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CHORAL REVIEW
Seasons Galore
October 24, 1999
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By Jules Langert
The seasons were invoked, and two approaches to minimalism were presented in a program by the U.C. Chamber Chorus, directed by Marika Kuzma in UC's Hertz Hall last Sunday. Richard Felciano in his The Seasons, pared down the music and text to so bare a level that every sound and syllable took on a heightened communicative role.
Felciano set only two words for each season. In the first section, winter- wind, all of the sounds or morphemes within each word are used independently as part of the overall vocal texture. Among them is a long sustained tone which is subjected to vocal distortion and inflected by half step motion until it resembles a thin, chill wind blowing through the chorus.
In spring-blossom, Felciano sets up a contrast between the
first word, whose trilled "r" sounds like an alarm bell
(Spring's awakening?), and a wavy, melismatic line on the word
blossom. These two are developed, alternated, and artfully combined.
to form a satisfying play of moods within the austere limits of the piece.
In summer-sun, another long, sustained tone evokes the
beat and light of the season. An occasional whistle suggests
animate nature, and toward the end there is a playful hint
of the famous fourteenth century proto-minimalist round,
Sumer Is Icumen In. Only in the final section, autumn--
earth, where Felciano uses spoken and whispered sounds,
the result seemed mechanical and insufficiently intriguing.
Throughout the entire composition dynamic levels are low. This is a piece about sound, and the suggestibility of musical texture. Its constraint and reticence allow the limited resources at hand to engender a fragile clarity and halting thread of continuity. Felciano's minimalism appeals to the mind, encouraging the thoughtful listener to follow each musical strand and to find connections which have been artfully placed there.
Steve Reich's Tehillim, a setting of four Old Testament psalms, portrayed a minimalism of the senses. A small group of singers with electronically amplified voices was placed amid an ensemble of strings, winds, and percussion. Though this piece projected a lot of energy, its expressive level was neutral, as in Felciano's composition. Here, pattern and texture formed a grid through which the text could be dimly perceived. It was not central to the work's purpose, only one of the elements in an unfolding process. A fast, steady background of percussion played on against a profusion of short vocal motives, often in close imitative counterpoint. Meanwhile the strings were playing irregular sustained harmonies, and the winds accompanied heterophonically. For contrast, in the third psalm, the tempo was slow and the vocal writing became sustained, with antiphonal balances between men and women. In the final psalm, bells were added. Once a tempo and texture were begun they were sustained for an extended period without significant change. The dynamics were loud and unvarying within a given section. To begin the concert, the chorus sang a cantata, Seasons, by the Ukranian composer, Lesia Dychko. This was an ample piece in traditional choral style, with a strong Slavic feeling. It was zestfully performed by the chorus and its conductor, whose ancestry is Ukranian. (Jules Langert is a composer and teacher who resides in the East Bay.) ©1999 Jules Langert, all rights reserved |