{"id":108879,"date":"2024-10-25T12:35:30","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T16:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=108879"},"modified":"2024-10-28T10:54:59","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T14:54:59","slug":"review-soundstreams-inventive-season-opener-letters-god-asks-big-questions-sublime-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2024\/10\/25\/review-soundstreams-inventive-season-opener-letters-god-asks-big-questions-sublime-music\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Soundstreams\u2019 Inventive Season Opener Letters To God Asks Big Questions With Sublime Music"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Fujii
Fujii Percussion in performance (Photo courtesy of the artists)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Soundstreams: Letters to God: R. Murray Schafer (Seventeen Haiku \u2013 1997); Akira Miyoshi (Conversation, Suite for Marimba \u2013 1962 & Letters to God \u2013 1985); Claude Vivier (Pulau Dewata \u2013 2013); Toru Takemitsu (Seasons -1970); Melody McKiver (river woman \u2013 2022); Haruka & Rika Fujii Songs for Ishikawa \u2013 2024. Fujii Percussion: Haruka Fujii, Mutsuko Fujii, Rika Fujii; Soundstreams Choir 21 \u2013 David Fallis, Music Director ; The Canadian Children\u2019s Opera Company \u2013 Teri Dunn, Conductor; Gregory Oh, piano; Ryan Scott, percussion. Trinity-St. Paul\u2019s Centre, October 24, 2024.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The search for ways to understand the world must be one of the most enduring human curiosities. We\u2019ve constructed so many different ideas, hoping to explain to ourselves \u2014 what is this all about? We look for oppositions and relations, and those who are patient, observe. High and low. Lateral and vertical. Creation and annihilation.<\/p>\n

For the opening of the 24\/25 season, Soundstreams brought us a night of oppositions. The return of the Fujii Trio from Japan to Canada was welcomed by the Soundstreams Choir 21 and the Canadian Children\u2019s Opera Company, and the familiar duo: Ryan Scott and Greg Oh. The juxtaposition between the most immediate instrument for the human body, the voice, and the very next musical instrument, body percussion, followed by \u2014 likely a stick or stone in a hand in play \u2014 may seem small, but the differences are infinite.<\/p>\n

From the ambitious and rich program for the evening, three works stood out. First on the program, R. Murray Schafer\u2019s Seventeen Haiku \u2014 one of his best works, if not the best \u2014 explores nature through a strictly restricted form of haiku. Within the confinement of 5-7-5 syllables, a thought may unfold through the space between each syllable, then annihilates itself \u2014 back to silence. A fragile balance to maintain, especially with the musical and physical difficulty that Schafer\u2019s music demands: the microtones, the unspoken \u2018asks\u2019 in the graphic notations \u2014 this work requires the whole body to continuously be aware.<\/p>\n

Soundstreams Choir 21, under the direction of David Fallis, used all means available to create a true immersion this evening, and it was wildly successful. Utilizing the space by entering and disappearing in multiple directions, singing from the front, centre, and back, from the high point of the balcony, and from the backstage \u2014 where only the shadows and refraction may enter, and the sound travelled throughout the space, as the body of the choir \u2014 both the individuals, sections, and as the whole singular group, created and annihilated. The choir, through impressive technical mastery of the work and their absolute commitment as a group, literally flowed through time and space \u2014 a real murmuration.<\/p>\n

Even if one did not understand Japanese, or knew the haiku, the transmission was so clear at points that one could not remain in wonder, but to conjure something from their memories of nature \u2014 the winds, cicadas, the passage of time \u2014 whether it be from dawn to day, or dusk to night. Since haiku is to evoke, not prescribe, the audience travelled in their own minds, though we may never find out where one went, perhaps even to oneself, as memories can be so powerful through lack of details, as much as theycan push us into a sphere where all the details are hyper-vivid.<\/p>\n

The biggest contrast to the Seventeen Haiku was Haruka Fujii\u2019s arrangement of Vivier\u2019s Pulau Dewata. \u201cI wanted a simple piece: monochrome, a short piece above all full of joy, alternating single melodies \u2014 \u2018intervalized\u2019 \u2014 and complementary melodies in the Balinese style. It is a child\u2019s music\u2026\u201d (Vivier)<\/p>\n

Vivier did not specify instrumentation in this work, leaving it in infinite possibilities, and Haruka\u2019s arrangement for the percussion quartet (piano is a percussive instrument, isn\u2019t it?) showed not only her great artistic understanding of soundscape, but of all four performers’ virtuosity in technicality, musical ingenuity, and mastery of ensemble playing. Haruka and Rika Fujii, Ryan Scott and Greg Oh played through many instruments \u2014 every additional object adding sophistication, but also complication; and consequently, a chance for a mishap. As this piece is largely built on unison passages with long chains of super complex and definitive rhythms, at the speed that Vivier asks, it turns itself into a really difficult gaba-gaba<\/a>, a hybrid of folk dance and game, where all parties in the game focus on maintaining and building the communal rhythmic drive.<\/p>\n

The relentless energy, bursting from bar 1 with absolute unison, accentuated by dramatic pause and unfurling for the next 11 minutes, is exhilarating. The group\u2019s evolution for this piece since their first performance in 2013<\/a> is commendable, especially when experienced live and close \u2014 we do not go to live performances for sound only, we go to live the events, where the clattering of metals and synched crashing produces sounds that is beyond the capability of speakers.<\/p>\n

Centering these two gigantic works was \u2018Letters to God\u2019. The CCOC, under Teri Dunn\u2019s direction, brought everything that fascinated the adults from the original book: charm, fascination, a sense of daring, and compassion. Touching up on all issues that adults find difficult for children: death, fairness, cognition of differences, all these things are set with much compassion by the composer, Akira Miyoshi; however, the music was not easy \u2014 much non-diatonic writing, oblique melodies, and Japanese diction, but these challenges were met with smiles and confidence by the CCOC singers. From memory. Impressive. This fascinating work was presented with innocence, serious dedication \u2014 the special dedication that only children can bring, and artistic finesse, accompanied by top-notch marimba playing.<\/p>\n

Final Thoughts<\/h3>\n

It is difficult to find an opportunity to see such intricate and expensive works live. I am not certain if such a program could even be mounted in smaller cities, simply due to lack of resources, whether it be finances, talents, and interests. So we became reliant on the next available option: recordings.<\/p>\n

Recording, as it gives us certain freedom, also comes with an invisible, fatal limitation for the musical art form: the destruction of time flow and spatial awareness. Even with the most sophisticated sound system, it is built to recreate reality. How many stems can you create on the recording console, and how many speakers can you actually fit in in one place? How do we override the unchangeable acoustic space where these sounds are to be played back? After all, even the best headphones are limited to left to right: stereo, one sound source per ear. And the world is infinitely more complicated.<\/p>\n

When we experience other people, especially in small groups where we can comprehend each face and body, their gestures and characters, we are drawn to observe and interact \u2014 whether that be active, passive, or complete avoidance. In art forms such as the choir, we are not only drawn to the sound they make, but of their embodiment of sound, amplified by the nature of the synched group. Mass games and gymnastics still remain as one of the most powerful tools in creating a communal experience \u2014 the opening of 2008 Beijing Olympics still sends shivers down the spine for many.<\/p>\n

Being there last night, with others, on and off the stage, was a special experience that simply cannot be replicated otherwise \u2014 and at times, we really weren\u2019t in our seats, were we? Where were you, while I was adrift in my own world that Schafer led me to? Yet, we were in our seats, weren\u2019t we, when the quartet broke into the incredibly joy of Pulau Dewata, and our bodies resonated with the incredible rhythmic pull they created? When children asked God questions, who were you \u2014 God, or the child, or the amused adult?<\/p>\n

Simply stunning opening for Soundstreams\u2019 24\/25 season.<\/p>\n

What is to come? Keep your eyes open and come. Their programming is consistently the best in Toronto, giving us a chance to hear many rarely played works in their intended form \u2014 in flesh.<\/p>\n

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The return of the Fujii Trio was welcomed by the Soundstreams Choir 21 and the Canadian Children\u2019s Opera Company, and the familiar duo: Ryan Scott and Greg Oh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":108882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[40967,19,38,52,63,72],"tags":[41443,1487,2905,3079,40887],"yst_prominent_words":[12637,12628,12650,12668,12651,11619,6884,14497],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/10\/Copy-of-REVIEW-92.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-sk7","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108879"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108879"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108931,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108879\/revisions\/108931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108879"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=108879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}