Charisma and Other Facts

National Review, Dec 23, 2002 by Jay Nordlinger

The gang's all here, or a lot of it. Not everyone is living, Olivier Messiaen, for example, having died in 1992. Other composers -- even the still-active ones -- can hardly be thought of as "new": Elliott Carter, for instance, was born in the Roosevelt administration -- the Theodore Roosevelt administration. But this is an attractive sampling, letting you know what the musical world has been up to for the last half- century or so.

We get Giya Kancheli's Styx, which is haunting, and, well . . . underworldly. Then there's Arvo Part, one of the "holy minimalists," in a snatch from his much-admired Tabula rasa. Steve Reich is represented in his psychedelic, groovy Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices, and Organ: Lie back and "see the colors," as they used to say in drug- dominant days. Philip Glass, another minimalist (though not holy), is the King of Repetition, as we hear in his violin concerto, which, in that tradition, works a motive over and over. We're even afforded a dose of Andre Previn, from his opera A Streetcar Named Desire, with Renee Fleming as Blanche DuBois.

This compilation ends with a standard piece by Pierre Boulez, one of the giants of contemporary music and a "serialist" (which is to say, a practitioner of musical serialism). That piece is Repons, which is, naturally, extremely clever, but which is, for many of us -- though we may not dare say so -- barely listenable. Long ago, Ned Rorem nicknamed these composers the "serial killers."

And who cares if you listen? These days, they pretty much care, a lot - - just meet one.

-- One of the great delights in life is Chanticleer, the San Francisco- based, all-male a cappella singing group. They're not dissimilar to England's King's Singers, though twice the size (twelve versus six). Recently, Chanticleer concluded a tour called "Our American Journey," featuring -- you guessed it -- American music, from many eras and in various modes. These pieces are available on a new disc from Teldec: by coincidence, the group's 25th recording in its 25th-anniversary year.

They sing transcriptions of old hymns, contemporary music expressly written for them, and arrangements of popular songs (such as Gershwin's "Love Walked In"). They're somewhat New Agey, and they have a weakness for PC. For example, "The Un-Covered Wagon" by the "Native American" composer Brent Michael Davids is a ridiculous piece of hate-whitey agitprop. But their essential musicianship makes up for any such irritation.

'Tis the season, isn't it? Therefore, let me mention an album from last year, Christmas with Chanticleer (also on Teldec). This is a delicious collection, highlighted (for me) by a joyous, exultant "Jerusalem in the Morning!" Once you've heard it, you'll wear the grooves off -- or whatever the modern equivalent is.