Volume 26 Issue 4 - December 2020 / January 2021

the closing, The Gift. Love Maurice Ravel’s
Chanson écossaise (1910) setting of Robert
Burns’ text. Ravel emulates a Scottish quasibagpipe
folk song without ever creating a
parody. Jules Massenet’s setting of Alfred Lord
Tennyson’s Come into the Garden, Maud
(1880) foreshadows future musical theatre
sounds. Poulenc, Roussel and Gounod works
complete the recording.
Duncan and Switzer deserve a “bilingual”
standing ovation for their tight duo musicianship
and colourful interpretations of these
one-of-a kind art songs.
Tiina Kiik
Saman Shahi – Breathing in the Shadows
Maureen Batt; Fabián Arciniegas; Tiffany
Hanus; Various Instrumentalists
Leaf Music LM237 (samanshahimusic.com)
! The debut
album by Iranian-
Canadian composer
and pianist Saman
Shahi, Breathing
in the Shadows,
feels like a gentle
journey through
the kaleidoscope
of meaningful images, each captured in a
subjective and probing way. The three song
cycles included on this album are worlds
unto their own – powerful and empowering,
existential blocks of unique and diverse
musical language combining minimalism,
dodecaphony, hints of Iranian traditional
music and rock. The poetry is beautiful and
impactful, but it is the music that propels it
beyond its scope. Shahi’s music lets the poetic
images breathe and blossom and underlines
the themes of inner and outer struggles,
yearnings, rebelliousness and death
(symbolic and physical). The rhythmic drive
and atonal segments create an immediacy
that is enlivening.
The titular song cycle, Breathing in the
Shadows, is based on poems by five poetesses
from around the world and features a
wonderfully talented duo – soprano Maureen
Batt and pianist Tara Scott. Each song is
a statement of independence and defiance
in the face of oppression, longing or,
simply, love.
The second cycle, Orbit, builds on sharp
imagery conceived by Serbian-Canadian
singer-songwriter Jelena Ćirić. The waves of
colours Shahi creates in the piano lines are
just gorgeous and tenor Fabián Arciniegas’
phrasing underscores the words with
subtle urgency.
The concluding cycle, Song of a Wandering
Soul, merges several musical forms that
Shahi considers a part of his musical identity.
Written for a larger ensemble, using
improvisation and electronics to create varied
textures and riding on the perfectly suited
timbre of Tiffany Hanus’ voice, this cycle is
pure rock ’n roll in a classical setting.
Ivana Popovic
Reena Esmail – This Love Between Us:
Prayers for Unity; Barbara Croall –
Giishkaapkag
Elora Singers; Mark Vuorinen
Independent TESR-001 (elorasingers.ca/
hear/recordings)
! The professional
Elora Singers have
established a reputation
as one of
the finest chamber
choirs in Canada,
particularly known
for their commitment
to Canadian
repertoire. This admirable new release on
their own imprint features two contrasting
large-scale choral works by Canadian
composer Barbara Croall and American
composer Reena Esmail.
The subtitle, Prayers for Unity, of Esmail’s
This Love Between Us (2016) tips listeners off
to the composer’s intent. The work’s seven
movements are titled after the major religious
traditions of India: Buddhism, Sikhism,
Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism,
Jainism and Islam. Esmail has selected representative
texts in the original seven languages
from each, evoking unity, universal brotherhood
and kindness. A signature element of
the work is the inspired and effective incorporation
of a Hindustani sitarist, vocal
soloist and tabla player into the orchestral
and choral texture, underscoring the
fusion of North Indian and Western classical
musical elements, both traditions Esmail is
at home in.
Odawa First Nation composer and musician
Barbara Croall’s 2019 Giishkaapkag
(Where the Rock is Cut Through) is scored
for choir, percussion and the pipigwan
(Anishinaabe cedar flute) eloquently played
by the composer. The vocals are underscored
by a powerful, elegiac text condemning
the violence to the feminine in creation.
“Due to colonization,” writes Croall, “many
women and girls likewise have suffered (and
continue to suffer) … due to the many past
and continuing violations of Shkakmigkwe
(Mother Earth).” Referencing the present
tragedy of murdered and missing Indigenous
women, Croall reminds us that “the rocks
bear witness and speak to us of this” – a
message also heard clearly through her
powerful music.
Andrew Timar
Rosa Mystica – Musical Portraits of the
Blessed Virgin Mary
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber
Choir; Paul Spicer
Somm Recordings SOMMCD 0617
(naxosdirect.com/search/748871061729)
! Among the
stated objectives
of this record
label, one stands
out and it is this:
“to uncover new
[music] … from
the unique to the
extraordinary…”
What we're listening to this month:
thewholenote.com/listening
English Songs à la française
Tyler Duncan and Erika Switzer
Baritone and pianist pair present
their debut album, a collection
of songs by masters of French
mélodie in a rarely heard form:
English verse.
Breathing in the Shadows
Saman Shahi
Stories of oppression through
alienation, resistance, and selfactualization.
The poems have
an inherent musicality, evocative
imagery, and a powerful message
of unity and hope.
Voices of the Pearl, Volume 3
Anne Harley and Stacey Fraser
Canadian soprano/artistic director
Anne Harley is joined by fellow
Canadian artists Stacey Fraser,
Steve Thachuk, Emily Cecilia LeBel
to present an album of exciting
commissioned works.
The Anchoress
David Serkin Ludwig
A one-woman monodrama that
explores struggles with faith,
alienation, gender, and social
power through the imagined
person of an anchoress.
thewholenote.com December 2020 / January 2021 | 47