South Florida Classical Review

James K. Bass led Seraphic Fire in a program of contemporary music by Jewish composers Thursday night in Pinecrest.

Seraphic Fire can always be counted on to present concerts of rarely heard choral music that are both artistically engrossing and well worth hearing. 

On Thursday night, associate conductor James K. Bass led the excellent chamber choir in “Contemporary Jewish Voices,” a program of works by 11 living composers that spanned stylistic genres and styles, in the intimate sanctuary of Beth Shira Congregation in Pinecrest. As Bass pointed out, while the Jewish people account for only 2.5 percent of the US population, their contributions to the arts have been immense. All of the scores performed were the work of gifted creative artists that combined Judaic traditions with the shifting vibrations that run through contemporary culture.

“La Yise Goy” by Chicago composer Stacy Garrop sets a Biblical text in a gentle, lyrical manner, the waves of choral sonorities creating a luminous soundscape. Aaron Cates’ dulcet tenor and vibrant high register took solo honors. 

Kenneth Lampl is best known for film scoring but his vignette Jerusalem is a soothing plea for peace and hope, bathed in lovely harmonies in the manner of Eric Whitacre. The group’s precise balancing of ensemble voices and Bass’ flowing tempo and control provided an exquisite rendition. 

“Guard My Tongue” by Julia Wolfe takes its premise from the ancient Jewish adage not to speak ill of others. The words of the title are repeated initially in rhythm by half of the choral contingent. Wolfe’s complex, swerving changes of pulse comprise a wonderful aural tapestry which was sung with precision to minute detail and masterfully conducted by Bass.

Shirim L’Yom Tov – Four Festive Jewish Songs was written by composer Shulamit Ran for her son on the occasion of his  bar mitzvah, a traditional Jewish family celebration of a boy at age 13 taking on the religious responsibilities of an adult. Unlike the spiky modernism of many of Ran’s instrumental pieces, these songs are populist and vernacular in nature but crafted with sophisticated skill.

“Shiru l’Adonai is a mass-voiced declaration of joy. The repetitive lines of “Yom ha-Shishi” almost form a folk hymn. “Ma Tovu” takes, by turns, solemn, lyrical and rhapsodic turns in which the 13-voice ensemble produced corporate singing of great beauty. A skillfully conceived dance-like tune in “Hatznein Lechet” concludes the cycle on an upbeat note. As Bass astutely remarked in his introduction, Ran’s songs are a perfect fusion of ancient and modern.

Meredith Monk has integrated singing, dancing, drama and extended vocal techniques in her long career as a composer and performer. Many of her works are improvisatory. “Astronaut Anthem” is one of Monk’s few creations that has been fully notated and available for performance by musicians other than Monk and her own ensemble. It presents the view from outer space with eerie, shimmering vocal phases, followed by a wordless theme repeated numerous times at varying degrees of volume, perhaps suggesting sweeping pictorial vistas. In true Monk fashion, screams embellish the music near its conclusion, creating a spacey aura indeed.

Yoni Fogelman recently completed an undergraduate degree in composition at UCLA, where Bass is a faculty member. Two selections from Fogelman’s Natural Songs revealed a pop sensibility with a more refined structural component. “To a Rose” emerges snappy and jazzy with male and female voices often singing different material. “Alice of Aspen” sounds like a Hollywood love song. Bass’ sturdy coordination capably encompassed Fogelman’s tricky blending of timbres. Clearly he is a promising composer engaged in finding his own distinct compositional voice.

Two works by David Lang illustrated his diverse and unique imprint which has dominated modern musical circles for several decades. Lang only uses lower case letters in his titles. protect yourself from infection utilizes phrases from a government pamphlet issued during the 1918 flu epidemic that could easily come from more recent pandemic instructions. Lang also had choir members concurrently recite names of victims of the worldwide flu outbreak. For these performances, Bass had choir members substitute names of mentors and individuals important in their lives. Far from being a mere trendy concept, Lang brings all of this off with sobriety and great ingenuity. make peace sings with simple immediacy that is both poignant and potent to contemporary reality.

Moira Smiley’s “Dance with S’loyfn, S’yyogn” brings Eastern European and Middle Eastern bursts of melody, the choir fluently adapting to her unique sound. Smiley’s “Stand in that River” is an Appalachian-tinged secular spiritual, which was rendered by the chorus with the stylishness of a folk group. Alto Sylvia Leith and tenor Michael Jones blended gorgeously, and alto Doug Dodson was a standout, with his penetrating high voice.

The concert concluded with the traditional “Hava Nagila” but in a wild arrangement by Garrop that mixed joy and solemnity. Soprano Chelsea Helm soared over the layered choral proclamations, bringing the concert to an exciting conclusion. 

As in Bass’s “Mid-Century Modern” program last season, it was wonderful to hear Seraphic Fire tackle a program of all contemporary music and perform it with such affinity for varied artistic traditions.

Seraphic Fire repeats the program 7:30 p.m. Friday at All Saints Episcopal Church in Fort Lauderdale; 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Temple Beth Shalom in Miami Beach; and 4 p.m. Sunday at Moorings Presbyterian Church in Naples. seraphicfire.org

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