Robert Kyr: In Praise of Music
Antioch Chamber Ensemble/Joshua Copeland
Bridge Records 9558
Total Time:  58:28
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Those who love transcendent choral music that features gorgeous harmonic writing that unfolds slowly over time will find much to enjoy in this new Bridge Release.  The Antioch Chamber Ensemble’s new album is a collection of ten choral works by Oregon-based composer Robert Kyr.  The music here was written between 2003 and 2018 and features texts both sacred and secular.

Kyr’s music is in that same league and stylistic expression as the works of Morten Lauridsen.  The harmonies are all quite tonal with often intriguing harmonic shifts that captivate the ear with their unexpected arrivals and redirections.  Each work offers another transformative journey informed by the texts that direct the listener’s own contemplation.  The build toward these moments is also carefully sequenced on the album itself.  In Praise of Music (2006) opens the album with an inviting musical sound that is warmed by the chorus here gorgeously.  By the third work, In the Name of Music (2017), we hear some familiar ideas that appeared in the first two works with even more advanced dissonances and an overall expansion of vocal ranges to create a more intense work.  Kyr also explores ancient musical styles both in terms of Gregorian chant and Renaissance/Early Baroque styles in his setting of the Veni Creator Spiritus (2005) and in a specially-commissioned vespers service written for the Palace of Governor’s in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  The latter also references Monteverdi with the use of texts from that composers 1610 Vespers with that same blend of styles heard earlier.  For variety, there is a wordless chorus, Dawnsong (2018) which creates its own stunning beauty.  The album continues with adapted settings of poetry by John Donne (Ode to Music, 2013), St. Francis of Assisi (Voices for Peace, 2002), and a final Alleluia for Peace (2003).  There is also a fascinating spiritual, Freedom Song (2011) which focuses on issues of racial and social justice and references call and response-like African singing.  It is the more unique style with a strong rhythmic pulse and growing excitement that makes this a surprising highlight.

The Antioch singers perform these works so beautifully one may overlook some of the difficult writing that they are faced with at times.  The vocal lines are delineated well and enunciation is overall quite good which presents a solid, unified sound.  Though in much of this music, it is the sound of the words that holds as much, if not more power, than the word itself.  Joshua Copeland helps shape these lines well.  It additionally helps that the group is captured in a warm acoustic that is not over ambient.  The music’s ancient echoes in contemporary language will serves as an inviting experience for fans of contemporary choral music.

The current pandemic has certainly caused a lot of disruption for performances and the effects of situations like this tend to trickle down in all sorts of ways.  One of those is in the reduced opportunities for new orchestral works to make it to local programs.  Often contemporary composers have to walk that fine line between writing something that can be easily programmed if a specific commission with a dedicated performance opportunity is not attached.  There is a lot of pressure for a composer to craft something that can garner positive critical attention as well as appreciation by concert audiences.  Often these works tend to be one-and-done sort of performances and so it is great that labels like Navona are helping many of these works reach a larger audience.

Over the past several years, the label has continued to release some rather fascinating collections of new voices in orchestral writing.  These tend to be collected into what appear to be three separate series with two of them featuring the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra.  Prisma is a series of orchestral compilations, often of 5-7 works each by a different composer.  These releases benefit from smart sequencing that grabs the listener and then invites them on a journey through music that moves from tonally accessible into more dissonant explorations.  The pieces are all over the map with literary references, folk music infusion, or blends of musical styles.  Volume 3 (Navona 6271)  may have been somewhat overlooked with its release right before the pandemic shut things down.  This release features works by 7 different composers from a variety of backgrounds that inform their work.  From the opening Ascension for solo clarinet and string orchestra (by Ahmed Alabaca) through some interesting miniature tone poems by Sarah Wallin Huff, Noam Feingold, Raisa Orshansky, and Scott Brickman; a multi-movemant nature suite from Craig Morris, and a new Prelude and Fugue by Audun Vassdal to wrap things up.  A more recent release, Volume 5 (Navona 6344) features another 7 composers with different voices contributing short orchestral pieces from composers whose work can be heard on other releases from the label.  Fortunately, all of these can be heard on platforms like Spotify which is quite helpful for folks to explore these works more often, but picking up each of the volumes in this series is an opportunity to further see how diverse and wide are the contemporary voices of composers working in orchestral pieces.

One of the other series to also consider is Sparks whose latest release (Navona 6337) is a blend of more modernist works for string orchestra.  The Janacek Philharmonic again is on hand to explore each of these 8 works that show the variety of approaches for writing in this medium.   Also recent is a series called Polarities whose second volume (Navona 6353) features some rather fascinating works as well including Beth Mehocic's delightful Tango Concerto and an interesting set of variations for viola and orchestra by Brian Latchem.  Each of the pieces in this series are varied in their ensemble side presenting a cornucopia of variety for listeners.

Taken together, the works in these series allow a variety of composers whose work has been release on Navona and their companion labels a chance to have their orchestral works performed and recorded as best as one might hope and allows an opportunity for them to be heard on a larger scale.

As one can see in other releases from the label, there is a good amount of exploration of global music and that can be seen to a certain extent in Contemporary Colours.  This release features music by Maltese composers, performed by the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, a new ensemble recording on the label.  This collection opens with a rather unusual work for pre-recorded sounds and orchestra and also includes works for folk instruments being integrated into the ensemble as well.  The miniature tone poem like works provide a window into new music in this part of the world as well.

While enjoying these releases, it becomes doubly hard to exhaustively comment on each of the works as these releases are really important both for new music and the many composers featured here.  One is constantly reminded that whatever impression one has of these works, it becomes an important stepping stone to head off to Navona's growing catalogue to further discover the more intimate chamber pieces that many of these composers have had recorded by the label.  Spotify users would do well to pull all the releases from each series into their own dedicated playlists as well so that they can become even more familiar with them over time.