Volume 25 Issue 7 - April 2020

“Rests and silence are
how musicians make
music truly magical.”
JAMES GOULDEN
Considering Matthew Shepard premiered by Conspirare, February 2016 in Austin, Texas.
of things in the musical chaos and glory that the region has to offer. It
is heartbreaking to look at the pages of listings with close to 100 listings,
knowing that none of them are coming to fruition. This has never
happened before.
We had so much to talk about this month too. I wanted to talk about
Oakham House Choir’s Elijah. I wanted to talk about Considering
Matthew Shepard with Pax Christi Chorale. I wanted to talk about
preparing for Easter music. I wanted to talk about choral music and
how much I love ensemble singing.
Pax Christi’s David Bowser and I had even met and the interview is
sitting on my phone, recorded, the two of us delving into the powerful
story of a gay man beaten and left to die because he was different. We
talked about how Craig Hella Johnson was so moved by this that he
decided to put it into music and develop an oratorio over many years.
We talked about how significant it was for a choir to pick up music
like this and be challenged musically and spiritually by it. And we
talked about the power of choral music to tell powerful stories like this
that leave us changed as musicians and audiences.
But we won’t get to hear Considering
Matthew Shepard this season. And we may not
hear any more concerts. In the Mendelssohn
Choir, we were preparing an austere Healey
Willan piece, written to commemorate service
people who died in World War I, How They So
Softly Rest. It hums in my head as a memory of
the sounds of what would have been the signature
performance that the Toronto Mendelssohn
Choir is known for, its annual “Sacred Music
for a Sacred Space” concert, always performed
on Good Friday.
I can’t bring myself to take my sheet music
out of my knapsack. Even though I have
nowhere to go, it doesn’t seem right to take it
and put it away.
All our rehearsal halls and all our concert
halls will be dark for the next little bit. And that’s okay. There’s an
important adage in performance that goes something like this, “Anyone
can make noise and hold notes, but rests and silence are how musicians
make music truly magical.” Composers can write the loudest, most
powerful, thick, heavily orchestrated chords, but they are often only
powerful because of what precedes them or proceeds from them – a rest.
And eventually, all music does come to silence. But this isn’t the end.
The spine-tingling moments of anxious waiting between the old
20th-Century Fox fanfare and the Star Wars theme. The silence after
the three iconic opening notes of Beethoven’s Fifth. The great silence
before the final two “Amens” of Handel’s Messiah. Silence is part of
the great music we all love and rests mark so much of what we know
in music. The world in isolation is no different. We’re on a grand pause
right now. This isn’t the silence at the end of a song, it’s the dramatic
silence before something wonderful. We have beautiful sounds ahead
of us. We’ll see you back at rehearsal and in concerts soon enough.
Follow Brian on Twitter @bfchang.
Send info/media/tips to choralscene@thewholenote.com.
POSTPONED
Considering
Matthew Shepard
The true story of an ordinary boy: an oratorio
passion honouring Matt’s life, death and legacy
Considering Matthew Shepard,
by Craig Hella Johnson
Pax Christi Chorale featuring Megan Miceli & Simone McIntosh,
sopranos; Krisztina Szabó, mezzo-soprano; Lawrence Wiliford, tenor;
Phillip Addis, baritone; and the Toronto Mozart Players
SUNDAY, APRIL 26, 2020, 3:00 P.M.
George Weston Recital Hall, Meridian Arts
Centre (formerly Toronto Centre for the Arts)
5040 Yonge Street
BUY TICKETS ONLINE AT
PAXCHRISTICHORALE.ORG
thewholenote.com April 2020 | 9