I have a more than musical reason for taking an interest in this
work, and in music of a Native American origin. My daughter is
descended, through her mother’s family, from the Cherokee Nation.
Their branch of the Nation no longer exists, and thus their way
of life is lost to us. For these reasons I
welcome any work of art which celebrates the Native American or
is conceived by a Native American. Here was a chance for Naxos
to give us a recording of Louis Ballard’s magnificent Suite for orchestra, Incident at Wounded Knee (1974). It deserves
a wider audience than it has so far achieved. But I digress.
Enemy Slayer is the first oratorio based
on the creation story of the Navajo. The story concerns the
twins Monster Slayer and Child Born for Water who (as Marley
Shebala’s notes tell us) went to war against the monsters
who threatened their people. After destroying all the monsters
the twins returned home but started having nightmares, smelling
the blood of the monsters and screaming in horror. They wanted
to be alone, lost their appetites, became depressed, angry,
violent, and thought of suicide. Today we would say that they
were suffering post–traumatic stress disorder. Thus the Navajo
people created the Anaa’jí (Enemy
Way), one of the most sacred of the Navajo ceremonies and
one which is still in use to cleanse and heal warriors returning
from today’s wars.
Composer
Grey, his librettist Laura Tohe (an award winning Navajo poet)
and photographer Deborah O’Grady said that they wanted this
work to be a bridge between the Navajo and non–Navajo worlds.
To this end Tohe’s libretto
is based on the idea of the Anaa’jí
– to quote it would be sacrilegious – and, according to the
notes (on which I have drawn very closely at times), she gave
shape to Grey’s visionary concept. In Enemy Slayer
we follow the trials and tribulations of Seeker, a man suffering
battle fatigue. He goes through the vicissitudes suffered
by the twins, and sings of his feelings; the chorus, variously
representing his parents, grandparents, ancestors and the
Holy Ones respond to his dilemma.
When he wrote the
work Grey was composer in residence for the Phoenix Symphony and
the organisation obviously wanted to give their man the best they
could offer for what could possibly be his magnum opus. So what
did Grey deliver? This almost 70 minute oratorio is written in
a very conventional voice, there’s nothing here which would scare
the horses, and there’s no real high point which stands head and
shoulders above the rest. There are also some very obvious and
embarrassingly twee sections, such as the sound of battle at the
end of the third (of five) sections. The material is generally
unmemorable, and far too slight to sustain 70 minutes of music,
and although the work has pretensions to be Epic, it simply fails
to satisfy in such a way. Most importantly, there is no feeling
of Native Americana! Only the words give it the cachet of being
married to the great Navajo tradition. The scoring is brilliant,
and well thought out. It’s very colourful and direct – the language
is easy on the ear – but that simply isn’t enough for the concept.
I
know that composer and librettist wrote this piece with the
best of intentions, but good intentions aren’t enough when
creating a work of art which is meant to be as all-consuming
as the subject matter so obviously is. With such a small-scale
musical outlook, a work of half the duration would have been
better but the stumbling block would always be the overly
conventional idiom and musical outlook. A story of this magnitude
needs, nay craves, a big and sturdy voice to do it justice.
Just think of what Charles Ives or Henry Brant might have
made of it. What we have here is just so much note-spinning
without much substance. Nowhere do I find this music to be
relevant to, nor is it worthy of, the subject matter. I am
saddened to find this work a failure in purely musical terms
for I expected much.
A
big stumbling block in the performance is the baritone Scott Hendricks
who employs a very wide vibrato, which verges on uncontrolled
wobble. Quite often I was unsure as to what note he was singing,
and his loud declamations quickly grate on the ear. Listen to
him at 9:30 in the final section – the line is badly distorted
by his vibrato and he makes a very unpleasant sound. Not the kind
of singing I welcome in the concert hall, let alone when listening
to something at home. Apart from the soloist the performance seems
totally committed and the recording is excellent, but there isn’t
anything in this music which engages me.
Bob Briggs
Further material about this work can be found at:
Opera
today.com
Markgreymusic.com
Scott
Hendricks (baritone)
