Choral Music Magazine
APRIL ISSUE
The Merkin Concert Hall in Manhattan hosted the New Sounds concert on March 28, 2007. The first half of the concert featured composer Donnacha Dennehy’s works for piano, Electronica, various instrumentals, and vocals.. Trio Mediaeval, three female vocalists who produce a unique sound, sang six pieces in the second half of the concert.
The concert opened with works by Donnacha Dennehy. His first piece, a world premiere entitled Stainless Staining, featured a pianist battling it out with a pre-recorded track that sounded like percussive hammering at odd, unpredictable rhythms. Because the concert was recorded for a WNYC radio show that will premiere on April 10 & 11, there was intermittent commentary throughout. Dennehy explained that for the pre-recorded track, he recorded over 100 overtones on detuned pianos so that the piece would sound like a clash of dissonant sounds. The pianist and the soundtrack were sometimes synchronized, but when out-of-sync, produced a dissonant quality that made me shift to the edge of my seat and feel a bit anxious. My anxiety increased steadily as the hammering grew louder. As a musician of strong classical influence, I was impressed that I was so emotionally affected by the piece. However, I was not very pleased with the lack of melody and the percussive repetitiveness.
Mr. Dennehy’s second piece, performed by the CRASH Ensemble, was entitled Grá agus Bás (Love and Death). Dennehy blended the Contemporary sounds of the electric guitar with old Irish, Medieval singing to produce a piece with a lot of death but not too much love. The ensemble consisted of one violin, viola, cello, bass, guitar, trombone, trumpet, flute, clarinet, percussion, and vocalis. The beginning evoked images of a sheep herder in a deserted field calling his sheep in Medieval Ireland. The vocalist sang a melody eliciting the early music elements of the piece. The music quickly progressed into what sounded like a battlefield with bombs exploding and people screaming for their lives. The strings echoed high-pitched harmonics that made the battlefield even more deadly. At what I believe was the climax of the piece, or the “CRASH” moment, the lights turned bright red and intensified this fatal feeling. The electric guitar chimed in during the climax, which added to the Contemporary element of the piece. Again, Dennehy roused an emotional response in me, but without a strong melody, at times I struggled to stay engaged.
Trio Mediaeval – Anna Mária Friman, Linn Andrea Fuglseth and Torunn Østrem Ossum – enchanted the audience for the final half of the concert. Dressed in smocks that embraced the old, Medieval style, dabbled with a hint of glitter and beaded jewelry, and with their hair trimmed in stylish buzz cuts, these three women dazzled me from the start. Their voices produced pure, delicate sounds that put me at ease for the rest of the evening. Their repertoire consisted of a mix of Medieval and Contemporary pieces, along with several Norwegian folksongs. The most memorable piece was the Two-Voice Motet with Drone. Friman and Ossum combined forces to produce the drone sound on one side of the stage while, on the other side, Fuglseth told a story with the melodic line. Their intonation was pristine. I also enjoyed the Traditional Songs from Norway, particularly Till, till Tove. The women positioned themselves in three corners of the stage and sang lines that echoed each other in a call-and-response fashion. This slight choreographic change kept me engaged and interested. Friman’s fast vibrato, resembling the sound of a bird’s song, added a charming element to all the pieces. Another Norwegian song, So, ro godt barn, had a brilliant, rich alto part sung by Ossum. Her voice was warm and magnificent. Trio Mediaeval’s sound made me want to come back for more. On the whole, the concert was very unique – a Contemporary journey from the Medieval to the Electronic, with amazing vocals by the ladies of Trio Mediaeval.
Jessica Schiffman is trained as a classical violist and has performed on NPR’s “From the Top” show as a young artist and as principal violist of orchestras such as the Tanglewood Youth Orchestra. She is also a vocalist and founded Choirs & Kids, an international NGO whose mission is to use the art of singing as a vehicle to improve the quality of life of underprivileged children.
PHOTO CREDIT: www.triomediaeval.no
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