gether the world
gether the world premiere of a piece called "Common Ground". For information, call 416-233-7377. While not strictly choral, I 'fOuld call your attention to two events on the weekend of March 16-17. Opera in Concert presents Handel's Semele with soloists, chorus and orchestra on original instruments being directed by Kevin Mallon. And on, the evening of March 16, the distinguished Swedish baritone Hakan Hagegard visits the George Weston Hall to perform Schubert's Die Winterreise. It takes a special singer to plumb the depths of Schubert's intriCate weave of words and music. Hagegard's the man, if anyone is. So You Want To Do Something You Did In High School, Huh? •!• •!• •!• · Andrew Parrott CLASSICAL COMMENT Choir of Toronto teams up with the veteran Toronto dancer/choreographer Danny Grossman for interpretations bf choral music inspired by Christ's PassiOn. Singing OUT!, Toronto's gay men's choir has a Queer Cabaret on March · 23 and 24 at the Central Y. Their conductor, Dominic Gregorio re-· · cently won a prestigious prize in a competition at the Westminster Choir College at Princeton University. The last weekend in March is. Easter weekend with a raft of Good Friday concerts bringing out the fa- . rniliar Requiems. Of special note are The brilliant English choral con- the Mendelssohn Choir performductor Andrew Parrott forsakes the ances of the Durufl
Yannis Kyriakides unorthodox sound sources. His piece RHOmbos is an exploration of the physical sensation of trance, dis( orientation) and the continual pull of centrifugal force. 'Rhombos' is the ancien_t Greek term for a stone, bone or piece of wood on a string. This basic instrument served a magical function in various primitive cultures by conjuring and warding off spirits. Cycles in the long lines of the wind instruments are articulated in time by the keyboard and string instruments, the instability of the overall sound of air is set against pulsing sine tones. Brian Current (Ottawa, 1972) describes his piece For the Time Being as mostly textural and goaloriented, with climactic washes of ensemble-wide gestures lurching and drifting in and out of major triads, as if finding an old friend amidst a sea of changing textures and clusters. Jose Evangelista (Valencia, 1943) pursues an artistic path exploring music based exclusively on melody. He has developed a heterophonic writing in which -the melodic line generates echoes of itself and creates illusions of polyphony. His music draws its roots from an enlarged vision of tradition: to his Spanish origins he has added the influence of the Indonesian gamelan, the Western avant-garde and that of modal musics. Evangelista's new work Viola Song, will be performed with soloist Rivka Golani; although not quoting any style, he identifies the general character and types of musical ornamentation as recalling the violin traditions of India. My own piece, Your Soul is a Bottle Full of Thirsting Salt (2001), addresses the philosophical concept of the soul as the source of ail movement. The Pythagoreans declared NEw Music Hnan current the soul to be the motes of dust in the air; particles of dust were likened to the soul because even in complete calm, they are always in motion. Beginning with rich, percussive bells, the piece is the sequential proliferation, magnification and perforation of the opening chords. For more information, visithttp://www.vex.net/ ps. 'tween, by Ron Ford (Kansas City, 1959) is written for orchestra, and is incomplete until finished by somone other than the composer (ideally by high school students). What is unfinished are the trumpet and percussion parts - the composer has written nothing for these instruments, and has made no specification as to the character of the added interventions. The co-composers are given the freedom and responsibility to either relate or contrast with the material Ford has given. Canadian Paul Frehner's Elixirs are.fifteen musical miniatures that draw their inspiration from the wide variety of remedies, stimulants, sedatives, mood enhancers etc. sold in today's society. The various sections are entitled Espresso, Saturnalia, For Inner Harmony, Pacemaker, Pillow, Clone, Tilt a' Whirl, Schizisms, Rotor, .Placebo, For Outer ~armony, Twitch, Modulator, For You, Tisane-nuits de reves. CHRONOLOGUE The day after Esprit's events (March 3), New Music Concerts will join with the Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan for the presentation of EAST AND FURTHER EAST, filling the night air with the music of tuned gongs, bronze kettles, bronze metallophones, bamboo xy- HEAR .& ~OW CONTINUES ON PAGE 15 /
