San Francisco Classical Voice

"I'm an artist, not a musician," confessed Keith Morrison, Dean of San Francisco State University's College of Creative Arts, "I love to talk about music because I know nothing about it." A few audience members at the University-sponsored event, "A Celebration of California Composers" last Friday may have identified with Morrison's opening comments, but surely everyone there shared his enthusiasm. How could they not? They had a chance to hear music of three nationally-known local composers, Gordon Getty, Kirke Mechem, and Joaqu“n Nin-Culmell.

The program, performed by SF State forces, mostly music faculty, consisted, with a few exceptions, of vocal music by the three, beginning with selections from Getty's song cycle to texts by Emily Dickinson, The White Election, from 1981. These songs share a conceptual connection more than a stylistic one. Within the course of the nine selections, one could have made out at times a Schubertian bent, as in "I Like to See It Lap the Miles," with its picturesque piano accompaniment and blatant nineteenth century harmonic language, while at other times, an unrepentant post-modernist American sound, as in the two settings of "I Sing to Use the Waiting," with the piano's steely, dissonant chords punctuating a declamatory vocal line.

In any case, the similarities lay with straightforward vocal writing, complemented by uncomplicated, spare piano accompaniment, often utilizing only a single counter-melody. Ulimately, there may be no wiser way to treat the work of a great poet like Dickinson than to let the words speak for themselves, which Getty does admirably. Especially interesting is the setting of "Beauty Crowds Me," a simplistic nursery rhyme-like treatment that suddenly condenses into a lush, extended coda for the piano. Singer Deborah Benedict-Jackson provided a striking physical presence, overcoming some jitters and vocal flutter, while Patricia Taylor Lee, recovering from the flu, managed a solid accompaniment.

Mechem's musical style is easier to pin down than Getty's. The harmonic language is complex without being studied. The writing is self assured but not arrogant. The American midwest style of his music owes something to European tradition but never bows to it. To an Absent Love, performed by soprano Sara Ganz and accompanist William Corbett-Jones, contains four songs to texts by completely disparate writers. The first two left the strongest impression. In "Dear Husband," taken from a letter by a slave mother, Mechem combines a poignant text with pungent harmonies and an urgent figuration in the piano that leaves a bittersweet taste. In "A Farewell," he makes use of a meandering counter-melody in the Phrygian mode, creating a psychic impression of the endless cycle of life and death. Ganz was stunning, both vocally and dramatically, and was well supported by Corbett-Jones.

The second half of the program began with vocal selections by Joaqu“n Nin-Culmell, a transplanted American whose cultural roots were nurtured in Spain and refined in Paris. All of his songs on the program displayed an Iberian flair for rhythm mixed in with a post-Impressionistic approach to harmony. Strict formal detail was evident in several pieces, notably Lavaréme en el Tajo, ("I will bathe in the Tajo.") The capricious young woman in this Lope de la Vega poem is musically captured by abrupt, ingenious transpositions of each verse to a remote key.

Nin-Culmell's two songs in Deux Chansons Populaires Cubaines, with completely different subjects--the sound of a clock bell calling workers to prayer, and a story of unrequited love--are treated with the same formula. The composer centers the music in the dominant key until resolving it at the very last chord. Benedict-Jackson rendered these with warmth and passion, but these pieces wanted cleaner diction and a voice with more heft in the low range.

The Alexander String Quartet made an all-too-brief appearance accompanying Ganz in Dos Poemas de Jorge Manrique. In fact, it took more time to set up the stage than to perform the pieces and, as pretty as the music was, the accompaniment was so minimal that one wondered why the quartet even bothered to show up.

Each composer was also represented with a set of short piano pieces, the notable one being Mechem's Suite, Opus 5 played a bit tentatively but sensitively by Corbett-Jones. Finally, the SF State University Chamber Choir, directed by Joshua Habermann, sang one piece by each composer, with varying success. The standout here was Getty's moving arrangement of All Through the Night, featuring solid diction and blend from the chorus, a lovely solo by soprano Evelyn Brooks and an elegantly played accompaniment by Lee.

In his opening remarks, Morrison pointed out the profusion of fine composers in the Bay Area, several of whom teach at San Francisco State. He also hinted at the possibility that this concert might be the first of other such endeavors. A good idea to realize this dream. Music is too good a thing to be merely talked about.

(John Karl Hirten is Director of Music at St. Stephen's Church, Belvedere, a frequent recitalist in the Bay Area and a composer.)

©1999 John Karl Hirten, all rights reserved