Et Lux Perpetua

University of Victoria Chamber Singers

Thomas Nicholson, piano, organ

Josh Layne, harp

Garry Froese, conductor

Phillip T Young Recital Hall
November 6, 2015

By Deryk Barker

"The past is never dead. It's not even past."

William Faulkner's words seem particular apposite for the activities on and around Remembrance Day. Most certainly the "War to End All War", despite the fact that nobody who participated in it is still alive, casts its long shadow to this day.

Howard Goodall is one of the most recent composers to write a Requiem, although Eternal Light is not a full setting of the text of the requiem mass: as Goodall himself says "I stripped the Latin text down to a handful of resonant phrases and went in search of poetry, some sacred, some secular, to shed new light on the various requiem concepts: peace, everlasting light, grief, comfort, and, most controversial of all, faith in an afterlife".

To this end Goodall adapted varous diverse texts including Francis Quarles's hymn "Close now thine eyes", Ann Thorp's poem "Belief", Mary Elizabeth Frye's "Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep", Cardinal Newman's "Lead, kindly light" and John McCrae's immortal "In Flanders Fields".

Friday's concert consisted solely of Goodall's work, bookended by the entry and exit of colours, courtesy of the Trafalgar/Pro Patria Legion, and the Canadian and British National Anthems sung as one rarely ever hears them - in tune and clearly enunciated. I must confess that while I remained unmoved by "God Save the Queen", "Oh Canada!" (sung in both official languages) did raise a prickle at the back of the eyes and a lump in the throat.

But to the main event. The requiem begins with the organ (a portative set up at right-angles to the piano, so that keyboard player Thomas Nicholson could easily play either or, as was required on at least one occasion, both simultaneously) and then the harp (the ever-reliable Josh Layne) before the choir's first, supplicatory entry, which, in terms of accuracy, diction and sheer musicality, was an augur of things to come.

It has been a while since I last heard the Chamber Singers; I certainly believe this to have been the first such occasion since Garry Froese took them over and I am delighted to report that standards have been maintained. Throughout they sang beautifully with excellent intonation and commendably clear diction.

The music itself was not, in my opinion, uniformly successful. (This does not, I hasten to emphasise, apply to the performance.) At its best - and to be fair, this was the majority of the work - it was moving and touching. But there were also movements which seemed stylistically confused. Perhaps the best example of this was the sixth movement: "Dies Irae; In Flanders Fields" which must feature the most strident and edgy setting of the poem I've yet heard. While I completely understand and sympathise with the anger and outrage expressed - my grandfather was wounded on the Somme, but would never speak of it - I could not help but feel that this was not the right verse for that expression. Goodall avoids the usual War Poets - such as Owen and Sassoon - perhaps feeling that, after Britten's War Requiem, that particular train has left the station. I beg to disagree. The setting of "Dona eis requiem" ("give them rest") in the ninth movement also seemed rather hectoring in tone. Hardly the way to address the almighty.

But the best of the requiem is very good indeed, even if not as melodically memorable as some of Goodall's work. That best included a fine setting of Newman's "Lead Kindly Light" which was far from the dreary hymn we all know.

I was also very much taken with the setting of Ann Thorp's poem, which begins "I have to believe that you still exist somewhere" sung first as a deeply touching solo; its accompanied reprise underlined the notion that the poem was an exercise in self-reassurance; the phrase "whistling in the dark" came inexorably to mind.

The soloist in this movement was Mandy Wiltshire who was excellent, as, indeed, were the other soloists whose work was spread throughout the requiem: Emily Stewart, Liam Pistor, Allison Kingsley, Nic Renaud, Emmanuel Moore, Brittney Jette, Xuguang Zhang, Rebecca Thackray and Zander Felton.

Nicholson's and Layne's contributions were also outstanding and Froese welded the disparate parts into an almost convincing whole.