The Kenyon College Chamber Singers stopped in Chicago on their tour this year! Well, technically Oak Park, but that's close enough that Mike and I were able to catch them on this past Wednesday night. It was fantastic! I couldn't stop grinning the entire time, and I was amazed to see that I've sung about half the current program. I guess I'm far enough out from graduation that Doc has cycled some pieces back into rotation... although the madrigal that started the concert, Bennet's All Creatures Now, is actually in the current repertoire of the Catatonics (the grad a cappella group I sing with these days). The whole program for those who are interested:
I. All Creatures Now - John Bennet
II. Yihyu leratzon imrei fi - Ernest Bloch
Jubilate Deo - Orlando di Lasso
Faire is the Heaven - William H. Harris
At the round earth's imagined corners - Williametta Spencer
III. Tebye poyem - Sergei Rachmaninoff
Ñe ímamï inya pómoshchi, op. 25 - Pavel Chesnokov
IV. Four Shakespeare Songs - Juhani Komulainen
1. To be, or not to be
2. O weary night
3. Three words
4. Tomorrow and tomorrow
V. Schaffe in mir, Gott, ein rein Herz, op.29, no.2 - Johannes Brahms
(intermission)
VI. Trois Chansons - Claude Debussy
Dieu! qu'il la fait bon regarder!
Quant j'ai ouy le tabourin
Yver, vous n'estes qu'un villain
VII. Signposts - Eskil Hemberg
Signpost I
Signpost II
VIII. Un jour vis un foulon qui foulait - Orlando di Lasso
Ich stund an einem Morgen - Ludwig Senfl
The Turtle Dove - Ralph Vaughan Williams
Do not pick my rosemary - Allen Hoffman
IX. Sizongena laph'emzini (two Zulu wedding songs) - arr. Mzilikazi Khumalo
X. My Lord, what a moanin' - arr. Adolphus Hailstork
Ride on, King Jesus - arr. Edward Boatner
It was especially nice to hear again some pieces that aren't on the CS CD's I have, since those are foggier in my memory than the ones I can listen to at will. I have recordings from my own time in the group of the both di Lasso pieces, the Chesnokov, all three from Debussy, and the Vaughan Williams. The Bloch was recorded on As Torrents in Summer (96-97... as well as the Bach's huge Singet dem Herrn ein Neues Lied which we sang my senior year that didn't make it onto In Concert). However, the Khumalo isn't on any of the recordings I own, including the recording of the live concert in Rosse Hall from senior year when Dr. Khumalo came to visit the choir. I believe we sang it on tour Sophomore year (I can't find the program to check that) but it didn't make it onto Luna so I hadn't heard it since then. The South African music in a CS concert is always a fun time, since there's often a bit of dancing involved. It was great to see how much fun the choir was having... for the first time from the audience's perspective!
I also got to talk to Doc and Kay again, and a few other young alums in the audience. I'm old now, though. I only knew one of the current singers, and she's a professor's kid I knew from church who was in high school while I was at Kenyon.
And of course the final piece was Doc's arrangement of Kokosing Farewell. There was a special treat to be had there, though. Apparently last year Doc began a new tradition of inviting alums to join the singers on the risers for Kokosing. I had no idea this was coming, and almost fell over Mike in my rush to get up there and join the group! I only wish I hadn't been fighting a cold at the time, since I felt obligated to sing as quietly as possible so my croaking wouldn't take away from the piece. What a grand feeling, though, to be on those risers again in a lovely church with Doc conducting in his carefully crafted fashion, coaxing every familiar ebb and swell into place.
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2 comments:
I lived in Chicago for two years after graduation, and both years Doc claimed they were going there, but didn't. So now that I live in Iowa, they finally go to Chicago. Bah.
Were the Signposts amazing live? I've always been impressed by the recordings.
Sarah (C.)
Darn the luck! Tell Doc he owes you one in Iowa now.
The Signposts were very good. I had no familiarity with the compositions, and I was a little ambivalent about how this year's "weird modern one" would pan out, considering that those were often my least favorite pieces to perform as a CSer. Doc argued once at a lasagna dinner that they are good for the audience, a bit of something very different that keeps the interest up and surprises the listener.
I definitely see where that is coming from, but I still don't know how I feel about the audience's standard response: laughter. That's fine for a comedic composition, but heavy biblical texts? Granted, it wasn't bad. Some polite giggling is kind of expected, I guess.
I liked the first Signpost very much; the staggered "divided it" section was amazing as it stampeded across the choir. The second I was less impressed by, in part because I thought the text-painting was a bit too literal. "Slippery places" made me think of banana peels, and I lost some of the gravity of the psalm.
I shouldn't complain too much, though! This year's choir has some major power and I was blown away by their strength and control. I can only hope the group was just as impressive back in our day. :)
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