In Flanders Fields, a poem by John McCrae, has been a focal point of November 11 services for decades. Many composers have chosen to set this text to music. On this concert the choir will perform two versions, both by Canadian composers. For a while, Derek Healey’s version (1976) was the only one, and so it was performed extensively. It begins with an oboe solo to suggest the singing of the lark which is then taken up by the soprano voices. The middle section (We are the dead) is sung by the unaccompanied tenors and basses. The sound of the lark joins each of the three sections, the last one a call to “take up the quarrel.” The piece closes with the singing of the lark. Kirkland Adsett’s version (2006) is homophonic throughout and is accompanied by solo violin and cello. It also falls into three sections much the same as the Healey piece.

Jeff Enns has set to music the poem Litany by Phineas Fletcher (1582-1650). Enns was inspired by William Walton’s version set to the same words. This is a composition that is both heartfelt and uplifting and full of beautiful melodies and rich harmonies. The text begins “Drop, drop, slow tears” and we all know, the shedding of tears is a natural part of the grieving and remembering process.

In Memoria Aeterna (For the Righteous Shall Be Remembered) by Antonio Vivaldi is based on the text of Psalm 112 and is a portion of his larger work Beatus Vir. Vivaldi chose to set this piece for altos, tenors, and basses and those three voices express the hushed serenity and simplicity of this piece. There are basically three motifs in the piece that move from voice to voice in the manner of a fugue or canon. During the course of the piece all three motifs come together and are sung at the same time by the different voices. The accompaniment suggests the beating of the heart.

British composer Paul Mealor’s Locus Iste (2011) sets the Latin Gradual text. The a cappella close harmonies create beautifully dense chords that sparkle and provide a rich contrast to the moments where the divisi choir rings out gloriously. Two short solos appear in the middle of the work - for bass and tenor - that keep the listener adjusting to the different layers and textures in the music. In addition to the sacred text, Mealor includes a couple of lines by poet Peter Davidson. This additional text is heard at the end of the piece and sung by a soprano solo that drifts out of time from the rest of the choir. The effect this creates is a floating through time while the choir repeats a short two measure phrase like deep, peaceful breaths. The sheer beauty and text of this piece reminds us to celebrate the land that we are standing on as sacred, and to take the time to acknowledge its permanence and history that came before us.

Ennio Morricone is one of the most brilliant composers of music for film. It was he who wrote the music for the 1986 movie The Mission with its iconic picture of a missionary tied to a cross and cascading over Iguazu Falls. One of the pieces from that score is entitled Gabriel’s Oboe. As one would expect it was written for the oboe, but for this concert it will be played on the trumpet by Dean McNeill. In the movie, Jesuit Father Gabriel sits down beside the waterfall and plays his oboe, hoping to befriend the native people so that he can carry on his mission in the New World. The chief of the Guarani tribesman is displeased and breaks the oboe which marks the beginning of Gabriel’s relationship with the Guarani people.

Almost as familiar as In Flanders Fields is Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem Crossing the Bar. Like In Flanders Fields it has been sent to music countless times. In 1998 Graeme Morton, an Australian composer, set these familiar words to music. The words poetically parallel the final stage of life with the sailor’s evening return to port at journey’s end. Prayer-like at first, the piece moves toward forward-looking optimism as the speaker ponders “see[ing] my Pilot face to face.” The changing rhythms in some ways replicate the motion of the boat.

Mike Sammes’ For the Fallen has been sung at every Saskatoon Chamber Singers’ Remembrance Day concert to begin the Act of Remembrance. It is a beautiful and incredibly moving piece written for four-part tenor and bass voices with piano accompaniment. The piece ends with the piano playing the final notes of The Last Post. The text is taken from Laurence Binyon’s World War I poem For the Fallen.

In Flanders Fields, a poem by John McCrae, has been a focal point of November 11 services for decades. Many composers have chosen to set this text to music. On this concert the choir will perform two versions, both by Canadian composers. For a while, Derek Healey’s version (1976) was the only one, and so it was performed extensively. It begins with an oboe solo to suggest the singing of the lark which is then taken up by the soprano voices. The middle section (We are the dead) is sung by the unaccompanied tenors and basses. The sound of the lark joins each of the three sections, the last one a call to “take up the quarrel.” The piece closes with the singing of the lark. Kirkland Adsett’s version (2006) is homophonic throughout and is accompanied by solo violin and cello. It also falls into three sections much the same as the Healey piece.

Elaine Hagenberg writes music that choirs love to sing. Her choice of text and her ability to effectively interpret that text with music is really a gift. A Farewell is an adaptation of a poem by Frances Anne Kemble entitled An Entreaty. This enchanting piece describes the experience of leaving a beloved time and place. Lush harmonic language and lyrical melodies vividly paint these bittersweet memories. This piece is staggeringly beautiful and engaging! As is so common with Hagenberg, the piece begins quietly and continues to build to a great climax (aided by changing rhythms, dynamics, and key changes) before ending with the same subdued nature with which it began.

A requiem, at its core, is a prayer for rest, traditionally for the deceased. The five movements of Dan Forrest’s Requiem for the Living (2013), however, form a narrative just as much for the living, and their own struggle with pain and sorrow, as for the dead. It’s a “grant US rest”, even more than a “grant THEM rest.”

The first movement pours out the grief of the Requiem and Kyrie prayers, facing grief head-on and grappling with the sorrow that is common to all human existence. It is the first three notes of this Requiem that form the basis of the development in the first movement and which appear throughout the other movements. The final three notes of the Requiem are these same three pitches, only now ascending rather than descending.

The second movement (instead of the traditional Dies Irae) bitterly portrays the problem of pain that we all wrestle with, and which causes a crisis of faith for many people. It expounds on “the vanity of vanities, all is vanity” which is a refrain from Ecclesiastes, with no small amount of anger and bitterness and “rage against the machine.” This movement juxtaposes aggressive rhythmic gestures with long, floating melodic lines, including motifs from the opening movement and is entitled Vanitas Vanitatum.

The third movement is the Agnus Dei, out of its traditional order in the Requiem, and is a plea for deliverance and peace.

The fourth movement, Sanctus, becomes a response to this redemption. The Sanctus offers three different glimpses of the “heavens and earth, full of Thy glory”, all of which develop the same musical motive: an ethereal opening section inspired by images of space from the Hubble Space Telescope, a stirring middle section inspired by images of our own planet as viewed from the International Space Station, and a closing section which brings the listener down to Earth, where cities teem with the energy of humanity.

The Lux Aeterna which closes the work portrays the light, peace, and rest – for both the deceased and the living.

Originally scored for full orchestra, Forrest has adapted it for a chamber orchestra: flute, oboe, French horn, violin, cello, percussion, harp, and organ. It is this version that Saskatoon Chamber Singers will perform. The work also features a boy soprano (or a mezzo-soprano--which we will be using), a soprano, and a tenor soloist.