Friday, December 4th, 2009
First United Methodist Church
142 East Jackson Street
Orlando, FL
"If Ye Would Hear" saw its premiere last night! Greg LeFils, Assistant Music Director, led the 20 voice Orlando Chamber Singers through my new arrangement of this ancient Dutch carol. Thank you Greg, for your dedication to my work, and thank you Gregory Ruffer, for being open to this and later work! The talented singers who put their hearts and attention to my and all of the other composers' works are such a gift, especially Ledean Williams. Ledean is the groups accompanist, and her interpretation and brilliant musicality gilded the voices perfectly.
Christopher Marshall was represented last night, too with a reading of his work "Golden Carol". His deep experience with vocal composition was apparent from the beginning, every line rich with melodic fervor that seems like it would just feel as good to sing in the body as it is heard as an audience. The shape of the texture and weaving of lines magically produced a kind of mystical experience of presence and surprise. Dr. Marshall mentioned that some of the words came from the Maori people. I'm looking forward to learning more about this work and its meaning. Chris' use of compositional technique always balanced with the delivery of meaning.
Another premier was that from Steve Danyew, as Boston Master's degree student, who's music was heard last year. This work, "Benediction" is remarkably mature. His sense of harmony and space are simply wonderful. But what made this work excellent was how excellent rich harmonies were approached to make them singable. "Benediction" reminded me of Eric Whitacre in that way. Also, like Whitacre's work, Danyew took advantage of very high soprano registers - though these leaps proved a bit shaky in performance. I look forward to hearing more from Mr. Danyew.
Yet a fourth and fifth premiere were heard in this Christmas concert, that from Richard Bissell, a tenor in the group hailing from the Boston choral scene. Richard's work is straightforward, strong traditional choral writing that would present few challenges to most any choir. "Bethlehem" encapsulates the Christmas story nicely making it an excellent contender in the crowded Christmas music scene. Richard's chromatic inner voice leading often reminded me of barbershop style. "I Can't Wait for Christmas", heard later in the program by the entire Orlando Chorale was really fun! This lovely little Christmas gem reminded me of how I felt as a little kid, so overly excited for Christmas morning! Richard scored excited exclamations to be performed by voices in such a childlike manner. A cute and fun piece - receiving the most abundant applause and audience reactions of all of the new works. Congratulations, Richard!
Rand Snell's "A Clear Midnight" was also performed. This difficult work was premiered last spring by the Chorus but suffered from underrehearsal. I am glad it was reprogrammed by Mr. Ruffer because a beautiful, moving work it is! This piece explores quartal/quintal lines with slight chromatic shifts both melodically and vertically. A tightly composed work, Mr. Snell furnished a kernal of musical material in the opening phrases and forged a unique musical world for its duration. It climbs and sweeps.
Of the other works, my favorites included the John Taverner, who, like Christopher Marshall and Steve Danyew, employ new fresh constructions that sound 'loud' and so carry more intention in the air. The harmony clusters I employed in "If Ye Would Hear" will always suffer from the dense intermodulation of harmonics which reduce the volume - and if are not perfectly in tune, create a 'cloud', and thereby lose intention. Though my family like this work the least because of its chromatic harmonic and melodic dissonance - I found it rather amazing as it moved back and forth from chromaticism to more basic tonality. I knew it from my recording collection and it is good to hear it in actual performance. The Glenn Rudolph and Stephen Paulus arrangements were especially excellent choices by Mr. Ruffer, and the final work, especially thanks to the excellent tenor voice of Carlos Santelli finished the evening in very high spirits indeed.
