The idea for Chorale’s current project, “Choral Music in the Americas” came to me over a year ago, while I was watching the “White Lotus” HBO series. Intrigued by the first season’s Hawaiian background music, much of it arranged for choir, I contacted a friend with ties to the Twin Cities-based group “The Rose Ensemble” (since disbanded), which had performed and recorded the music. She referred me to their recordings and scores. I listened, perused, and decided that these pieces, though appropriate for the series, would not work for Chorale. In the process of working through them, however, it struck me that this music from the Pacific islands was American Choral Music, and that I had never before thought of it in that light. This set me to thinking about the far-flung nations and cultures that should be considered under the umbrella of American choral music— a vastly broader spectrum of choral expression than I had previously considered.
At the same time, Chorale was performing Misatango, by Argentinian composer Martin Palmeri. My background reading about the tango genre impressed upon me the role that synthesis and hybridization have played in the development of American music of all types, from the Atlantic to the Pacific and the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego. These developments have taken shape in fairly recent times, as the result of wave after wave of immigration and conquest, and our musics reflect these waves, and the new cultures that have resulted.
I knew I could touch on only a fraction of all this in a single concert, but I thought I’d take a stab at presenting representative sources, composers, and arrangers, which contribute to the kaleidoscopic whole we call American music.
North Americans are most aware of the British/Scottish/Irish settlement of our east coast, from New England down to Georgia. These settlers brought both sacred and secular music with them, which will be represented in our program by two arrangements from the Sacred Harp hymnal, plus an arrangement of the well-known sea chanty, Shenandoah. These arrangements are as much part of our history as the original source material, demonstrating the interpretations of these European sources by modern, American ears.
I have chosen three contemporary, original compositions from the Caribbean and South America: from Cuba, El juramento, by Miguel Matamoros; Venezuela, O Magnum Mysterium, by Cesar Carrillo; and Haiti, Dominus Vobiscum, by Sydney Guillaume. Turning next to Canada, we will present Vision Chant, an original composition by Cree composer Andrew Balfour, based upon an Indigenous chant style. This will be followed by Brier, a Good Friday motet, composed in 2004 by Jeff Smallman. Following these Canadian compositions, we will sing Let My Love Be Heard, by Minnesota composer Jake Runestad.
Central to our program will be Samuel Barber’s magisterial Agnus Dei, based by the composer on his well-known Adagio for Strings.
We’ll conclude with a set of three African American pieces. The first, My God is a Rock, is arranged by the team of Robert Shaw and Alice Parker. The second, The Word was God, is an original composition by Rosephanye Powell, an African American female composer. The third, Joshua!, is an arrangement of a traditional spiritual by African American composer Stacey Gibbs. They present three very different points of view on this important American genre.
Does this sound like a DMA lecture-recital? It won’t be, I promise you. Each of these pieces is compelling in its own right, and they fit together as an engaging whole. You’ll be proud you live on this side of the Atlantic.