Back, at last, in New York, after Thanksgiving and a small tsunami of concerts: two weeks ago the National Gallery Orchestra in Washington gave a soulful account of John’s Symphony No. 2, and last week—right before a slingshot-fast trip to Boston to take in Diane Paulus’s Shakespeare Exploded Festival at A. R. T.–the Empire City Men’s Chorus gave a graceful all-contemporary concert (Durufle, Hoiby, Paulus, Rorem, Whitacre, and others) which included both my own The Poet Speaks of Praising and, in an unexpected gesture, both a song Paul Moravec wrote for John’s birthday and “Things change, Jo,” from Little Women, sung by the luminous Rosalie Sullivan. (We repeat the concert this Sunday in Brooklyn.) I can certainly speak to how rich and nuanced both Rosalie and choir sounded at the last runthrough, but I can’t be objective about the performance itself, because (ahem) I was in it, piping earnestly amongst the second tenors.
I was grateful to be part of the performance: the music was deep and true, and Christopher Clowdus, the conductor, is warm, clear, and bright. I’d auditioned last spring, for a Mendelssohn program, and continued this fall when Christopher proposed The Poet…, which led to the comic and humbling experience of having to having to sing my own diminished fourths. (Had I known we were going to do this piece this year, I’d have auditioned for the first tenor section: I knew the tune going in.) As a singer, I’ve no plans to give up my day job: but I think it’s as needful as oxygen for composers, especially of vocal work, to remember that we’re not so much writing as choreographing for the voice. The score is not the event: it’s a design for an event in which the hearts and minds of both performer and listener connect by a thread of breath. It’s all too easy to forget that if your principal instrument is Sibelius 6.
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