Polyphony 2013 - 2017
I come from mostly music, hard and easy, joyful and sad
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The Rachmaninov Vespers is one of those pieces of music that all choirs want to perform but are sometimes discouraged from doing so as they are so very difficult. Contending with singing in Russian is bad enough but the 15 movements are challenging in many other ways too. As part of a festival in London, we were invited to sing this work twice, each time more moving and extraordinary. Premiered in 1915, it consists of settings of texts taken from the Russian Orthodox All-night vigil ceremony. More importantly it was written at a time that Russia, having just reeled from the 1905 revolution, was trying to find its way. Each one relies on the deep bass voice of the Russian orthodox singers, with folk song techniques to underlay the text, some of which is drawn from beautiful Russian chant melodies. Rachmaninov requested Rejoice, O Virgin (Bogoroditse Devo) to be played at his funeral. It is also the most well-known.
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We were encouraged to enter a choral competition. The 13th International Choir Festival "Tallinn 2013" was chosen and we started rehearsing in earnest. I doubt if any of us were prepared for how extraordinary the choral tradition is in this country of 1.3 million people and just how much it means to them. At any one time over a third of all adults sing in a choir and all children throughout their time at school sing every day, many continuing to do so long after they leave school. Estonian singing is quite unique and has a sound all its own, part of a culture which weaves throughout their psyche. This is best demonstrated by The Singing Revolution; a peaceful demonstration that led to the reestablishment of Estonian independence from the USSR in 1991.
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The competition was not a great success for us. In fact it would be fair to say that it was a disaster. The Musical Director had looked at the Arvo Pärt piece all choirs had to sing, decided that the timing was far too slow and made the decision to change it. What none of us could have predicted was that the composer Arvo Pärt would be a judge on the panel. Of course we didn’t feature in any of the awards.
History
Stalin issued an ultimatum in 1939 requiring that Russia be allowed to maintain military bases in the country and, along with Latvia and Lithuania, the three countries saw no alternative but to acquiesce. While other nations were distracted by Nazi Germany, Russia did more than maintain these bases. They moved in huge numbers of workers to ‘dilute’ the population, killing or imprisoning anyone who thought to protest, and at the same time introducing Russian as the official language. Within six years of occupation, Estonia lost over 25% of its population.
Singing became their weapon of choice, and from 1987 until 1991 when they gained their independence, they continued to sing – in huge crowds, in front of town halls, in small villages, everyone joined together to sing. The Estonians calculated that as long as they shed no blood, Gorbachev wouldn’t be able to send in tanks to quash demonstrations. In this way, Estonia gained peaceful independence from a USSR already losing its influence.
Singing became their weapon of choice, and from 1987 until 1991 when they gained their independence, they continued to sing – in huge crowds, in front of town halls, in small villages, everyone joined together to sing. The Estonians calculated that as long as they shed no blood, Gorbachev wouldn’t be able to send in tanks to quash demonstrations. In this way, Estonia gained peaceful independence from a USSR already losing its influence.
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However, the oppressors made one fundamental error by allowing the music loving Estonians to hold the Laulupidu music festival. Gustav Ernesaks wrote a tune set to the lyrics of a century-old national poem written by Lydia Koidula, 'Mu isamaa on minu arm' (Land of My Fathers, Land That I Love). This song miraculously slipped by the Soviet censors and is still sung with gusto to this day.
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On August 23rd, 1989, the 50th anniversary of the notorious pact between Hitler and Stalin that had sealed their fate, the people of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia held hands to form “the Baltic Way,” a human chain that stretched 360 miles from Tallinn to Vilnius in Lithuania.
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On the same trip, we were invited to Helsinki to sing in a wonderful church in the city well known to one of our tenors, who had worked there for many years. Crossing the Gulf of Finland on a very early frosty morning was a delightful break from the trials of a singing competition. The city was bathed in the silver of a winter sun, and warmly welcomed us to join them in celebration. Our MD was very bold in leading us in singing the Finlandia Hymn, which could have gone so horribly wrong had we not been tutored in Finish.
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Finlandia by Sibelius (perhaps the most recognisable piece of music by any Finn) did not have any words until he arranged the Hymn for mixed choir in 1948. Considered by many to be the national anthem yet this has not been adopted.
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I created a collage of my project statement along with the first pages of the Iain M Banks novel 'Use of Weapons'. It created this:
For most of my life, my happiness has been contained by the choral calendar; carols at battlefields, old weapons and spears at Easter, songs for tiny ceramic fragments. I am an ammunition belt. Sopranos dream of veins of quick gold, Tenors imagine silky slickness of tingled throats, Basses both muffled and slurred. |