mitchell, along with Myers and Abrams (“Man your hair is nappier than mine!”) and the warm encouragement they offer one other (“Get your own thing, you don’t need someone else’s”) are reflected with powerful immediacy in a vibrant tapestry of sound.

 Transcending the constraints of straightforward narrative, Afterword directly confronts the elemental connections music has with originality, freedom, identity… and life itself. Lewis adds layers of resonant nuance by having each solo voice represent a variety of characters. This allows the singers, in different guises, to reflect a sweeping range of struggles, dreams and accomplishments. 

The three terrific vocalists, soprano Joelle Lamarre, contralto Gwendolyn Brown and tenor Julian Terrell Otis, bring dramatic energy to the ever-shifting perspectives. Under conductor David Fulmer, the intrepid musicians of the International Contemporary Ensemble realize Lewis’ intense, unruly orchestrations with precision and passion. 

This recording was made at the 2016 premiere in Chicago during celebrations for the AACM’s 50th anniversary. I can’t imagine a more inspiring way to celebrate. 

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Myths Contested
Washington Bach Consort; Dana Marsh
Acis APL53752 (acisproductions.com)

Johann Sebastian Bach is synonymous with church music, writing hundreds of compositions for choir, orchestra and organ, many of which were intended for use in his role as Kapellmeister of Leipzig’s Thomaskirche. In addition to these myriad works, Bach also wrote a number of secular vocal works, including the stunning Geschwinde, geschwinde, ihr wirbelnden Winde, BWV 201, also known as The Contest between Phoebus and Pan, featured on this disc by the Washington Bach Consort.

Titled Myths Contested, this recording juxtaposes Bach’s secular musical drama with American composer Trevor Weston’s A New Song. This work, commissioned by the Bach Consort, addresses the challenges that arise from attempting to evaluate music from past centuries in relation to contemporary music, an issue that resonates with anyone who is asked to review music in a public forum.

Bach’s Contest between Phoebus and Pan is a delightful work composed in traditional cantata form, with recitatives and arias bookended by choral movements. The Washington Bach Consort manages Bach’s contrapuntal intricacies masterfully, and the orchestra shines in the opening movement, particularly through the virtuosic writing for wind instruments (which is characteristic Bach, given that the choir is singing “Hasten, you swirling winds.”).

Weston’s A New Song is fascinating, a modern “cantata” for choir and Baroque orchestra that adheres to certain stylistic conventions while defying others. For example, the opening and closing movements include trumpet and full choir, and arias (titled “songs”) are the primary middle movements, although a chorus and chorale are each interspersed between the solo movements. While these traditions look back to the Baroque, the musical vernacular is strikingly different than anything Bach ever wrote, resulting in a listening experience that is simultaneously familiar yet new.

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ArtChoral Vol.5 – Romantique
Ensemble ArtChoral; Matthias Maute
ATMA ACD2 2424 (atmaclassique.com/en)

The Montreal-based Ensemble ArtChoral – initially known as Ensemble Vocal Arts-Québec, was founded by Yves Courville in 1979 with the aim of presenting professional choral music both in Canada and internationally. Since then, the group has earned a formidable reputation, and with the appointment of Matthias Maute as music director in 2019, the ensemble has not only increased its appearances, but has also been the recipient of two JUNOs and an OPUS Prize (for Musical Event of the Year in 2020). 

This newest recording on the ATMA label presents music by Romanic-period composers including Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Fauré, appropriately titled Romantique. It is the fifth in a projected series of 11 aiming to cover the entire history of European choral music. The pieces on the program are brief – none more than five minutes in length – and the entire program totals no more than 40 minutes. Opening with Rheinberger’s Abenlied Op.69 No.3, the choir sings with a solid conviction while demonstrating a fine sense of phrasing and dynamics.

Three songs by Brahms – Schnitter Tod, Abendständchen and Darthulas Grabgesang – are all fine examples of the German volkslied tradition, while the choir has no difficulty in capturing the mystical religious mood in Tchaikovsky’s Hymne des Chérubins Op.41.

The fine sound produced by Ensemble ArtChoral’s performers together with the thoughtfully chosen program go to make this a compelling recording, although it could have been even more fulfilling had Maute included one or two more substantial works. Nevertheless, this is a minor quibble and doesn’t mar an otherwise fine performance – we can look forward to more in the series.