Choral Scene

Last month I argued that classical music’s shift, from cultural pinnacle to just one of many multicultural entertainment options, was a good thing. But classical musicians who love, believe in and make a living from playing music that has to fight with increasing difficulty for listeners’ ears and market share, may feel differently. What are the challenges for these musicians in a new century?

One advocate for this tradition is veteran Canadian conductor Robert Cooper. And one possible solution to the question above is exemplified by Cooper’s work with the Orpheus Choir of Toronto.

A tireless musical dynamo, Cooper conducts Chorus Niagara and the Opera in Concert Chorus as well as the Orpheus Choir. A personal aside: he was the first conductor I sang for, in the Toronto Mendelssohn Youth Choir, the youth wing of Canada’s Toronto Mendelssohn Choir.

My prior experience of music centred around folk guitar and the Beatles, and my first encounter with choral music, from the Renaissance to the modern era, was both exciting and disorienting. But Cooper was an excellent choral ambassador for me and other young musicians. I remember being struck at the energy of this diminutive but authoritative figure who insisted on precision, focus and depth of engagement.

Cooper was also for many years the producer of CBC’s Choral Concert, along with host and fellow conductor Howard Dyck. Between them these musicians introduced the country to the world’s excellent choirs and promoted the work of Canada’s best ensembles.

Cooper celebrates his tenth anniversary as conductor or the Orpheus Choir this year. Asked about his work with Orpheus, he points out that the group is for hire as a recording ensemble and can handle pops and carol concerts — the meat and potatoes of any working ensemble. But Cooper has led the choir towards repertoire that he finds the most interesting — the lesser-known works of great composers and works by contemporary composers who are a modern extension of that tradition.

Modern choral composers have, for the most part, left behind the modernist experiments of the early to mid-20th century and are writing in idioms that extend the possibilities of tonal music, rather than eschew it. On March 22 the Orpheus Choir performs a double bill of two substantial but approachable modern works, English composer Howard Goodall’s Every Purpose Under the Heaven and young Latvian Ēriks Ešenvalds’ Passion and Resurrection.

Goodall has enjoyed a very successful career and is a well-known choral personality in Britain. His television lectures on music carry on the Bernsteinian tradition of using modern technology to educate new generations on music history. His music is instantly accessible, but challenging to execute well and stylishly.

This concert is the Canadian premiere of Every Purpose Under the Heaven, which was first performed in 2011 at Westminster Abbey. It was commissioned to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, likely the most renowned translation of this text yet written. While later versions drew on more accurate scholarship, the King James is a cultural touchstone that has drawn and inspired musicians and writers for centuries.

The Ešenvalds  composition, Passion and Resurrection, is an intense work that blends tonal elements with turbulent rhythms and harmonies. Compared sometimes to the choral works of Arvo Pärt, it seems to sidestep elements of romantic and modernist musical gesture and combine instead elements of folk music, Northern European liturgical chant and an individual spiritual vision. The composer has often worked with the Latvian State Choir, considered to be one of the best choral ensembles in the world.

In a nod to the increasingly important role of theatre in choral presentation, and a welcome change from the dry-as-dust concert hall paradigm that we all endured last century, the Orpheus Choir’s rendition of Passion and Resurrection will use sound and lighting design to heighten and enhance the music making. And as an added bonus, the composer himself will also be travelling to Toronto to attend the event and give a lecture about his work.

Concerts to note: This is the time of year that concerts often take place on Good Friday and include requiems and masses. Church choirs often marshall their forces for appealing and interesting concerts, many of which have free admission or very reasonable ticket prices. Please have a look in the listings to see what is being offered. Some unusual concerts of note:

The Hart House Singers perform Dvořák’s Mass in D on March 17. Admission is free and food donations to the U of T Foodbank are welcome.

On March 19, the touring Grinnell Singers, from Ohio’s Grinnell College, presents a concert that includes A Bluegrass Mass. I’ve never heard this work, but I love it already. This concert is also free, and takes place at the Franciscan Church of St. Bonaventure in Toronto.

Does Toronto hold special appeal to Ohioans? Ohio’s Avon Lake High School Chorale also performs a free concert at Kingston Road United Church on March 22.

On March 23 the Mohawk College Community Choir performs works by two late 19th century European organist/composers: Maurice Duruflé’s very appealing Requiem and Josef Rheinberger’s setting of the Stabat Mater. The Metropolitan Festival Choir also performs the Duruflé work on Good Friday, March 29.

For those who would like to further explore French choral repertoire, the Victoria Scholars Men’s Choral Ensemble performs “The French Connection”on March 3, with music by Caplet, Debussy, Fauré, and Poulenc.

On March 5 the Toronto Children’s Chorus takes part in “Fujii Percussion and Voices,” an event presented by Soundstreams. This concert sounds fascinating. Canadian musicians team up with the virtuoso Fujii family of Japan to perform modern works by Canadian and Japanese composers. The Fujii family are percussionists who specialize in the sanukite, a mallet instrument fabricated from an unusual volcanic stone located in the Sanuki region of Japan. 

Ben Stein is a Toronto tenor and theorbist. He can be contacted at choralscene@thewholenote.com. Visit his website at www.benjaminstein.ca.

In december 2012 a photo essay appeared in the New York Times showing the destruction of a piano abandoned on a New York sidewalk. A series of successive photos told a putatively moving story, accompanied by music sombre and dramatic by turns, in which the piano was stared at, played idly by passersby and ultimately destroyed and carted away.

What was more illuminating than the photos themselves were the comments posted online as the essay travelled over the internet. A number could be paraphrased as “What a sad comment on the current state of the arts, as the piano is trashed just like the culture.” The mixture of ruefulness and self-satisfaction was galling.

In art and everywhere else, the good old days were never good, folks. Culture is always in flux, and time alters our view of art that is initially considered trashy or meretricious — like Shakespeare, Delta blues or cable television — into something elevated and timeless. Anyone nostalgic for an Elysian epoch in which classical culture was ascendant throughout the West and there was a piano, a violin and a Beethoven score in every humble home, simply hasn’t read any history.

In 2009 American music historian Elijah Wald published How the Beatles Destroyed Rock ‘n’ Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music. Once you get past the misleadingly quarrel-picking title (good for generating a bit of buzz, anyhow), this book has many excellent insights about how we listen to music, and how our perception of it evolves over time.

Wald makes the point that the ability to record music irrevocably changed our experience of it. John Phillip Sousa coined the term “canned music,” and felt that recorded music would degrade people’s ability to create it themselves. In many ways he was correct. Wald states: “virtually all dancing is now commonly done to recordings.” Singing of lullabies at home and at religious services, two areas in which live music still functions, can easily be replaced with recorded music.

At the same time, Wald observes that we now have instant access to “the finest artists, alive or dead, who have ever been recorded anywhere in the world, and we can hear it whenever we want, wherever we go, in whatever order and whatever volume we please.” This has given modern musicians “a breadth of experience and created a wealth of fusions that would have been unimaginable” in the past. From the point of view of cross-cultural awareness and opportunity, you could argue that the good old days are right now. Let us look at the stylistic mixture of several concerts coming up in the next few weeks.

TCC on the move: Perhaps I am not especially sympathetic to pianos, abandoned or otherwise, because I regard them as such a poor instrument on which to introduce young children to music. When asked by parents about the advisability of beginner piano lessons, I usually start ranting about the dangers of subjecting children’s formative musical experiences to the piano’s complicated key mechanism and rigid tuning system. If the parents are still listening after an hour, I finish with a diatribe about singing and movement’s centrality to the development of musical skill.

My apologies, piano teachers. But what better support can I offer for these heretical notions than the excellent Toronto Children’s Chorus, which is helping raise the next generation of singers and choral conductors. They combine music and movement as they perform “Dance All Around the World” on February 23.

Sondheim Vivace: American musical theatre icon Stephen Sondheim’s brilliant scores are a resource that more choirs should explore. Choral versions of musical theatre songs lean towards the classic composers or the mid-20th century, or the juggernaut mega-musicals of the 1980s. Sondheim’s work is searching and complex, witty and sardonic, and a good choral performance of it can be rewarding for both audience and singers. Conductor and singer Linda Eyman is responsible for a busy pocket of Toronto music making — she conducts four separate choirs and maintains a private singing studio as well. One of her ensembles, Vivace Vox performs “Sondheim! Sondheim!”on February 24, including selections from Company, Into the Woods, Follies and Sweeney Todd, among others.

Bell’Arte’s 25th: Toronto’s Bell’Arte Singershas drawn many excellent Toronto singers into its ranks. They celebrate a quarter century of work with their “25th Anniversary Concert: Memories and Reflections” on March 2.

Gesualdo Sinister: In an art form that does not lack for odd characters, Italian Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo is one of the oddest and most sinister figures in history. The title of the Tallis Choir’s March 2 concert, “Gesualdo: Murderer & Musician,” states the case straightforwardly. I won’t relate the shocking story here. Instead, attend the concert to find out more, and don’t cheat by resorting to an online check. Gesualdo’s music is always worth hearing live — its anarchic harmonic shifts and haunting word painting are a high point of Renaissance madrigal writing. Some of his work sounds uncannily like some of the choral compositions of 20th century Austrian composer Ernst Krenek, and many modernist composers were drawn to his madrigals .

Rossini Solenelle (times two): Toronto audiences have a rare opportunity to hear Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle not once, but twice. The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir performs the work on February 9, and the Toronto Classical Singers sing it on March 3. The work was written in 1864, four years before the famed opera composer’s death. It is an engaging piece, first performed with a quirky piano and harmonium accompaniment. Rossini orchestrated it later on. Fans of bel cantoItalian vocal style will find much to love, especially the tenor solo showstopper, “Domine Deus.”

Magdalena goes modern: Schola Magdalena is a chamber ensemble of women’s voices, conducted by choral multi-tasker Stephanie Martin. Usually focused on early music , they make a foray into modern works in a concert sponsored by NUMUS, a very good contemporary music organization based out of Waterloo. This concert takes place on February 7 in Waterloo and again at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Toronto.

These are only a few of the excellent concert choices available in the coming weeks — please check out the listings and find out about the many other excellent choirs around. 

Ben Stein is a Toronto tenor and theorbist. He can be contacted at choralscene@thewholenote.com. Visit his website at benjaminstein.ca.

Asked to identify the true meaning of Christmas, those of us who look to the Grinch and Ebenezer Scrooge for spiritual guidance and inspiration might come up with a list that included traffic jams, grumpy people lined up at cash registers, un-spiked eggnog, Christmas cards=writer’s cramp, Christmas presents=credit card bills, snow=slush/shovelling/chiropractor fees.

Confronted with Tiny Tim, Cindy Lou Who and a few sad puppies in Santa hats, we might grudgingly acknowledge that somewhere in the midst of the chaos there is a chance to connect with family and friends and maybe do the odd bit of singing as well.

Choral musicians would likely add favourite composers, songs, oratorios and operas to the Christmas mix. The name of English composer and arranger John Rutter would show up on a few top ten lists — or on a few “to be avoided whenever possible” lists, because Rutter can be a polarizing name, especially as pertains to Christmas music.

Rutter’s original Christmas carols and carol arrangements have been a regular part of choral concerts since at least the 1970s, when his composition and recording work at Cambridge began to attract attention. While his academic background has led to work as a fine editor of choral music, it is his compositions that have made him an instantly recognizable name in choral circles.

For many people, Rutter’s work is synonymous with Christmas singing, and works like “Candlelight Carol” and “Star Carol” are compositions fit to stand alongside other famous and familiar seasonal songs. Others deem his music saccharine and sentimental, relentlessly middle of the road like Dunstan Ramsey’s description of himself as a reliable dinner guest in Robertson Davies’ Fifth Business: classy, heavily varnished, and offensive to no one.

My own opinion of Rutter’s work probably leans closer to the latter category. I find that his over-busy arrangements of carols often obscure the strength and simplicity of the old tunes and his musical tropes and lyrical sentiments usually leave me unmoved. But any derision I might have felt for this composer disappeared after seeing his musical skills in action firsthand.

Some years ago I sang for a choir that was recording some of Rutter’s works and Rutter himself came to conduct. Towards the end of the sessions and after one particularly gruelling day of recording, we broke for dinner, the tired singers spilling out onto the street. As I was leaving, I noticed that Rutter was bent over the piano, scribbling intently on a piece of manuscript paper. As I left, I said a word to him about the day’s endeavours, and he muttered a distracted reply.

When we returned for the evening session, he presented the singers with copies of a hymn that he had written while everyone else had been on break. While its derivations were obvious — its melodic contour and structure echoed a couple of well-known English Anglican hymns — it was a solid composition, fully realized, arranged and ready to record, written in under an hour.

Since then, any time I’ve heard negative comments about Rutter I’ve remembered that example of professionalism, technique and inspiration. Whether one responds to his aesthetic or not, no one can deny the deep craft imbedded in his music. Any composer or arranger who denigrates it might set themselves the comparable challenge of writing an appealing melody, effective vocal arrangement and straightforward, heartfelt lyrics, even without a 60-minute time limit. It’s much more difficult to do well than it might appear.

Rutter: Here are some (but by no means all) upcoming concerts that include works by Rutter.

On December 1 the Guelph Youth Singers perform “Winter Song,” a concert that includesRutter’s Brother Heinrich’s Christmas. The Mississauga Festival Choir performs Rutter’s Magnificat on the same day.

On December 7 and 8 the Sound Investment Community Choir perform “A Christmas Gift,” a concert that includes Rutter’s Gloria. They are joined by the Trillium Brass Quintet. Markham’s Village Voices perform this piece on December 1, Toronto Beach Chorale performs it on December 9

On December 7 the Upper Canada Choristers’ “Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day”features Rutter’s The Reluctant Dragon, a Christmas fable based on a story by Kenneth Grahame (of The Wind in the Willows fame).

And other concerts that will provide you with a Rutter fix include:

Vivace Vox’s “Songs of Light” and the Guelph Chamber Choir’s “Carols for Christmas” (both on December 2.) On December 16, Toronto’s Church of Saint Simon-the-Apostle has their familiar “Nine Lessons and Carols”service. Other carol services and concerts are going on all over the region, so please look at the listings for the many available options.

Lyrica Chamber Choir of Barrie’s December 8 concert, “Let All Mortal Flesh,” features works by Rutter and Norwegian-American composer Ola Gjeilo, whose accessible work has become popular in the USA, but is relatively new to this part of the world.

And not: I am happy to note concerts by two choral ensembles that had previously flown under my radar. The Kokoro Singers, founded in 2004, perform concerts in Ancaster and Guelph on December 8 and 9. The Volunge Lithuanian Choir, founded in 2006, performs a free concert on December 9.

On December 15, the Nine Sparrows Arts Foundation hosts “City Carol Sing” in support of food banks across Canada. The concert features several excellent ensembles — the Larkin Singers and the True North Brass among them — as well as a chance to hear renowned tenor Richard Margison and his daughter Lauren Margison, a notable singer in her own right.

2013 concerts to watch for: Conductor and keyboardist Philip Fournier is making a name for himself as a purveyor of early music in Toronto. A concert of music by Praetorius, Sweelinck, Couperin, Perotin (one of the earliest known composers of the European canon) and Palestrina takes place on January 12 at the elegant The Oratory of St. Philip Neri on King Street West.

The Elora Festival Singers perform the famous unfinished Mozart D Minor Requiem, K626, on January 20, for a concert and lunch event in Elora.

An opportunity to hear the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir takes place on January 26, at the Choral Conductors’ Symposium concert. This event is part of the TMC’s choral development program, in which upcoming conductors get a chance to work with a large professional ensemble. It is a terrific opportunity for young conductors who often find themselves bribing friends, family and viola players to muster enough of the requisite four sections to fill a living room. The event is free to the public, and takes place at Yorkminster Park Baptist Church in Toronto.

On February 3 the Shevchenko Musical Ensemble gives a concert that will include Serbian and Ukranian folk songs.

On the same evening, different choral ensembles from the University of Toronto join together to perform Beethoven’s Mass in C and Brahms’ haunting Nänie. 

Ben Stein is a Toronto tenor and theorbist. He can be contacted at choralscene@thewholenote.com. Visit his website at benjaminstein.ca.

Paintings and sculptures occupy physical space. Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa resides in the Louvre in perpetuity, guarded and revered, physical manifestations of “great art” in a hallowed space, ready for us to come and venerate.

Music, by contrast, is a manipulation of sound and time and lives in our minds and ears. Music is a physical experience not a physical object. Without our minds and ears to translate, it cannot exist.

Music needs to be iterated and reiterated to continue to live. The giants of the musical canon seem inviolate and firmly rooted, but even established musical giants have been as subject to trend and fashion as any other musician. Bach needed Mendelssohn to reintroduce his work to the world. Mahler’s work was headed for obscurity when it was championed by musical lion Leonard Bernstein. Vivaldi’s inescapable Four Seasons was actually a forgotten work at the beginning of the 20th century. Its rise in popularity corresponded with the rise of recording technology and turned a relatively obscure composer into a household name.

Because of its need to be constantly renewed, music is subject to the world’s often wayward and chaotic currents of artistic fashion (as is literature, theatre and architecture). Economics, technology, trend and fashion play a greater role in shaping our tastes than we understand or will admit to.

In Canada, a young nation swamped by European and American cultural and economic influence, we are continually reminding ourselves and each other that what we create here is worthy of advocacy. Canadian musicians whose careers may not have extended past national or even regional borders need and deserve our continued interest and awareness, especially after they are no longer in a position to promote themselves.

Barnes: One such composer is Milton Barnes who had a rich and varied career centred in Southern Ontario but ranging over North America. He had fruitful associations with many musicians, ensembles and dance companies. Trained in modernist compositional techniques, he ultimately moved to a more accessible style that factored in his background as a jazz drummer, his ease with popular music and his knowledge of traditional Jewish music.

Eleven years after his death, it would be easy for Barnes’ work to pass into disuse — new composers are fighting for space in a crowded local and global market and Canadian artistic history is so young it is hard to conceive of it as a tradition to be fostered, celebrated and renewed.

So it is good to see two Toronto choirs collaborating in a concert in part devoted to Barnes’ music. The Jubilate Singers have consistently created unusual and inventive programs. The Jewish Folk Choir is one of Toronto’s most long-running groups and has a long, varied and fascinating history of social and political engagement. It has been a staunch advocate for Jewish-Canadian music.

The two groups’ collaboration is named “L’khayim: A Celebration of Jewish Music,” and takes place on November 25. The concert showcases works in Yiddish, Ladino (a linguistic amalgam of Hebrew, Spanish and Aramaic influences) and Hebrew. Klezmer ensemble Shtetl Shpil are the guest instrumentalists. It will feature Barnes’ lively Sefarad, a tuneful suite that he wrote in 1996 to celebrate the 3,000th anniversary of the City of Jerusalem.

Soundstreams: Contemporary composition has also needed fierce advocacy, in part because of the fierceness with which audiences have resisted it. Over the course of the 20th century, the idea of the inherent superiority of European-derived composition has broken down completely and those who desire an intellectual component to music have been able to find it in various types of world music, jazz and other areas of popular music.

To remain relevant, contemporary music groups have had to bridge gaps between the European tradition and other stylistic areas. Toronto’s Soundstreams, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, has never wavered from its contemporary music mandate. But it has certainly expanded both its own and its audience’s understanding of what contemporary music entails. Their programs are notably free of pretension and over-seriousness; their mandate to involve and inspire young musicians gives their season a sense of liveliness and fun.

As part of its anniversary celebrations, Soundstreams is hosting a concert with the Latvian Radio Choir, considered to be one of the world’s top choral ensembles. A truly professional outfit, they give over 60 concerts a year. Choral aficionados definitely don’t want to miss this one.

The icing on the cake: as part of its commitment to outreach and education, Soundstreams will host four choirs from Canadian universities for this concert which will allow young musicians the experience of working with the Latvian Radio Choir in a mentorship capacity. The concert includes a number of Russian and Latvian works, a piece by John Cage and music by a nice range of contemporary Canadian composers.

Other concerts of note

On November 3 the Hamilton Children’s Choir gives a fundraising concert in support of the choir’s performance at the Xinghai International Choir Championships. Please come out and support this endeavour.

On November 17 and 18 the Cantemus Singers perform an early music program that includes Charpentier’s In Nativitatem Domini.

The recent Wes Anderson film Moonrise Kingdom (now available on DVD) brilliantly utilized the music of Benjamin Britten throughout, including Britten’s wonderful and popular children’s opera Noye’s Fludde. On November 23 there is an opportunity to hear this work live, as the VIVA! Youth Singers take part in a staged version.

In a similar vein, the Elora Festival Singers perform Menotti’s festive Amahl and the Night Visitors on November 25. This opera is a touching and humorous work and an excellent introduction to opera for children.

As we head into the Christmas season, many choirs gear up for seasonal concerts. Next month, there is an astonishing number of concerts taking place on December 1, too many to list effectively. Please have a look at the listings to see how many varied and interesting choices there are on that Saturday evening. 

Ben Stein is a Toronto tenor and theorbist.  He can be contacted at choralscene@thewholenote.com.  Visit his website at benjaminstein.ca.