Tag Archives: Where flames a word

The Crossing sings my music on the radio

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Live performances of Vespers, The Waking Sun, and Where Flames a Word will be on the radio this weekend:

Sunday, January 22, 2012
3:00 – 5:00 PM
WRTI – 90.1FM, Philadelphia
and online anywhere: www.wrti.org

From The Crossing: “Vespers, the work that brought Kile Smith into our lives and hearts, recorded live in concert at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill on Sunday January 8th, 2012 in a joyful collaboration with Piffaro, The Renaissance Band, will be the first broadcast in a series of live Crossing concerts on WRTI, 90.1FM, Philadelphia.

The remainder of the program will include two pieces The Crossing commissioned from Kile, 2009′s Where flames a word, for our Celan Project, and 2011′s The Waking Sun for our Seneca Sounds Project.”

Donald and I will briefly discuss the music. But it’s mostly the music.

Where flames a word, CD review

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Quebec’s François Couture’s Listening Diary, in French and English, ”IS NOT a collection of thought-out reviews. It’s a set of on-the-spot reactions.” He listens to tons, and likes The Crossing’s latest CD It is Time:

The Crossing is a strong choir devoted to classical and contemporary music. Navona Records just devoted a record to it. Conducted by Donald Nally, the choir performed works by David Shapiro, Kile Smith, Paul Fowler, Frank Havrøy, Erhard karkowschka, and Kirsten Broberg,. Shapiro’s two pieces explore deeply mastered dissonant harmonies. The other composers are less bold, but “Where flames a word” by Smith and Broberg’s ‘Breathturn” develop original ideas. And all in all, It Is Time is a pretty nice offering.

It is Time, CD review

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In Philadelphia, a choir among choirs…
Bruce Hodges in Monotonous Forrest

“…Meanwhile, the group has an impressive new recording out, It is Time (Navona Records NV5845), with works by David Shapiro, Kile Smith, Paul Fowler, Frank Havrøy, Erhard Karkoschka and Kirsten Broberg. This superb program, most of which uses texts by Paul Celan (except for Fowler’s gorgeous Breath, by Philip Levine), shows off the group’s impeccable tuning, rhythmic accuracy and shimmering texture. Shapiro’s title piece makes a blazing opening, but the album is almost worth getting just for the arresting final chord of Broberg’s Breathturn that ends it all. The immaculate sound is by Paul Vazquez of Digital Mission Online, who regularly records the ensemble in the Chestnut Hill church’s pristine acoustic.”

It Is Time

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Navona just released on Monday the new CD by The Crossing, It Is Time. It’s available at NaxosDirect, ClassicsOnline, Amazon, and many other places, including The Crossing’s own site.

Where Flames a Word appears here, the work this wonderful new-music choir commissioned from me two years ago, setting three works of Paul Celan.

I share the disc with extraordinary pieces by Paul Fowler, David Shapiro, Kirsten Broberg, Frank Havrøy, and Erhard Karkoschka, all using words of Celan and Philip Levine, and all pushing The Crossing’s artistry to places I wouldn’t have thought of.

It was a joy to sit in and be an extra pair of ears at the recording sessions last summer, and I realize now even more how virtuosic these singers are. The technical prowess is unmistakable, but their love for the music was just as powerful, even through the long hours of taping. I remembered this from Vespers, but it was particularly noticeable on this all-unaccompanied CD, their first solo release.

As always, Donald Nally’s directing is organic and riveting. His love (that word again) for the music, the words, the singers seems all-encompassing. It was ear-opening, during the sessions, to hear what he could hear.

I think a lot of people are going to have their heads knocked off by what The Crossing does. Thrilling it is to be a part of it.

Where flames a word, July 2010

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For the last Month of Moderns concert, Donald Nally included Where flames a word with works by Paul Fowler, Lansing McLoskey, Frank Havrøy, and David Shapiro. I loved the premiere performances of Where flames last year; this year was even better. Donald seemed to move the piece along in places without speeding up the tempo—an Einstein thought-experiment, that. At least that’s how it sounded to me. But it became so much more conversational, while losing none of the intensity and quality of sound The Crossing is known for.

One thing surprised me that I hadn’t noticed before. In the concert and at the recording sessions the following week this occurred to me: these 22 singers can get loud. Not wild, wobbly, shouty loud, but serious wheelhouse power, controlled. When Donald calls for it, and just when you think they can’t possibly give any more, they slip into a fifth gear and leave you shaking your head and smiling. This happened a few times, in my piece and others. It may seem like a silly observation—that they can sing really loud—but when you hear it live, silly it’s not.

Yes, yes, they can sing soft, too!

In the July 19 Philadelphia Inquirer, David Patrick Stearns wrote:

Frank Havroy’s Psalm, David Shapiro’s The Years From You to Me, and Kile Smith’s Where Flames a Word (all Celan-based pieces heard Saturday) were mercurial in manner and form, and they shared a harmonic sense in which innovation was born of intense expressive necessity. At times, the fusion of words and music was staggering.

Shapiro’s fine piece (which was a premiere) was full of dreamy motivic echoes. Smith’s peaked emotionally with a soprano-section outburst on the words, “I understand, I do…” suggesting a profound union of souls. Performances were particularly savvy with a clarity of diction that revealed the singular progression of each piece, thanks to conductor Donald Nally.

The recording sessions went very well. The CD, of all Paul Celan-based works, mostly from last year’s Month of Moderns, will be released on Navona. The Crossing will turn heads with this.

Encore performance of Where flames a word

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The Crossing’s premiere of Where flames a word last year received such great feedback that they’re singing it again this Saturday. My setting of Paul Celan texts will be on their Month of Moderns (MOM III) season finale, Saturday July 17th, 2010. It’s at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill at 8 pm.

The very next week, we’ll be recording this and the other Celan Project commissions, for a release on Navona Records. The NEA has funded this with a matching grant, so if you’d like to contribute toward the match, there’s more information here. Just heard their MOM II concert of Kamran Ince, Francis Pott, Lansing McLoskey, James MacMillan, and Gabriel Jackson, and they’re astounding as ever. Looking forward to Saturday night, which includes their Levine Project commission of a new Paul Fowler work.

Canadian choral conference

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This weekend, May 20–23, 2010, the Association of Canadian Choral Communities and the Saskatchewan Choral Federation are sponsoring Podium 2010: Experience the Harmony: L’harmonie, une expérience à vivre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Many of Canada’s choral conductors, choirs, composers, and publishers will attend seminars and concerts there.

I can’t be there, but my music will. Brett Scott is Assistant Professor of Ensembles and Conducting at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music. Originally from Canada, he’ll lead a session on choral music from the U.S., and include Where flames a word and Two Laudate Psalms.