As in other concerts for the last couple of seasons, Saturday afternoon's performance by the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir -- titled Endangered -- centred around a theme: the theme of endangered species, suggesting lines of thought about how we react and relate to all other living creatures with which we share our space on this planet.
Each of the three works related in some way to the theme, with the major work, Sarah Kirkland Snider's Mass For the Endangered, speaking in a very direct way to the issue.
In what would have been an unthinkable lapse even half a century ago, the programme covered the theme of life in this world without once touching on Haydn's Creation -- a clear sign that musical life in our times has moved far away from its former total dependence on the central European classics.
The one piece that came closest to that tradition was the second work, Aaron Copland's In The Beginning, written in 1947. We're so used to thinking of Copland as a folksy American composer of country dances that it's easy to forget he had many other and more diverse aspects of his musical personality.
In The Beginning has roots firmly planted in the chant-and-response pattern of traditional Jewish prayers, not only in its structure but also in its harmonies which often give a nod to the age-old chants so fundamental to that religious tradition. On the other hand, it diverges strikingly by giving the role of the "cantor," so to speak, to a female soloist -- on this occasion, mezzo-soprano Julia Barber.
As pandemic rules have continued to relax by degrees, the choristers were now seated in their conventional layout at the front of Yorkminster Park Baptist Church, rather than being spread around various neighbourhoods of the building. The result was all gain as the sound was more well-rounded, firmly integrated, and rhythmically tighter than in earlier concerts. Sadly, masks had to be worn, and this brings the now-familiar interference with diction, which tends to short-circuit communication of the text.
This is especially noticeable in Copland's music, where the text is familiar and the composer's aim is to clearly communicate that text to the listener. With that caveat, the Choir and soloist Barber sang this beautiful and haunting music with great purity of tone and energy in the more vigorous sections. As always, it seems a pity that this splendid piece is not heard more often.
With the other two works, we entered a different and much more contemporary world of music, a world where communication of a text often takes a back seat to the evocation of the moods or ideas which that text presents.
Andrew Balfour's Mamachimowin ("the act of singing praises"), originally for choir and string orchestra, was heard next in a reduced version arranged by Simon Rivard for choir and string quartet, presumably sanctioned by the composer. Balfour's text is a translation of Psalm 67 into Cree, implying the tension between traditional native spirituality and imported Judeo-Christian values. The lower strings especially were intended by the composer to express the grounding in the earth which is so powerful a part of the native worldview.
However, that grounding also comes through clearly in the repeated melodic fragments and long sustained notes of the choral parts. The choral singing in this work was notable for the security of the quiet, sustained notes over lengthy spans. Overall, Mamachimowin gives a haunting musical impressionist portrait of a world much kinder than our own.
The major work of the afternoon, Snider's Mass For the Endangered, sails perilously close to falling into the category of an "occasional" work -- that is, a piece that is so much of its time and place that it has but scant chance of entering the permanent repertoire. By using the technique of modern poetry interspersed as tropes into the immemorial Latin text of the Mass, Snider has entered a realm where the poetry itself becomes a danger -- the danger being that it won't rise to the level of the text with which it is partnered.
The modern text by Nathaniel Bellows, for my money, veers embarrassingly between poetic beauty and bathos, between sharp insight and propaganda, over and over. Perhaps this was a case where less would be more, where a few well-chosen lines here and there would say much more than the extended version as it now exists.
Snider's music too varies. In some of the more energetic passages, the work takes legs or wings and comes to vivid life. In others, though, you would require a score to tell you what rhythmic basis informed the music. The often-dense choral textures make the text less audible, a common problem in modern choral composition. Here, again, the requirement for the choristers to wear masks was no help at all.
Mind you, Mass For the Endangered is by no means a misfire. This music has much to commend it, too, and the Choir certainly made a great case for it with skillful navigation of the complex textures and plenty of energy in the more upbeat passages.
It's a good time, also, to remind myself with humility that critics are often wrong. Consider one of the earlier works to insert poetic tropes into the Latin text. Benjamin Britten's War Requiem got several bad reviews on its first performance, sixty years ago, and yet it has definitely entered the permanent repertoire and achieved the status of an essential masterwork of the twentieth century.
Personally, I feel that Snider's music, for all its strengths, is unlikely to achieve such status. None the less, kudos and thanks to the Mendelssohn Choir and Music Director Jean-Sébastien Vallée for presenting this brave and thoughtful work.
My personal choice, though, rests with the first two works on the programme -- Mamachimowin for the haunting impact of the music, and In The Beginning for the musically thoughtful and truly rewarding performance of a piece sadly undervalued.
The entire ninety-minute concert remains available to enjoy, on a recording of the live stream, until June 11, at this link:
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