While the work on this recording is highly approachable, this
is by no means a typical song recital. Seeking beyond the more
conventional voice/piano combination, Steve Heitzeg’s
Wild Songs uses a colourful array of percussion, from
the crisp rattle of organic seed packs and mellow marimba of
The Last Roundup, a haunting harmonic whirly drone and
marimba combination in Rattle the Cage/Bend the Bars,
to wood blocks and dramatic drums in Wild Mercy. Other
means of producing sound come from sustainably procured whale
bones, Korean gongs and recorded Bonobos or ape vocalisations.
These are songs with a message, protesting “No GMOs!”
against the dangers of the proliferation of genetically modified
organisms, against the destruction of the Great Apes by man,
and a final plea for acts of restraint in fields such as the
Arctic National Wildlife refuge. The music is full of fascination
and variety, and is by no means comparable to your typical rabble-rousing
protest songs for the millions. With honest feelings and powerful
sentiments expressed in sometimes forceful but more often poetic
and restrained fashion, these are works which lead their own
environmental consciousness-raising life with considerable communicative
depth.
Lori Laitman’s Four Emily Dickinson Songs are with
piano, and written in a romantic idiom which suits Dickinson’s
directness of language well. Will There Really be a Morning
has an early Erik Satie Gymnopédie feel. I’m
Nobody has a more dancing nature and a country openness
which develops into more sophisticated areas as the text progresses.
She Died is a compact drama, the high pitch of the vocal
writing working a little against some of the more tender phrases.
If I… is the most sentimental of the set, with
arching lyrical lines over warm harmonies from the piano.
Steve Heitzeg’s Three Graces for Hildur also uses
Emily Dickinson as a source for texts, and these also brings
out the romantic in the composer. These are all unmistakably
American pieces, and none the worse for that, but if you have
done your apprenticeship in the rich art song tradition you
will already know more or less what to expect from these works.
It’s all I have to bring today begins with austere
chimes from the piano, but the poignant vocal line brings us
swiftly into tonal reality. Ample make this Bed is one
of those songs which lingers longer in the memory than one might
expect, the gentle piano cadences drawing you in and creating
an atmosphere of hush. The Earth has many keys is more
urgent in feel, the composer working Dickinson’s consonant
stresses in part against expectation to create emphatic syncopations.
Steve Heitzeg’s Loveblessing takes a text from
Corinthians I 13: 4-7, “Love is patient and kind”,
and gives it an elegant and warmly expressive setting. Is
Everybody Else Alright? were the last words spoken by Robert
Fitzgerald Kennedy, and these are preceded by a text from Aeschylus,
“In our sleep, pain which cannot forget/Falls drop by
drop upon the heart, Until in our own despair, against our will/Comes
wisdom through the awful grace of God.” This is a moving
statement, but also an apparently non sequitur juxtaposition
which has unavoidable ironic resonance for the more cynical
amongst us. It’s a bit like setting “To be or not
to be…” and closing with “I’ve never
felt better.” The message is one which defines “the
selflessness and compassion at the center of this glowing program”,
but the linguistic leap is just a little too wide. Never mind,
this is another elegant and elegiac song, and a quietly restful
moment with which to close the programme.
Superbly recorded and with all texts included in the booklet,
this is a release with Innova’s usual high production
values. Polly Butler Cornelius sings all of these songs with
excellent expression and a depth of sincerity which comes from
her extensive preparation and personal attachment to what she
describes as “these beautiful and intellectual songs.”
Her voice is not a particularly light soprano, so that some
of the more guileless moments lack perhaps a little of the simplicity
of tone which might have benefited them more. This is a minor
and subjective point however, and there is nothing here which
jars with the intentions of the composers. The notably short
playing time might put people off and it’s a bit naughty
of Innova not to print it on the back cover, but this is a programme
of considerable substance and I didn’t feel left too short,
though I’m sure those talented instrumentalists would
have had a couple of neat solos ready to roll out, and this
would have beefed things up a little.
Dominy Clements
Polly Butler Cornelius (soprano) 