From the Podium #23.1
February 7, 2023
Dear Friends and Supporters of Pro Coro Canada,
Pro Coro Canada is preparing for Moonshot IV: The Dayking, which will take place in Edmonton this weekend, February 11/12 2023. Our guests are the Growlers Choir from Montreal, with their manager and composer Pierre-Luc Senécal, their conductor Pascal Germain-Berardi and poet/narrator Fortner Anderson.
Moonshot is an annual series that presents new choral music. While the original concept of a moonshot implies a specific goal, i.e. the moon, with our concerts we never quite know where we land when we take off! Moonshot also refers generally to an ambitious project with the intention to reach something monumental.
So, when I came across the composition The Dayking for the first time in 2021, I knew right away that we had to ‘load our rocket’ with this great work and see where we would land. Luckily, the composer Pierre-Luc and the Growlers were easily convinced to join us in Edmonton for a presentation of this work, and were also happy to challenge themselves with other new compositions for the occasion.
“Art is performing an act of self-exploration in front of an audience”
For The Dayking, the poet Fortner Anderson rewrote the opening scene of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon. The action of Agamemnon takes place at the end of the ten-year Trojan War.
A lonely watchman, - the Sleeper, - on the roof of the palace in Argos, waits loyally for the signal fire from across the Seas. He has been enlisted by the queen to look out for a beacon of fire that indicates that the war has finally come to an end and that the King is coming home. The Sleeper sees a light flare up in the distance. He compares it first to dawn, and then leaves his post to find the queen.
An Audience in Athens during the Representation of Agamemnon by Aeschylus, William Blake Richmond, oil on canvas, 1884
Fortner Anderson’s re-telling of this scene is first an extensive, vivid image of the hardship and desolation of the Sleeper. He has been dutiful standing guard for 10 years on a mountain top, exposed to the elements through the scorching heat of the summer and the miserable cold in winter, eating bitter roots and drinking water from shallow pools, all the while listening to the city below where everyone feasts on ‘piles of meat’. He is forgotten, and so weak that he will not be able to walk down the mountain path anymore; he will eventually die beside the pyre on the ’blasted barren crag’.
But Fortner shifts the timeline as he introduces ‘on a distant mountain a pyre burns bright’ early in the poem. As listeners we are aware of the signal, and as it is tradition in the Greek play, the Chorus, - the collective Us, - comments: ‘Watchman, it is time! You must rise!’ The Sleeper’s monologue, from dream-like state to fully awake is mirrored in the shifting of night to day. As he slowly wakes up, maybe on some level already aware of the lit beacon, he realizes that his role as Watchman is the most powerful one: if he does not light the pyre and give warning, then the city and empire he is standing guard for, will be doomed. Here we also witness the poet moving away from the original story. The Sleeper is questioning his purpose, and the signal fire is understood as a warning to humanity, alluding to the often forgotten “watchmen” of civilization.
In the final verse, the Sleeper contemplates to ‘turn his head, close his eyes’ so as not to see the warning signal on the distant mountain. And as he realizes: ‘I am the master of this mountain and pyre, this is my time, this is my glory!’, we end the work without knowing if he lights the fire …
Pierre-Luc Senécal is a master at creatively using the voice to portray not just the human element of the scene, but also the landscape, - the barren crag, the shallow pools, - and the passing of time. The mix of classically trained voices with singers educated in growling, provides a range that is unfamiliar and rarely explored in choral music. Indeed, it requires specialists such as the Growlers to perform this score.
With Warning to the Rich, we set the stage for the Dayking. Thomas Jennefelt’s work is considered one of the first, if not THE first, choral composition to employ the style of Minimalism of the 70s. This is apparent at the very opening when the choir hums one single line back and forth. The text is taken from the Book of James, and is prophetic in character. Its Old Testament feel is mirrored in the bold and contrasting musical choices, including an epic solo by the Baritone; again a ‘prophetic voice’ predicting the doom of the Rich.
It resonates with the symbolism of The Dayking, and the protagonist of Fortner’s re-telling, the Sleeper. In both narratives, it is the poor and the weak who will eventually realize their power and overcome the ruling class.
The title image of the musical score of Warning to the Rich is depicted to the right. It is a third layer to the theme. An interesting anecdote is that the first performance of Warning to the Rich was given at the Lagunen shopping centre in the town of Bergen in Norway (1977, Bergen Cathedral Choir, dir. Magnar Mangersnes)
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) poster, University of Washington Libraries, Inc.
As you listen to this concert, in-person or on the livestream, you will experience many sonorities and visual cues you might not associate with a classical chamber choir concert. In the CBC podcast Q with Tom Power, the host talks with Hollywood actor Jason Segel. The quote (see above) resonated with me in particular for this concert, as it echoes the moonshot idea. We’re exploring new sounds and techniques in front of an audience, and through the act of observation and reflection, define our Art form.
Thank you for exploring with us!
Michael Zaugg, Managing and Artistic Director