I was fortunate to attend UBC Choirs: Stories on the evening of February 15, 2019 at UBC Campus. It was such a phenomenal opportunity; not only were student tickets free, but the concert took place in the iconic Chan Centre on campus – such a perfect venue for choral music and performance! The concert’s theme was how each individual song tells a story, and how when songs are woven together, people are able to construct narratives and meanings from those stories. Directed by Dr. Graeme Langager, each song performed had special meaning to both the members of the choral groups and to the audience.
Three UBC choral groups were featured during the concert. The first of the groups, the UBC University Singers, are the most elite group and travel across the world. Each work performed by the group was sacred in theme, while also exploring other themes such as romantic love and hope. While many pieces were quite formal and serious, one of my favourite pieces by this group was “Rock’a My Soul” composed by Stacey V. Gibbs. The piece was faster in tempo than the other pieces and was the most upbeat piece of this group’s repertoire. It was a choral setting of a spiritual from the American South and was done wonderfully by this ensemble. It featured small groups of soloists during the verses, and additionally featured a wonderful male soloist near the end, doing vocal improvisation over the beautiful Gospel harmonies.
The second group to perform during the concert was the UBC Choral Union. This vocal ensemble is open to all levels of performers and was the largest group of the evening. This group sang some lovely accompanied songs, one of which was particularly unique: “Five Hebrew Love Songs”, composed by Eric Whitacre. The words, as was explained to us by a member of the choir, are in Hebrew and written by Whitacre’s wife. The piece was a tableau of several songs stitched together in meaning. The songs were all about love and relationships and featured sung and spoken text, along with vocal percussion and a lovely violin accompaniment. I hadn’t heard anything like this work before, and I was so glad that I got to hear the UBC Choral Union perform such a unique piece.
The final group of the evening was the UBC Chamber Choir. This group was dressed in light colours and all of them were barefoot; the performers gave off a bohemian vibe and cemented themselves as being quite unique from both other groups. This group performed such a vast group of repertoire selections, from different eras and time periods as well as from different genres. This group was conducted that evening by graduate student Demi Chao, and it was wonderful to see someone else take the conductor’s podium. One of my particular favourites from the Chamber Choir’s repertoire was “Stomp on the Fire” composed by Andrea Ramsey. This song was unique because of the use of the singers’ bodies as percussion. The rhythmic clapping, stomping, and body percussion added a breath of life to this work, and the vocal sound effects of fire being extinguished were very interesting. Also interesting to note was “Si ch’io vorrei morire” by Claudio Monteverdi, a composer who has been mentioned in our class work. The piece was an Italian madrigal and with my background from MUSC 326, I was able to listen critically with appreciation to the polyphonic texture and playful text.
The final piece of the evening was performed by all groups was “Mu isamaa on minu arm” composed by Gustav Ernesaks. The song is a famous Estonian piece representing freedom from the Soviet Union and is considered as the country’s unofficial national anthem. The chamber choir on the stage and the other singers, who were sitting in the audience, stood up and all sang together. This piece, choral and homophonic in texture, was gorgeous and seemed classic compared to many of the unique and experimental songs featured that evening.
Overall, I was so lucky to have the opportunity to watch these groups perform and look forward to another opportunity to do so.