On Friday March 15, I was fortunate to watch the Vancouver Chamber Choir’s “Sea to Sea: The Farewell Tour” concert, conducted by Jon Washburn, at the Shaughnessy Heights Church in Vancouver, BC. This performance was particularly poignant because long-time conductor Jon Washburn is retiring at the end of this year, and this performance was one leg of his final tour. As such, they themed the songs such that they performed their “biggest hits”, so to speak. The Choir searched out their most-performed songs and compiled the program based on that. (They listed the performance count of each song under the titles – some pieces had been performed over 100 times!)
The first piece of the evening was from the Baroque period – Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden by Johann Sebastian Bach. As the opener to the first half, the piece was expertly performed with ease and comfort. The piece featured entries by imitative polyphony, with a gorgeous polyphonic texture throughout generally. Having grown up a musician, I’m not a big fan of Bach and prefer more rubato and melody-driven pieces, but the choir made the song enjoyable and interesting. My favourite piece of the evening, by my favourite composer of all time, was a set of songs by Claude Debussy; as mentioned by Jon Washburn, the three songs were the only songs for voices that he ever wrote. The first song of the set, Dieu! Qu’il la fait bon regarder, is a song that I know well, and is characteristic Debussy; everything sounds like watercolours, and yet everything makes perfect mathematical sense. However, the other two, Quant j’ai ouy le tabourin and Yver, vous n’estes qu’un villain were quite different in tone and style. The pieces were sharp, sudden, loud, and staccato. The pieces I had originally associated with Debussy weren’t so much like that, but hearing the pieces having been composed by Debussy in this way were certainly interesting and different.
A highlight of the evening was Hymn to Saint Cecilia, composed by Benjamin Britten. The poem, provided by W.H. Auden, was brilliantly put to music such that the structure of the poem was completely retained, and the beauty of the words shone through, while still being a musically complex masterpiece. The piece, composed relatively recently in the 20th century, featured aspects of madrigals such as madrigalisms which I found intriguing. Near the end of the piece, voices were used for instrumentation. A woman’s voice mimicked a violin, a tenor’s soulful song sounded like a bugle call, and the basses in the choir had a marching bass line that mimicked drums. This is absolutely appropriate for not just the text (“O trumpets that unguarded children blow…) but for the Saint in the title; Saint Cecilia is the patron saint of music in the Catholic tradition and honouring her in this way was most likely important for the composer. Additionally, the refrain, which appeared after each verse, was done differently each time, allowing the listener to get excited about what the next refrain would sound like.
I was pleasantly surprised to see Jon Washburn’s own compositions present in the program! Two of the medleys which he has composed were performed – the first being A Stephen Foster Medley, featuring songs of Stephen Foster such as “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair” and “Camptown Races.” This set of songs were particularly fun because almost everyone was familiar with the source material, so hearing the Choir’s spin on songs that everybody already knows was exciting. Another set of songs composed by Jon Washburn included Rise! Shine! Four Spirituals, composed by Washburn for the choir’s trip to the former Soviet Union (designed so that the set of songs was nothing like anything the Soviets had ever heard before). Once again, many people were familiar with the source material, and even sung along to “There is a balm in Gilead,” a familiar church song for many.
Overall, I was so fortunate to have attended this performance and I look forward to attending many more performances by the Vancouver Chamber Choir.