Whitacre’s essay posits that there are four qualities which put the UK’s choirs at the top of the heap: tuning, sight-reading, tone and knowledge.  While an entirely different critique could be written on whether or not these qualities denote musicality or simply accuracy, I think it better to engage Mr. Whitacre on his own points.

Pomerium

First, “Tuning”:  Mr. Whitacre makes the blanket statement that, “choristers in the UK are taught from a very early age not only to sing in tune but to listen to those around them.”  Mr. Whitacre ignores the fact that the tuning revolution actually began in the colonies.  Case and point: in 1996 when John Rutter’s Cambridge Singers were still recording albums with unregulated vibrato, Alexander Blachly and his ensemble Pomerium recorded the music of Guillaume Du Fay on The Virgin and the Temple (ARCHIV) using just intonation and pure senza vibrato singing.  Blachly and Pomerium had been working on this revolutionary approach to pure tuning (with the singers singing pure fifths and fourths) since the late 1980s, and perfected it long before any UK choir had even considered this a possibility.

Chanticleer

On the topic of “tone”, Mr. Whitacre lauds the Queen’s Own for producing a sound which is “bright and clear, with a healthy spin and not too much vibrato.”  In one sense, Mr. Whitacre is right: the English school values a specific tone quality in its ensemble singing.  It is a quality, however, that, while wholly appropriate to the music of its countryman, is not necessarily ideal for the variety of other national compositional styles that any quality chorus would make as its bread and butter.   Chanticleer, in its 1999 album Colors of Love (TELDEC) was able to create the pure “English” sound of which Mr. Whitacre speaks for the singular recording of Sir John Tavener’s “Village Wedding,” and then creates an entirely different sound world for the music of Chen Yi and Augusta Reed Thomas.  Their tonal versatility on this recording garnered the ensemble its first GRAMMY award.

Since Mr. Whitacre writes in a style which borrows heavily from the soft, resolving dissonances of the early 20^th century English compositional school, typified by Vaughan Williams, Finzi and Stanford, I can certainly understand why he values the tonal styling of British Choirs—they are ideal interpreters of music of their countrymen.  It is not, however, the ne plus ultra of choral tone by any stretch of the imagination.

Kent Tritle

Sight-Reading:  Quips Mr. Whitacre, “The Brits are possibly the world’s greatest sight-readers.”  Mr. Whitacre bases this claim on the quickness to which English choirs have taken to his music in rehearsals.  This is certainly laudable, but I would invite Mr. Whitacre to sit in on the rehearsals of Kent Tritle’s Choir of St. Ignatius in New York City and witness that remarkable ensemble put together a concert of Alfred Schnittke’s “Choir Concerto” on a mere 5 rehearsals.  Indeed, on a similarly compact rehearsal schedule, the majority-volunteer San Francisco Symphony Chorus, under the direction of the stunningly musical Ragnar Bohlin, put together an earth-shattering performance of Francis Poulenc’s “Figure Humaine.”  None of this could be accomplished through anything less than estimable musical abilities and well-honed sight-reading skills.

And then one comes to the most troubling point: “Knowledge.”  Mr. Whitacre makes the general and unsupported statement that, “They [English choral musicians] have the beating hearts of singers and the brains of trained musicians and this places them among the most potent and versatile artists on the planet.”   Does this not apply doubly to American choirs, who are expected to regularly perform the music of a much broader cultural inheritance?

Craig Hella Johnson

The Austin-based professional choir Conspirare, under the direction of my highly-talented colleague Craig Hella Johnson, creates seasons which feature European Renaissance polyphony, the African American Spiritual, and the great repertory of American popular music.  The Phoenix Chorale and Kansas City Chorale, with Charles Bruffy at the helm, have recorded GRAMMY-winning albums of the music of Rheinberger, Mantyjarvi, Gretchaninoff and Rene Clausen.  The Los Angeles Master Chorale under Grant Gershon regularly pairs Mozart and Haydn with living composers such as Eve Beglarian, Christopher Rouse and Ariel Ramirez.

The Rose Ensemble

Even those of us who identify as Early Music ensembles have a much broader repertoire than our UK counterparts.  The Rose Ensemble, Jordan Sramek’s remarkable early music gem from Minnesota, tours programs ranging from Gregorian Chant and the Cantigas de Santa Maria to historical music from Hawaii and South American Baroque.  Peter Ruttenberg’s Las Angeles Chamber Singers & Cappella won a GRAMMY award for their marvelous recording of the music of the 17^th century Mexican composer Juan Guttierez de Padilla (RCM 2006) while still tending to European masters like Lassus, Byrd and Palestrina. My own vocal ensemble, Seraphic Fire, has committed the same time and resources that we give to Bach and Monteverdi to the music of first generation American composers Sydney Guillaume (Haiti), Alvaro Bermudez (Colombia) and Paul Crabtree (UK) who freely mix texts and rhythms from their country of origin and their adopted homeland.

Are American choirs less specialized than British choirs?  Perhaps, but not to any detriment to the ensembles.  The cultural expectations on our choruses are exceedingly high, with the responsibility to tend to both the European choral tradition as well as the blossoming musical tradition of the Americas.  Our choirs regularly tackle Haitian Creole, Korean, Argentinian-inflected Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and many others while still tending to the standard European musical languages (Latin, French, German, Italian, Russian, Old Church Slavonic, Czech, Hungarian, Swedish, Finnish, etc…).  This, in this conductor’s admittedly biased opinion, requires an equally broad “knowledge” base from our ensembles.

That a British publication would focus primarily on its own in a “Best Of” list is to be expected.  That an American composer nurtured and supported by the American choral community would be so quick to agree is disappointing.  As Mr. Whitacre believes that British choirs are best, then let us as American ensembles leave it to his newly-found favourites to perform his music.

Patrick Dupré Quigley
Artistic Director
Seraphic Fire

Julianne Baird is at her best in this Youtube clip:

Two Bookes of Ayres:
The First Booke
XI.
by Thomas Campion.

Neuer weather-beaten Saile more willing bent to shore,
Neuer tyred Pilgrims limbs affected slumber more,
Than my wearied spright now longs to flye out of my troubled
brest :
O come quickly, sweetest Lord, and take my soule to rest.

Euer-blooming are the ioys of Heau’ns high paradice,
Cold age deafes not there our eares, nor vapour dims our eyes :
Glory there the Sun outshines, whose beames the blessed
onely see ;
O come quickly, glorious Lord, and raise my spright to thee

Gloryland

If you have friends in Gloryland
Who left because of pain,
Thank God up there, they’ll die no more
They’ll suffer not again

Then weep not friends,
I‘m going home
Up there we’ll die no more
No coffins will be made up there
No graves on that bright shore

The lame will walk in Gloryland
The blind up there will see
The deaf in Gloryland will hear
The dumb will talk to me

The doctor will not have to call
The undertaker – no
There’ll be no pain up there to bear
Just walk the streets of gold

We’ll need no sun in Gloryland
The moon and stars won’t shine
For Christ himself is light up there
He reigns of love divine

Then weep not friends,
I’m going home
Up there we’ll die no more
No coffins will be made up there
No graves on that bright shore

Dork that I am, I nearly stroke out while driving I’m so excited. Really, how many times does a Berg opera come on the radio? I was smiling and humming along (to serial music…heee) and then thought to myself, “How many people are changing the channel right now?” It was a ammusing thought to picture tens of thousands of opera fans simultaneously changing the station.

Anyway, if this doesn’t give me serious dork cred, I don’t know what does. I was so happy and excited, I even took a picture of the radio console.

This was passed on to me by a friend with the title “Satan Has Called in His Favor With Keith Lockhart.”

http://messiahrocks.com/

To say that I am appalled really does not do my emotions justice right now. Honestly, I’m not that square when it comes to playing around with the Monuments of Classical Music. Even “Messiah” is fair game in my opinion.

Example: In 1992, Quincy Jones (as a benefit for the United Negro College Fund) got together a bunch of the top African-American soul, funk and r&b artists in the business to do a take on Messiah (titled: A Soulful Celebration). The disc was genius — if you haven’t heard Take 6′s version of “O Thou That Tellest Good Tidings to Zion,” you are missing out. The arrangements were intelligent, the artists paid TRIBUTE to the original work, and each and every track was produced to perfection.

And then we come to this tripe: http://messiahrocks.com/

The fact that the Boston Pops is touring this as their Xmas show this year makes me cringe — who THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?  Please feel free to click on the “Watch Video” on the opening page.  The amount of depress larnyx singing is appalling (worse than American Idol, if that’s even possible) and the arrangements are simplistic, bordering on insulting.

Oh why why why why why???

Don’t we all love hailstones for rain sometimes? Notice the trademarked Seraphic Fire delayed final consonant…

This is, aside from the Met’s HD production of Magic Flute, the first time I’ve seen Nathan sing in person. It is quite the voice, and his stage presence is compelling. The big surprise of the evening, though, was just how dynamic a collaborator (on piano) his wife Julie is.

Wow. How often does an accompanist steal the show on the first half of a vocal recital??

Caffeine and Renaissance

PROGRAM FOR “A MUSICAL DA VINCI CODE”

Palestrina, Tu Es Petrus

Palestrina, Kyrie & Gloria from Missa Papae Marcelli

DuFay, Nuper Rosarum Flores

Josquin, Ave Maria, Virgo Serena

Palestrina, Sanctus from Missa Papae Marcelli

Festa, Pater Noster / Ave Maria

Palestrina, Agnus Dei I from Missa Papae Marcelli

Allegri, Miserere

Palestrina, Agnus Dei II from Missa Papae Marcelli