By Peter Costa
Chorus pro Musica, in concert with David Hodgkins, guest conductor, Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston, Friday, March 7.
Chorus pro Musica singers and players were perfectly harmonious performing the signature dissonance of modern composers such as Daniel Pinkham at a concert Friday night at the historic Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston.
Guest Conductor David Hodgkins led the 58 singers and 11 orchestra personnel on an eclectic tour, from lamentations to fanfares, by New England composers William Billings (1746–1800), Charles Ives (1874–1954), Randall Thompson (1899–1984) and Pinkham (1923–2006).
A pop interpretation of the quality of dissonance might be like having one half of the chorus sing “Dirty Water” and the other half sing “Old Cape Cod” at the same time. In Psalm 67, Ives creates dissonance by having the women sing in a major key while the men sing in a different minor key, Hodgkins told the audience before performing the psalm.
“Once you start working with dissonance, it soon becomes consonant. The group did a good job with the Ives pieces. The audience sometimes hears just a wash of sounds but really it is a distinct sound that has a definite color. In many ways, it is a simple, tender piece,” Hodgkins said.
The Billings compositions, which opened the program, were the easiest to listen to: three, short tunes—one lively, one sorrowful, one patriotic. Billings, a native of Boston, is considered one of the first truly American composers. His song, “Chester,” was sung as an anthem during the Revolutionary War.
Although intended to be “without excessive difficulties to sing,” the Pinkham piece, “Song for St. Cecilia’s Day,” with seven distinct sections, seemed convincingly complex with two sections requiring the master solo voices of Carole Haber, soprano, and David Kravitz, bass.
“There were several challenges with this concert. One was integrating the sound of the organ with the chorus because of the time delay of the pipe organ. Although there are some pipes in the front of the church, most of the pipes are out back and it takes a short time for the sound to travel,” he said.
Hodgkins, who grew up in Reading and now lives in Brookline, is the artistic director of Coro Allegro in Boston and The New England Classical Singers in Andover and is Director of Music at the Commonwealth School in Boston.
“The second challenge was that I was a guest conductor of this group and I demand a lot. I also demand that people watch. The chorus was somewhat taken aback by my insistence that they watch me, but they got used to my style and did a great job. It was a fun concert to conduct,” Hodgkins said.
For more information on upcoming Chorus pro Musica concerts, call 617-267-7442 or visit www.choruspromusica.org.
(Peter Costa is a senior editor with the Community Newspaper Company.)
Original link: http://www.wickedlocal.com/lexington/fun/entertainment/music/x2015301914