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Review: Echoes of the Ancient – A concert of emerging Catholic composers

On the evening of September 28th, heading out from the conclusion Catholic Art Institute conference in Washington, DC, I was alerted by Maggie Gallagher of a concert of new works by young Catholic composers taking place across town. Several uber rides and a fly-by dinner later, we found ourselves at the beautiful Holy Comforter-Saint Cyprian church. Being entirely unaware of this event just hours before, I was subsequently surprised to see the vaunted Choir of the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception come forward to perform the works of the evening, led by their longtime director Peter Latona. The program – titled “Echoes of the Ancient” – highlighted the work of emerging Catholic composers working in idioms firmly rooted in tradition. Yet as quickly would become clear, the traditional rootedness of these works did not preclude them from each speaking in new and vital ways.

The concert began with the strident opening measures of Wilhelmina Pariseau’s “Verbum Supernum”,  setting anew the text written for the establishment of the feast of Corpus Christi by St. Thomas Aquinas in 1264. Pariseau’s setting was vibrant, developing with a clear dramatic purpose and contemplative zeal. The music showcased Pariseau’s ability to lead her singers gently into lush and complex harmonies, with lines weaving in and out of these textural arrival points.

Proceeding without applause, the choir moved immediately to Nicholas Lemme’s “Receive, O Lord”, the text of which was taken from the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius. Lemme’s own beautiful setting was commissioned by the CMMA for their 2020 Colloquium, yet the Covid shutdowns prevented the work’s original planned premiere; as such, it finally received a much-overdue hearing. Lemme’s setting begins by engaging a haunting repetition of the phrase “Receive, O Lord” even as the rest of the text proceeded more linearly, creating a layered yet clear texture. Lemme’s alternating between complex polyphonic textures and moments of focus and revelation was highly effective, and it is good that this beautiful piece has finally had a chance to be heard. 

I was not familiar with composer Ian Mannino before tonight’s concert, and was very encouraged by his brief yet sublime “Breath of God.” Mannino’s work had echoes of MacMillan and the Scottish choral tradition within, yet was entirely his own as it packed an unabashedly sumptuous and heartfelt meditation into a small package.

The evening continued with two works by its main organizing force, the ever-intrepid Zachary Landress. “Pater, Si Non Potest Est” contained arresting eastern-oriented melismatic figures in the upper voices along with a number of unexpected harmonic turns, while these more modern moments were the bookends of a brief but lovely moment of homophonic chanting. “Media Vita” was a more traditionally polyphonic work, one which quickly spun the choir into a many-stranded tapestry which sounded like it easily exceeded the available voices in the group. Landress’s rich sense of harmony took surprising turns in this work as well, and his penchant for surprising cadential turns was on full display: the piece built up into a resounding climax before descending into a richly resonant yet restrained conclusion.

Nicholas Landrum was another name unfamiliar to me in this group who provided such a pleasant surprise. Landrum’s “Hoc Corpus” was energetic and far-ranging, vacillating between quiet exposed textures and close harmonies, to full-throated textures set widely through the ensemble, ultimately reaching its climax on the words “dicit Dominus.” As a work it certainly kept the unintentional theme of the evening, which was works which packed a great deal of contemplation into smaller packages.

I must confess that when I saw the name “Sr. Peter Joseph” on the program, I was perhaps expecting a beautiful and reverent work, yet something more polite. What I was not expecting was the most harmonically daring work of the evening! The Dominican sister’s highly evocative setting of the ‘Ave Regina Caelorum’ begins with a stunning opening phrase, drawing us into the full contemplative import of this text. Yet it immediately takes a turn into an adventurous series of musical events, as if trying to channel the centuries of spiritual and temporal struggle which would result from Mary’s gentle fiat, finally returning to a deeply felt meditation on the opening words of the text. The sister’s work is arresting and deeply considered, and deserves further hearings.

Two more works would round out the evening. First came Conner David McCain’s “Bloom Before the Lord”, a hauntingly captivating work which combined sweetness and devotion even as it gave the sopranos a healthy workout. The concert concluded with William Fritz’s “Fantasy on Pange Lingua”, a richly layered and inventive piece which wove the familiar melody into an compelling contrapuntal journey.

It is worth noting that several of the works – Pariseau’s and Fritz’s – recently premiered as part of these composers participating in The Catholic Sacred Music Project’s 2023 Composition Institute with Sir James MacMillan. This previous event was co-sponsored by the BXVI Institute and held at another DC location: the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America. It is good to hear these works receive multiple performances and recordings, something that is rarely achieved in the modern compositional landscape.

Holy Comforter/St. Cyprian, while not very large, surprised me with its acoustic properties, providing beautiful sustain and bloom to every note: it was an acoustic space that Latona’s group sang into with apparent relish. The concert was also professionally recorded, so we can hope that this music can be shared with the world soon. In the final analysis, the program “Echoes of the Ancient” could also have been called “The Hope of the New”, as American sacred music is in fine shape indeed if such serious talent is rising in its ranks.

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