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To enter the cave-like room that is the sanctuary of Community Christian Church is to immediately feel a connection with those around you - perhaps 150 others -   and the intent focus below and forward where the choir and orchestra sit, ready to begin.  Perhaps this sense was created by the occasion: a concert sponsored by Artistic Advocates for Healing featuring the first performance of a work called Requiem for Broken Souls by Barbara E. Garrett, for soloists, mixed choir and orchestra.
 
The chorus was made up of members of the Heartland Men's Chorus and Kansas City Women's Chorus as well as several students from Missouri Western State University and other local players.  Maestro Joseph Nadeau held things together with a sense of steady firmness throughout this difficult work.

Barbara Garrett's work calls out to be taken seriously.  It began with heart-rending poetry and other texts, some written by her, interspersed throughout the standard requiem mass texts. Her musical approach to the mass was utter disorientation. This continued through the first two movements with an almost queasy confluence of never-settling lines without discernable tonal orientation or cadential shape until the movement ended suddenly with startling a two-beat triadic cadence.  

 
The utter aimlessness of the melodic lines pictured the chaos of those whose lives have been interrupted by domestic violence, especially children.  The music was composed polyphonically, with several lines of simultaneous melodies, but in this case each one was without any discernable relationship to the other.  Players have little difficulty reproducing this kind of music, but singers must struggle to begin on their entering pitches - much less stay on track.
 
One good thing about this kind of writing is that it can be very difficult to know whether lines are correct or not, so the overall effect is not greatly damaged by problem pitches.  Such a lack of orientation makes for very difficult listening though. And it is challenging to search for some kind, any kind, of orientation to provide a sense of context for the never-ceasing moving lines of eighth-notes, without sense of shape or cadence until those two final chords of each movement.  That the chorus and orchestra sometime struggled to sing their parts with enough brilliance and power to be heard clearly was no surprise.
 
The Dies Irae relaxed slightly with pairings of solo voices or voice and single instruments, with the Quid sum Miser soon falling back into the directionless eighth-note melodic wandering.
 
In the a cappella Recordare, for women's voices, parallel vocal lines sounded as a canon.  The singers struggled somewhat to keep things together

Garrett's insertion of the Gloria, not a regular part of the requiem, was both startling and a great relief.  Some fine brass section playing, particularly first horn Peter Jilka and trumpet play TJ Menges, was aided by the straightforward form and catchy, upbeat melody.  By the time the movement had ended and the opening refrain had returned several times in a quasi-ritornello form, some light had broken through.
 
The rest of the Requiem had more sense of direction, with movement toward a discernable goal. Even when the initial continuous earlier movement returned, it seemed less lost. Alternating sections of choir, soloists, men's and women's voices made for very interesting listening, with the brass, wind and string sections joining in statements against each other.
 
A beautiful choral unison line appeared in In paradisum, and the final movements used well-paced chant-like melodic lines to good effect. Though overlong, the Lux Aeterna andPax did indeed move heavenward, with a sense of peace and timelessness.
 
The four soloists should receive medals for handling their very demanding parts with generally good aplomb.  Finding pitches from a musical fabric which gave little or no sense of anchor, must have been daunting; with entrances often seemingly plucked from the ether.  This challenge continued, on occasion, throughout the entire work, making the soloists candidates for combat pay as far as pitches were concerned.
 
Tenor Andrew Childs was the strongest of the soloists.  Childs has a clear, beautiful voice with upper range power, good balance in middle and lower registers, and excellent diction.   It will be good to hear him again.
 
Counter-tenor Chad Payton acquitted himself well, with generally clear diction and an interesting bloom in the upper voice that almost sounded like a contralto in full flight, with round fullness of sound and a generous vibrato. Throughout the middle and lower voice there was a gradual clarifying and focus of the tone.
 
Soprano Lucille Windsor has a beautiful voice and, though occasionally struggled with Garrett's difficult lines, sang beautifully the entire evening, maintaining both ease and power in the upper range
 
Mark J. Van Order was a capable and steady bass with a warm, less focused tone.  Van Order had a more difficult time balancing the other voices and orchestra, at least partially because of the middle and lower ranges of the lines he was given.
 
This work cannot but help remind each thinking person of the troubling plight of friends and neighbors who are victims of domestic abuse. Barbara Garrett has managed to shine a light on them and remind us that we are, indeed, our brother's and sister's protectors and caregivers.

 

 REVIEW:  
Artistic Advocates for Healing presents
Requiem for Broken Souls
Friday, November 1, 2008
Community Christian Church

By Arnold Epley

Classical and Vocal Contributor (Past writer)