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Choir to perform Whitman set to music

PREVIEW: Chor Leoni will mark Nov. 11 with Pensive on Her Dead Gazing, set for for voices and piano by Stephen Smith.

Absorb them well, O my earth, she cried - I charge you, lose not my sons!
Lose not an atom; and you streams, absorb them well, taking their dear blood . . .
And you trees, down in your roots, to bequeath to all future trees,
My dead absorb - my young men's beautiful bodies absorb . . .

- Walt Whitman, "Pensive on Her Dead Gazing," from Leaves of Grass (1900)

Despite a gloomy November day in Kits, composer Stephen Smith couldn't be more optimistic about the forthcoming premiere of his Pensive on Her Dead Gazing for men's voices and piano.

Smith specializes almost exclusively in writing for choral groups. His original compositions and arrangements of others' works have found great favour with choirs that appreciate his assured way with vocal writing.

Smith is essentially self-taught. "I only had one year of formal composition at Acadia University with Owen Stephens," he says. "His specialty was serialism, but he was a good, very thorough teacher." An opportunity to work with American choral doyenne Alice Parker also helped to shape Smith's musical perspectives.

Early this year Vancouver's award-winning men's choir, Chor Leoni, asked Smith to write something for Remembrance Day. Saturday's programs (at West Vancouver United Church and Christ Church Cathedral) make this the 14th year the ensemble has marked Canada's day of remembrance with a special musical event.

It seems Chor Leoni is on to something with this men's choir/Remembrance Day connection -- more and more ensembles are adding similar programs to their seasons. The theme of loss and remembrance gives choirs a unusual opportunity to present very serious music for a very solemn occasion.

Smith turned to the words of 19th century American poet Walt Whitman -- "The most set poet in English," Smith says. Whitman has the right mood and, as someone who witnessed the U.S. Civil War first hand, a real understanding of what he was writing about. Whitman well understood both the camaraderie of fighting men and the deep emotions stirred by their enduring memory.

Despite the occasional obscurity of Whitman's idiom, Smith knew he had found the text he wanted to set in Pensive on Her Dead Gazing.

"Of course Whitman does write these long sentences. Sometimes, by the time you get to the verb, you've lost where you are. Music can help remedy this. Also, I can excise bits, or sometimes combine words, to clarify the meaning.

"Chor Leoni is a group I know very well -- I know their particular sound and, after 15 years of working with men's choirs, I know all the 'sweet spots' and what male voice choirs can really do."

Though an anticipated highlight, Smith's new work isn't the only out-of-the-ordinary music on Saturday's program. Chor Leoni director Diane Loomer invariably comes up with more than her share of interesting repertoire choices.

The choir's language skills should get quite a workout in music in Estonian by Veljo Tormis and in Russian by Aleksandr Sheremetev. There's also Slovenská pieseň by Eugen Suchoň -- according to publicist and choir member Bruce Hoffman, quite a handful.

"The Slovakian piece by Suchoň is wild -- fast, very dramatic, full of crunchy chords and requiring full-out but controlled forte unaccompanied singing," Hoffman says. "And of course, it's in Slovak, which presents its own unique challenges."

Hoffman predicts that Smith's new work "is destined for greatness as a male choir favourite. Stephen knows what Chor Leoni can do best -- he was our official accompanist for several years in the mid-'90s - and his sensitivity to how singers work make it an unbelievably beautiful piece."

Loomer is just as enthusiastic. "Stephen's work speaks to the central point of our concert. Through the memories of friends and loved ones, we are remembered, cherished and, in a sense, reborn."

David Gordon Duke is a Vancouver writer and educator. Posted with the author's permission.
The Vancouver Sun

Posted by bruce on November 9, 2006 at 11:19 AM
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