Pieces on this album represent a variety of compositional voices largely from North America. All poets are women, except in the opening track which is a new edition of J.S. Bach’s Suscepit Israel from his Magnificat BWV 243. This new edition was originally created for mirabai by Liza Calisesi Maidens for their performance at Southwest ACDA in 2020, scored for SSA choir, oboe, and realized continuo. In the inaugural performance of this edition an oboe part was replaced by soprano saxophone, which is a great option for schools with strong jazz programs.
The title of the album home in me comes from a poem by Dr. Sienna Craig. This three-movement work for treble chorus, piano, and percussion was commissioned for a Carnegie Hall premier with the theme “what is home.” On this album we hear movement number 1, Body. Singers are invited to sing and play rocks they have gathered. The long legato lines of the choral parts respond to the percussion instruments, including the piano, creating an interesting rhythmic landscape. The middle opens into a short a cappella section, bringing back the opening theme, and developing into a section showcasing the piano writing of Andrea Clearfield.
Other pieces on the album may prove accessible to high school and collegiate treble ensembles, including Melissa Dunphy’s Wild Embers has a powerful text written by Nikita Gill, and explores sophisticated body percussion. Ensembles will love this piece with its thriving rhythmic pulse and hissing of the dying fire. Although unaccompanied, the use of beautifully crafted vocal pairings and call and response will allow choirs of varied experience to enjoy the piece.
At the golden mean of this album is Caroline Shaw’s It’s Motion Keeps. Caroline Shaw is a Pulitzer and Grammy-winning composer and a member of vocal band Roomful of Teeth, who has explored new sound worlds both in the classical genre as well as in popular music. This piece, originally written for the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, was premiered at Carnegie Hall in 2013. It calls for treble chorus and solo viola or cello. On this track mirabai shows its impeccable technical skill and musicianship. From difficult rhythms to exposed harmonies and individual vocal lines, the singers are challenged by mastering their individual parts while listening and responding to the ensemble around them. The final climax is built around three main points: the choral parts are divided into chorus in a chordal callresponse fashion, the timbre build through “oo’s” and “aa’s” exploring and challenging the listening with unexpected repetitive consonant fireworks and finally the end tapers off to a homorhythmic statement of the title line from the poem.
Winter Stars by Jake Runestad opens with a twinkling star motif in the piano, providing a sense of hope through its consistency of the constellations. As stated on his website, “Orion returns in the winter sky, reminding us that even when there is war and violence and sadness in our lives, we can find hope and constancy in the cosmos.”2 Dominick DiOrio’s Broken is set to the text of Megan Levad’s poem “When a Compass is Broken.” The piece’s cluster chords and exposed passages where the piano is not playing make this piece a challenge. Rather than doubling any of the vocal parts, the piano creates its own cyclic pattern and the choir works as a layering texture, alternating between rhythmic poetic passages and luscious chords where mirabai’s impeccable blend and artistry is clearly displayed.
Joan Szymko’s Stars In Your Bones was composed as a gift to the Aurora Chorus to celebrate the ensemble as “A Place Where You Belong”, the theme of its 25th Anniversary Season. The text for this piece is provided by Alla Bozarth who is a Russian, Celtic, Osage, American poet,
2
“Winter Stars,” Jake Runestad, https://jakerunestad.com/store/ winter-stars/.
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