CD Review of AND GLORY SHONE AROUND
CHORAL JOURNAL (April 2010)
And Glory Shone Around
This wide-ranging collection of traditional American music is centered primarily on the Christmas season. It finds the Minnesota-based Rose Ensemble exploring yet another arcane corner of musical history with their customary scholarship, passion and musicianship. Drawing on works by composers such as Billings, Read and Walker (as well as various historical sources such as The Southern Harmony and Original Shaker Music), musical director Jordan Sramek has assembled a program of extraordinary variety spanning four centuries. The earliest piece comes from John Playford’s The Dancing Master (published in 1651), and the most recent is a lovely new carol by ensemble member John Bitterman.
As suits the repertoire, performance forces are small but diverse. The full vocal ensemble (11 voices) is rarely used, relying more on solos, duets, trios, quartets and male or female sections. Vocal production is varied according to the nature of each piece—sometimes sounding more like traditional folk-singing and in other instances sounding more “refined.” Instruments, including Baroque violin, guitar, banjo (a fretless, gourd, gut-strong reproduction of an early African-American instrument) and a nineteenth-century American flute, add further timbral variety to the program.
The recorded sound is warm and appropriately intimate. The cardboard-sleeve packaging is attractive but flimsy (the disc falls out all too easily) and the 20-page booklet includes background on the music and instruments, plus full texts. Conductors seeking a break from better-known but possibly overblown Christmas repertoire will find in this simple program a breath of fresh air and perhaps a reminder of the season’s truer meaning.
-Frank DeWald
Haslett, Michigan