MiV Home
St. Mary's Anglican Church, Saanichton
May 25, 2013
When putting together a concert program, choir-masters must walk a fine line between pleasing and educating the audience. An offering of Brahms' choral works is an easy draw, while celebrating Canada in contemporary songs is perhaps a more audacious proposition. Whatever the reason, the church was only half full when the 20-strong Vox Humana under the baton of conductor Brian Wismath made their entrance. As for the other half...well, it was their loss!
Actually, "under the baton" conveys the wrong impression, for the singers seemed anything but brow-beaten. The good chemistry within the choir was obvious, and Brian Wismath drew chuckles as he struggled with his pitch pipe before the start of some of the pieces. He also earned much laughter and applause from the audience with his vivacious background anecdotes.
The concert opened with David Archer's rendition of "O Canada", featuring exquisite variations of the melodic theme and an interweave of the English and French lyrics. Archer himself was present in the audience. His arrangement of an old French folk song, "C'est la belle Françoise", also formed part of the program, blending modern harmonic structure with a touch of madrigal.
Sarah Quartel, who had arranged The Green Shores of Fogo, was also present. This piece, as well as those by Archer and one by Jeff Enns called She's Like the Swallow, had been commissioned by Vox Humana. The program included a heavily syncopated adaptation of Enns' achingly beautiful Song for the Mira, a piece whose original loveliness could perhaps have done without the jazzed-up embellishments.
Four of Stephen Chatman's evocative nature pieces - Nor'easter, Trees, Sunset, Mountains - underscored the unmistakably Canadian flavour of the program. His "On the Beach at Night Alone", based on Walt Whitman's famous poem, followed. This piece, along with Harry Sommers' feisty Feller from Fortune, were accompanied by Steph Sartore on the grand piano.
If one wanted to look for a distinctly Canadian syntax among the songs, one might conclude that there exists a predilection for a 3/4 time signature and deliciously ambiguous harmonies. Where the curdling chords in a contemporary orchestral symphony might make us shiver, the same notes from a choir are likely to leave us with a more pleasurable frisson. Perhaps the reason is that we are more at home with the human voice and its organic blend of under- and overtones. Chords consisting of major seconds have almost become the norm in modern choral music, and semitones abound as well. Which raises the question: How easy is it for a singer to hold on to a C when the person next to him is belting out a C-sharp?
I first put this question to composer David Archer, who replied that it depends on which direction the two singers are coming from. If they simply sing sustained parallel notes, it is manageable, but if they arrive from different tonal directions, a mid-air collision is more likely. I then asked Brian Wismath a similar question in the context of how well his choir adjusted to a dissonant repertoire. He answered that, once the singers became hooked, it was difficult to bring them back to the more traditional harmonic syntax. So there we are: dissonances can be addictive after all!
MiV Home