Volume 19 Issue 4 - December 2013

Beat by Beat | World ViewA Holly JollyLiminal HaikuYes,’tis the season, though it’s sometimes a cold one forworld music lovers. I’ll put my cards on the table for you, dearreader. It doesn’t take much 6/8 time early music to put meinto the Christmas spirit, and just a few bars of a polished SalvationArmy brass band to warm my chilledNoël heart. I’m a sucker for Yuletidecarols, period instrument performancesof baroque staples by Bach, etal, grand chorales and church organmusic. I may join the tenor section ofa sing-along Messiah yet once morethis year, the one with Ivars Taurinsconducting, re-enacting moody “HerrHandel” warts, waistcoat and all. It’san interactive event which combinesseveral of those seasonal pleasuresI don’t feel obliged to feel guiltyabout at all.I wish I could say that about theTimar family holiday tradition. Fordecades we’ve feasted and thendecorated the dessert table withsuper-rich confections. Make noANDREW TIMARFatoumata Diamwara.mistake though; these are serious symbols of conspicuous abundance.Other kids had Christmas lights twinkling publicly on frostyfront porches; we had tortes, truffles, candies and pastries shared inthe warmth of family. Imagine homemade all-nut tortes garnishedwith spiked whipped cream and flavoured buttercream in thick layers.And heaping plates of all-butter shortbreads, artisanal boozy mascarponetruffles and raspberry Linzer squares, all toasted with Tokay andbubbly — but I digress from my main musical point...My problem: none of the music performance sites I mentioned aregenerally considered or marketed as “world music,” my beat at TheWholeNote. Thus I can’t discuss that sort of musicking here. What I dofeel free to discuss however is the wealth of music originating fromthe second, third and hybrid worlds being performed in our midst,some of it even tied thematically to the season.World cultures for millennia have marked the frighteningly longdarkest night and looked forward to any sign of the return of the light.Lux Aeterna is a theme not only in the Latin liturgy and its musicbut in rituals around the world. As I write this, late fall’s first whiteflakes swirl from above in shifting clouds, magically dusting our worldwith lacy crystals of water. It puts me in the mood to engage in haiku,another season-specific activity. This Japanese poetic form, like worldmusic itself is an imported notion, an admirable platform from whichto succinctly reflect on this liminal season:Longest night, coldestday; Solstice sings fa-la-la —winter pine boughs cheer.Picks: December 3 the Nathaniel Dett Chorale presents a concertdeftly merging European, African American and Caribbean hybridmusical worlds thematically evoking the season. “An IndigoChristmas: Songs to the Black Virgin” at St. Timothy’s AnglicanChurch, promises Christmas music with a “distinct Afrocentric vibe.”The Chorale has presented this program before and released a stirringCD titled An Indigo Christmas – Live! in 2004. The notes admirablysum up the music as an “age-old story of expectation,hope, redemption and freedom wrapped up in the promise ofAmanda Martinez.Bassekou Kouyate.a newborn child.” The concertoffers arrangements of spiritualsand carols, “some with anAfrican shout, a Caribbean twist,a jazz treatment, or a gospelblast of hope and joy.”Two days earlier, onDecember 1 at Koerner Hall,the 2012 Canadian FolkMusic Award-winning Sultansof String release their new CD,Symphony! in a concert presentedby Royal Conservatory and SmallWorld Music. The album was recordedwith the Cathedral Bluffs SymphonyOrchestra conducted by NormanReintamm. Toronto’s Sultans of String wasco-founded in 2004 by the well-knownsix-string violinist Chris McKhool and flamencoguitarist Kevin Laliberté. They arejoined by Eddie Paton, guitar, bassist Drew Birston, Roger Travassoson percussion and the Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra. Expecta fast-paced instrumental concert mashing up elements of Arabic folk,Spanish flamenco, French Manouche Gypsy jazz, Cuban rhythms, allsupported by lush pops orchestral arrangements.In the last issue of The WholeNote my colleague Wendalyn Bartleywrote about the December 4 and 5 Continuum ContemporaryMusic production of Nuyamł-ił Kulhulmx/Singing the Earth at theWychwood Theatre. Is this world music? My excuse for revisitingit here is that the composer of the work, Bella Coola-native AnnaHöstman (winner of the 2013 Toronto Emerging Composer Award),incorporates multi-ethnic human texts and musical materials as wellas the natural soundscape of the B.C. geography into this fascinatingCANADIAN CHORAL CELEBRATIONA celebration of 60 years of choral singing in Canada, featuring theElmer Iseler Singers, Vancouver Chamber Choir and Pro Coro Canadaand a world premiere from R. Murray Schafer.February 2, 2014 at 3:00 pmKoerner Hall,TELUS Centrefor the Performing ArtsFor tickets call 416-408-0208or visit soundstreams.caBlackthewholenote.com December 1, 2013 – February 7, 2014 | 31