Conducted by Sam Paul, the University of Aberdeen Chamber Choir is one of the North-East’s premier choirs, specialising in new choral music. The programme features 21st-century arrangements of folk songs by current students and recent graduates of the University.
Review:
Thursday’s Lunchbreak Concert featuring the University of Aberdeen Chamber Choir conducted and directed by Sam Paul offered an ideal selection of music for the audience that attends these concerts, mostly elderly Aberdonians, and that definitely includes me. Most of the choral pieces contained tunes we all knew. They certainly brought smiles of recognition to the faces of many in the audience, starting with ‘Charlie is my Darling’ in a splendid arrangement by Sarah Rimkus. Nearly all Thursday’s arrangements were by present or past composition students of Aberdeen University Music.
A few words first about the choir itself. To begin with, its numbers, regarding the different voices, were ideally well balanced. All the pieces were a cappella, that is to say unaccompanied. Tempi and dynamics were beautifully well controlled by Sam Paul. That was a crucial feature for the success of many of the pieces. There were two important solo singers, a soprano and an alto and their singing suggested the high quality of all the choir members – definitely no show offs or passengers in this choir, they were all real musicians. The words of all the songs were important and the clarity of diction of the singers was without fault.
Of course we all knew the melodic content of the opening song ‘Charlie is my Darling’ arranged by Sarah Rimkus who having completed her doctorate in Aberdeen has returned home to the United States, our loss and their gain. The placing of the different voices in the contrasting lines of Sarah’s arrangement turned the old folksong into a fine concert piece. The changes in tempi at the end were well controlled and gave the piece a snap.
‘The Iona Boat Song’ was an arrangement by Conner McCain. It featured a lovely pure clean soprano solo. Soft choir chords supported the soprano and then the men took over the very attractive melody so smoothly sung.
‘The Water of Tyne’ an arrangement for female voices only was by the English composer Elizabeth Poston (1905 – 1987), an expert on the music of Peter Warlock. The vocal blending of the female voices was delicious.
This was followed by an ingenious marriage of two popular Scottish tunes by Eleanor Haward. The tunes in question were ‘Wild Mountain Thyme’ and ‘Loch Lomond’. Eleanor provided hummed accompaniments for the tunes sung by female or male voices, with Wild Mountain Thyme sounding gently caressing and Loch Lomond more sturdy from the male voices.
‘Gentle Annie’ is an American song composed originally by Stephen Foster. Many of his compositions have become honorary folk songs. ‘Thou wilt come no more, gentle Annie, Like a flower thy spirit did depart;’ Thursday’s arrangement was by Benjamin M. Cramer originally from Minneapolis but singing with the choir today. The arrangement featured rich chording and strong singing from the male voices.
The Robert Burns song ‘Ye Banks and Braes’ is so familiar that we tend to forget its emotional power especially when many years ago I used to plonk it out from a grade two piano book. However today’s fine arrangement by John Frederick Hudson, a young American famed in Aberdeen for his conducting prowess, brought back to life so much of the emotional power of the song. There was strong male voice singing and near the end, at the words ‘And Ah! He left the thorn wi’ me’ the harmony underlined the emotion while a female solo was well placed to send the accusatory message to us men.
Henrik Dahlgren, originally from Sweden had chosen an America folk song whose action happens in London. It has a similar but even more unhappy story as ‘Ye Banks and Braes’. His arrangement of ‘The Butcher’s Boy’ more, I thought, a full fledged composition than a mere arrangement was the most unusual and imaginative work in the programme. One of the girls in the choir had two hammers, I think they were special percussion hammers, which she clashed together twice, many times, as a dramatic undercurrent to the music. The music was still fully tonal but more edgy and harmonically imaginative. There was a dramatic key change and a powerfully emotional alto solo. I thought it was a great setting.
The final piece was a perfect bright contrast to the darker story of ‘The Butcher’s Boy’. It was Ken Johnston’s arrangement of ‘O Gin I Were Where Gadie Rins’. Ken was born in Glasgow but brought up in Aberdeen. His parents Tom and Cath were important figures in Aberdeen City music. I have myself sung, when much younger, in many of Ken’s arrangements of Scottish tunes and they were always extra special. Today’s arrangement was no exception, the staccato male voices singing the opening words were marvellous. Being familiar with this tune, I once drove out to see the Gadie Burn. Oh dear, I was not impressed. The song is miles better than the burn, especially in Ken Johnston’s arrangement.
ALAN COOPER
