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"Give me that old time ..." choral concert
Including a brand new work to keep alive
Saturday, June 3, 2006
Robert W. Butts

Harmonium, Anne Matlack (conductor). "A Well of Memories," featuring music of Elgar, Barnwell, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Barber, Victoria, Harris and others
including Jonathan MacMillan, winner of the Ninth Annual New Jersey High School Composition Contest. Grace Church, Madison.

One sensed that it was going to be an enjoyable concert as soon as one entered Grace Church. Singers were standing in the hall conversing and smiling, radiating a relaxed anticipation filled with positive energy. These vibes proved real as Music Director Anne Matlack and Harmonium performed one of the most joy-filled and thoroughly pleasurable choral concerts one could hope for - which was somewhat ironic considering the theme was "A Well of Memories," meaning there were predominantly sad, nostalgic, sentimental emotions dripping from every selection. Yet, memories are a paradoxical mixture of warm recollections of joyful past times tinged with the realization how they must reside in the past.

The concert opened in Harmonium's usual surround sound manner, filling the church with Wanting Memories by Ysaye M. Barnwell. A slight "pop" sound was created immediately as the men sang rhythmic syllables while the women sang words telling of the memories of "the things that made me feel so wonderful when I was young." In listening, I was struck by the character of the music, the rhythms and melodic shapes, the syllabic background motion and the overall ensemble sound. At times, it reminded me of African music yet at the same time made called to mind Caribbean music like calypso.

These thoughts came back to me when they reached the final work of the first half: Vamuvamba, a traditional Tiriki song arranged by Kenyan composer Boniface Mganga. First, I was struck by the unique beauty of African ensemble singing styles. It also reminded me how steeped we still are in the stereotypical misconception that African music means dominated by rhythm and percussion. Important as those factors are, it's easy to forget that several African cultures have produced magnificent music in an a cappella ensemble tradition as well, with its own distinctive harmonic balance and fluidity. Matlack and harmomium sang this selection with deep understanding and emotional involvement, bringing forth the highly sensual beauty with which they vocally enveloped the audience. As I listened, I then thought back to that opening number - an immediate memory recall within a concert devoted to memories - and was reminded of the strong influence of African traditions on Caribbean cultures, perhaps the source of my inability to fully identify the influences I'd noticed on Barnwell's piece. In considering the elements of similarity, I was also led to ponder the oral transmission which some of these sound influences had on the a cappella ensemble singing of early "doo-wop" rock 'n' roll.

Between the two selections were several pleasant numbers by Ron Jeffers, Stephan Chatman, and Stephen Hatfield along with an energetic change of pace with Charles Villiers Stanford's Quick! We Have But a Second.

Particularly interesting were three works by people Matlack described as "legitimate composers": Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Barber. Of course, her designation really was made tongue-in-cheek and referred more to their general recognition and place in history, but with the very first notes of Tchaikovsky's "Blazheni Yazhe Izbral" ("Blessed are they, whom thou hast
chosen" from the All-night Vigil, op. 52) it was clear that we were hearing a master composer. Powerfully rich sounds and effective harmonization filled the church with a darkly expressive sonority. Each vocal section was distinct, yet at all times fitting within the brief psalm's full bodied texture. Brahms' ("Lost youth") was a very satisfying work filled with Brahmsian sentimentality and melodic wealth. Barber's "We Have Lost Even This Twilight" (part of a larger collection set to the poetry of
Pablo Neruda) was sensitively performed, with every delicate nuance perfectly conveyed. The terrific emotional arc of the three works was charged with intensity and poignancy.

There were many more great selections on the second half, but pride of place for me belonged "A Shropshire Lament" by Jonathan MacMillan. If the composer's name is unknown, it's because he is the winner of Harmonium's Ninth Annual New Jersey High School Composition Contest. Though only a sophomore at Vernon Township High School, MacMillan demonstrated a sophisticated compositional awareness. His writing was technically solid and consistently engaging. Audience attention was grabbed immediately with the introductory piano passages and increased with the well blended vocal entrances. His harmonic sense while largely within the bounds of conventional tonality, was interesting and filled with effective surprises. The relationship between the piano and the voices was especially intriguing. It rarely resembled accompaniment, but was more of an individual voice of its own yet was supportive and part of the whole even while maintaining an independent distance. The greatest tribute to the composition was something I and a couple of other listeners felt: of all the wonderful pieces on the program, MacMillan's setting of Houseman's poem was one piece I would most like to hear again.

Having said that, however, I must also say that I would welcome another hearing of almost every other piece as well. Tomas Luis de Victoria's Jesu Dulcis Memoria was beautifully performed. Luis Carlos Romero's El Mambi (in an arrangement by Carlos Abril) was filled with evocative sentiments, conveying images of a Cuba known now only from the memory filled recollections of those who knew the island in pre-Castro days. Blind Blake's Run, Come, See Jerusalem was filled with tremendous exuberance.

The concert closed with two songs guaranteed to bring forth nostalgic feelings and the poignancy of memories, though the songs themselves, like all memorable events, might not have a specific so much as a general sentiment of nostalgia. "The Sidewalks of New York" is one of those songs so familiar, it's hard to believe it was actually written and not just a folk song. But Charles Lawlor and James Blake (here arranged by Robert de Cormier) composed it in the 1890s. An extremely nice touch was Matlack's invitation to sing along - an invitation the audience didn't hesitate to accept.

Appropriately, Harmonium closed with a deeply moving performance of Auld Lang Syne.

But, just as Robbie Burns' Auld Land Syne, often signals the end of something at the beginning of another, so, too, did Harmonium not exactly close with this classic, but chose to encore with a rousing and thoroughly memorable rendition of that traditional hymn Old Time Religion featuring an outstanding solo performance by Joan O'Donnell.

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