Latest Reviews of Harmonium Choral Society Concerts

Reviews of our March 2008 concert, Whitmania:

To copy file:  Walt Whitman’s Modernism and Populism, by Paul M. Somers
Allons! Walt Whitman's road is before us! by George! at NJ.com

Listen to New Music 

Walt Whitman’s Modernism and Populism

Harmonium Choral Society, Anne Matlack (conductor).

Leslie Adler (soprano), Mark Hewitt (baritone), John Lamb (bass).

Vaughan Williams: Dona Nobis Pacem; Schuman: Carols of Death; Mark Andrew Miller:

Song of the Open Road (premiere).  Church of the Redeemer, Morristown.

By Paul M. Somers

The Harmonium Choral Society presented a theme concert with much to consider. Each

of the three works used poetry by Walt Whitman, whose muse still resonates as

inclusively modern and American after all these years. And each work, when placed in

our contemporary historical moment speaks about war and our response to it. The final

work seemed to connect with the idealistic view of the future which we find in the

younger members of classical music audiences now becoming less enamored of the old

classics and craving new philosophical ideas.

To understand the thrust of the concert let me begin at the beginning.

Ralph Vaughn Williams’ still touching, even haunting Dona nobis pacem, which mixes

the Latin Mass, Whitman selections, and Biblical scripture is a voice of peace in the face

of war. In its own way it is a precursor to the greatest piece of 20th century choral

literature, Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, which also mixes poetry and Latin liturgy.

Composed in five continuous movements — the fifth often, as in this instance, divided in

two — it can be unwieldy in the hands of the less experienced. But Anne Matlack is a

past master at pacing and finding the true climax of such a work. Her musicality in this

case was informed by her moral sensibility. “Every time we sing this, it counts for

peace,” she said in a promotional email, and her emotional connection to the work could

be heard in the communicative phrasing.

Yet it was not all emotion. There was the balance of intellect, as there should be.

Rhythms and therefore diction were precise, driving the piece forward cleanly. Choral

ensemble was taut.

Matlack, like so many other choral conductors, chooses her soloists from within the

chorus. Because of the high reputation of the Harmonium Choral Society, some very

fine singers are available. Soprano Leslie Adler sang with a voice which, probably

adjusted to match the subject matter, touchingly reminded one of a boy-soprano without

actually being one. Both baritone Mark Hewitt and bass John Lamb have resonant

voices with secure pitch and well controlled attacks and releases. All three were

eminently musical.

William Schuman’s Carols of Death was sung by the Chamber Singers. Its language

uses dissonance in the composer’s distinctive and effective manner. It is not easy to

produce in an a cappella piece. These singers, however, produced as good a

performance as one can imagine: secure, in tune, well nuanced, and committed.

Especially effective were the pianissimos where intonation can so often falter. In short,

they were utterly professional.

Resignation and acceptance of death make for emotionally difficult music to hear in

these times. But it was a most appropriate choice to hold up the consequences of war in

an artistic setting.

After looking war and death in the face, the unbounded optimism of Mark Andrew

Miller’s setting of Whitman’s Song of the Open Road presented a vision of the future

which finds a path other than war. The music is eclectic in the best sense of the word.

One hears folk-like tunes (a melody reminiscent of Shenandoah is one of the main

themes), and one hears the broad expanses of an epic western film. More urban

suggestions rise from his jazzy syncopations, and the sounds of Protestant hymnody

and African-American gospel surface on occasion. It is what one would expect, indeed,

hope for were there a modern WPA composer program. It is people’s music: inviting,

easily understood, yet not simplistic.

For all its populism, it is well made. Themes recur, motives have meaning and tie the

twenty-three minute work together so the music never becomes episodic on the one

hand, nor on the other hand does it sprawl or meander. There is always a long range

goal, places in the score where the music tells us we have finally arrived.

Miller handles the chamber orchestra well as it supports but never overwhelms the

singers. Yet at those climactic points the effect is heightened by the power of the

instruments. He showed particular skill in using the horn and trumpet registers to fine

effect.

Song of the Open Road

is a work which is not as technically challenging as the earlier

two pieces in the concert, though it is not dimwittedly easy. It is possible that the

Harmonium forces are just so good that they never sounded as if they were hard

pressed for even one second. Yet that ease is part of the effectiveness of the piece, and

perhaps part of a wider future for it. It captures the populist optimism of Whitman’s text

by being of the same type.

“Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms, Strong and content I travel

the open road,” says Whitman in the second stanza of his poem.

And it is that sense of openness and vastness which Miller evokes and which thrilled the

audience. Long applause and a standing ovation greeted the composer, who had been

at the piano as part of the instrumental ensemble.

March 2, 2008