Bonds cantata a highlight in Trecek-King’s admirable Cantata Singers program
By Jonathan Blumhofer, December 13, 2021
The liturgical calendar may say it’s Advent, but nobody is going to fault the Cantata Singers for looking ahead to Epiphany.
“Of All Kings,” the group’s program presented Sunday afternoon at Cambridge’s First Church, did just that, with a set of pieces that focused on the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus.
One of the program’s goals, noted guest conductor Anthony Trecek-King–who is also a finalist for the Singers’ open music directorship–was to consider this familiar story from a variety of perspectives.
The most striking viewpoint came courtesy of Margaret Bonds’ The Ballad of the Brown King. Composed in 1954 and later expanded, the cantata sets texts by her friend, Langston Hughes, that honor Balthazar, the dark-complexioned bringer of myrrh in the ancient story.
Bonds’ writing in the piece is decidedly eclectic, most clearly drawing on the spiritual and gospel traditions of the black church. Yet Ballad is, fundamentally, subtle: the music’s stylistic reference points don’t draw undue attention to themselves, instead lending the music a beguiling charm…
PROGRAM:
Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672): “Hodie Christus natus est,” SWV 456
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963): O Magnum Mysterium from “Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël”
R. Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943): Ave Maria (Ensemble Premiere)
J.S. Bach (1685-1750): “Ehre sei dir, Gott, gesungen,” BWV 248
Jonathan Dove (b. 1959): The Three Kings (Ensemble Premiere)
Margaret Bonds (1913-1972): The Ballad of the Brown King (Ensemble Premiere)
Saunder Choi, arranger (b. 1988): Angels We Have Heard on High (Ensemble Premiere)
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